General Business Tools

In order to achieve success in this business, you need tools to help you stay on top of things as well as to automate as much as possible to give you time to talk to and connect with people.

Mindset – the first step to success!

When you begin each day in a new paradigm, a new spiritual setting, you spend the rest of the day heading in that direction. The result: sooner than you thought possible, you achieve that next level of success you want so much.

My friend Mary Morrissey will send you a daily video message that will provide you with the proven strategies and uplifting inspiration you need to get on track toward a life that serves your higher purpose…

She is amazing and has really helped me in my business. Get more information here.

The first thing you need is a good Contact Manager.

Without a good system for tracking your contacts and helping you follow up with your leads, it doesn’t matter how many leads you have because most of them will slip through the cracks and never go anywhere. Your good tracking system is key to building relationships and increasing both sales and retention! Let’s face it, no matter how amazing our product is, or how great our compensation plan is, many people are not going to buy our products or sign up to sell Avon the first time you talk to them. Ultimately you want to stay with your prospect until you get either a Yes or a No. That could take days or even months. Having a plan in place detailing how you’re going to follow-up and keep track of where everyone is in your plan will have a huge impact on your business.

Your Contact Manager will also help you offer amazing support to your downline. You will know at a glance who needs a 48 hr follow-up call, who needs a T-2 training, etc., and it will keep a history of discussions, e-mails, letters, etc. you’ve had with the contact.

The system I use is called Big Contacts. Click Here to try Big Contacts. They have a 30 day free trial so you can check it out with no obligation.

Big Contacts is an online service that is easy to use and can be accessed from any computer, even when I’m away from my computer. This system ensures that I never have a Lead or a downline member fall through the cracks and that I’m on top of my business at all times.

Combined Virtual Business Card and Contact Manager

Shuffle is more than a business card…

Keep Track Of The People Who Matter Most – Instantly store new contacts and important details in Shuffle. Your contact list is at your fingertips with more than just emails and phone numbers… Add notes to your contacts and remember the important details of every interaction. Check your contact activity to see which cards you’ve sent, when they were viewed, and any follow up reminders so you always stay on track.

The Fortune Is In The Follow Up – Set follow up reminders and never lose a prospect again. Did you know that 80% of sales happen after the 5th follow up? Sadly, half of salespeople fail to follow up with a new prospect even once, and therefore lose out on the vast majority of sales! Set follow up reminders with your Shuffle contacts and make sure no one falls through the cracks.

Information Is Power – Get real-time notifications every time someone views your card. How many times have you handed out your business card knowing full well it would get lost, trashed, or put through the wash? With Shuffle, the ball is always in your court. You’ll know exactly who you’ve shared your card with and when it’s been viewed. With card tracking, your follow ups just got easier…

Always Have The Right Card With You – Keep up to 10 digital business cards ON YOUR PHONE so there’s no wasted space in your wallet. Going digital also means your card details are always up to date! Stop wasting time, money, and paper ordering cards every time you get a new phone number or change offices. Plus with photos, videos, and links to your websites and social media pages, you’ve never looked this good!

You can take a 14-day Shuffle test drive here. But warning, once you try it you’ll definitely want to keep it.

And You Need Some Business Cards

You only get one chance to make a great first impression, so make the most of it with high-quality, full-color premium business cards. There are many places where you can get quality business cards, but I’ve found exactly what I need at Vista Print. They offer free cards featuring a wide variety of templates to choose from. All you have to pay for is shipping. They also have a larger selection of inexpensive premium cards to choose from. I’ve used them many times and have always loved the cards I received.

I am a firm believer that there are three basic steps to success in your Avon business:

You need to prospect for new customers and recruits
You need to make sure every customer receives a new brochure every campaign
You need to follow-up with every customer every campaign

As Richard and I were trying to grow our business, we kept coming up against roadblocks. We were finding that the things we needed to do for our business were taking all our available time. The time we had to spend on our business was very limited and so we needed to get creative to free up as much time as possible.

We realized we were spending all our time every campaign delivering the new brochure and calling on current customers. While those are crucial steps, it didn’t give us any time to grow our business by prospecting and talking to new people… and so we found a few tools to help out.

Bulk Mail

Bulk Mail is a fairly simple way to make sure every customer gets a brochure every campaign. Another advantage to mailing brochures is that people are more likely to browse through a brochure that came into their house via the mail than one left on their doorstep. Check with your Post Office, but the costs to get started are somewhere in the range of $185/year plus a one-time charge of $185 for the right to print your indicia (permit info). Having the bulk mail permit brings your cost to mail a brochure down to around 55 cents as compared to roughly $2.00 if you mailed it via regular mail. There are requirements however; you need 200 identical pieces or 50 pounds before you can bulk mail.

If you are ready to get started, but not quite at that level yet, there is a company called Campaign Mailer who will mail your brochures for you. The cost is a little higher per brochure, but it includes the cost of the brochure and the postage for much less than you can do it yourself by regular mail, and you don’t have to worry about the yearly Bulk Mail permit charges. You can find Campaign Mailer by Clicking Here. I currently use this service and LOVE it!

Telephone Follow-Up

Another area that was taking a lot of our time was making follow-up phone calls to our customers every campaign. Making follow-up phone calls is probably one of the most important things you can do to increase your sales. People are busy. They want to purchase Avon products from you – they look at the brochure and even mark the pages… but then they forget to call you. If you call them, you’ll most likely get an order. If you don’t, eventually that brochure will go in the trash.

I found a service called DialMyCalls – Click Here for DialMyCalls. I divided my customers into who had landlines and who had mobile phones.

This service lets me call a number to record my message. Then I upload my list of landline numbers to their website and setup a campaign where every one of my phone numbers will be called by their computer and my message will be played when the customer answers the phone. Or, if they don’t answer the phone, it will go on their voice mail.

I also have the ability to upload my list of mobile phone numbers and send a reminder text to those with mobile phones.

I keep my message very friendly and conversational. My customers love the reminder and tell me so all the time! My sales always triple and quadruple within 2-3 days of the reminders. This amazing service only costs between 3 and 7 cents per call/text, depending on how many credits you purchase at one time, leaving you time to go out and get new customers!

The DialMyCalls service is also a great way to stay in touch with my team. When I have an important announcement, this is the service I use to get the word out to everyone!

One word of caution: If you are worried that a phone message will hurt the relationship part of the business, I want to tell you it really doesn’t. You will still be calling your customer to confirm her order, and you will still be making deliveries. These are great opportunities to work on the relationship part of the business. Most customers will perceive your phone reminder messages as just good customer service.

Texting Program

Texting lets groups and small to mid-sized companies send SMS messages tied to keyword responses via targeted text message marketing campaigns. With unlimited keywords and the lowest message rates available, Texting’s user-friendly interface makes SMS marketing the perfect complement to existing email and traditional marketing campaigns.

Nearly everyone has a cell phone these days. Pushing a text message marketing campaign to your customer base is a fantastic way to let them know when your order is going in, about specials, open appointments, news, promotions, and any other information you wish to deliver in a timely manner.

With the right texting platform, you can even create drip campaigns to stay in touch with prospects/customers over time.

The texting service I use and love is Project Broadcast –
Check it out here.

Greeting Cards and Post Cards

Another way I stay in touch with my customers and team members is with the use of “snail-mail” Cards and Post Cards. People are receiving so much e-mail and e-cards these days that electronic mail barely gets noticed, but when they get a physical card in their mailbox, it really catches their attention!

If you’ve been keeping good notes in your contact manager, it’s easy to think of things to include in your cards. Here are just a few examples:

Post Cards to your Top 10 in Sales
Post Cards to Top Recruiters
Recognize an accomplishment
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Get Well
Tell them you are thinking about them
Tell them you appreciate them
Announce a special
Show your support

I’ve discovered the most Amazing Way to send Greeting Cards and Post Cards for 1/3 the cost. You can send one card to one person, or to multiple people. The cards are REAL and can be printed in your own handwriting and include your photos. Each card can be individualized and custom made for each person you want to send a card to. Pixingo then prints the card, puts it in an envelope, adds a stamp, and mails the card for you. They even offer gifts and gift cards

The company is called Pixingo. Click here to go to Pixingo.

The best way to explain this wonderful service is to actually show you. Click here to visit Pixingo and you can send a FREE card on me with no obligation! Click on the banner at the top of the page to send a few free cards. Send one to yourself to see out easy it is, or send one to one of your friends or team members to make their day! I have sent many cards to people just because their name popped in my head, and then I receive a call from them telling me how much that card meant to them at just that moment and what a difference it made in their day. It’s a great feeling… and wonderful for building relationships… and business too!

Online Meetings

Stay connected wherever you go – start or join a 100-person meeting with crystal-clear, face-to-face video, high quality screen sharing, and instant messaging!

Award winning Zoom brings video conferencing, online meetings and group messaging into one easy-to-use application.

You can get started for free and upgrade when you need more services.

This is now my go to webinar service of choice.

Facebook Live Software

Do you want to start your own Facebook Live shows but the tools you tried are too complicated?

I’ve been using BeLive for my live streams. I use it for both my daily Facebook Lives, as well as my weekly trainings, and it’s a game changer.

The ability to share my screen and have guests on the live is amazing! Plus, I can make my viewers feel more special by showing their comments on screen.

The Software I use for my Facebook Lives is BeLive – Check it out here.

Leads

woman calling leads Although I strongly suggest starting out with your warm market and building a list, sometimes you just need a way to bring in more people to talk to. I have found a wonderful source of good quality leads, where most people I call are happy to talk to me – in fact many will return my calls after I leave a voice mail for them. I have tried many lead sources, so I find this quite refreshing. Check Out our Leads here. Their lead program is very affordable.