Old myths dispelled
Avon calling for soft-sell
door-to-door sales pitch
By Michelle Brence
Of (he Emerald
Avon representatives often have been
characterized as lonely housewives going door
to-door to catch up on the latest gossip, Carol
Tucker, who visited Eugene Friday, is out to
change this image.
Tucker, one of Avon’s five national managers
for products, beauty and public relations, stop
ped by Eugene and Corvallis to offer advice for
those entering direct-sales.
Emphasizing a soft-sell approach, Tucker
said in an interview that self-motivation and con
sistent follow-through with customers are vital to
successful direct selling.
“1 think there is a myth out there that people
need to be hard-sell in order to be successful,”
Tucker said.
“We teach people to just be themselves,” she
said.
“We talk to them about looking their best and
dressing the part. It doesn’t mean you have to be
gorgeous. It means looking as good as you can
look and having self-confidence,” said Tucker,
who began selling Avon 22 years ago to put her
son through nursery school.
Avon representatives meet in a group once a
month with a district sales manager to receive
tips on grooming. They also are told about incen
tive programs, which include prizes for excep
tional sales and a sponsorship that awards addi
tional commissions to representatives who recruit
new Avon salespeople, Tucker said.
Representatives cover between 100 and 200
households in their assigned territories, and they
receive a 35- to 50-percent commission on their
sales and 5 percent on the sales of representatives
they have recruited.
Tucker said those who work full-time can
earn up to $30,000 a year. And because represen
tatives can set their own hours, the job is ideal for
college students.
T think there is a myth out there
that people need to be hard-sell
in older to be successful. *
—Carol Tucker
Before Avon salespeople can tally up their
profits, however, they must shell out $30 for in
itial supplies and training. They also must con
tinue to buy sales booklets, samples, order forms,
gasoline and the decorated paper bags for deliver
ing the products. The company encourages
salespeople to order additonal samples and
demonstration products.
The average Avon representative makes just
more than $2,000 a year. Tucker said.
Mary Stuck, a Eugene-area representative,
has sold Avon for more than 11 years. She said
purchases about $50 worth of supplies for each
two-week campaign, except during the Christmas
season when she buys up to $150 of supplies to
meet increased demand.
Working 40 hours a week to supply her
120-household territory, Stuck receives a
45-percent commission on her $9,000 average
yearly sales.
“You really get to be close friends with your
customers,” Stuck said.
Avon originated in 1886 when David McCon
nell, a door-to-door book sales person in New
Carol Tucker
York, began giving out vials of perfume to pro
spective book buyers. McConnel discovered that
women were more interested in the perfume than
in the books, and he began to manufacture
fragrances.
By 1905 McConnel’s California Perfume
Company became a national organization,
employing more than 10,000 representatives.
In 1939 McConnell changed the name of his
manufacturing company to Avon Products Inc.
because he admired the English countryside
where the Avon River flows. Tucker said.
Avon is the world’s largest retailer of
fragrances, cosmetics and costume jewelry,
Tucker said.
Today 1.3 million representatives, including
484 in Eugene, peddle Avon products in the
United States and 33 foreign countries. They
generate more than $2 billion in sales each year,
according to the July 2, 1984, issue of Business
Week.
In the past few years, however, Avon’s stock
prices have fallen from $140 a share to just more
than $20, according to the same issue of Business
Week. This is in part due to the flux of women
entering the job market, because the majority of
women can no longer be found at home during
the day.
Avon also has seen a decline in its represen
tatives. In the beginning of 1984, Avon had
600.000 representatives in the United States,
Business Week reported. Avon currently has
425.000 salespeople in the United States, Tucker
said.
Avon is testing direct-mail and telephone
sales in specific areas in the United States in an
effort to increase the number of representatives
and boost the value of Avon stock. The company
is using sales parties and direct-mail sales to do
Continued on Page 10
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