Are you looking for more information about Avon? If so then you are definitely in the right place. In this comprehensive Avon Business Opportunity Review l will cover the Company, Product(s), and Compensation plan in order for you to be able to make an informed decision.
Disclaimer: This is an unbiased Avon Business Opportunity Review.
NOTE: Unbiased (meaning I am not a distributor of their products/services and I do not promote their business opportunity). Your decision to join or not join the Avon business opportunity is entirely up to you.
So if you are ready to learn more about the the Avon Business Opportunity continue reading this review.
Company Profile – Background and History
COMPANY NAME: Avon
INDUSTRY: Beauty
FOUNDER: David H. McConnell
COST: $15 (USA)
WEBSITE: avon.com
REACH: Global – already in over 100 countries
Avon was born as the California Perfume Company in an age of dramatic transformation in the United States – social, economic, political and industrial – that will forever change the country.
In 1886 Bookseller David H. McConnell founds the company as the U.S. edges toward an era that will be defined by progress and change.
The company is decades ahead of its time in offering women an opportunity to earn their own money.
Avon’s early and continued empowerment of women is what has earned the company its own special place in women’s history.
Today, Avon has grown to become the leader in a multi-billion dollar beauty industry.
Avon is the world’s most recognizable beauty brand.
Avon’s Mission Statement (since 2012):
This is the company that puts mascara on lashes and food on the tables. That fights wrinkles with one hand and Breast Cancer with the other. That knows the value of a perfect lip, but still opens its mouth and speaks out against Domestic Violence and for women’s financial independence. This is the company that not only brings beauty to doors, but also opens them. The company that supports more than 6 million Representatives in over 100 countries. This is Avon. The company that for more than 125 years has stood for beauty, innovation, optimism and above all for women.
Avon Products Vision Statement:
To be the company that best understands and satisfies the product, service and self-fulfillment needs of women – globally.“
What Are the Products?
Originally the Avon product line focused on fragrances (perfumes) but over time their products have expanded into cosmetics (makeup), skin care, fashion & home, personal care and even hair care products.
How to promote the products
Avon representatives are taught Warm Market Prospecting techniques and to take orders using brochures from family, friends and coworkers each campaign.
A campaign is the selling period for each brochure and lasts 2 weeks.
Some representatives also promote their products through social media and use of the internet.
The problem that most Avon representatives are facing is that after they go through their family and friends they run out of people to speak to about the business.
Once you run out of to the right of friends and family to sell to then what do you do?
Let me continue with this Avon review and I will show you exactly how you can make more money and sales with your new Avon business.
The Compensation Plan
The Avon compensation plan is not readily available.
The company does not post it over the internet.
I’ll try to update this review as new information becomes available on the compensation plan.
It appears to be a stair step plan.
NOTE: A network marketing Stair Step Plan is a compensation plan in which representatives who are responsible for the both personal as well as group sales volume. It is a simple plan for the distributors who are new for network marketing business. Every step is based on a certain volume of sales target. If a distributor or networker achieve the set target he/she will promoted for the next higher level. The Stair-Step compensation plan gives huge incentives for distributors to achieve the set target.
With the Avon compensation plan is hard to determine exactly how much a new recruit will make over the Avon representative’s lifetime since commissions are performance based.
You must be Active Representative to be eligible to earn and receive commissions with the Avon Compensation Plan.
How Avon defines an active representative:
Active – A Representative who has submitted an on-time order in a campaign.
There are two ways to earn money as an Avon Representative:
1) Personal Selling (by selling products yourself) and
2) Team Selling (by selling products while recruiting others).
The higher your campaign (selling cycle) sales are, the greater the percentage you will earn on those sales.
Sales Leaders, Representatives who sell and recruit, earn money based on their personal sales plus their recruits’.
Personal Selling
Receive up to 50% commission as long as your orders are placed online.
Your face-to-face sales are based on an earnings structure that is based on your order size and your online sales are a flat earnings rate.
For each online sale, you make a flat 20% earnings unless you are President’s Club selling level or above and in that case you make 25% earnings.
It should also be mentioned the earnings structure for face-to-face sales is based on full earnings products (the products Avon makes–beauty, makeup, skincare, bath and body, some jewelry, fragrance sales).
The other product lines (fashion, shoes, home products, some jewelry, etc) are what we call fixed earnings items.
These items have a symbol next to them in the brochure.
The fixed earnings on these products is 20% unless you are President’s Club or above which will give you 25% earnings on fixed earning products.
- $0-$49.99: NO earnings – You pay Avon full retail price for product.
- $50-$149.99: 20% earnings
- $150-$294.99: 30% earnings
- $295-$439.99: 35% earnings
- $440-$924.99: 40% earnings
- $925-$1574.99: 45% earnings
- $1575+: 50% earnings
Note: Avon’s President Recognition Program gives Representatives the opportunity to be recognized for their sales achievements with prestigious awards.
There are six levels: Presidents Club, The Honor Society, Rose Circle, David H. McConnell, Presidents Council and Inner Circle.
Presidents Points are cumulative and can be redeemed for merchandise, bonds, travel & more!
Team Selling – Avon Leadership Levels
There are 6 levels of leadership within the Avon compensation plan.
Listed below are the criteria to qualify for each:
Level 1 – Avon Unit Leader
- Must have personal sales of $200
- Must have 3 people placing orders each campaign
- Total unit sales of $1,200 (Total Unit Sales includes your personal sales and your Teams Sells)
Level 2 – Avon Unit Leader Plus
- Must have personal sales of $200
- Must have 8 people placing orders each campaign
- One titled Leader (One person in your 1st gen with an Avon title of Unit Leader or above)
- Total Unit Sales of $3,00 (Total Unit Sales Include your personal sells and your teams sells)
Level 3 – Avon Advantage Unit Leader
- Must have personal Sales of $250
- Must have 12 people placing orders each campaign
- Two Titled Leaders (Two people in your 1st gen with a title of Avon Unit Leader or above)
- Total Unit Sales of $4,500 (Total Unit Sales includes your personal sells and Your teams sells)
Level 4 – Avon Executive unit Leader
- Must have person sales of $300
- Must have 20 people placing orders each campaign
- Four titled Leaders (Four people with the title of Avon Unit Leader or above)
- Total Unit Sales of $17,500 (Total Unit Sales includes your personal sells and Your teams sells)
Level 5 – Avon Senior Executive Unit Leader
- Must have personal sales of $350
- Must have 20 people placing orders each campaign
- Six titled leaders. 1 must be an Executive Unit Leader or Above. (5 title Representatives of Unit Leader or above and 1 Representative who is an Executive Unit Leader)
- Total Unit Sales of $35,000 (Total Unit Sales includes your personal sells and Your teams sells)
Level 6 – National Avon Senior Executive Unit Leader
- Must have personal sales of $350
- Must have 20 people placing order each campaign
- Six titled Leaders. 2 must be an Executive Unit Leader or Above. (4 titled Representative of Unit Leader or above and 2 Representative’s who are an Executive Unit Leader or above)
- Total Unit Sales of $150,000 (Total Unit Sales includes your personal sells and Your teams sells)
ARE THERE ANY CONCERNS OR RED FLAGS ABOUT THIS OPPORTUNITY?
At this time I have no concerns or major issues with this company.
Avon Products is actually a member of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Accredited Business since 7/8/1949.
At the time of this post there were 183 complaints closed with BBB in last 3 years and 45 closed in last 12 months.
The majority of the complaints (100) were centered on Products/Service issues.
Is the Avon business opportunity right for YOU?
Since this is a comprehensive Avon Business Opportunity review I have listed the pros as well as the cons below:
The Pros
- Product & Brand Recognition – Thousands of products many of which have been around for many years.
- Residual income opportunity on product orders.
- Two different ways you can get paid, Personal Selling or Team Building.
- Stability-Avon has been in business over 125 years and is currently the industry leader in beauty and skin care products.
- International business opportunity available in many countries outside the U.S.
- Bonuses and Awards. Gifts, Fast Start Bonuses, Incentive Trips. In addition to to the above compensation, Avon has bonus opportunities and recognition programs available to its representatives.
- Representatives on average currently earn 35% commission and up to 50% on personal sales and up to 12% commissions on your team’s sales.
- Return policy allows representatives to return products.
- No Annual Renewal contract fee.
- Established a foundation that addressed domestic violence with women.
Avon is sold in over 100 markets, has a portfolio of thousands of products, and a network of over 6 million representatives. Avon consistently generates a billion dollars in sales a year.
The Cons
- Target audience is woman – Avon slogan “The company for women“.
- Requires that you have $200 personal sales, 3 customer orders and $1200 Total Unit Sales before eligible to receive commissions from your downline (team activity).
- Production based comp plan that will require heavy recruiting and building large teams to sustain and maximize income potential.
- Hierarchical requirements make the higher ranks exceptionally harder to achieve, including those ranks that are most likely to produce a comfortable living income.
- Avon has had legal issues in the past.
- Global revenue has had a big decrease in the last 5 years.
- Avon only reports income earnings on their representatives that have achieved leadership rankings.
- Limits earnings to three generations or levels.
Is the Avon business opportunity right for YOU?
If you are interested in promoting/selling beauty and personal care products then Avon may be a good fit for you!
To join Avon and become a sales representative you must purchase the Starter Kit for $15 at sign up.
A basic kit has 20 brochures, 1 sample product box, a quick start guide, and a few other helpful materials.
A person has the option of joining and purchasing the Deluxe Kit $100 ($15 for the basic kit plus an additional $85).
The Deluxe kit includes everything in the basic kit, plus additional full size products to use, demo, or sell; more samples, business cards, and recruiting flyers.
You can sign up with a personal sponsor or you can sign up online.
After signing up you will be provided catalogs and your very own company reciprocated website with a back office.
In your back office you can send out email campaigns, order samples to distribute, configure your website settings, manage your orders, send in order payments, and more.
Once you’re registered as a independent representative, you can start building your Avon business.
WARNING: 95% of Avon Representatives FAIL!
Avon has made significant progress and works to continue improving their sales, marketing, and technology strategies in order for their sales force to succeed, but the fact remains that an overwhelming majority will lose money and never achieve the financial freedom they dream about.
Even Avon admits in their 2013 Annual Report to the SEC, that they are having a hard time retaining their recruits. But let’s keep this in the proper perspective, low retention rates is a very common thing in the direct sales and the network marketing industry.
There is a high rate of turnover among Representatives, which is a common characteristic of the direct selling business. In order to reverse losses of Representatives and grow our business in the future, we need to recruit, retain and service Representatives on a continuing basis, create attractive Representative earning opportunities and transform the value chain, restore field health and sales force effectiveness, successfully implement initiatives in the channel, advance the digital opportunity, improve our brochure and product offerings and improve our marketing and advertising, among other things, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to achieve these objectives.
Most Avon representatives will never achieve financial freedom or the level of success they desire.
Hard work and dedication will only get you so far.
That is only one part of the strategy for success.
The other part that is not often discussed is having the right mindset, training and marketing tools in place – preferably before you join or shortly thereafter!
Quite frankly, if you are new to direct sales or an inexperienced marketer chances are you will become frustrated and quit 90-120 days after joining unless you take the time to invest in and develop the necessary marketing skills you need to avoid becoming a failure statistic.
Not investing in the proper marketing training and marketing tools is why most Avon representatives don’t see results and ultimately fail!
If you do not have the money to invest in your personal education in order to develop the skills necessary you are already in trouble.
Yes, being your own boss sounds great until you realize how much work and additional money it really takes to be successful.
Please don’t be a fool.
Network marketing is a lot of hard work…But if you are willing to labor in the vine yard consistently for 3-5 years the rewards and the benefits are incredible!
So Can I Make Money With Avon?
Yes, and here is absolutely the best part of this Avon business opportunity review.
I will not only share with you how you can make money from your Avon business but exactly what the top leaders are doing to earn 6 figure incomes.
It is vital to your success to get proper marketing training so you can brand yourself and generate an endless flow of quality leads for your Avon business.
No other Avon Business Opportunity review will tell you this closely guarded industry sales secret.
Of course, you can build your business strictly using traditional, offline techniques, but for the average person, getting started, calling on your existing warm market will only get you out the gate.
What if you learned how to combine effective offline strategies with the ability to generate 10-30+ leads a day online?
There’s no telling how successful you can be with your Avon business!
The Avon representatives that seem to be the most successful are not just using the company’s replicated website, but a host of other lead generation and marketing tools.
They train their downline on what’s working now, the latest internet marketing strategies and techniques and arm them with the tools and knowledge to generate their own online leads.
If you want to become a top producer, you will need a powerful lead marketing system to foster and build a relationship with your prospects.
Not understanding how to personally brand themselves, how to drive traffic to their websites or not having a high converting lead marketing system is why most Avon representatives fail!
HINT: Most Top earners use their own website or blog and not company replicated sites.
My Final Thoughts…
If you do a search on Google for this company and products, you will find some negative websites, blogs and consumer comments, but that is typical for any business.
How the company handles the complaints is key.
You should always make sure you get to know as much about the company as you can before making a decision.
So continue to read as many Avon reviews as you possibly can while researching this company.
Please understand that if you are new to the direct sales and network marketing industry that your success will come from your ability to generate continuous leads in order to make sales. Remember, success in network marketing is not a huge mystery.
It is just a matter of correct education, proper skills and effective action.
In my opinion Avon is a very stable and well established direct sales and network marketing company.
Avon is a good business opportunity that sells high quality, celebrity-endorsed, brand recognizable beauty products.
But that all of that has little to do with whether YOU will be successful or not.
While it’s obviously beneficial to be a part of a strong, supportive company, what really determines whether you will succeed or not is your ability to sell products consistently and your ability to recruit people in order to build a solid team.
If you are interested in the beauty and personal care industry and feel comfortable with their products, then Avon is certainly a business opportunity worth looking into.
Thanks for checking out this Avon Business Opportunity Review.
To Your Success!
P.S. While you are considering Avon as an additional source of income, what if you could make money even from those who are not interested in ordering your products or in joining your team?
P.S.S. If you’re struggling to build your Avon business, tired of rejection, bugging your friends and family, then you Contact Me Now! The pain, struggles, and the frustration you have endured while building your business ends, right here, right now.
Your comments are welcomed below, please share your Avon experiences.
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