5 Tips for Increasing Attendance at Your Fall Parties

The thing I loved most about doing home parties was how much fun it was to be a part of the group. I loved creating an experience for my host and her friends that brought everyone together. Part of that experience relies on the host having a living room full of fun guests. So the million dollar question is, how do you support her in making that happen?

Here are six of my best ideas:

1. Make sure your hosts chooses a theme. I always ask participants at my live events, "Would you rather attend a bread and water party or a Mexican Fiesta?" Get it? A theme says "Come party with me" not "come to my house and spend money."
    
2. Create and send a fun, compelling invitation that features that theme. And no, your company’s simple post card invitations really don’t count. Honestly, think of your reaction the last time you received a post card invitation in the mail to another home party. How excited were you to attend? See what I mean. (You can download our "Margaritaville" themed invitation for free on our free tools page on the website here).

3. Create a relationship with your host prior to her party. Host coaching is the key to success in the party plan business. Period. Your host will work hard at promoting your party and making it a success if she feels a connection with you and likes you. And a nice added perk to host coaching is that, if you’re offering your opportunity to your host as part of that experience, you’ll generally sponsor 1 out of every 8 hosts.
    
4. Give your host clear instructions. This is so important. I say all the time people won’t open their mouths if they don’t know what to say. And I’ve found that people generally do what they’re told. So give your host a goal to make follow up calls at least two days prior to her party and do a little role playing that shares some enthusiastic language about how much fun the theme is going to be so she knows what to say. Some consultants even take on this tasks for their hosts. Just make sure it’s getting done.
    
5. Follow-up often. Believe it or not, your party isn’t as big a priority for your host as it is for you. And you want them to understand that you’re there to support them. So, make a follow up call about a week prior to the party just to touch bases and share your excitement for her upcoming party. Then follow up at least two days prior to the party to remind her to make follow-up calls and the day before the party to make final plans.

What about you? What are some of your ideas?

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You may, as long as you do not alter it and include the following information (with active links as appropriate):

Julie Anne Jones is a success language consultant, a direct sales coach and trainer, and the CEO of Julie Anne Jones, Inc. She is known for her authentic and easy-to-use scripting and specializes in specific language and tools for success in direct sales. To learn more about Julie Anne and her products and services, visit her at www.julieannejones.com or check out her blog at http://julieannejones.com.

Evites vs. Mailed Intives; Which Should You Choose?

During my live "Designing an Amazing Party Experience" training, I talk about the importance of a great invitation for your parties. (I actually wrote a previous post on this topic – you can check it out here). One of the questions that seems to always come up is "Do I have to mail out an invitation or can I just use e-vites?" Great question.

Here’s what I think. E-mail is amazing. It’s an incredible tool for lots of the things I have to get done for my life and business every day. And it’s not perfect. Multiple times a week I either hear from someone that they never got an e-mail I sent or I’m telling someone the same thing (usually because said e-mail ended up in a junk mail or spam folder and was inadvertently deleted). So, while I love it when it works, e-mail just isn’t as reliable as regular snail mail.

The other thing I know is that e-mail is not taken as seriously as getting an invitation in the mail. Think about it. If you’re taking your mail out of your mail box and interspersed between all of those envelopes with windows in the front (you know the ones…they require that you write a check as a response), there’s a colored envelope with a hand written or plain typed label in the address section. Which envelope are you going to open first? The one that looks like more fun, right?

Finally, if you as a consultant take the step of mailing out your host’s invitations for them, you’re getting the mailing list of their addresses from your host. This provides a few important things for you. First of all, the task the host tends to hate the most is coming up with who to invite and addressing those labels. Once you have that list, the likelihood that she’ll actually hold the party on the original date goes way, way up because that task is behind her. Secondly, once you have the list, it’s like having an insurance policy for their party. In the event that they decide to cancel within about 10 days to 2 weeks prior to their party, your response can be, "Oh, I already mailed your invitations." (and then get them in the mail that day if you haven’t mailed them). Now they either have to call everyone and cancel or call everyone and confirm the party. I found that most of the time, it was easier to just go ahead and hold the party. So having the list equal fewer cancellations. Isn’t that a nice bonus!

So, here’s the bottom line. Do I think you should use e-vites? Absolutely! Do I think you should move to an e-vite only policy and rely solely on that method for getting invitations into the hands of your guests? Not on your life. Use them as a secondary reminder method that goes hand in hand with the invitation you’ve mailed.

So, what do you think?

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WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE FOR FREE IN PRINT OR ONLINE?

You may, as long as you do not alter it and include the following information (with active links as appropriate):

Julie Anne Jones is a success language consultant, a direct sales coach and trainer, and the CEO of Julie Anne Jones, Inc. She is known for her authentic and easy-to-use scripting and specializes in specific language and tools for success in direct sales. To learn more about Julie Anne and her products and services, visit her at www.julieannejones.com or check out her blog at http://julieannejones.com.

Coaching Your Host is About Effective Communication

One of the reason I’m loving this new “adventure” called social media is because it’s about building relationships. As direct sellers, that’s really what we do for a living. In my opinion, the most important relationship you build in your direct sales business is with your host. Last week I focused on bookings. This week, I’m going to focus on the one most important thing you can do to get all those bookings to actually hold and turn into successful parties: host coaching.

Let’s start at the beginning. I learned very quickly that my success or failure with a host depended greatly on how I set that host up the night they booked their party with me. If you’re clear with the host about your commitment to them and what they’ll need to do in order to have a successful party, you’ll find your parties holding on their original dates with hosts who are on board and enthusiastic about creating a successful evening for you. (If you’re doing creative bookings over the phone, this language works just as well.)

You want to communicate three requirements to your new host before she walks out the door:

1.    Set a show date within 30 days from that night  if at all possible
2.    Assign the task of completing the guest list and offer an incentive to get it done.
3.    Schedule a date within one week (either over the phone or in person) to pick up the guest list & postage & plan the party.

Your language around these three steps is very important.  The biggest mistake most representatives make at this point in their relationship with their hosts is not taking control. When you own your power and simply tell them what the plan is instead of asking them for their cooperation, they respect you at a whole different level and your partnership begins.

The language is what creates the partnership that will get you the results you want. The more confident and enthusiastic you are, the more she’ll take these requirements seriously. I’ve written a special report with the specific language I used. You can click here to download it now (it’s free). You’ll find more details about exactly how to set up your new host and a script to use to support you.

Use a Booking Tree to Double Your Bookings From Parties!

What if you had so many bookings from your live parties that you had to give them away to your downline? Can you imagine getting three to four bookings at every party you do? What would that mean for your paycheck each week? Using a visual, intentional tool to share your available dates at your parties is the quickest way to accomplish higher bookings.

First of all, if you know when you’re working, it not only supports the balance in your life, it also can increase your bookings, because you are intentional about offering those dates to your guests. Secondly, finding a way to make offering your available dates even more appealing by using some sort of instant reward (or booking gift) can also sway someone from a maybe to a yes.

Enter the Booking Tree. This is a simple, incredibly effective way to share your party dates. It’s a photo stand (check out the photo of ours above) with five slots. You simply fill out your party date cards (a simple 3×5 card with a space for the date of the party and the host’s name, address, phone number and e-mail address) and attach them to the booking tree.

At the end of your booking commercial, simply hold up the booking tree. (Here’s the fun part). In the corner of each card, punch a hole and attach a small gift to that hole (the dollar store is a great outlet for this, or you can use small items from your own line. Be sure the gift doesn’t cost you more than a few dollars). Tell your guests that these are the dates you’re available over the next several weeks, and that once they choose the date they want, the gift attached to that card is theirs to keep.

Then simply ask them to fill out their information on the card and give you 5 minutes before they leave so you can get them set up. It’s so simple that you’ll find your parties seem to book themselves!  Someone will take a card and bring it to you all filled out. At that point they’re ready to be set up for host coaching.

You can also use a gift bag for larger items that can’t clip to the cards and they can choose a gift when they bring you the card. The idea is to offer them an instant gift for choosing one of your “bonus” dates.

This concept is the single most effective way my clients have found to increase their bookings. And it’s very easy to teach a new representative to use it as well, so they begin getting bookings right away (and you know what they say – no one ever quits with bookings on their calendar).

If you’re having trouble finding the booking tree in the store, you can purchase ours .

Tired of Getting The Run Around? Use Think-About-it Packets!

How many times has someone left one of your parties “on the fence” about booking. They haven’t exactly said no but they aren’t ready to commit by saying yes. And how many times have you followed up with these leads repeatedly without reaching them until you finally give up out of frustration, feeling rejected and frustrated? If you’re like most direct sellers, this is a common chain of events. Today I’m going to offer you a tool which, used properly, can virtually eliminate this scenario from your business. Have I got your attention?

A think-about-it packet is really exactly what it sounds like. You have someone who is on the fence and wants a little more time. Instead of just saying, “I’ll follow up with you next week” and then letting them walk out the door, hand them a think-about-it packet.

Now, my think-about-it packets were basically host packets, because it was always my intention to book them when I followed up, and I wanted them to have the packet so they had everything they needed to host a party. So I put the same things in the think-about-it packet as I did in a normal host packet. I just called it a think-about-it packet. (Get it?) If they decided not to book the party, because they already had outside order forms and catalogs, I could often talk them into at least doing a catalog show.

Here’s how the think about it packet works:

Before she left, I’d say, “Tell you what, Marilyn. I want to give you some time to think about it. Would you be willing to take one of my think about it packets? All you have to do is take some time in the next few days, look over all the benefits, and think about doing a party. I’ll follow up in a few days by phone.”

Here’s the important part. I would say to Marilyn, “Now, I just have three rules for my think about it packets.” (These are crucial to the success of this tool, and I said them pretty much verbatim when I gave out the packets):

1. Rule number one, you have to actually think about it, for at least a few minutes between now and when I call you.
2. Rule number two, you have to take my call when I follow up. When can we talk for about five minutes in the next few days? (Set up this time firmly on both your calendars so she’s expecting your call).
3. Rule number three, if you decide not to book a party, you have to let me down easy. It’s that simple.

Now, I believe that people generally do as they’re told. I swear! It’s a pretty amazing phenomenon. So these rules are key because now she understands how to use the packet. More importantly, she’ll take my call (because it was one of the rules) and I gave her permission to say no. By telling her up front she can decide not to book a party, I take the pressure off of her and she’ll pick up the phone when I call. I’m telling you, this works! I’d say 90% of the time, the people who took my think-about-it packets were there at the time we’d agreed upon and actually answered their phones. And about 75% of the time, they booked a party.

And that, after all, is the name of the game!

So, what do you think of this idea? I’d love to hear your feedback, especially once you use this tool. Feel free to share below.

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