Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

Yesterday, I collected my Kleeneze catalogues from a few streets that I hadn't delivered to before. I learnt a lot in the process.

These streets are on a council estate - there are some properties which have been bought by the residents, but not many. The street lighting is not strong enough to show the obstacles, loose steps and sudden drops on individual paths up to the houses, which meant that, for the first time ever in my Kleeneze business, I was using a torch to walk up to people's front doors. I still managed to hurt one foot badly enough that I was limping for the last 30 minutes.

Collecting 200 - 250 sets of catalogues normally takes me about 2 hours; last night I spent 3.5 hours and collected in around 130. In the streets I have been targetting so far, 80% of my catalogues were left out on the day I stated I would collect them. In this new area, nobody leaves their catalogues out. Nobody opens the door without checking who you are, either, despite the fact that I and a couple of teenage girls were the only ones visible. Nobody answers the door after 9pm, either.

I completely understand why the other full and part-time Kleeneze distributors have avoided this area. It's dark, it's scruffy, the residents are nervous of strangers and there seems to be a large noisy dog in every other house.

I am delighted that they have done so.

My normal order value per catalogue collected is £1. In other words, If I put out 200 catalogues in a "good" area, I collect in between 160 and 180 on the first visit and my orders total around £160 - £180.

In a "good" area, many people wait until they have received catalogues from you at least twice before they order the next time. When they order, they place little "tester" orders for something cheap that they won't miss if you don't turn up to deliver it. Often, the order value per catalogue collected on the first round is in the region of 40p per catalogue, although that obviously improves once residents get to know you.

In this area, I collected 130 catalogues out of 237 dropped - 55% of my total catalogues. I was expecting orders to the value of £52, in line with my experience in the "good" areas so loved by the other Kleeneze distributors in my town.

I got orders totalling £180, making my order value per catalogue £1.38 - not bad for a first drop.

It just proves that, if you do the work on your own personal development and step outside your comfort zone, you can achieve so much more than you believe possible. I can't wait to go back and collect the rest of my catalogues.

Rejected Catalogue Bags £33 Order

Yesterday, I blanket dropped my old catalogues one last time into a new area. It's a typical old-fashioned council estate, derogatively referred to as "Tin City" by residents who live in much nicer parts of my town. It's also the sort of area where you spend a lot of time getting your straggler catalogues back.

Whilst putting out around 230 catalogues, I had a couple of people hand them straight back, but no mention of an existing distributor. One passer-by asked if we'd deliver in their road soon - no surprises as to what my answer was. I also came across several catalogues that had been put out on the doorstep as soon as they'd been picked up off the doormat.

All told, my rejected catalogues allowed me to add a little close of 6 houses to my blanket drop and I am so glad they did.

This morning, a new customer phoned me, placed an order for £33 as she wasn't going to be around when I was due to collect the catalogues, and wanted to know if she could keep a permanent copy as a reference for future orders! She'll be getting a pack of the new catalogues with her order this weekend.

It just goes to show that it's worth doing a quick walk along your route immediately after you've done a blanket drop in an area - that 15 minutes extra earnt me £132 per hour pro rata, just by putting out the rejected catalogues straight away.

Every day that I spend retailing with Kleeneze, I am building up a group of dedicated customers who will, in time, refer their family and friends to me. Today, I added another customer to that group and I'm delighted.

The 3 Rs of Kleeneze - Update

Last night, I collected in 80% of the catalogues I'd placed in two 'new' (to me) streets and got my usual £1 per catalogue order value. I know that another distributor has customers on one of the roads, as two of their regulars told me so.

Just proof that Kleeneze retail works, wherever you are. Yet again, I qualify for my bonus with 3 weeks of effort. Next target - get my 13% volume bonus on personal sales.

All I need now is to organise my life a little better so I have more time to call my prospects. There are times I'd like to pack in the day job - it's clear that I could put out enough catalogues to generate sufficient retail profits to match my regular salary - but I want to prove that anybody can do well in their spare time with Kleeneze.

When my Kleeneze income has matched my regular income for 13 four-week periods in a row, then I will hand in my notice. Until then, I'll work on my personal development to be better organised and learn to manage what time I have more effectively. Leaders set personal examples to their team; if I want my team to duplicate successful patterns of behaviour, I have to demonstrate those patterns in my own business.

Kleeneze Lady Hurt by Blanket Dropping

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - Isaac Newton

I learnt that at school, 35 years ago. I learnt it again last week.

Kleeneze are currently running a number of distributor challenges, all designed to improve distributors' sales and maximise product movement. That's exactly what you'd expect from an ambitious and dynamic company that wants the best for both its shareholders and its distributors.

The net effect in the local area I am trying to build a reputation in has been negative, unfortunately.

Due to many distributors trying to get 4 weeks' worth of sales done in 2 - 3 weeks, I have spent the past two weeks being told by regular customers that:

1. They've already ordered something off Tina/Ian/Alastair/Chris/Melissa a couple of days previously
or
2. They're sick and tired of receiving catalogues this week and can I please not leave any more.

I have 3 hours per evening to do my best; this month I appear to be competing against at least 3 full-time distributors who are blanket dropping a couple of thousand catalogues per week. Last week we all converged on the same dozen streets. My sales plummeted.

So I should be totally downhearted and ready to give in, right?

Wrong.

My sales were 50% of my targets, based on previous retail spend in this area. I still received orders for over £200. That's a minimum retail profit of £40 for this week and I'm only £180 away from my 10% bonus with 2 weeks to go.

I will keep finding customers, I will retain them through good customer service and referrals and, when others in my area give up, I will still be there.

Which leads me to the title of today's piece and it has nothing to do with my sales targets. The hatchback hinges on my venerable Volvo are no longer interested in keeping the boot lid up as I load catalogues into the back of the car. Residents in a very snowy sidestreet were treated to the entertaining sight of "Car eats Distributor" as the lid descended. I now have a nasty bruise near my lower spine - anybody got the phone number of a decent mechanic?

Kleeneze Lady Misses 13 Percent Bonus Level - Don't Make This Mistake!

I got my Group Sales Analysis for Period 12 today and I hit my 10% bonus level with ease, as predicted.

Unfortunately, I missed out on my 13% bonus by 200 points and I know exactly what the reason is.

In period 11, I had one week where I mispaid my account by 50p. That, unfortunately, put my account into arrears for 24 hours, after which the cheques I had paid in to the bank 4 days earlier were credited to my account.

The ramifications of not paying that 50p are quite severe.

Firstly, I can't apply for an increase in my credit limit for another two periods, during which time, I have to keep my account payments up-to-date. Right now, as you might imagine, I'm double checking every online payment before I click send.

Secondly, I can't grow the retail side of my business as I would like. To make my 13% bonus level, I need to be selling £400 of products every week. That's not a lot of sales and I should be perfectly capable of doing that part-time.

However, I also have a full-time job in an out-of-town location and paying money in to any bank is a logistical nightmare in a 45 minute lunch-break. I rely on Saturday opening hours for that reason. To make life even more interesting, many of my customers will not answer the door after dark, or on Sundays. Many do not provide me with phone numbers, so it can take a couple of visits before I deliver their orders.

None of this is a major issue, but it does mean that at the moment, I can realistically only submit an order each week for the amount I have credited my account with. In other words, if I've collected £200 of payments by Saturday morning, that is the amount that will be credited to my Kleeneze account. When I place my order on the following Tuesday morning, I can order £200 of goods. If my account is in credit, say by £78, I can place an order for £278 on Tuesday morning.

To place an order for £400 of goods each week, I need £400 in either credit, payments or both. As I still have only the starting credit limit of £500 that all new distributors are provided with, I need to collect in all the payments for orders each week, as well as collecting and delivering catalogues so that I can place orders for the following week. It's an interesting exercise and one that I haven't quite solved to my satisfaction yet.

Essentially, I need to get organised.

It has to be said, I'm delighted to be achieving 10% bonuses with so little effort and I'm determined to hit 13% as soon as I can.

One of my goals is to achieve another bonus level every 3 periods, whilst sustaining the previous bonus level. I'll be posting on It's Not An Attitude about SMART goals soon.