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Death of a Salesman — Page
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Not everyone agrees that consumers have become too
busy, wary, or sophisticated for door-to-door, even
of the old-fashioned variety. “We’re the
Avon lady!” enthuses Kathleen Earle, the vice-president
of sales for Avon Canada. “Everyone is receptive
to the Avon lady!” Earle’s been with the
company for 20 years. When she started out, she did
what Avon recommends: she began knocking in her own
neighbourhood. “There was just such a warm receptivity,”
she recalls, “and it gave me the courage to start
approaching houses of people I didn’t know. One
of my first days—I was so amazed—a lady
I didn’t know ordered $120 of products from me!
And this was 20 years ago, when that was really a lot
of money.”
One reason people still open the door for Avon is its
recognizable brand. The company’s been around
for 121 years, and “Avon lady” has become
practically synonymous with “harmless” or
“someone’s mom.” The company has traded
brilliantly on the idea that its representatives are
more like friends than salespeople. Slamming the door
on an Avon lady seems like the kind of thing that might
get you grounded. “It sounds corny to say it,”
Earle says, “but it’s just such a strong
network of women supporting women. Even in this computer
age, we’re so deeply rooted in our relationships
with other women.”
Those relationships notwithstanding, door-to-door selling
has never been an easy way to earn a living. Southwestern
has been sending college students to sell printed materials
door-to-door since 1868; they started out with Bibles,
and now they sell educational materials like children’s
books, homework helpers, and software packages. Charlotte
Clemens, 26, lives in Vancouver, and has risen through
the Southwestern ranks in the last six years to her
current position as a recruiter. “I prepare my
new book people for a 95 percent rejection rate,”
she says cheerfully. To hire 10 door-to-door salespeople,
she’ll interview 100 applicants. Most people just
don’t have what it takes.
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Avon has traded
brilliantly on the idea that its representatives
are more like friends than salespeople. Slamming
the door on an Avon lady seems like the kind of
thing that might
get you grounded.
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Southwestern sees itself as a training ground for future
entrepreneurs. The company’s student salespeople
travel to a new city, live with a host family for the
summer, and essentially run their own mini door-to-door
businesses. Last summer about 100 Canadian students,
mostly culled from UBC, SFU, Malaspina, University of
Victoria, and Trinity Western, were sent to Calgary
or Toronto for a hands-on lesson in how to make a sale.
“There’ll always be a place for door-to-door,”
predicts Joan Lee, DSA’s director of operations.
“It’s the personal touch,” agrees
Shawn Hall, who works in media relations at Telus. Highrises
are no match for the Avon lady, and gated communities
can’t keep her out. “The thing is, we probably
have an Avon representative who lives in that gated
community,” says Kathleen Earle.
“I won’t always open the door to just anybody,”
says a homeowner, who signed up for Rogers’ home-phone
service after being pitched by a door-to-door sales
rep. “But if they’re well-identified, you
know, they’re wearing a badge, carrying a clipboard—I
feel pretty comfortable.”
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