Building relationships with your customers. Why build customer relationships? Building positive relationships with your customers is so important, it helps you to connect with them on a more personal level. It's about taking the time to share a bit about you and being genuinely interested in what they have to tell you too, it's likely you will find some common ground. When you connect with your customers it builds trust, and it's much easier to understand their needs and recommend the right products for them. Let's take a look at some of the main benefits of building loyal customers: They trust you and listen to your advice. You can personalise your approach to each individual. You can make recommendations based on their needs and wants. You can keep track of their buying habits. Customers are more likely to stay with you. Customers are more likely to recommend you to their friends and family. Customers are likely to order more frequently.

Building loyalty and trust. Building customer trust and loyalty is equally as important online, as it is in person. Let's look at how you can do this. Your personal brand Before you can start to build any relationships, you need to be sure of what your personal brand is. Selling isn't just about products, it's about you too! It's the representation of you that others see when they look for you online, or when they meet you face-to-face. To get this right, you need to figure out: What am I passionate about? Your personal brand must reflect your likes and interests. How can I grow my social footprint? If you're active on social media platforms such as Facebook, make sure your profile, and the information you share, reflects your interests. What's my plan? Set yourself goals and targets around your personal brand. What's my story? What makes you unique? Why should a customer choose to shop with you over any other Rep, or directly with Avon?

Quality products and service. Connection and communication - Frequent communication will strengthen your relationship with your customers, keep you fresh in their minds and allow you to pass along regular updates. Using social media is a great way to communicate and stay connected. This could be through Facebook, Whatsapp or lnstagram. Choose the one that works for you, so you can communicate often, and with ease. Quality products and service - Engaging customers through Avon products and service is easy. Product quality is guaranteed, with a full refund to customers who aren't satisfied. You can keep your customers informed with the status of their order, and also thank them for their orders, be it face-to-face or online.

Social selling. There's no doubt, the use of social media has grown rapidly in recent years, and while this may not suit everyone, those who do engage in social media have developed extra avenues to connect with people and develop relationships. Think of it as modern day relationship-building that acts as an extra arm to your business success. Now, it's not about bombarding your contacts with meaningless spam, it's about making sure your interactions have meaning and purpose to build loyalty and trust. If you're already using Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin, to name a few, then you're already engaging in social relationships. Let's have a look from a consumers point of view; 89% of consumers begin searching for products and services using the internet. One in every five minutes spent online is spent on social media. You have 31% greater reach when teamed with social selling techniques. 91% of mobile users keep their devices within arms reach 100% of the time. These are some great reasons to build your social presence. Building your social presence. If you're keen to delve into the online market, but are worried about how much time or resource is needed, then worry no more. Your My Online Store and Avon On app can cover all your social selling needs with little time and effort.

Engaging with your customers face-to-face. Being able to meet with people creates a degree of trust and connection, where text and social messages can sometimes create a misunderstanding. Face-to-face interaction allows you to share your thoughts, explain things clearly and answer questions quickly and honestly. You can gauge how interested someone is in your conversation through their body language, so you can easily steer the conversation. Many customers prefer that personal touch, and it can be easier to build relationships and trust this way. The key thing to remember, is that all customers will have their own preference to how they would like to buy products, so offering both a social media and face-to-face service, gives you a blended approach, and therefore a greater opportunity to boost your earnings.

Proud of our purpose. For over 135 years, Avon has been transforming the lives of women across the globe. We speak up, and speak out, on issues that matter to our communities, we support the causes that matter most to allow women to lead safe and healthy lives. Here in the UK, we've raised more than £25million, donating to breast cancer charities and charities helping women facing domestic abuse. Whether you're engaging face-to-face or via social media, having a conversation with your friends, family and customers about Avon's promises can be extremely powerful, and a key part to building that trust and loyalty. It's simple to bring our purpose into conversation, one of the ways is by sharing with your customers the gorgeous `products that give back', including our small, but mighty pins, each month. By doing this, you could be helping to fund Coppa Feel! boob check reminders, places on a Look Good Feel Better wellbeing and beauty workshop, or even helping our partners, Women's Aid and Refuge, answer calls on their life saving hotlines and live chat. Sharing our charity partners with customers is so important. I love to talk to my customers about the charities we support, and how I'm connected to them personally. Sharing awareness with others could save a life. Wear the pins with pride to spark the conversation!

Asking the right questions. Asking your customers questions is essential in developing your relationship with them, to build your sales and increase your earnings. It helps you to understand what your customer's needs are, allowing you to recommend the right products. Your customers are much more likely to buy if you've recommended something based on what they have said, than if you've pushed a product on them that they don't need. Types of questions. There are two main types of questions you can ask. Open questions and closed questions. An open question invites further conversation and you're more likely to get a detailed response. Open questions start with words such as "Who", "What", "Where", "When" and "How", or phrases such as "Describe to me" and "Explain to me". Open questions help you to gather important information, grow relationships, increase levels of trust and build credibility. A closed question is answered with a "Yes" or a "No". The questions usually start with words such as "Do", "Did" or "Have". You don't get much information from someone when asking closed ended questions, but they are useful to confirm details so you can move on.

Questions in practice. So, how do we put open and closed questions into practice? We want to understand what the customer's needs are, or what their current usage habits are. Use questions and prompts such as: "What do you want your skin care products to do for you?", "Tell me what your needs are when it comes to shampoo and conditioner", "How would you describe your ideal handbag?", When do you typically wear your fragrance?". With each question, build on the customer's previous responses, by ensuring that it's linked to what they have said. This will show 1 them you're listening and will help build your relationship. Keep your questions simple. Don't confuse or complicate the conversation. Use language the customer will understand. Most importantly, ensure the conversation remains friendly and relaxed. Don't interrogate your customer or rush them into answering. Be patient. As you start to understand the customer's needs, you can start to narrow down your questions and introduce closed questions to get their buy in. E.G. "Does this product work for you?", "Is this the type of day cream you are looking for?", "Do you like that type of scent?" Once you get agreement to these types of questions, you know you have a sale and you can start building your order! Top tip: Pick some open questions that you feel comfortable asking and write them down. Learn about your products and their benefits. This will help you ask your customer more questions. Check out the Product Community on Avon Connect.

Offering consultations. Another great way to ask questions, and meet your customers needs, is through using the consultation tools available on Avon Connect. All of the consultation forms have pre-set questions to make the process as simple as possible for you, as well as a video to show how to use the form. Your customers will love the fact that you're offering them a personalised service, and you can find out what they've used before, and what they want to achieve. Which ever product category your customer is interested in, there is a consultation form to support you. The consultation forms are editable and printable, so you can also send, or hand them to your customer to answer in their own time too. Now you're in tune with your questioning skills, let's move on to learning about listening skills.

Listening to your customers needs. Active listening is a great way to build a relationship with your customers, and essential if you want to grow sales. It's the only way you'll fully understand your customer's needs, and therefore, be able to recommend the right products for them. What does active listening look like? You may have heard of active listening before, but do you know what it actually involves? Let's take a look. Pay full attention. Look interested in what the customer has to say and give positive body language, such as nods, smiles, and eye contact. Repeat back what you've heard. This will show the customer that you have understood their needs, they will feel more confident in your recommendations, and will be more likely to buy. Give a summary. Check that you've understood everything correctly. Ask questions like, have I got that right?" and, have I understood you correctly?" When the customer says, "yes" you know you have been successful. Do these things, and you show your customer you're interested in what they are saying, and this will give you the best opportunity to sell. Putting it into practice Now let's put active listening into practice. Imagin you're with a customer, and they tell you about their skincare needs: I'm struggling to find a moisturiser that suits my skin. I've got some dry patches, and some oily areas, so I feel like I need two separate products, but I'd like a simpler option if there is one. Active listening example response Smile, nod and keep good eye contact. Repeat what your customer has told you to show understanding; So, you've got a combination skin and you want a single moisturiser product that will help. Is that right? Practice active listening in all conversations you have - it not only works when selling. Everyone will respond positively to it. Self-reflect after every interaction with a customer and score your active listening out of five. Try and improve the next time if you haven't scored yourself highly! Now you have a better understanding of both questioning and listening skills, let's move on to how you can use these skills to build your sale.

Link and cross selling. Link and cross selling is a sales technique where you recommend a product that is related to what's being bought already. The goal is to encourage customers to purchase complementary products that enhance their first purchase, or are needed as a part of a set. Link and cross selling is a benefit to you and your customer, as it: Builds your confidence and selling skills, and ultimately, your business. Improves your relationship with your customer. Improves referral rates, meaning more customers. Introduces new products that your customer may not be aware of.

What's the difference between link selling and cross selling? Link selling. Link selling is selling products from within the same category. An example would be recommending a night cream as an additional purchase when a customer orders a day cream. Or, a lipliner to match your customers favourite lip colour. Cross selling. Cross selling introduces new and different categories to your customer. An example would be to recommend a fragrance as a finishing touch to a new look a customer is buying beauty products for. Or, to create a perfect foundation base, you first need a great moisturiser. This is a great opportunity to showcase the wide range of products that Avon has available. Use your brochure to identify some products that you can recommend together. Remember, that each brochure will also have bundle recommendations, that in the long run, could save your customer money too. Bundles are a group of products that work well together, and by selling bundles, you're increasing your earnings too. Set yourself a goal of increasing your earnings through link and cross selling, such as selling an extra product per month, or increasing your earnings by a certain percentage. Another way of link and cross selling is through the `Power of 3'. Our Customers currently order on average 2 skincare products. By personalising their experience, and creating a bespoke solution of 3 products - that's selling just one more skincare product to each skincare customer - could increase your earnings by up to 50%! You will notice that our product guides on Avon Connect give you some suggestions of what this could look like.

Closing the sale. Ensuring you close the sale correctly, means you build loyalty with your customer and increase the chance of a repeat purchase from them. This is key to building a sustainable, long term, successful business. Often customers look to you for guidance on making a final purchase decision. Help your customers to make a decision by asking them for the sale. This does not mean that you try and force a customer to buy something. If you've asked open questions, recommended and demonstrated, and explained key features and benefits, then the sale will come to a close naturally, as you'll have been able to identify the best product, or products, for your customer. Asking for the sale Let's take a look at some examples on how you can ask for the sale; How many of these would you like to order today? I'll write these down and then we can decide which ones you'll add to your order today. I think you've made an excellent choice.

Putting it into practice Now let's put your understanding of closing the sale into practice. You've spent a long time helping a customer to find the right products for their needs, but they still can't make their mind up about which products to buy. Let's look at how you can potentially respond to your customers concern. Customer's concern: I like all of the products you've shown me, but I can't afford to replace everything right now, so perhaps I'll wait. Your Response: Let's make a list of the products you like, and then look at which ones you can buy today. You can then offer the customer samples of the other products she has not purchased, so she can still experience them, and purchase at a later date.

The fortune's in the follow up. One key part to closing the sale is the after sale care. It's important to maintain your relationship with your customer after you've made a sale, or taken an order. This is to ensure the customer buys from you again in the future. You want them to buy into you and your service as much as the products, so it's a chance for you to go above and beyond to make sure your customer is delighted with their Avon service. Where possible, include a personalised message to thank your customer for their order, and keep them up to date on delivery. If you haven't done so already, invite your customer to join your exclusive customer group on Facebook, invite them to events, and share the link to your online store for ease of ordering. The success of selling starts with You! People buy people first. Show you `care' and establish an empathetic relationship before you recommend products. Start building your relationships today!

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