I was recently asked by 2 different Direct Sales consultants this burning question… “Do I have the right to turn down a home party request?”

My answer is yes! When it comes to having your own home party plan business, you do indeed to have the right to turn down a home party request due to safety or health concerns.

Here are some common problems with some suggested solutions.

Example #1: Your party host lives in an unsafe area of town. If you feel your safety could be compromised, I recommend selecting an alternate location. If your party host refuses to relocate her party to a different location, I feel its your job to help her find another consultant who doesn’t mind traveling to that area of town.

Example #2: If your party host has had parties before but his/her home is unsanitary, you can nicely suggest an alternative location. You can offer to let her use your home if need be, to host her party.

When dealing with this type of scenario, please watch your wording as you don’t want to offend your party host. If the host still insists on having the party at her home, you can be tactful and explain your reasons why you feel this would not be a good idea. If the conversation has gotten to that point, 9 chances out of 10, she will decide on another location or she will come to terms that her home needs to be cleaned up.

Example #3: If the party host has a reputation of booking numerous parties with various consultants and is constantly canceling them or there are some other type of serious issues that you are aware of, you can indeed refuse the request. However, it is also your job to find another consultant for her or to refer her to corporate headquarters so that they can help her find a consultant.

These 3 examples are just that…examples of some scenarios you might face while in Direct Sales.

The important thing to remember is that you do have the right to refuse any home party booking that you do not feel comfortable with. In doing so, you are more than likely losing a customer and/or party host.

I feel it is important that you be honest with your party host about any concerns you may have and if you need to refuse the booking, help them find a new consultant who will accept the booking.

Shelly Hill
Tupperware Manager
http://www.classybusinesswomen.com
http://wahmshelly.blogspot.coma

Everyone loves a party. One of your goals as a party plan consultant is to make hosting your company’s product party a super experience not only for the guests at the party but, most importantly for your hostess. When your hostess has had a positive experience, chances are excellent that she will become one of your repeat hostesses and will also recommend that her friends do the same. One of the biggest keys to helping your hostess have a good experience is if her party is a success. A successful party is a party with high sales. The best way to achieve high sales is to be sure guest attendance is high.

What fun is a party if no one comes? A big party is a fun event for everyone. People make new friends, the evening becomes a celebration and most importantly it lowers the pressure to buy.

• Encourage your hostess to invite double or triple the number of people she expects to come. Only about 50% will be able to attend so over-inviting is key. A great goal is an invitation list of 40-50 people.
• Help your hostess remember who she knows from all areas of her life! Believe it or not, if your hostess is at least 18 years old, she knows at least 1000 people. A great question to ask her is “Tell me about what you do?” this will give you insight and ideas to help her invite friends from a variety of places.
• Encourage each invitee to bring a friend – this automatically doubles the invitation list. Consider offering a prize to the guest who brings the most friends!
• Be sure your hostess carries around some invitations in her purse prior to her party to pass on to people she sees regularly (at her children’s activities, the gym, church etc;) but perhaps doesn’t have a phone number or address for.
• Call-send-call. When scheduling her party, have her take the first 48 hours after scheduling her date to start to >verbally check in with people to be sure the date is a good time for most of the people on her list. Her invitation (email or snail mail) should serve as a follow up reminder to that initial verbal invitation. THE MOST IMPORTANT call of all happens the day before when either you or she does a final reminder call about the party. (*Note – be sure your hostess understands that this final call is a great courtesy to her guests as people are very busy and often feel badly if they’ve forgotten about the invitation!)
• RSVP – When coaching your hostess, remind her that for whatever reason in today’s society, RSVP has lost its meaning. It is not unusual for people not to respond one-way or the other. That is why that final reminder call is so key! Personal contact and enthusiasm is a “must”… it helps people know that their hostess really wants to see them!!

Dede Gruenberg is a free lance writer, trainer and business coach. She has been sharing her extensive experience in the direct sales/party plan business since 2004 working with The Success Factory. TheSuccessFactory.com is a unique resource providing specific strategies, techniques and resources to exceed in business, family and life. http://TheSuccessFactory.com

When it comes to being a successful Direct Sales consultant, one of your biggest business assets is to invest your time in coaching your party host/hostess. If you are not investing your time to properly coach your host, you are doing yourself and your party host a disservice.

Let’s take a look at the benefits of hostess coaching.

1. When you are in proper contact with your party hosts and coaching them before the show date, they will be more excited about their upcoming party. This excitement will encourage them to work harder to make the party a complete success.

2. Working closely with your host reduces the risk of cancellation or rescheduling of party dates.

3. Hosts who are properly coached have higher guest attendance at their home shows. The more guests there are…the more sales you will make. In addition to the sales you make, your hostess will be satisfied because he/she will earn more free and half-priced products.

4. The more attendees that you have at the party, the more bookings you will receive. Keeping your booking calendar full equals a steady paycheck.

5. A big part of a Direct Sales business is building a team. Again, the more attendees at the party, means you can generate more recruit leads.

When you invest your time coaching your host towards a successful home party, you reap the rewards. Studies have shown that when you coach your hosts, they have higher party attendance which means higher party sales. Those higher party sales equals more commission for you.

If a host/hostess is completely satisfied with their home party experience, they are more apt to rebook parties from you in the future or refer others to your business. Do yourself and your business a favor…Take the time to properly coach your party hosts and you both will benefit.

Shelly Hill
Tupperware Manager
http://www.classybusinesswomen.com
http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com

The true secret to home party success, is a happy hostess. A happy hostess is motivated to get people to her party and can be a big help in getting the people at her party to buy your products. It really doesn’t matter if you are holding the party in your hostesses home or having an online party.

A happy hostess means the difference between great sales or mediocre sales. Here are some tips for keeping your hostess happy and excited about her party.

Get Her Excited About Her Own Party – The first thing you should do is get your hostess excited about all the free and discounted products that she can receive by having a fantastic party. Help her become enthusiastic by showing her all the great items that she will
get. She will be thrilled to do what she can to have a great party.

Train Your Hostess How to Have A Great Party – Make sure she knows all the ways to ensure her guests attend her party. (Reminding them before the event, personally touching base with them, advertising, etc.) A printout or checklist can really help you here.

Guarantee contact with everybody that is supposed to come to the party. Get your hostess to give you names and email addresses of all those who are supposed to come to the party and you personally contact them and let them know how excited you are to meet them. Tell them how your hostess is also very excited that they are coming. Now,they know two people are counting on them being there.

Add An Extra Incentive – Offer your hostess an extra incentive. Is there a particular piece of jewelry that she is just in love with? Perhaps a set of candles or maybe a bath and body set has caught her eye? Set a goal for her to have a certain amount of guests invited to the online party by a set date. Or you could challenge her to have a set dollar amount of sales made before her party. Offer the hostess the item that she wants if, and when, she meets your challenge.

Games And Fun – Plan some super simple games and giveaways during your hostess’s party. People love to have a chance to win something for free and if they need to make a purchase to enter a drawing all the better for your hostess. Everyone will have fun playing the games that you have set up and your hostess will have a blast racking up sales to put toward getting free items.

Article Written By: Sandy Sopin, a teacher who also works at home helping other work at home moms build their home based businesses. Specializing in Home Party Plan Businesses.

How Do I Keep My Parties From Canceling?

The goal of almost every Party Plan consultant is to fill their calendars. After all, the best place to sell your products and book more parties is at a party. But getting those dates filled is only the first step. They only count if they hold.

The best maxim for this situation is “the best defense is a good offense.” And in the case of Party Plan businesses, it’s all in the hostess coaching. Hostesses find all sorts of reasons to cancel. Some are, of course, legitimate. In those cases, she most likely will reschedule. But some just aren’t. I think the most unreasonable one I have ever received was the “I have company coming in, and I have a doctor’s appointment (lucky her to get a doctor’s appointment on a Friday night!).” It would be better to never hear the lame excuses, so how do we avoid them? Why do hostesses cancel? Let’s look at three different reasons hostesses cancel and what we can do about them.

1. She procrastinated sending out invitations. – Although she may never admit it, your hostess will usually cancel if she has not sent out invitations. It is easier to not have you show up then to only have one or two people there. This is actually one of the easier situations to avoid. Many companies train their consultants to send out invitations for their hostess. This is a great service for your hostess and a great marketing tool for you. If you don’t already, offer to send out invitations as a way to save your hostess time and money (the cost of stamps). You can accomplish several things just for the cost of stamps by doing this. First, you know the invitations were sent. Second, you can increase her party attendance. Get the hostess to make her last minute calls by telling her that you numbered five of the invitations. If she finds the people with the numbered invitations, she’ll receive a prize at the party. Third, you can follow up with all the people who didn’t attend and possibly increase your party sales or bookings. Usually only 25% to 50% of invited guests actually attend. If you don’t have the guest list, you’ve missed out on reaching half her guests.

2. She is no longer excited about the party.  – Hostesses can loose their enthusiasm for your party for a couple of reasons. Aside from life just getting in the way, there are usually two main reasons for this. First, the party is just booked too far out. The more time in between her party and the one she attended, the more likely she is to forget why she booked it in the first place. It is usually a good rule of thumb to book your parties no more than three to six weeks out. Keep them close to keep them booked. The second reason she looses her interest is because you are not excited. One of the biggest complaints hostesses have about their party reps is that they were not contacted enough. Of course, when you’re on the rep’s end of the phone, it can sometimes feel like you’re pestering them. But in this case, less is not more. Keeping in contact with your hostess does not mean that you have to call them. Be creative about keeping in touch. Aim to contact her four times before her party date. Send her a thank you note for booking the party (with your business card on a magnet so she doesn’t loose your contact info). Email her to ask for the guest list. Call her to let her know the invitations were sent out. Send her a postcard reminding her of the date and time. Call her the week of her party to remind her to make her last minute phone calls. This scenario is especially important if you have to book the parties farther out. People appreciate good customer service. And the more contact you have with her, the better chance you’ll have of catching a scheduling problem early.

3. She doesn’t respect you as a business. – Although it’s blunt, it’s the truth. Unfortunately, many people view Party Plan businesses as a hobby. It isn’t a real job. You just do it to get free or discounted products. Because they think this way, they don’t see it as being any real problem to cancel on you. This issue can be difficult to tackle because it requires you to change your perspective on your business. First, make sure you treat your business as a business. Nobody can respect you, if you don’t respect yourself. Along the same lines, you must think highly of yourself and what you have to offer. And (hardest of all) you cannot always be available. Oh, I know. Easy for me to say. But consider the psychology behind the statement “you always want what you can’t have.” If you are always available, bending over backwards to meet the needs of your clients’ schedules, how can they possibly respect you. If she knows that she can cancel this weekend’s party and you’ll have another weekend available for her, what is her incentive to keep her party on the original date? You just cannot act desperate no matter how many dates you don’t have on the books. The crazy thing is, the more in demand you appear to be, the more in demand you will be. When a hostess is ready to book her party, offer her a choice of two or three of the next dates you want to fill. If she suggests or even demands something else, simply let her know that date is not available. You don’t have to explain why. Then, to show just how busy you are, you can offer to see if one of your co-workers has that date available. (Can you hear her gasping? Who ever heard of a consultant giving away parties?) Most hostesses will want to book with the rep they know, so they will pick one of your dates. If not, this is a great way to help new recruits fill their calendars. You still benefit from the party. But if you are so booked that you will offer to give away a party, you will be more attractive as a rep. Everyone will want you to do their shows. They will also see you as more successful and will be more interested in joining your team. And soon, you will be as busy as you claim to be.

Cancellations are somewhat inevitable in the direct sales business. These steps can help you to minimize your cancellations, so you can better build an income you can depend on. Please email me with your success stories!

Deanna Mayer is the stay at home mother of two. When she isn’t carting her boys around their Denver suburb, she is busy building her ideal career at www.itvventures.com/dlm . She is currently launching her newest product line, Naked Minerals, the first 100% pure pressed mineral cosmetics.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out that site!

When you work in Direct Sales you will experience some party cancellations from time to time for genuine emergencies that have been encountered by your party hosts. However, you will also encounter party cancellations that are just “excuses” by hosts who were not properly prepared for his/her party or by hosts who do not take your business seriously.

Today I thought I would share some of my Host Coaching techniques that worked well for me in cutting down party cancellations and re-schedulings of my host’s parties.

Tip #1. When you first set the date for the host’s party you need to be very firm and very clear that this is “YOUR BUSINESS” and that you take it seriously. Let them know that this is not a hobby and that you are counting on them to hold the party on the date they selected.

Let them know up front that if they need to cancel (in an emergency) that you would appreciate a minimum of 72 hours notice and that you expect the party to be rescheduled only one time within a week of the original party date.

This is very important because some hosts will reschedule a gazillion times with 100 excuses to go along with it. Those dates that you marked off for that particular host could of been filled with other excited hosts who really want to host a party.

Tip #2. Many times a host will cancel a party using the excuse that they forgot to mail the invitations or that only 1-2 people said they were coming. To cut down on this entire problem I recommend that you personally fill out the invitations and that you personally mail them out!

Tell your host when you sent them and ask your host to call everyone on the guest list a week after you sent out the party invitations to get a RSVP out of them. In is also advisable that you ask your host to recontact all of the party guests 2-3 days before the party date to remind them about the party.

Tip #3. Keep in touch with your party host at least once a week leading up to the party date. Do your best to keep her excited about her upcoming party and keep reminding her about all of those fabulous booking gifts, free gifts and 1/2 price gifts he/she will receive for having a successful party. Communicating with your party host on a regular basis is one of the BEST keys to a successful home party.

Shelly Hill has been working in Direct Sales for over 25+ years and owns the popular Work at Home Business Options web site at www.workathomebusinessoptions.com where Direct Sales consultants can get free business tips, read Direct Sales articles and get free business related resources geared towards those in Direct Sales.