I would like to know how do women selling Avon or Lia Sophia make money? Before the internet I could believe one could make money on that, but now not so much. Why would I want to go through someone so they could make commision on some make-up or jewelry? Avon and Lia Sophia have websites, plus there are easier ways to just go to the store, like Target and buy make-up? I wonder how someone in Avon could make $500 commision their first month? 
I don’t know how much money she makes, but some women in my office buy from a friend in another office. She comes by and drops off the latest catalogs, and socializes with her friends; I’m assuming she probably has friends elsewhere that she does this with too. They all work in the same building, so she’s easily available for ordering, and it’s a social thing to look through the catalogs and talk about what they want.
Some people have a FERVENT dedication to certain products - I had a grandma who had been buying the same perfume since possibly before I was born, she wouldn’t trust anything else. I know the Skin-So-Soft is a brand-loyalty moneymaker too.
I can’t speak as to Avon because I don’t have any experience with it but I can tell you that it is possible to make money selling lia sophia. The majority of the money earned in lia sophia comes from home parties. One person books a party in their home and allows the consultant to present the jewelry and give away prizes so that the hostess will earn Free and discounted jewelry. Our hostesses receive amazing benefits - which entices ladies to book! With a qualified show our hostesses can take advantage of 4 items at hostess bonus prices (anything priced up to $100 she pays only $15 and anything priced over $100 has the hostess bonus price listed in the catalog), she is also eligible for 2 of anything at half price, and 20% of her show sales in FREE jewelry. If she has at least 10 orders, 2 bookings and $500 in sales the hostess can elect to double her FREE jewelry to 40% for $15.
This tells you why someone might want to host a party - but you asked why people would buy. Often because their friend is having a party a person might want to help her to get the hostess benefits and so friends and family will order from the party. Or they may prefer to purchase lia sophia instead of department store jewelry because it is backed with a lifetime replacement guarantee. Which means if you break it or loose a stone you can send it back to the company. A person may choose to buy lia sophia because our jewelry is plated with real gold and rhodium and more people who have sensitivities are able to wear our jewelry than department store jewelry. I am sure that different people buy for different reasons - it may be just because they really like a particular piece or design…
Oh and you mentioned why wouldn’t someone just buy from the company website… with lia you can’t buy from the company website. If you don’t have a consultant they can help you find one but they don’t sell directly off the company website. You can buy off a particular consultants website. So for example if you were to go to my lia sophia website it will let you place an order there - and it is shipped directly to you (no deliveries for me) and I receive a commision direct deposited into my bank account.
If you want more info - please feel free to e-mail me at melindapitman@yahoo.com
Have a great day!!
Melinda Pitman
oh again I am not sure about Avon and $500 in their first month but I started lia at the end of July 2007 and I am pretty sure I made at least that much in August 2007 I would have to pull my paychecks to be 100% but I can e-mail copies to you if you wanted to see.
The replacement guarantee, the quality of the metal castings and plating, the style and I am addicted to sliders. I have the 2 sided wide chain [one side is gold plated and the other side is silver, so I can use the same collar with either gold or silver sliders]
I think I have 4 or 500 $$ in Lia. It is something to wear that is not my antique family heirloom stuff, which stays locked away to keep it safe.
I have experience selling with LS, and it’s pretty straightforward. It’s just a sales job, with a 40% commission. If you make it a full-time job, you will make full-time money. But it is sold as something to do “on the side” or for a “busy mom”, and then the commissions are for the 5-10 hours a week you put into it. Which means much less than $400 a week.
It’s absolutely possible to make big money through selling and recruiting new people, but it’s a tremendous amount of sales work - for example, you will have to do a Google search, find a thread about a company, join the message board and post a sales pitch, in the hopes that someone will contact you about it. 
The jewelry always sold itself, but trying to sell a “party” to someone was too much for me. I felt like a heel doing the things that I’m sure **melpitman **has to do. It’s just not for me. But if you enjoy sales, these companies can be a good way to go.
Say one woman sets up a party. Ten women respond, have cheese and wine and whatever. Then the party giver gives her sales pitch and lays out her jewelery or whatever. The other ladies look it over, try out different things, confer among each other, complement each other (or not). “That looks GREAT on you!” or “Oh, I don’t think so!”
You can’t do this on-line or in a jewelery store. The other ladies give the each other assurance that the item will or won’t look good on her. Or not. (and they won’t gossip about her in the future.)
Just one scenario.
My sister-in-law sold Mary Kay for a couple of years. While “Mary Kay ladies” certainly can make good money just in sales commissions, those who are very successful are also recruiting new sales reps (as I understand it, a Mary Kay rep makes a commission on the orders placed by reps which she recruits into the organization). While my sister-in-law was with Mary Kay, she was an insanely pesty pain in the arse to my wife about the whole recruiting thing – my wife had no interest in joining Mary Kay, but the lure of the commission was so strong that my sister-in-law just wouldn’t give up on it.
I’m not sure about Avon or Lia Sophia, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they have similar structures.
But if that’s the case, why do you have to buy off Lia Sophia? I’d just bypass the whole thing and go to an actual store. There are tons of actual physical make up stores, and if you don’t want to do that, it’s pretty easy to go to the websites for Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s or Sephora.
It’s mostly because of the relaxed atmosphere of the home party. At a party, I can drink wine and sit on the couch and bitch about work, they usually play a fun game and I can shop. It’s a nice time for women to have an excuse to get together. Most moms/women have a hard time just saying “I’m going out this evening” and a party creates a handy excuse to drive away and leave the kids at home with dad.
And the party is the thing that is sold - most salespersons offer catalog shows, but tacitly discourage them, because sales are usually 3-4 times as high at a home show.
Yes - the only real way to get the big money is by recruiting. Different companies have different commission levels, but you get extra money from the people who sell under you.
Again, if you’re putting full time hours into it, recruiting will be easy, since you’re talking to 87 people a week about the jewelry and “opportunity”. But there is no requirement to recruit.
I know a few women who really work the party end of things, but refer recruits to other people since they don’t want to spend the time managing the team and training new people. They still make money, just not as much as the big time players.
This is one of the worst aspects of the party plan sales approach (used most famously by Tupperware), that the guests feel obligated to buy something so that the hostess gets some benefit. Sometimes the hostess invites her friends without letting them know that it’s a sales party, which is really rude.