THE SERVICE IS IN THE BUSINESS

If I were to ask you what business are you in, what would be your response? Do you think you are in the AVON business? What is the AVON business? Do you think you're in the beauty business? Just what technically and specifically do you know about the beauty business, other than the fact you may have used makeup since your teen years? Do you think you're in the business of building your customers' self-esteem? That's a pretty good answer, as well, if you are a practicing psychologist. But you can't take any of those answers to the bank. Those and anything similar you can concoct are simply esoteric -- euphemisms for your real business. Your Real Business Is Retail Sales The sale of AVON products is merely the vehicle you have chosen to perform your business. Beauty is merely a byproduct of the chosen product line. Increases in self-esteem may be the logical outcome of having this customer purchase that product from you. But neither beauty nor increased self-esteem will pay your AVON bill, put profit into your pocket, provide you with financial freedom, or provide anything other than warm fuzzies for your having been there. You purchase wholesale for the express purpose of selling for retail, or at least at some price above the wholesale level for the specific purpose of adding some amount to your bank account and moving incrementally towards the acquisition of your Albee or other award. Only if you recognize this and have a sense of urgency about it will you achieve success. Your business is an activity designed to accommodate, facilitate, and promote the retail sales of the AVON (or other) product line you have chosen to promote. Service, then, becomes a way of making those sales to those customers. WHAT IS YOUR REAL BUSINESS? IS IT DIFFERENT FROM THE OBVIOUS? Why do you purchase gasoline? To make the car go, of course, but why must the car go? You purchase gasoline to achieve the movement of yourself and your family to a destination you have chosen. Gasoline, then, powers your transportation, not the car. Why do you pay to get into the movies? To see the picture, of course, but why must you see the picture? You purchase tickets as a means to achieve entertainment, hopefully to reduce the stress upon your life. Tickets, then, promote your emotional well-being. When you purchase a Time magazine, why do you do that? For the entertainment value? Probably not. If you're like me, you purchase the Time magazine for an insight to the news that you might not obtain from the local newspaper. You don't buy the newspaper; you buy the news. You don't buy the news from Time, you buy the analysis and insight. Is it then much of a leap to make the assumption that you don't acquire customers for the purpose of making a sale -- that instead you acquire customers for the purpose of promoting an income which can be used to achieve the purchase of gasoline, motion picture tickets, a national news magazine, or any other such commodity for which profits may be exchanged? Look at the differences between your in-home AVON business and the local department store. Perhaps these insights can cause you to rethink your role. If you were the clerk at a department store, that's all you'd be. But as an AVON representative, you are not only the clerk, you're the sales manager, purchasing agent, distribution manager, inventory manager, advertising manager, marketing manager, and director of transportation. You're a pretty important person to your business! In your "AVON Store," the customer doesn't come in to browse. The browsing has been done in a pre-distributed brochure. By the time that customer has made contact with you, she is no doubt ready to make a purchase. You can give her what she has requested. Or you can realize that your role -- given all those jobs you must perform -- is to provide the service that explains the products' capabilities and efficacies, suggest options, lead the customers' directions, take the orders, train her in the products' uses, and follow up to see that the desired effects have been achieved. Your customer comes to your "AVON Store" (or you take it to her) at least twice a month. She isn't a "shopaholic," by definition, but just as you occasionally neglect to take the shopping list you have prepared when you go after groceries, she may need reminding about products she has previously purchased, products that are on sale, down and double deals, upcoming anticipations, and varieties of options that are or may become available. She isn't necessarily going to purchase the same product from you each time. She is more than likely going to purchase something different, something complementary, or something new and exciting each and every time you are together. Service comes as a natural byproduct of all that activity, particularly where acquaintance with the product and instructions in its use are concerned. But the growth of your business comes neither from how you found the customers nor from what products you have sold them. It will come by virtue of how you keep them interested, excited, and exploratory. So while your function may be to acquire and maintain customers, the goal, simply stated, is to make a profit. Don't confuse the two. We acquire customers by marketing. We give out brochures. We promote word-of-mouth advertising. We may take out an ad in the local pennysaver publication. That is external marketing. Servicing that customer becomes internal marketing, and it happens because: * You know your product to the point where you can answer her questions without having to look up the answers. * You have resources to ensure that when she wants it, she can get it, at least those items that are consumable in nature. * You provide training in the uses of those products to achieve the results the customer wishes. * You follow up to ensure the customer's satisfaction with her selections. And what if you don't have that knowledge or those skills? That's when you see to it that you get the training. Your purchase the BA program and learn about the products. You get every possible pamphlet and study it. You go to the library and check out books on beauty products, skin care, sales, and service. I'll hazard a guess that we have representatives who know little about what's contained in the Product Reference Guide. If their only role is to sell something they have not themselves tried, they may make the sale, but they have not provided the service. What they have done is to rely upon the customer to provide her own service. The customer's service to herself becomes very binary -- she likes it or she does not. Case in point: a customer comes to you with Anew Force Extra and tells you she is allergic to it. In talking with the customer, you find that she has merely had a reaction to it. That's not the same thing. In fact, many people do have a reaction to a product and that reaction frequently disappears with use. But if you merely sold the product without acquainting the customer with such information, you have not provided the service you are very capable to provide. The product comes back. The customer feels she is allergic. You've not only lost that sale, you've lost any future sales of the product, and the customer has lost the benefits that she was absolutely convinced she needed. Your real business, then, is the retail business, yes -- but what keeps that business growing and you going is the service to your customer that keeps her coming back, not only to AVON, but to you. The Benefits Of Training Being well trained not only helps you to acquire and maintain more customers, it gives you a window on ancillary opportunities for other products in your repertoire. You may not be able to match another's price or advertising budget, but you can certain match -- and exceed -- another's service capabilities. Your sales will grow because of what you know, yes. But they will grow astronomically when you adopt the posture that it is an honor to serve these customers. It keeps coming back to the attitude thing, doesn't it? If you will treat your customer as if you are spreading a red carpet before her, guess what? Your retail business will accelerate. Increased business means increased profits, golden referrals, and business to the point where you will have to strain to find a way to accommodate it. You are a salesperson, like it or not. Congratulations, you are a salesperson! Whether you make any money at it or not, you are still a salesperson. Your helper is a salesperson. How well have you trained her? Your sister-in-law is a salesperson -- your best friend, also -- everybody who carries a brochure into a business in your behalf is not only a salesperson, but also an extension of your personal salesperson. You not only need to get training yourself, you need also to provide some training to your agents in the field. These helpers have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing it as well as they can. You have everything to gain by helping them to do it as well as they can. You have a daily obligation to train everybody -- your customers, helpers, even the random stranger in the movement of your product. And guess what? That's how you spell S-E-R-V-I-C-E. Every time you are asked a question and have an answer, you have speeded up the sales transaction. It bogs down terribly when you have to stop right there and look it up. It could easily kill the sale if you have to tell the customer that you'll have to get back to her. If this describes you, then get started reading tonight. Plan on going to the next and every sales meeting you can get into. Go to any downline meetings you can find, even if you are not in that Unit Leader's downline. Come to mine, if you wish. I'll provide a schedule on request. Your AVON business is a series of business opportunities. Whether and how you seize upon those opportunities will very quickly become the harbinger of your business success. The Benefit Of Being First In Line The first AVON lady to meet this customer is the one she will, at least initially, purchase product from. Therefore, it would be useful to ensure that you are the first one she encounters. Getting out brochures, by whatever method works well for you, is primary. In addition to being the first introduction to the AVON products, perhaps, it could well be the first introduction of that customer to you. For that reason, doesn't it follow that customer recruits could use a paragraph describing you, your availabilities, your conduct of your business, and your commitment to seeing that this customer receives special treatment? What I'm suggesting is that you do something different! Remember that 95% of the rest of the AVON ladies in your group and 100% of your external competition will continue to do the same thing the same way. That 5% is the margin of success. In summary: * Your business function is to attract and maintain customers. * Your goal as an AVON representative is to make money because you have attracted and maintained these customers. * Build on every possible avenue of service and you will build the profitability of your business, generating positive relationships with the customers and outstanding word-of-mouth advertising. * Conducting your business as a business guarantees that you do those business things -- and those service things -- that will cause your business to grow. * The more you want from your business, the more you will have to achieve training for yourself and conduct training for your customers.