Monday, June 13, 2016

Skiping the Summer Slump

Skipping the Summer Slump 

 

Daily Needs

The very first thing I think you can do to get your sales up at any time of year is to get your customers buying the things they use every day. There's the basics like shampoo, deodorant and shower gel. Those are things every body uses and they have to buy them somewhere, they might as well be buying it from you. But also get your customers buying their skincare from you, their make up, all of those daily needs products because they'll still need those during the summer.

Vacations

Other things you can do specific to the summer:
Talk with your customers about their vacations. Make sure they are covered not just from a scheduling standpoint, but from a things they need standpoint. Things that we have that customers might need to get before they go on vacation are things like Bug Guard if they're going some place with insects. Travel size products, maybe they need a new outfit for that vacation or some flip flops for the beach, or a new tote bag to carry their things in. We offer a lot of products that customers would need or find nice to have on vacation.

As far as customers traveling, use backorders to help them get the things they want to get even if they're going to be gone during that campaign.  Have them add what they wanted from the missed campaign on the next campaign, this can mean a bigger order to make up for the one they missed.

Be talking to your customers about when they'll be going on vacation. You might need to change up their deliver a little bit to accommodate them being out of town. For example, this week, I have one customer I normally see at the end of the week who I'll be seeing today or tomorrow because she's going out of town and needs her order before she goes. I also have a customer that I'll see early next week instead of this week because she's out of town now. Fortunately, both of those ladies live in my neighborhood so it's easy to move their delivery, but if you have customers who are in an area that you only go to a couple of times a month you'll want to talk to them about if they'll be leaving town well ahead of time so you can accommodate their orders around their vacation schedule.

Summer Necessities

You'll also want to look at things your customers need for summer even in they're not traveling.

A lot of times, especially with our foundation, we may use a different shade or formula in the summer. Or we need a stronger sunscreen so we don't need that darker shade in summer. In general, changing up the colors you wear in summer means customer need to get new makeup shades.

Foot Works products are something I promote a lot in summer. We're going barefoot or in flip flops and sandals so our feet are out there more and they need extra care in summer. Also a new Nailwear to do pedicures so their toes look nice in those cute sandals.

Also in the summer we tend to show more skin so you're going to want to promote the Skin So Soft Fresh and Smooth line for hair removal and the Avon Glow if they want to have a little bit more color in their skin.

Focus on those types of product and you won't see as much of a drop off in sales over the summer.

Summer Activities

Summer activities are a fantastic time to look for new customers. Think of all the people you see in summer, when your activities change, that you don't see the rest of the year especially if you have kids. You're out at the park more, maybe the kids are going to summer camp and you're going to see other parents at drop off and pick up or things like vacation bible school or summer sports. Keep those activities in mine and thing about the people you're seeing there that you're not seeing the rest of the year, and new people that you're meeting and use that to expand your customer base and that can help keep your sales up if your regular customers are ordering less or traveling more.

Those summer activities, especially summer sports teams, summer camp, vacation bible school and things like that are great opportunities to approach people about doing fundraisers. A lot of times we only think about fundraiser during the school year and we focus on school related fundraisers but there are a lot of activities that people get involved in over the summer that they may need to raise funds for so that's a fantastic time to focus on that and that can help keep your sales up also.

All of these new people that you're meeting over the summer at these summer activities - the summer sports and activities that we do with our kids over the summer, those don't come cheap so maybe you'll meed a few moms that need to suppliment their income to pay for thse fun things they want to do with their kids but they don't want to get a part time job because then they won't have time to do stuff with the kids so tell them, "Hey, share the Avon book with a some friends and family and get more pocket money to get to the movies with the kids"

We previously talked about working your business around your own vacation.
 
Chris Arnold
Avon Gold Leader
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