Welcome to Direct Selling
What it takes to become a Top Rep in a Direct Selling company
The following is just some notes I would have told you if we sat down and had a honest conversation about how to become a TOP REP in a direct selling company.
As a leadership representative in Avon, the #1 Direct Selling company in the world, I recruit and train new reps. I spend one hour with the new rep getting them signed up and explaining what is expecting of them. All direct sales companies have about the same situation but this is what I do:
- fill out the contract, get the recruit’s signature and appointment fees
- give them their appointment kit, brochures, etc.
- tell them to read the literature (you can’t explain everything in an hour!)
- tell them to take the online training and attend their meetings
- tell them to go out and sell, sell, sell (no one tells them how to do it!)
You are in my team
If I signed you up, I will be the one you come to for help. If I did not sign you up, I am still a part of your “upline” and I will be available to help you... after you have gone to the one who did sign you up.
Are you a self-starter?
As a new or established representative in any direct sales company, if you are not a self-starter and can not work on your own, you are mostly out of luck... unless you are in “my team.” But there is just so much I can do and you have to be willing to take responsibility for your own business.
Have you taken all of the online training courses?
If you have, then you know more than I did the first five years I was in Avon. Not knowing did not stop me from doing business or getting into leadership. I have only been in Avon about seven years and the Beauty of Knowledge (BoK) website has only been up with just a few courses part of that time. It is a lot better now than when it was first put up. The company continually adds and revises the courses. This is the only training 99.9% of the reps get. That is why it was put up online.
Do you regularly read the post on the representative forum?
That is the way I find out most of what I know. I listen and learn from reading other reps questions and answers and gossips and gripes. I figure out what to do and what not to do. I also search out the policies and procedures to figure out if what they are doing is correct. Many times I quickly figure out, the ones asking the questions have not taken their online training!
Have you followed the links under all the tabs on your online website?
That is the other way I find out what I know. The links are there for a reason!
Do you attend ALL the sales and zone training meetings?
A sales meeting is where you get the information on new products, as well as who earned what, and free door prizes. A zone meeting is normally held at a fast food place and is just a small group talking to the District Manager. Zone meetings are a great time to do a one-on-one with the DSM. Sales meetings last about 2-3 hours where as zone meetings are less than an hour. Sales meetings are where I sat, listened, and learned from those that knew more than I did. I go to rub shoulders with the best, because the best attend their meetings. Do you?
Are you reading all the emails, articles, and other post the company and I send out?
What I know, I share with all my downline. That is why I write and send out emails and links to articles I have uploaded. What I don't share, I don't know. I do not send out emails just to keep the internet busy. I send them because you need to read them!
If you are doing all those things and you still have questions
Then contact your upline. The one that signed you up is the one responsible for training you AFTER you have done all those other things. I help all my reps, especially my “leadership” reps, but you are in the team of the person that signed you up and no one is supposed to train someone else's rep.
If the person that signed you up quits being in leadership, then you will roll up to the next person in your upline and then that person will be your upline and is supposed to help you. You may have as many as three or more in your upline. You may need to go through all the levels to get to someone that can help you, but you need to learn to take the steps-up-the-ladder to reach the one who can help; don’t just to go the top person. I have more than thirty representatives I personally signed up that I am personally responsible for; I have fifty or more total all the time!
But YOU are the one responsible for taking all the training.
Most reps don't get a tenth of what my downline team is given. But no one can force you to do anything. It is up to you, just like it was up to me to train myself. I rolled up twice to the #1 sales rep in my district. She did not help me or teach me anything. I had to learn it on my own. That is why I send out emails and posts to all those in my downline. I was not trained by my upline, but it did not stop me. I trained myself.
YOU are the one responsible for making your “Who Do You Know” list
A “Who Do You Know” list will help you run your Avon business. Not sure how to make a “Who Do You Know” list? A “WDYK” list is just that: Who Do You Know that needs your product or needs to make extra money? MAKE A LIST and then work that list. Becoming a Top Sales or Recruiter is work. You have to work at it every day. Contacts are the name of the game in Direct Sales.
So... are YOU making all the money you want to make?
I am not, that is why I am continually doing all of the above. I can’t do it all at once, but I am doing it one day at a time. As a leadership rep I am helping others start their own business and helping them make more money, if they are willing to work for it too. Did you know that Senior Executive Unit Leaders in Avon can make more than $100,000 a year? This is something you can do too. You can take the training to learn how, but if you need more information go up-the-ladder asking for help.
Need something done, ask a busy person
Just in case you do not know, I am a very busy person. I have seven children, twenty-one grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren, most who are at my house constantly. I also have over sixty reps with several in leadership all the time. At the present time, more than thirty of those reps are totally my responsibility as I signed them up. To say I am busy... well, this is...
My weekly schedule
- Mondays I normally spend at home cleaning house and just trying to recuperate from the week before (I have hypertension, diabetes, fibromyalgia,and a damaged hip!) Monday is my “down time” day. Monday is also a day for customers to come by my house, as more than half of my customers pick up their orders. Yes, Direct Sales are great with those with health problems because you can work your business around your “down” days.
- Tuesday mornings are my customer day and times and includes delivering orders or taking orders as I place my campaign orders late on Tuesday night. I also do appointing and training new reps on the computer at my house on that day during the afternoons.
- Wednesdays I spend doing paper work such as customer invoices and emails, newsletters, leadership contacts, plus finishing up delivering orders. Thursdays is normally meeting day, recruiting and looking for new customers, delivering books, and finishing up “paperwork.”
- Fridays are normally truck day and/or recruiting out of town.
- Saturdays are reserved for my husband and we do things together like shopping for groceries or just riding around. Sometimes I also schedule recruiting on that day if the potential rep can not meet on a weekday.
- Sundays are totally church and family day.
Add in the fact I normally write or compile data for several online publications for a few hours every night, as well as have family and church obligations during the week. I also write a blog for our team.
Planning Time
Yes, I am busy, but I plan my time and add in time to do my training. You need to learn to do that too!
I make a plan and I work that plan.
Oh yeah, the rest of that sentence goes like this.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
It all depends on YOU.
What are YOU willing to do to make YOUR business grow?
