Consultant Depot - Direct Mail for Direct Sales

Consultant Depot now has a Twitter account! With Twitter, you can follow us for the latest news, helpful tips, and some fun stuff, too! We'll have contests and share some of the inter-workings of our business that don't always get communicated in emails. If you have any questions or comments - this is also a great way to ask and share. We'd love to hear how your days are, too!

Check us out at www.twitter.com/consultantdepot - create your own FREE account and then we'll be connected. We use an application called Twhirl (www.twhirl.org) on our desktop but there are many others out there if you don't want to go to the website everytime.

Give it a try - we'd love to see you there!

www.twitter.com/consultantdepot

To Success!

This is just a quick note to let you know that we attended the Graph Expo 2008 conference in Chicago over this past weekend! This expo is geared towards mailing and fulfillment companies, as well as printshops and graphics professionals.

WOW! What a great experience! We made some great connections and were motivated by the other mailing industry service owners that we met. We were able to see what future equipment we'll need to automate our processes and expedite the materials more efficiently in order to handle the growing volumes of brochures that we handle weekly.

The knowledge learned and the takeaways will be invaluable as we set sail on our continuous improvement plans for the future of Consultant Depot!

Have a great day!

Welcome to the latest newsletter from Consultant Depot! This is an update on some of the latest news and information you'll want to know about our mailing program. There is a lot going on behind the scenes at Consultant Depot and we can't wait to share with you some details!

Happy 5th Birthday to Consultant Depot!

Wow! It's been 5 years this month since we started mailing Avon brochures for others. We never thought when we started helping some Yahoo Group contacts back in 2003 that our kind gesture would turn into what it is today! We've come a long way - it's great to look back and see how things have changed. We can't imagine running our business how it was in the 'old' days - lists were sent via email in the form of spreadsheets and we tracked every account on index cards! Adam and I still keep those index cards in our office to remind us of where we came from. We still have several of our founding clients during those first few months using our services still today! To read more about our story and how we got started - feel free to read our About Us page when you get a chance. We would like to extend a HUGE Thank You to our loyal clients over the past 5 years - we sincerely appreciate your business and friendship. We look forward to many more years of service and stay tuned for the MANY exciting changes that we have planned for the future! Happy Birthday!

The Holidays are HERE!

It's hard to believe but the 4th quarter holiday brochure mailings are out and about! We are seeing LOADS of great holiday gifts and your customers have over 400 gifts to choose from that are under $10! Now more than ever is a great time to present Avon as a savings - on both your customers time and wallet! Avon catalogs offer your customers the comfort of shopping from their SEAT and not on their FEET! They may be more open now than ever before for finding great deals and bargains that Avon can offer. We can help - no matter the distance - you can gear up for your 4th quarter sales with Consultant Depot! Start by adding those contacts to your customer list - we can help you if you have too many to add individually - just email us at info@consultantdepot.com! Best wishes to all of you this 4th quarter!

Your Avon Catalog is YOUR Store

You are a business owner. You have a lot of options and different ways you can run your Avon business. While there is no right way or wrong way, something to consider may be the use or non-use of your Avon catalogs. Many times, representatives find that online sales are a cheaper and easier way to run your business. While your e-rep website may be a winning component of your business - we believe that you are losing out on potential sales if this is your ONLY way to provide your customers with your product offers. Research has shown that CATALOGS DRIVE ONLINE SALES! According to USPS research, the expected value of a catalog recipient is $39 compared to $18 for consumers who did not receive a catalog. Within the Postal Service study, catalog recipients made 16% more visits, viewed 22% more pages and spent 15% more time on the website!! So consider your Avon catalog every two weeks as a new grand opening to your Avon store. What an opportunity we have to present the whole package and allow your customers the freedom to view the catalogs whenever and wherever they want!

Thank you to one of our clients, Cindy Dixon, for sharing this research information with us! She thought it was great information to share with all of you!

Make Plans to send your 2009 Avon Calendars

Once again - Consultant Depot will offer to mail the annual Avon Calendar to your customers for you! The 2009 calendars will be a part of our December Mystery Mailing program. They will be mailed out on December 3rd - deadline to order will be November 27th. More information will be provided in next month's newsletter and on your weekly order reminders.

Did You Know?

Every month, we will explain a feature or highlight of our business or website at Consultant Depot! This month's DID YOU KNOW? is a long-standing policy that you may not be aware of. We mail our brochures through the USPS using their standard (bulk) mail process. This means that it can take longer to arrive than regular first class mail - up to 2 weeks, in fact. We time our mailings around this and this is the reason why it may seem so far in advance to order. If your brochures do not arrive within 2 weeks of our mailing date - we will gladly RESEND your brochure order to your customers via first class mail at no charge to you! This is our guarantee - even though it's out of our hands when we deliver the brochures to the post office - we know your trust has been placed with us. We hope you never have to take us up on this policy, but if you do - please know that it is available and we quickly get them out the same day if possible. For more information regarding our policies and procedures - visit our FAQ page for more details!

Be sure to tell your Avon friends on the yahoo groups, Avon boards or your district meetings about Consultant Depot and you will earn free credits for future mailings - more details in our website at our Referral Incentive Program website page.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you! We are glad that you signed up for our newsletter and/or registered as a client! So, before we go, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for finding us! We appreciate your support! Any questions - contact us today and we'd be happy to help!

To Success!

Adam & Carrie Purgason
Owners of Consultant Depot, Inc.
http://www.consultantdepot.com

Announcing a MAJOR change to our RPS 3 Consultant Depot Deadlines!

This change affects only those registered as being on the Avon RPS 3 - Gray group in our Consultant Depot system. When we broke out our A week (RPS 1-5) mail groups in the spring, we placed your group in the 2nd half with the RPS 4 and RPS 5 clients of Consultant Depot. After further analysis, we think it would be of better service to you and your customers to move your mailing date back 3 mailing days.

You currently place your orders with Consultant Depot on Tuesdays with a mail date of Friday. Beginning with Campaign 23, we are moving your deadlines to order with us BACK to Friday with a mail date of the following Tuesday. This should actually be easier for you to remember as it is the same order date as your Avon orders!!

We are making this change for your benefit. Of course, with bulk mail, there is never any guarantees, but you should find that the brochures will arrive right about when your campaign is opening up. We feel this switch will help to ensure this happens.

Print off your REVISED RPS 3 deadline calendar!

For your convenience - we have revised your Consultant Depot deadline calendar! Please follow this link to view and print out your calendar: RPS 3 Mailing Calendar Link

Here are some nitty-gritty details:

Campaign 22 - NEW DEADLINE is THIS FRIDAY, September 19th by 12:00pm EST. This will get your mailings delivered to the post office next Tuesday, September 23rd. Because of the late notice - we will also hold your original Campaign 22 deadline (Tuesday, 9/23) open for you without any late fees for this campaign only. Any orders placed prior to the deadline this Friday will go out on Tuesday's mailing. Orders placed after Noon through next Tuesday will go out next Friday, September 26th.

Campaign 23 and beyond - Beginning with this campaign, your only option will be the NEW Deadline schedule of Friday, October 3rd by 12:00pm EST - with a mail out date of Tuesday, October 7th.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you! We hope you find these changes advantageous for your business. Any questions - please contact us today and we'd be happy to help!

To Success!

Adam & Carrie Purgason

Welcome to the latest monthly newsletter from Consultant Depot! This is an update on some of the latest news and information you'll want to know about our mailing program. There is a lot going on behind the scenes at Consultant Depot and we can't wait to share with you some details!

Get Ready for Your BEST 4th Quarter Yet!

It's hard to believe but the 4th quarter holiday brochure mailings are just around the corner! We suggest that you plan now to strategize your marketing plans for 4th quarter in order to MAXIMIZE your sales potential! Remember that original customer list you created when you first began? Do you have friends, family, coworkers, former neighbors, and/or former customers that would love Avon products? We can help - no matter the distance - you can gear up for your 4th quarter sales with Consultant Depot! Start by adding those contacts to your customer list - we can help you if you have too many to add individually - just email us at info@consultantdepot.com! Don't forget those customers who are not on your regular contact list - this is the time to reconnect and offer them an opportunity to get some great buys for the holidays! You may also want to consider adding Outlets, EXTRAS (see below) or mark. Magalogs to your regular customer list to increase their buying potential! Best wishes to all of you this 4th quarter!

Extras...Extras...Read All About It:

A BIG change in your customer profile preferences took place in August!!! You can now order what we call EXTRAS , a supplemental catalog offered by Avon, in addition to your core brochure and/or outlet catalog. This means that if your customer's profile is edited to receive a 'Core Plus Extras' or 'Core Plus Outlet and Extras,' we will include one of the EXTRA supplements that Avon is introducing in that campaign for sale. The cost for on-time mailings will be an additional $.20 per piece. Flyers will be mailed during their first valid campaign only - so if the Big Lots Flyer is good for C20 and C21 - it would only be mailed by us during C20. If Avon is not introducing any new supplemental flyers in any given campaign, you will not be charged for this feature and only the Core or Core Plus Outlet will be mailed - just as we do with mark. Magalogs during the odd campaigns.

You can edit each individual customer's brochure receiving preferences by logging in to your Consultant Depot account, clicking on the 'Customers' tab, and then selecting the 'Edit' link in the far right column of your list. We're very excited and hope you enjoy this new feature of our business - we're here to help YOUR business grow and we think this is a fabulous way to increase your sales!!

We've moved!

Thank you for all the well wishes and blessings. Our move back to Indiana went very smooth! Our goal of not having a single catalog of a mailing be delayed was reached! The only snag is that our toll-free number decided not make the move with us for some reason. We are looking to get a new toll-free number soon - watch the Contact Us page for details. In the meantime, please feel free to call us on our regular business line or email us and we can call you at your convenience. Here's our contact information for future reference:

Consultant Depot, Inc.
P.O. Box 320
Westfield, IN 46074

Phone: (317) 669-7702
Fax: (317) 669-7703
Email: info@consultantdepot.com

Print off your RPS specific deadline calendars!

Recently, we have found some of our clients have not been receiving their emails regularly or they have been found in SPAM folders. For your convenience, we have created pdf files for you to download and print for your specific RPS ordering schedule! The calendars have been updated for September and October! Please let us know if you have not been receiving our email reminders and we'll place you on a special contact list to email them in a different way to you. Email info@consultantdepot.com with the subject heading 'Emails not received'.

About our NEW Address Correction Email Notifications:

You may have received an email from some of our staff members regarding some corrected addresses. As a service to our clients (YOU) we run your address list through TWO mailing programs - if they are still not able to be confirmed, we then do some side research with the information provided to see if we can find the correct location for your customers. We have always done this - and recently began to send out notifications to let you know of what our research has found.

We encourage you to make sure you are inputting your the MAILING address of your customers, which can be different from their DELIVERY address. What's the difference? A lot of smaller communities use P.O. Box information for their mail delivery - while they receive UPS and newspaper delivery at their DELIVERY address. You can always check the validity of your addresses in your customer list by going to your CUSTOMERS tab in your Consultant Depot account - then review the far right column - if it says EDIT, they are correct. If they are EDIT - NOT CONFIRMED, then we would appreciate if you could check with your customers to verify their MAILING address information. We feel this only helps YOU to reach your customers with the brochures you are sending them - hope you find this extra step extra helpful!

Did You Know?

Every month, we will explain a feature or highlight of our business or website at Consultant Depot! This week's DID YOU KNOW? is a question that we received often lately. Unlike some websites where you place your order and it is processed right away - our brochure mailings are timed to your specific RPS schedules to arrive at optimum selling times for you. When the sun and the moon align, we aim to have the brochures arrive RIGHT as your campaign is beginning. With this in mind, please feel confident to place your orders EARLY and before the deadlines approach. We provide over a month to place your order for campaigns. You can click on the campaign options in the SEND MATERIALS tab to preview the brochure cover and deadline information for that campaign. Only on that deadline day will we pull your order and begin processing - not before.

Be sure to tell your Avon friends on the yahoo groups or your district meetings about Consultant Depot and you will earn free credits for future mailings - more details in our website at our Referral Incentive Program website page.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you! We are glad that you signed up for our newsletter and/or registered as a client! So, before we go, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for finding us! We appreciate your support! Any questions - contact us today and we'd be happy to help!

To Success!

Adam & Carrie Purgason
Owners of Consultant Depot, Inc.
http://www.consultantdepot.com

Hi everyone!

Just a quick update to let you know that the Extras flyers have begun and we are seeing that they are very popular!! For only $.20 more, you can include a supplemental flyer to your Core Avon Brochure mailing. Campaign 20 launched this new addition to our Consultant Depot service line - as a replacement for the Mens catalog option that was popular a year ago.

Your Campaign 20 Extras flyer will be either the Fragrance Super Sale flyer or The Stock Up on Fall Savings flyer.

Your Campaign 21 Extras flyer will be either the Bond Girl Flyer or the Color/Jewelry Flyer.

To include the Extras flyers - it's EASY! Just login to your Consultant Depot account, go to your Customers tab, and then click on the Edit link in the right-hand column of every customer that you want us to send it to - as simple as that!

We hope you enjoy these EXTRA opportunities to increase your sales - just in time for the BIG 4th quarter which is approaching FAST!

Thanks for your business - email us with any questions directly to the owner at carrie@consultantdepot.com.

Have a great week!

To Success!

Here's the latest news you can use with TWO BIG announcements you won't want to miss:

BIG Announcement #1: Out with the 'Mens' - In with the 'Extras'!!!:

A BIG change in your customer profile preferences will take place with the start of Campaign 20!!! In the past, Avon had regularly offered the supplemental catalog called M: The Mens Catalog. We programmed this option into your customer profiles so your specified customers could receive them when they were offered - typically 4-6 times a year. Over time, Avon has eliminated the Mens catalog and has offered a variety of other supplemental choices. Beginning with the Campaign 20 mailings - any Campaign 20 or above order that is placed will have the EXTRAS feature in place of the Mens preference. This means that if your customer's profile is edited to receive a 'Core Plus Extras' or 'Core Plus Outlet and Extras' - for an additional $.20 - we will include one of the EXTRA supplements that Avon is introducing in that campaign for sale. For example, in Campaign 20 - your customers with this profile setting would receive either the Big Lots Flyer or the Fragrance Flyer with their core brochure. Again, the cost for on-time mailings will be an additional $.20 per piece. Flyers will be mailed during their first valid campaign only - so if the Big Lots Flyer is good for C20 and C21 - it would only be mailed by us during C20 - similar to how we mail the mark. magalogs. If Avon is not introducing any new supplemental flyers in any given campaign, you will not be charged for this feature and only the Core or Core Plus Outlet will be mailed.

You can edit each individual customer's brochure receiving preferences by logging in to your Consultant Depot account, clicking on the 'Customers' tab, and then selecting the 'Edit' link in the far right column of your list. We're very excited and hope you enjoy this new feature of our business - we're here to help YOUR business grow and we think this is a fabulous way to increase your sales!!

BIG Announcement #2: Consultant Depot is Moving - Back Home Again in Indiana

As announced earlier this summer, Consultant Depot and our family are moving back to the Indianapolis area where it all began - NEXT WEEK! Please be patient with our response times next week as we take the time to pack up, load up, and relocate. A special thanks to our staff here in Ohio who have helped us throughout our 4 years here. We had a special celebration for them last weekend and it's very bittersweet to say goodbye to such loyal and kind folks that we've been so blessed to have met here. Beginning Tuesday, if you have any questions or concerns in regards to your mailings or the website, our toll-free number will still be active - call 1-800-591-4345.

Please know that all mailings will go out as scheduled on their normal day of shipment during this transition. That's the beauty of having a great staff!

That's it! We apologize for the long break in blog announcements - we'll aim to communicate more in the future!

Have a great week!

To Success!

Spring has Sprung with Summer around the corner, and we are excited about the next few months when it comes to Avon! Mother's Day, Father's day, and Campaign 11 with Reese Witherspoon are the talk of the town, and we are here to help! Don't let high gas prices limit you from getting out those brochures, there is too much Avon to sell! Let Consultant Depot manage your 'every campaign' customer while you dish out the products.

As you may have heard, on May 12th the US Postal Service is raising the price of a stamp to $.42, as well as raising all postal rates associated with bulk mail, which is what Consultant Depot uses to mail your brochures to your customers. It has also been announced by the USPS to expect yearly price changes in reaction to consumer spending habits and inflation, controlled to a maximum percentage increase per year. As always, we strive to provide you with the greatest value for your mailing dollar, but we must react to this postage increase.

Therefore, we will make the following changes to our prices and incentives beginning May 9th, 2008:
*The cost of a Core Brochure ordered on time will increase to $1.15.
*The cost of a Late Brochure (any available brochure ordered after a Friday deadline) will increase to $1.35.
*The cost of the mark. magalog will increase $.05 to $.75 when mailed on time and $1.00 when mailed 'Late.'
*The cost of the Outlet catalogs and Men's catalogs will remain the same.

These changes go into effect and will be updated on the Consultant Depot website at 12pm (Noon) EST on May 9th. All orders placed after this time are mailed under the new pricing structure. The great news is that you can order brochures from some of the campaigns that will be mailed after May 9th now and save!

As Avon Representatives and business owners, we know how important it is to save time and money in today's economy. We are embracing this latest change from the US Postal Service and doing everything we can to continue to provide all of you with a valuable, efficient solution to your customer's needs.

We are ready to take help take your business to the next level, are you? Please let us know how we can help!

Campaign 7 is quickly approaching, do you have a sales goal that you are tying to meet? How are you going to do it? If you ask any Avon veteran their answer in simple: pass out more brochures! With the ANew Samples on the front cover, Campaign 7 is the perfect campaign!

Let Consultant Depot help by mailing brochures to your regular customers for you while you canvas the neighborhood down the street or put brochures on a few cars in the parking lot of your local beauty salon. The little things will help and Consultant Depot can help save you the time so you can make those little things happen!

We have received some outstanding feedback and very valuable suggestions from our survey that will help take Consultant Depot to the next level. We appreciate all of the responses so far and look forward to seeing what all of you have to say as well as make some immediate changes based off of the fantastic suggestions!

Some great things are happening in Campaign 8! In the survey and in the past, many of you have asked for a modified mailing calendar, especially those in RPS schedules 1, 2, 9 and 10. There will be much more to come on this, but you can look forward to slightly modified mailing schedule for everyone that will save you time and money, and your brochures will delivered to your customers even closer to the start of your Avon Campaign. We are very excited about this change; we know how much it is going to help you manage and run your business.

Thank you for your business and interest in Consultant Depot! Do you like what we are doing? We always appreciate a 'Thank You,' but the greatest 'Thank You' you can give us is to tell another Avon Representative about us.

Happy New Year to everybody! 2007 was a fantastic year and 2008 promises to be even better! There are some neat programs coming up just around the corner that we cannot wait to share with you.

First, have you attended or are you planning to attend your Campaign 2 Sales meeting? Reach out to your District Manager to find out when this meeting is and be sure to attend. These meetings are a great way to get ideas from successful Avon Reps, find out what is new in the world of Avon, and a great forum to talk about Consultant Depot! We know that we have helped thousands succeed with their Avon business and we could be the answer to helping even more! Share who Consultant Depot is and what we can do and we'll put credits in your account, it's that easy! Send an email to carrie@consultantdepot.com for more information.

How is the address verification working out? For those who did not know, we invested in a great new address verification tool that will help get your brochures to your clients more quickly and accurately. The software is directly built into the 'Customers' tab and verifies and corrects any address entered into our database. There have been some minor bugs, so if you encounter any issues at all please let us know by sending an email to info@consultantdepot.com. Overall is has been a very successful roll-out and we are excited to have responded to our client's feedback in such a positive way!

The Consultant Depot annual Survey is on it's way! Every year we have sent a survey to our clients asking for feedback and ways to improve our service, and in return we provide free credits to Consultant Depot with a reply. The annual survey will be coming soon, but not in the mail! We have found a great way to distribute the survey to our clients online, which will save time and return postage! Look for these surveys in your Inbox soon. We are truly looking forward to what you have to say!

As always we wanted to take a second to say thank you to all of our clients and prospective clients. We take great pleasure in helping you with your Avon business and cannot wait to hear how 2008 was your best year ever!