The Experience Factor

As with any job interview, AVON is interested in the potential experience any candidate might have. This publication, Getting a Great Start with AVON is, in actuality, a complete-by-the numbers resume'. In an employment situation, the responses to these stubs would identify
specific experiences and determine a fit to the organization's needs. In our situation, some of that exists, of course, but I'm inclined to think there is more that we as leaders can do with these responses. These are the statements:

I've never sold anything.
I've sold AVON before and know the ropes.
I have experience selling beauty products.
I've held many jobs.
I've managed and/or taught people in the past.
I've worked as a representative and/or distributor
for other network-marketing companies.
I'm active in school, church or community activities.

* I've never sold anything. AVON's idea here is to identify someone who might be fit into the organization at the  introductory level. Hopefully this person is trainable, assuming that the training is available. You as the upline leadership person must first deal with the attitude of
potential failure, however, before you can ever hope to promote the development of this person. In my experience, the statement "I've never sold anything" is frequently followed by "I can't do it." So, while I'm attempting to recruit this person, I must also play amateur psychologist and deal with this individual's lack of self-esteem - and if "lack of self esteem" were sold by weight, there would be tons of it out there.

   How do you deal with this? And make no mistake, you must deal with it right now, for if you do not, your recruit will take in the books she's purchased, set them on the corner of the counter, and there they will stay until you return to see if she has orders to be committed to a purchase order. Understand this: there is no way that you, in an hour, will be able - assuming you even fully understood what you'd be doing - to overcome negative parental programming. You cannot. What you must do instead is to demonstrate that your candidate's concept of selling is merely her concept of moving a product to a customer in exchange for shekels and farthings. Here are some questions that might assist you:

1. Have you ever applied for a job? I don't care if it was a teen job flipping burgers or a temporary labor job done when she was an adult, this candidate will have applied for at least one job. If she was successful to obtain a job, then she was successful to sell herself as a person and her skills as a performer. She has, indeed, "sold something."  If she responds to you with, "yeah, but ...," follow with the next
question.

2. Ever go to a movie? Unless she has been living in a cave somewhere, she has no doubt been to a movie. Ever tell anyone about the movie you saw? With an affirmative answer here, then: Did anyone ever go to that movie on your recommendation? Again, if the answer is in the affirmative, you now have evidence of the fact that she has sold an idea.

3. Ever cut out a coupon and redeem it? Who among us hasn't done so? Who was the sales person there? Who was the customer? No, the store wasn't the sales person. Neither was the manufacturer. Who sold you on the idea
of cutting that coupon out and taking it to the market? You did. You sold yourself. How did you do that? Was it necessary to persuade you?

4. Have you children? Do you direct your children's activities? Do you do it by command or persuasion? If you do it by persuasion, who was the sales person? Who was the customer?

5. Ever have a yard sale? Did you collect any money? Did you convey any product? Was it necessary to twist somebody's arm to get him or her to buy? No? They wanted the item? Did you try to talk them out of it? No?  Why not? Because you want to sell it? Would you say you were successful there?

   So what the prospect really means when asked if she has ever sold something is that she has never had to take the steps to learn about the product, learn about the customer's needs, interest the customer in
acquiring some item, and consummated the sale. And no, the concept of suggestive persuasion has never crossed her mind. Do you think that you, as the leadership person, might be able to equip this lady's bag of tools and provide sufficient guidance in their use? I'll bet you can!

   Ideally, we'd like to always hire the experienced person, the one whom we do not have to mentor, the one that can "hit the bricks" and return with immediate and very fat orders. We'd like that, but it's doubtful that it will ever happen. Even major league baseball supports a training
system - called the farm team. Also, recognize, that if your only service to this new representative is to shove a contract under her nose, then you are really not needed. The task of a leader is to lead - and like it or not, in a volunteer capacity, leadership is trainership (new word).
This leads us to...

* I've sold AVON before and know the ropes. AVON assigns a double weight to this statement - it identifies the person with specific AVON experience to be worth at least twice the value of a person who is brand new to the concept. So, given that information, the suggestion is made that it is time to pursue the Beauty Advisor option (in conjunction with other 2's within the questionnaire). However, as the leadership
representative, I'd be interested to know:

   How long ago and for how long did this person sell AVON? A two-campaign stint ten years ago satisfies this question. Golly, I've been with AVON for nine years and I'm still not convinced I know the ropes. I think what you would wish to determine here is whether her previous tenure with AVON was a pleasant one or one fraught with
difficulties. It would be useful to determine if when she left she had left in the company's good graces. Having a record of not paying your bill doesn't bode well.

   I had a recent recruit who admitted that she had failed to pay her final bill when she was involved ten years prior, and I alerted the company to this fact. She had indicated a desire to make it right, but
the company never contacted her, because it was so long ago that there was no record of the blemish on her account. She has now stiffed the company for a second bill, and has dropped out of sight. Should I have
refused to accept her application? I don't think so. It is my responsibility as a Unit Leader to find people to staff the ranks. It was only my acumen as a responsible businessman that caused me to alert the
company. If was not the first time, and probably won't be the last, but until the company establishes rejection criteria, it will continue to happen. Even the ranking criteria provided in the sign-up kit does not detail rejection criteria - merely the extent to which instant credit is offered, and given that the company lost $43 Million in U.S. bad debt in 2000-2001, it would have to be my recommendation that leadership representatives be given a rejection criteria.

   Taking on someone who has sold AVON before is a valid way to build your downline, of course. I signed up someone this week who had done it eight years ago, had stopped to concentrate upon raising a family, and now was desirous to return to the AVON activity. It was lovely. All I had
to do was to acquaint her with what might have changed since she was last involved - and I had been involved all during the interim - and she was home free. This time, however, merely gaining gifts for the holiday or picking up additional money, while it interested her, was not the primary reason for returning. That had to do with a very specific objective that
can, itself, be satisfied by her involvement in leadership, and we have
discussed that. She had satisfied her bill when she left, before, and stepped back into harness this week. She has success before her - and while I won't be able to take full credit for it, I'll have a piece in helping her to make her dream come true.

* I have experience selling beauty products. Just what I need - a
disenchanted Mary Kay distributor! Hey, don't knock it. These folks are required to attend a weekly skin care class. They have had considerable instruction, and because their approach to selling the product has been via the party route, they have considerable experience with the concept,
as well. Get a hold of a former MK type and she will be a great asset to your business. Or someone from Jafra. Or even someone from Stanley - which is where Mary Kay Ash began, by the way. Such a person will be very successful selling AVON - your only problem will be building loyalty.

   Long before I began with AVON, I had experience selling beauty products! I had a novelty store. We sold combs and brushes. We sold barrettes. We sold ponytail rings. We sold hair decorations. We sold cheap cologne sprays and cheap nail polishes, plus an assortment of cheap jewelry items. Gee, yes, I had experience selling beauty products, but Lord help anyone who at that time depended upon me for beauty advice! To
have recruited me and directed me into a Beauty Advisor role would have been a disaster - for the customer first, for the company second, and certainly for me.

   I think I should like to modify the question to whether the individual has had any experience selling beauty service. In this category you would normally find cosmetologists, hair operators, and nail technicians. You might even find a random barber. The person with experience in the beauty service would be the natural person to pursue the Beauty Advisor route.

   But let's get back to me. I undertook AVON because I had knowledge of retail sales and considerable experience at it. I had taught the subject at the college level, and my interest was not in the beauty business. It was, instead, in the business of selling anything at retail that would be successfully sold and would return a significant profit. The question now
arises as to whether or not my retail experience might have been applicable had my experience been merely selling CDs, Sesame Street (toys), umbrellas, costume jewelry, and giftware. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding and the fact that I'm still here after nine years is
testament to the ability to learn about products that are new.

* I've held many jobs. This draws a 3 on the correction scale, with the recommendation for leadership and network marketing. To my mother, holding many jobs meant sacrificing security. To a prospective employer, holding many jobs leads to questions about the ability to sustain job performance on the one hand and of the candidate's willingness to jump to
another job at the slightest provocation. Here, it is hoped, that the answer to this question will be an indication of breadth of experience. I say "breadth," because "length" as an indicator of experience is not a suitable indicator. There are people who claim 10 years of experience who
actually have but one year's experience ten times.

   A more suitable approach, it seems to me, would be to determine the types of experience and the depths of capability within those types. I am, after all, recruiting for a cosmetic company. It would seem to be a suitable thing to do to determine if any or all of the experience offered by this individual has any relevance to the sale of cosmetics, or for
that matter, related women's retail items.

   At the same time, I am not paying this person's salary. If income is to be derived by this candidate, it is income she must generate for herself. Other than my training and the encouragement I will offer this person, I carry no leverage over this individual's future. It will be my role to assist this person to gain the tools, tips, and techniques necessary to progress among the award levels available to an AVON
representative. It is not my right to dissuade any candidate on the basis of either the breadth or length of her experience. It is my responsibility, as Unit Leader, to find out where she is, to determine what she needs, to assist her to achieve the gain of that knowledge, and
be there to prop her up when she needs help. Can you see where it might
be a good thing to prepare a training plan for your downline people? It is doubtful that this will ever be done in anything but an informal way - but if you a conscientious about it, you will sit down with your charge and make a determination of needs that you can help to satisfy.

* I've managed and/or taught people in the past. Aha. The company has determined that former managers and teachers would be successful in the leadership program. There's the possibility of truth in that. It does on to say "As a Leadership Representative you will appoint, train and mentor your own Unit of Representatives. You will be compensated on your own
personal product sales as well as on the sales of those in your unit."  All that is true, of course. But I would have been compensated on my own personal product sales whether or not I had elected Leadership as an option. The difference is that I would not have been required to satisfy a minimum level.

When I take on the responsibility of other people, the satisfaction of a minimum level is imposed upon me in order to achieve any benefit from their efforts. I've had prospects refuse to become involved with the program because it is their feeling that the compensation should begin with the first dollar their "find" has produced. Can't say that I disagree. The process continues with the requirement that the downline person satisfy certain minimums in order for me to draw any monies. And,
of course, there are minimum dollar amounts for the unit. Now theoretically, the concept is that I, as Unit Leader, will be motivated to pick up the phone, call that downline, and encourage the raising of
the value of the order to the point where it reaches the level where the unit can achieve minimums and I can obtain compensation. I would hope that AVON will one day recognize that a certain group of their Leadership people will identify that in that interim period, it is they, and only they, who derive the benefit of this candidate's work. That fact, and it alone, could be singularly responsible for keeping high-powered, high quality people out of AVON Leadership.

   It is of further interest that there are no defined unit activities.  AVON provides no suggested agenda for unit meetings. They provide no projects that are unique to specific units. They provide, in their
leadership training materials no techniques for motivating downline, for calling people together when those people are reluctant to gather. And with no supports for Unit Leaders other than an occasional cheery word from the DM, it's not likely to change. For all the work that has been
done for leadership activities, how much more is needed? As this is being written, a PowerPoint recruiting demonstration is being prepared for loading onto the AVON website - the demonstration I requested a year ago at the convention in Las Vegas and again at the Leadership meeting held by AVON West earlier this year in Phoenix. If recruiting and unit management were such important activities for this company, would it be unreasonable to request the development of suitable tools? Supposedly,
each branch has a training specialist. What products have you witnessed that have been developed by this specialist? Finally there will be released a new and effective generic recruiting video - the kind of video that has been available from other MLM companies for more than ten years.
Why are we so long in getting these tools? With this video we can take the "send the video home and watch it" approach and perhaps build our downline that way. This video is ten years overdue.

   The Unit Leader is faced with the inability to build an espirit de corps at the Unit level in much the same way as the District manger is faced with the inability to draw more than five or ten percent of her district to a monthly sales meeting. Do you suppose that has something to do with the nature of the meetings? Have we heard it all before? Do you suppose that has something to do with the fact that it's all right to celebrate our success but it's not considered rude to avoid celebrating
someone else's success? Do you suppose that has something to do with the fact that the DM is not permitted to make much use of her people in the conduct of her meetings and training? Now why do you suppose that is?
Many of you have seen what I've written here, and have indicated that it has been of benefit to you. Yet I've volunteered to travel my own state to provide training, and have received no takers. I've made several recent offers to provide seminars for merely my expenses, and nobody has
yet taken me up on the offer.

* I've worked as a representative and/or distributor for other network-marketing companies. This may be a solid indicator of success for these folks to involve themselves in leadership, but it's a liability, as well. AVON has limited its payoff to two downline levels at the Unit
Leader level and three at the others - Advanced Unit Leader, Executive Unit Leader, and Senior Executive Unit Leader. The candidates from this background are familiar with successful plans that make payoffs to five, six, seven, or even more levels. To be fair, AVON's network marketing is but one career option. There is no pressure for anyone to recruit. There
is no minimum monthly purchase one must make to continue to receive checks from downline representative activities. But the earnings limitations placed on Unit Leaders will need to be beefed up, in my opinion, if the MLM activity is to become outrageously successful.  Someone told me that there are fewer than 30 Senior Executive Unit Leaders in the AVON structure - after ten years of leadership activity.  In a pyramidal structure, the numbers are greater at each successive
downward level. I do not suggest that the numbers are unfair (with the possible exception of suggestions that I have made previously). I merely
identify that if people with previous MLM experience are desirable candidates, in the long run, AVON may be faced with sweetening the pie.

* I currently use the Internet or would like to have access to the Net.  Here is the pitch for eRep - development of a web site on the Internet.  This is not the place to comment on AVON's use of the Internet, the capabilities or limitations of what I will call the "associated
individual web site." The features are increasing, and one can certainly
understand why AVON would demand to control each and every thing that is associated with their name via their presence on the web. AVON does have, however, some policy issues to be resolved before the use of the Internet web site is broadened, not the least of which is its competition with its
own representatives. And, it would seem, AVON only selectively enforces its policies with respect to unauthorized web sites. I was forced to shut one down - more than three years ago - while several operate openly on the web today and, it would seem, that our products are openly sold on
publicly-available auction sites. As far as "access to the net" is concerned, there are those who will tell you that AVON's ISP is anything but reliable.

* I'm active in school, church or community activities. There isn't much to be said about this. Fundraisers, as it is stated on the form, are active parts of any AVON opportunity. The materials available and the support provided to fundraising activities are good. But here again, for
whatever reason, AVON operates in competition with its people. I speak
specifically about the one situation of which I know personally - the arrangement between the company and elements of the City of Los Angeles for fundraising using stuffed animals. Does that trouble you? It is their company, after all. And if we are to refer to Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy
of Needs, the company will do what is in its own best interest. AVON might consider partnering with Unit Leaders in such activities.


Other Items of Relevant Experience

There might be some other experiential things of importance. For example:

* What business training does this person have? Would some idea of what is involved in building a business be important? Why are we reluctant to lay it on the line about profitability constraints? Would it be useful to know the candidates' planning experience? What about the individual's
personal organization?

* Does he or she have any knowledge of keeping books? I read a lot on the
Internet loops about the inability to determine whether or not our people
are making a profit. Would it be useful to know and to take steps to ensure the acquisition of such knowledge?

* Does he or she have any experience with advertising? Yes, AVON provides
"suggested" advertising. It would be nice if they offered some co-op advertising, but they do not. They do their own advertising, and I'm glad that they do, except that their advertising does not necessarily connect the potential customer to me, and, it may be argued, the connection might
be more likely made directly to the company, and more specifically the
company's web site, where the company is offering "deals" that I cannot duplicate.

* What about display of product? Our people are often called upon to do product shows - fundraisers, street fairs, school assemblies, and the like. Would it not be nice if decent display materials were available for these people to use? We get recruiting flyers, but nothing to stand them in. We get samples, but no sample cases in which to display them. We get
no ad slicks to speak of and our people are faced with developing and distributing their own clip art. For me personally, I'd like storage containers for the inventory I keep at home. But before we lose the
thread here, would it be useful to know what the candidate knows about product display?

* What about ability to make presentations? What about ability to conduct an opportunity meeting? Well, wait a minute here. How far are we going with this discussion? We can't do everything, can we? Can't we? Can't we teach the people who don't know how to sell to do it? And make
presentations? And conduct meetings? If the candidate comes to us with these skills, so much the better. Bur failing that, it is my
responsibility as Unit Leader to do my best to instill these techniques and to coach their use.

   As a Unit Leader/Recruiter, I'm going to be very interested to draw into my unit all the skills I can locate. And as an active UL, once I have assessed these capabilities, I will find a way to make use of them.  And if my people need training in how to do that, then my training is 
available to them, should they wish it.

   The "should they wish it" comment is appropriate here, as units are made up of people and people's quest for improvement falls all over the lot. I can lead them to water, but only they can make themselves drink.  Next time we'll explore the Interest portion of the form - and I will add to it the subject of motivation.