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Archive for Party sales – Page 2

A Direct Sales App For Your Phone!!

By Julie · Comments (8)
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from the husband of one of the direct sellers who follows me on Facebook and reads this blog. This is what his e-mail said:

"I wanted to contact you about a smartphone application I developed for my wife. She is a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts and as a hobby, I develop apps for Android phones. After her parties she kept mentioning to me how much time and attention the checkout process took. She didn't want to make any calculation errors or mess up the customer's order, so this caused her attention to NOT be on the most important thing… The customer!  That is when I started working on MyConsultant. It's an app that I initially made just for her that helped add products, figure out shipping, tax and discounts. She had a few other consultant that thought it would help so I put in on the Android Market. It turns out that the app has been extremely useful to many consultants from many different companies. Just recently, I teamed up with another company that is helping me to develop the app for iPhone and iPad."

My ears perked up at that last sentence. Many of you know that I'm an Apple girl. I got a Mac about two years ago and my iPhone and iPad quickly followed. I was pretty excited about the potential of this app, checked it out, LOVED it, and agreed to share it with you all. I really do think this app has the potential to totally change your direct sales business.

Let me tell you about it. MyConsultant is a free app that has been available on the Android Market for a few months and as of TODAY is available for the iPhone. You know I teach that the number one, most important focus in your business is your customer. This app can help you to stop stressing over math and calculations and spend more time chatting with your customer and giving them a personal check-out experience.

Here are a few of the features I love about MyConsultant:

  • With MyConsultant, you can set a tax rate, shipping rate (% or flat rate), and commission rate one time and it will save it until you change it. No need to bring an extra calculator to your parties anymore.
  • There is a calculator built into the app, so you can add up your product subtotal, and then the app will do the tax and shipping calculations for you.
  • It also breaks it all down so you can enter each value into your order form if you would like to.
  • You can even select to tax or not tax the shipping fees.
  • After you set the commission earned rate, you'll instantly see how much you're actually making on each order. Cool!
  • Another very handy feature is the ability to accept credit cards and cash on your phone with the free Square Card Reader app. (I use Square on my iPhone now and it's amazing!).
  • You can also quickly and easily be directed to a website that will help you to look up the sales tax rate by zip code right from the menu button.

There are also a few very cool paid upgrades you can opt for (we're talking less than two bucks total here, and that's a one time fee!). Most direct sales companies offer specials each month. Sometimes it can be tricky for the consultant to figure out the total while applying these discounts. For just $.99 you can add a useful discount calculator to MyConsultant. For another $.99 you can take advantage of a great tool called Vehicle Expenses. This allows you to log all of your expenses related to travel for your business. You can enter miles driven either by your starting and ending odometer readings or by the number of miles driven. You can also enter the date and description of what you were driving for, and you can add any “other” travel expenses such as tolls/parking that go along with your travels. I'm guessing you'll be loving this feature come tax time.

This is still a fairly new app with a lot of GREAT features yet to come. Their goal is to pack everything you'll need into this app so that you only have to go to one place for most (if not all) of your direct sales business needs!

Check out what they're working on adding in the near future:

  • A task calendar that is specifically designed for direct sales consultants where you can set up default reminders to help with hostess coaching, following up with potential recruits, etc.
  • A “Build a Party” feature that allows you to input an entire party order at once
  • Integration with your companies’ hostess rewards program
  • A general business expense tool that lets you track all expense related to you direct sales business.

Interested? You can download the app for free and read lots of great reviews at:

You can also check out their Facebook Fan page and leave them your input. They want to know what other features you would like to see in this app in the future. You'll find them at: http://www.facebook.com/MyConsultantApp or follow them on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/MyConsultantApp

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE 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 direct sales corporate consultant, 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, and to read her weekly blog posts, visit her at www.julieannejones.com.


Comments (8)
Categories : Business Planning, Home Party, Main, Organization, Party sales
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The Best Laid Plans…

By Julie · Comments (0)
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

It happens to everyone, no matter how good you are at host coaching and follow up. Sometimes you show up for a home party and there are only a few people sitting in your party host's living room. The key to success when this happens to you is the way you handle this situation. Here are a few things you will want to consider:

Your Host Feels Worse Than You Do

In most cases, this situation is your host's worst nightmare. It's happened to me recently. I had a home party last month and a list of about 7 "yeses" prior to the party. Then the day of the party my phone started ringing, Facebook messages started rolling in, and people started bailing on me for one reason or another. Up until thirty minutes after the party started, I was getting text messages with people saying they weren't going to make it. I had done all the things a good host is supposed to do and still had two people sitting in my living room when the party eventually started. I felt awful but it was totally out of my control.

As a consultant, your job is to make sure your host understands that you completely understand and that it's okay with you (and make it okay with you). You have a choice in this situation to either get frustrated or to accept what's happening. I promise, the latter will bring you much better results).

Your Guests Are Uncomfortable

Generally, your guests pick up on the stress of the situation. They are also much more "exposed" because there are so few of them. The best thing you can do is put everyone at ease by naming the elephant in the living room. Say something like this: "So, we're a small but fun group tonight and I actually love parties like this because it gives me a chance to interact with you all in a more informal way and to give you some one on one attention. Let me cover just a few details and then we'll just relax and play with the products." That way no one feels weird or worried that you're upset, and everyone can relax and enjoy each other's company.

Be Flexible and Willing to Adapt Your Presentation

Depending upon how you normally do your presentation, you may or may not have to adapt for a smaller group. Obviously, if you play a game that requires six people and you only have three, that's not going to work. Consider scrapping some of the more interactive and group-participation parts of your presentation and do a shortened version that just hits the highlights (how to book a party with you, your opportunity commercial, and the details of how to order), and then spend your time working with the few guests who are there one on one or in a small, informal group. Encourage them to interact with you and your products and to ask questions. I often times found that these parties ended up having a better outcome for me in sales, bookings, and sponsoring results because of the interactive dynamic of the smaller group.

Make Sure Your Back Up Systems Are In Place Before The Party

This is really important. Are you coaching your hosts to get outside orders before their parties? If so, you're showing up to potentially several hundred dollars in outside orders before you even unpack your kit. Then, if the turnout is less than stellar, you still have at least a qualifying party and your host still gets some of the host benefits. Make sure you're reminding her when you follow up before her party to get those outside orders (with payment) nailed down before her party.

Sometimes the best laid plans do go awry, and when that happens, you have to adjust. The more open you are to what good can come out of the experience, the more good you'll take away from it. And just for the record, my party with two people ended up being a $1500.00 night for the consultant. She made the best of it, did a great job, gave my guests a great experience, and I got a ton of 1/2 priced items. Bottom line, it was a win-win for all of us.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE 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 direct sales corporate consultant, 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, and to read her weekly blog posts, visit her at www.julieannejones.com.


Comments (0)
Categories : Home Party, Main, Party Attendance, Party sales
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Increase Your Party Sales Average With One Simple Change

By Julie · Comments (1)
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

Woman with WalletOkay, I'm going out on a limb today. I'm blogging about the most controversial topic upon which I train. I can just about guarantee, today's post is going to challenge the way you've "always done it." All I ask is that you read all the way to the end before you make a decision about whether this will work for you. Deal? Great!

Here's the secret to increasing your sales average by $500.00 or more per party; close your party the night of the party. (Remember, change is good…keep breathing ). I'm going to share some selfish reasons why this is a great idea in a moment. First, I want you to ask yourself a question. When you hold your party open, for whom are you holding it open? (Nope, not the host). You're holding it open for the guests who didn't bother to show up to support the host on the night of your party. That's like saying to those guests who did show up (possibly making a sacrifice to do so), "You're not as important to us as those people who didn't bother to show up tonight, so you can just WAIT for your products!" Ouch! Let that sink in for a moment. Is that really the message you want to be sending your guests at the party?

When I attend a home party, nothing bothers me more than having to wait to get my products because the party was held open for a week (or longer). I don't feel valued by the host or the consultant, and it puts a bad taste in my mouth about the parent company (even though it's in no way their fault).

Enough said. In my opinion, that alone should be reason enough for you to change this policy and start closing your shows the night of your shows. Just in case you need a little more convincing, here are some great, selfish reasons you may want to consider this:

  • Your orders will stop "walking out the door." How often does a guest say "I need to check with my husband. I'll take your catalog and call you with my order" and then never call you? If you tell the guests you're closing the show that night, that guest is much more likely to order that night (and if she's at all hesitant, you can share that she's free to call you within 24 hours and cancel her order if she changes her mind – they never do, just for the record).

  • Your host order will often times be your largest order of the night. I always told my hosts to go through the catalog at least once a day for the week prior to their parties and fill up as many wish lists as they could with items they liked (I told them not to worry about whether or not they thought they could earn it or afford it – if they liked it, they needed to write it down). That way, when you sit down with your host to take her order, she's been drooling over your catalog for a week. Once she's done getting her free and 1/2 priced items, she'll often say "Can I just buy the rest?" My answer was always "Sure, I'll let you do that!"

  • If you let her wait even one day to close, you can kiss the above scenario goodbye. Why? She's had some time to think about it, she's sobered up (hey, parties are fun and we tend to "let our hair down"), her husband has said "No you're not!" or she got the electric bill. You get the idea. Often she'll be content to settle for just the free product and won't even order the 1/2 price items. I'm telling you, if you're waiting to close, you're leaving money on the table!

  • You stop spending time chasing down hard to find hosts to close their parties. How many times do you hold the party open only to have the host show up a week later with few (or no) extra orders. Honestly, I bet it's more than 75% of the time. And the hassle factor just isn't worth that.

One final thing you need to know about this. You have to set your host up to get outside orders ahead of time. Simply let her know that you're closing the party the night of the party so you can honor her friends who show up to support her by getting their products back to them as quickly as possible (and that's exactly what I said) and that she'll need to ask everyone who can't make it to get their order to her or go on your website and order prior to the night of her party. Generally, I've found that people do what they're told, so the greatest perk from this is that she shows up for her party with anywhere from $150.00 to $300.00 in outside order. How sweet is that!

So, what are your thoughts?

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE 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 direct sales corporate consultant, 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, and to read her weekly blog posts, visit her at www.julieannejones.com.


Comments (1)
Categories : Home Party, Party sales
Tags : , ,
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