You can’t depend on friends and family for long if you’re looking to really earn a good income. So you’ll need to prospect for new customers/recruits. Today we’re going to talk about going door-to-door.
The very best thing you can do for your business is to get a name and phone number for every brochure you pass out. This is true for door-to-door as well. If you take 100 brochures and go out and knock on each door, introduce yourself, ask if they’d like an Avon brochure, get their name and phone number, and then call them a few days before you place your order to see if there was anything they needed, you will, on average, get about 20-30 orders. Not too bad considering an average Avon Customer Order is $25.00. That means you could potentially end up with a $500 – $750 order.
But I also know that some people can’t knock on the doors due to schedules, fears, etc. and would rather just go around a neighborhood and leave the brochures either on the doorstep or in a What’s New bag on the door handle. That can work as well, but there are some things you need to know. That same 100 brochures you used above will only get an average of 2-3 orders if you do it this way. Most people will throw the brochure away, unless they were specifically looking for an Avon Representative.
So… the way around this is to use consistent massive action. You will need 200-300 brochures minimum. Pass them out on the doorsteps and know that you’ll hopefully get some orders, but not many. Those who do order are now your customers. You need to make sure they get a brochure and a follow-up call every campaign from now on. Then you go back to the SAME houses EVERY campaign for SIX campaigns. Every campaign you will pick up a few more customers. About the 4th, 5th & 6th campaign, they start to feel like they know you. You’ve been consistently on their doorstep every campaign. Now they’ll start to look at the brochure and give you a call. Over 6 campaigns you will most likely end up with the same 20-30 customers as if you knocked on their door and got a phone number. Keep in mind, it will take 6 times as long and 6 times as many brochures, but as long as you are consistent it will grow your business. After 6 campaigns, move a few blocks down to the next neighborhood and start the process all over again.
When Richard and I started our business, we were working high-pressure 60-70 hour/week jobs and I was commuting 1-1/2 hours each way to work. Most people don’t like you knocking on their doors at 10-11:00 at night 
so… this is one method we used to help build a huge business. You don’t want to limit your business to door-to-door, but it’s a great component of your strategy to increase your business.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I have been doing this and it works slowly, but it works. I just connected with a customer this way. She has already ordered over $200.00 from me, in only two orders. I have been getting up early on Sunday mornings, to toss brochures on the driveway next to the sunday papers. You have to get out there early, before the sun comes up, so people get that brochure when they pick up the paper.
It does work if you do the job. Its all up to what is it that you want to achieve. First you need a goal, then you plan and work towards that goal. I usually order 200 brochures every campaign and I have about 250 customer base today. You know I don’t get to everybody every campaign but I recently thought of a plan to persistently serve all those 250 customers. Persistency is crucial. If a customer comes to your store and you are closed chances are they will go to the one that is open. I’ve only been selling for 16 campaigns. I prepare my brochures and everywhere I go I talk to people about my business. I really don’t go too much out of my way to sell. At the begining I thought to myself “I want to have 100 customers and I didn’t rest untill I did it. How, very easy, the key is that you have to have a good positive actitude and feel confident about yourself, I mean what have you got to loose, you are baked up by 100% satisfaction guaranteed and the best company for women. Be enthusiastic, is contageous. People will feel that you are happy doing what you are doing, and they want to know. So yes I did go door to door after exhausting friends an family. Although if you think everybody has friends and family as well. I put it this way every one customer can become six customers to say a number. What I do is like mentioned above ask for a phone number or that brochure is a waist. On the other side I started to use any old brochures to live on porches or hang on mailboxes on plastic bags with a sticker that says “to get a recent brochure call:…” I once heard that it takes seven times for a person to really think and remember an add. So persistency is so important and comunication, that relationship that you build with your customer. It pays when you get that feeling that they start to trust you and prefer you among others.
I have been with AVON for over ten years now. I always just had a basic friends and family customer base. I went to college did my thing.. had kids… All the time with AVON. Now I want to make it grow and it’s been hard since I am home with the kids. I am afraid to go door to door with all the crazies out there. I have over 1000 brochures that I have piled up. I started tossing and well I am hoping with consistency it will pay off as it has for you ladies. Of course I do the power of 3… or actually 5-10.. lol. I have the car sign, flyers, car magnets, biz cards… well I do it all. I just don’t have the customer base I would like. Maybe it’s just perservering and really working hard on the brochures. If you have any tips please send them my way. ~Mel (AvonIsBeauty@gmail.com)
Hi Lynn, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog. I am a rep from Canada and I was wondering if you would mind if I use this entry in my downline newsletter? I will credit you of course! If you could email me back, i would greatly appreciate it. Best Regards,
Crystal
I’ve been doing the door/doorstep thing with no luck so far but I have JUST moved into my neighborhood. Luckily I have found out that there are not too many Avon Reps in my area so I’m gonna start hitting some town wide functions. My daughters school is having a movie night next week and I already am trying to figure how many brochures I should bring with me (of course I’ll keep extras in the car in case I run out).
One thing that has worked for me is leaving 10 or so brochures at a time at the gas station around the corner from me. They sit on the counter right by the door. I go in every few days to see if I need to replenish the supply. There’s also a stack of my business cards right near the books in case I don’t notice that they need a restocking right away potential customers can still reach me. The brochures tend to disappear about every other day or so depending on the beach traffic that week. I have gotten 1 new customer that way so far but I’m not giving up. I also make sure that there are prospecting flyers in each brochure.
Love this post. I have to say, “When I started with Avon, I tossed.” I went to different parts of my town and tossed brochures. I did not do the repeat thing but I am going to try this for the next 6 campaigns and see what happens. I have a new place I have wanted to toss for a month now and plan on that this weekend. Thanks Lynn for all the encouraging thoughts and blogs to help all reps and not just your downline.
I am a male “Avon Lady”, lol. I just started and seeing as how I know nothing of makeup I have been considering passing out flyers to try and drive sales to my website. I think I can realistically put 300-400 flyers in a day. Question, do you feel that this is enough? Also, I work for AT&T selling U-verse door-to-door. Do you think that it would be a conflict of interest to also let my at&t customers know that I sell avon and give them my card or a brochure? Thanks.
Hi Benjamin,
I have no experience with flyers so I can’t advise you on that, sorry. I would say give it a try and see what happens, and be ready to adjust as you see what results you get.
I think it’s a great idea to give out brochures as you go door-to-door, but AT&T might not think so.
Best of luck to you,
Lynn
p.s. I wouldn’t worry about not knowing much about makeup. You will learn as you go. My husband has become quite the expert at it!
Thanks for the great tips! One question though — can you get in trouble for leaving brochures on private property — or is it alright to do? I’m not sure if people would get mad or anything, haha. Thanks again Lynn!
Hey Lynn! First of all, I just wanted to thank-you for everything that you write about to help EVERYONE! I always keep my old brochures & write on the back of them that if they would like a new brochure to give me a call. Im so busy in the day time that i dont have time to go door to door, so what i do is… At night after i put my kids down, i will go out & toss my brochures in the whats new bag. I put a brochure, my business card, flyers for my website, coupons for 10% off their first order, and a little note that tells them who i am & if they would like to keep getting brochures from me or have any questions to please call. It has helped a little, but i guess i need to try to do the 6 campaign thing. I know i will NOT give up!!!
Hi Lynn,
I loved your post, I am going to do this each campaign. I have just been prospecting for recruits really but I also need the sales. Do you recommend that I take someone with me? My fear is being alone and going to a stangers door.
Do you have any scripting that you could suggest that we use, especially if they object.
Thank you,
Megan
Hello Lynn. First of all, what a fantastic site. Thank you for all the free info!
My question to you is about door knocking. When you knock and no one answers, are you still leaving a brochure behind for the household? Is that what you mean by going back to the same houses? (I understood it that you’re going back to the people who said yes to a book). I would imagine that you are leaving them behind, but each time you leave one, you’re knocking until you meet them or the person says they don’t want a booklet.
I’m sure the answer is blantently obvious, but I’m confused lol.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for the compliments!
In this instance I’m talking about not knocking on the door but just leaving a brochure. Then every campaign for 6 campaigns I leave a brochure on the same doorsteps. After 6 campaigns I move on to another neighborhood, but I keep the customers that I got from the effort.
I agree that it’s always better to knock on the door and talk to the person who lives there, but this post was for those who either wouldn’t knock on the doors or couldn’t. It’s just another way to get new customers.
Hugs,
Lynn