Parties – the heart and soul of our business. Parties are a paid prospecting appointment. While earning commissions for selling our product – we also book more parties, get leads on events and fundraisers and find prospective new team members. Focusing in on the fundamentals of your parties helps you to maximize this time spent.
Fundamental #1 – Good Hostess Coaching
Treating your hostess as a valued business partner is the key to successful party results. Good hostess coaching insures that your hostess will reach her goals and when she is successful, you are successful!
- Help your hostess build a diverse guest list from a variety of areas in her life. If she draws from just one arena – for example, just her friends from church, then another conflicting event (such as a church meeting) may cause her to have to cancel or reschedule her party. Ask good questions to find out as much as you can about your hostess so that you can help her with her guest list. Say something like, “Tell me more about yourself – have you lived in this area long? Do you have relatives in town? Do you know other moms from your children’s school? What do you do for fun?”
- Remind her to over invite. A good rule of thumb is double if not triple the number of guests you’d like to be in attendance.
- Be sure your hostess is very familiar with two to three products in your line. That way, her enthusiasm will come through as she invites her guests to her party. You might consider letting her borrow a couple of your samples to try out before her party.
- The magic tried and true formula for good party attendance is call/send/call. Depending strictly on response from a written or emailed invitation is the recipe for disaster. The personal touch of a verbal invitation from your hostess cannot be minimized. A final reminder call the day before the party (made by you or her) is crucial to her success.
- Help your hostess fulfill a goal of gathering at least five outside orders prior to her party from people who could not attend in person. Depending on the average price of your product, this will usually net at least $100 in additional sales before the party even occurs. Be sure she understands the benefit to HER in hostess benefits when she works to collect these orders in advance.
Plant seeds about the business opportunity. Be sure your hostess packet includes information about becoming a demonstrator. Tell her to watch what you do the night of the party and ask her to picture herself doing the same thing
