AVON

My sister Cookie has decided to become an AVON representative. 

She’s an interesting character.  Highly educated (with an advanced degree in Public Administration,) compassionate (she is my 93 year-old mother’s principal caregiver) and one of the smartest people I know.    

She also has an almost religious relationship to multi-level marketing.  For those uninitiated folks out there, MLM or multi-level-marketing is simply a profit model where those involved can make money at several levels.  You are compensated when you privately make a sale, but also when others you're associated with make a sale.    

Her relationship with this model spans decades.   

She’s been involved in selling insurance policies and pots and pans.  Then of course there was the communications company that came on the heels of the cosmetic company.

I've had so many conversations with her around network marketing (which is another name for MLM) that I can hold my own when she starts discussing commissions, and bonuses, chargebacks and personal volume discounts.  I will admit however, that when we take the deep dive into the murky waters of up-lines and down lines I get a little breathless and feel the need to come up for air.

And even though she’s not found the financial success she thought was hers, she has stayed enamored with the business model.  And it seems with each company she pockets another piece of the puzzle and better understand what the success formula looks like.   

Which leads us to AVON. 

For certain, if I was a betting woman, I put my money on this newest relationship.  Not so much because it’ s AVON, one of the oldest most respected brands in the world, but because of how she is using her experience to create a different outcome. 

From the very beginning she picked AVON after first looking at several MLM companies and interviewing their representatives.  She didn't simply plunk down her payment and pick-up her samples.  Instead she developed a set of interview questions to be answered by what would be her up-line. She was looking and listening for compatibility, company longevity, business acumen, creativity and most importantly a financially successful track record with the company.   

After making her decision she made a commitment for success.  She’s now in the process of putting systems in place (including financial systems,) projecting her growth, working under marketing objectives and strategically growing her business. 

I'm impressed.  She’s excited and I'm excited for her.           

         

Cookie reminds me that it’s never too late to try again.  

And it’s never too late to get it right.