Does this sound familiar? You set aside a night every month for your monthly meeting with your team, work hard to create an agenda of valuable information for them and maybe even bake some cookies for the occasion.

And 2 people show up.

Low attendance at meetings is a common occurrence in our industry. I think that's because we, as leaders, don't do a good enough job of creating an experience that people will want to attend or promote it to our teams in a creative and proactive way. In a lot of ways, your meetings are just like your parties. They require your creativity and energy in much the same way your parties do.

When I really looked at the word "meeting" it became clear to me why my consultants weren't attending mine. Meetings sound compulsory and boring. So, what if you didn't call your monthly direct sales meetings "meetings"?  What if you called them "special events" instead? Events sound fun and inclusive and this simple change can often encouraged not only your representatives to attend, but also to bring guests whom you can, in turn, often recruit.

I used a specific agenda for my events. It can be accomplished in four simple steps:

1.    Set up your team for the concept of the special event at a current meeting. Follow up with an e-mail.

• Explain the concept and the purpose for the change (and remind them, "change is good").
• Create an invitation that your team can personalize for them to hand out/send to guests. You can either e-mail this or have them available as hard copies for them to take home that night.
• Coach your team to talk about the event at every party and to commit to personally invite at least one person from each party to be their guest. Give them the language to use and encourage them to follow up with a phone. reminder a few days prior to the event for those they have personally invited.
• Have each team member set a goal – how many guests will you bring?  Share your own personal goal with your team. Offer incentives for those who bring at least 3, at least 5, the most guests, etc.
• Enlist volunteers to help before, during, and after the meeting.

2.    Make the event exciting & fun.

• Offer a special raffle and sell tickets at the door.
• Have music playing before, in between and after the event.
• Decorate!  Make it look like a party.
• Start the evening off with recognition for your team and a few powerful testimonials from both a new rep and a seasoned rep.
• Have a special table of discontinued product that only your guests can purchase at a severe discount.  Keep it covered and refer to it.  Let them know at the end of the evening you’ll let them shop! Consider offering these products only to those staying to hear about your opportunity, as an incentive.
• Have an activity that is fun and related to your product (demonstration, craft, fashion show, etc). Get the guests involved in this activity!
• Avoid doing anything “meeting like” in front of the guests. Once the above is complete, take a break and invite those who would like to stay to hear about the opportunity, to do so. This break is important because it allows those who aren't interested to make a quiet, graceful exit without feeling uncomfortable.

3.    Recruit your guests!!

• Ask the guests to stay in the main room and send your team out to a different area with one of your leaders for a short training and “meeting” type notes from home office, etc.
• You and a few of your seasoned reps remain in the room with your guests.  Do your recruiting talk, visit with them individually and share your business (you can consider using a company information video at this point).
• Offer a special incentive to those who sign up that night.
• Be sure to re-connect your guests with the team member who brought them prior to the end of the evening.

4.   End the evening on a high note!

• Acknowledge your brand new recruits and make them feel very special.
• Extend the special offer to those who may still want to sign up and let them know you will be available after the meeting to get them signed up.
• Hold the drawings and invite the guests to “shop” at your special merchandise table.

Just a quick note to those of you who purchased "The Smart Leader's Meeting Planning System". This agenda will work well with this program.  Simply use one of the trainings or group activities as your consultant-only activity while you do the sponsoring portion of the meeting (our system will actually make this easier because the training is completely outlined in the notes and easy to assign to someone else to train). Thinking outside the box and using some of the above techniques, you could just make this year your record year for growing your team! Wouldn't that be nice?

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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.