1st Steps as a AVON Rep

1st Steps as a AVON Rep

The Power of Rehearsal

"Everyone loves to win - but how many love to train?"
Mark Spitz - 1972 Olympic Gold Medallist Swimmer

When I was little, I wanted to be a singer. I loved the idea of entertaining people with rythum melody and harmony. I listened to records and learned songs and even put on shows performing with the handle of the vacuum cleaner.

The magic fraternity has a number of rules. The most important one is that you must never reveal the secret of a trick (so don’t ask me!) But one of the rules that I learned that has been useful in my real experiences as a singer speaker and trainer  is that you must practice and practice – and then practice some more. And only when you are thoroughly rehearsed do you perform the trick in public.

Practice and rehearsal also make a huge improvement to the delivery of presentations and speeches.

Here’s what happens to an unrehearsed speaker:

They "um" and "ah"They can’t remember what comes next. They get sidetracked and waffle. They go over time or run out of time.They read their presentation and put the audience to sleep.They lack confidence, control and credibility.

This list of problems is bad enough. But the real problem is that your audience doesn’t say to themselves "this speaker hasn’t rehearsed" – no, they say to themselves "this person and their company, product and service are incompetent." They don’t make allowances – and why should they?

Take on board that you have not finished preparing when your notes are written and your PowerPoint is on a drive. You need to practise your talk out loud from beginning to end. And the more often you rehearse it the better.

Learn your opening – know your first line in your sleep so that "starters nerves" won’t stop you from remembering or delivering your opening words with energy and confidenceKnow your closing – for maximum impact you want to be able to deliver it directly to the audience without any notes and without PowerPointPractise with any props and visual aids – especially PowerPoint. Get the timing of your slides right and be thoroughly familiar with their content.

I learned the discipline and the benefits of rehearsal from my childhood poetry contest daye. And it is a discipline because it is time consuming and repetitive and you often don’t feel as if it’s really contributing to your performance. But I can guarantee that it does.

The popular Polish pianist and composer Ignace Paderewski was once asked to explain why, after so many years, he still practiced every day. His response?

"If I miss one day's practice I notice it. If I miss two days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices."

Opportunity For You To Market To Real Estate Agents, Insurance Agents & More Today Only!

I have partnered with a dear Friend from WomenPartner.org. WomenPartner.org has orchestrated a Guinness World Record attempt to break the record "most people attending a business speed networking event" (multiple venues) on Sept. 17. 10 cities participated.

Although they didn't break the record, they got a lot of donations to help charities that supply back to school supplies and food to the needy. 600 business and professional, female and male, people participated in the events. They included real estate agents/brokers, insurance agents, CEOs, executives, coaches and more. To thank them for their participation and donations, WomenPartner.org is putting together a powerhouse virtual goody bag that will be sent out Monday evening. They are looking for 10 more virtual goody bag sponsors, only $50 to insert a full page ad to promote one company, to complete the "bags". You can promote two businesses for $75 or 3 businesses for $100. In addition to having their businesses positioned in front of the participants, sponsors will be mentioned in the press release distributed by the 10 city organizers.

Visit WomenPartner.org's Guinness World Record attempt Facebook page , http://tinyurl.com/pw4mc55 , to check out some of the participants and organizers. Read the pinned post or email jerrilynnbthomas@womenpartner.org for more information on grabbing one of the sponsorship's. Please note that the payment option is Google Wallet not PayPal. If you aren't familiar with Google Wallet, it's very easy to use. Sponsorship's are first come first serve today.

Until next time

Email Strategies To Elevate Your Holiday Marketing Program

It's not too late to inject a little innovation into your holiday email-marketing planning, even if you feel as if Cranberry Red Thursday (Thanksgiving in the U.S.) is hovering over your shoulder already.

My list below suggests six holiday revenue or engagement strategies that you can either launch or update in the weeks that remain before the blitz begins.

1. Strategy: Look for ways to close the smartphone conversion gap by making your emails easier for shoppers to view and act on, coordinating email and mobile messaging.

Launch: If a full redesign isn't in the cards, make your emails more mobile-friendly: raise the font size, reduce the column width to avoid side-scrolling, and trim copy to place the most important content at the top of the message. Delete all but the most essential copy.

Update: Use email to encourage customers to download, install and use your mobile app. Also, use email to persuade users to accept mobile and Web push notifications.

2. Strategy: Move beyond the one-day extravaganza to differentiate your emails from all the other Black Friday emails in subscribers' inboxes.

Launch: Create a unique promotion and content approach for each of the five shopping days bracketing Black Friday, from "Cranberry Red Thursday" to Black Friday to Cyber Monday.

Update: Focus on Cranberry Red Thursday, which became a retail shopping day in 2014. If your stores will open on Thanksgiving, consider special promotions and shopper information about store hours, locations and special offers to increase awareness and drive traffic. 

3. Strategy: Dedicate at least one email a week to "white space" content that informs and educates.

Launch: Kick off your holiday shopping season with an email guide covering essential information: free or expedited shipping deadlines, store locations, special hours, gift lists, return policies, payment options, customer service contacts and anything else that would help shoppers buy successfully.

Update: Create email buyers’ guides for specialty gift purchases where rookie shoppers could use some virtual assistance -- like sporting goods, electronics, jewelry, housewares or clothing. Alert shoppers about impending deadlines, changes in store hours and other late-season initiatives.

4. Strategy: Promote gift card purchases and redemption promotions in remarketing programs and email content.

Launch: Develop a broad-based promotion plan that suggests gift-card purchases to browse abandoners. Dedicate several emails to buying, giving and redeeming gift cards online and in stores. Add gift-card information to every holiday email.

Update: Close out the shopping season with an email listing gift ideas and policies/procedures for redeeming gift cards.

5. Strategy: Add abandoned-cart and browse-abandonment reminder emails to bring casual or comparison shoppers back to your website.

Launch: This might be an ambitious undertaking in the waning days of Q3 or the quietest days of Q4, but given the potential revenue at stake, it's at least worth exploring.

Do what you need to do to get a basic abandoned-cart email program up, tested and running before the shopping season swings into high gear. Address the reasons why shoppers break off transactions, such as technical problems or shipping-fee objections. Link to the transaction page, and include exact product descriptions and photos.

Update: Increase the number of email reminders from one to a series. Move from batched messages to an hour or less from cart abandonment for the first message.

Shoppers often use carts as virtual shopping lists. So, make your carts persistent if you can but remind shoppers in abandonment emails about the hazards of waiting too long (out-of-stock merchandise, expiring promotions, etc.).

6. Strategy: Add or buff up transactional emails to increase trust, reduce doubt, engage new shoppers and bring them back after the holidays.

Launch: Add at least one new transactional email, especially a "fulcrum" message: an email that's pivotal in driving revenue, engagement or actions. Consider an enhanced welcome message or onboarding program or a companion to a purchase, such as a shipping notification.

Update: Add an opt-in invitation to every transactional message to convert new shoppers to subscribers. Move from batched message sending to near-real time.

Which of these has the potential to move the needle on your holiday email program?

Until next time, take it up a notch!

Why Online Presence Is Important For Your Business

The importance of having an online presence and a personal brand is growing day by day, regardless of which industry you belong to. The potential customers and clients want to see that you are engaged in the respective community and are more likely to take on your work if you already have an online presence. The beauty and wellness industry is a blooming business and the high organic search engine rankings go a long way towards its ability to secure first-time as well as repeat client bookings. Beauty companies and advertisers now realize the importance of increasing their online presence and have shifted ad dollars to have a prominent digital focus rather than traditional television and print campaigns.

In this industry, the experience at the point-of-sale (POS) remains highly important because it is where the sale is won or lost, where the interaction with the brand comes to life and the seeds of loyalty are planted. It can affect brand performance by improving brand image and consumer satisfaction. It can have direct impact on a brand’s overall perception among customers and their loyalty to it, delivering a unique shopping experience and further enhancing the beauty brand and customer loyalty. By having an online presence for your beauty products business, you are able to guide traffic generated through media. Beauty companies invest in media to further a particular brand or category, linking brands with special occasions and holidays already connected to your purchases. Therefore, you need to improve return on media investments in order to have an appropriate POS support. It can help you generate incremental sales, build recognizable brand missions and values, attract customers with appealing store merchandising, and foster a retail culture and skills. You can know your shoppers and can have indirect as well as indirect contact with end consumers of your beauty brands and fully understand their needs and behaviors. Your strong online presence will provide consumers with a balanced product knowledge, service and sales techniques that fully embody your brand image.