Thank you for coming back to visit, Have you signed up for my newsletter to receive business and blogging tips? the sign up box is on the right.
Alright! You have 12 shows scheduled in your date book or on your calendar. That’s awesome! Three of them are scheduled for this week and 2 are scheduled for the following week. You’ve got four the week after that and the other three are scattered across the following month. I know you’re worried about all of them holding and need some suggestions and ideas about how to keep your hostesses motivated and excited about their shows, especially the 3 that are scheduled next month.
When you book a show, ideally the farthest you want to go out is 2 weeks. This is because your new hostess is excited about what she just saw and wants to get some free stuff! But, let’s get real! Life isn’t always ideal. Sometimes your new hostess insists on having it 3 weeks or even a month later. Go ahead and book the show and then follow up, follow up, follow up! Here’s what you can do to ensure that your hostess doesn’t cancel:
1. Save the Date: When booking the party, give your hostess a nice little “save the date” card with the time and date of her show. Some direct sales companies may have pre-made ones you can use or you can create your own on your computer or by hand if you’re crafty! You can even purchase some handy magnets from a craft store and make some “save the date” magnets for their fridge. This is the first step in keeping the show in the mind of the hostess. You don’t want your hostess to forget about her show or to forget about the hostess gift or free product she is working toward.
2. Order Forms & Brochures: When booking the show, be sure to give your hostess enough brochures and order forms to hand out to their friends, family and co-workers for outside sales. Outside sales are awesome for keeping the hostess excited and boosting their sales. Not everyone will attend the party, but many will buy something.
3. Thank You Cards: The day after booking the show, get a “Thank You” card in the mail to your new hostess. It can be a simple post card, and make sure it has the date of their show, reminders and suggestions of people to invite, and the hostess gifts they are working toward. Make sure your phone number is on the card so they can call you with any questions.
4. Pick Up the Phone: A couple or three days after you send the “Thank You” card, call your hostess to be sure she received it and answer any questions. Also, see how her guest list is coming along; has she started inviting guests yet? If not, encourage her to do so, so that her guests can make plans to come and invite their friends as well. Find out how her outside sales are doing. Often the outside sales outweigh the sales at the party and that’s okay; it’s a good thing! Be sure your hostess is getting the contact information from those outside sales as well. Those are potential new hostesses and new customers for you!
5. Encourage: If they are having trouble getting guests to commit to coming to the show and she starts talking about canceling, encourage her to keep the show because you never know who will come even though they didn’t commit. Give her more ideas of people to invite that she may not have thought of; if she hasn’t sent out any invitations herself, offer to help her get them in the mail. Help your hostess be a better hostess!
6. Offer to Help: Two days before the show, call her again. Find out how many people are coming. If the number is low, or none (ugh!) find out who she’s called and offer to make some phone calls for her. Perhaps your hostess is shy or just not a go-getter (yes you will have hostesses that are shy.?). You can help her by getting together and have her listen while you make phone calls to some of her friends on her guest list. Of course you can’t and shouldn’t force someone into something, but sometimes a little encouragement is all they need. If shyness isn’t the case with your hostess, say they just aren’t organized or they’re too social (yes, this can happen too!) and they simply forgot even though you’ve done everything above, still offer to help your hostess make the phone calls; make it a fun thing for them! Social people often choose fun over work and if you make it fun for them, they will do it. Learn to read your hostesses personality. If you know nothing about the different personality types, I encourage you to get some books on the subject. When working with people in business or in personal relationships it is important to understand their personality. When you do, it will make working with them so much easier for you because you will understand where they are coming from!
7. Follow Up Once More: The day before the show, give her one more follow up call. Keeping in touch with your hostess is so important! The purpose of this call is to get the final number of commitments and potential guests, and give that final boost of encouragement by reminding her of the hostess gift she is working toward. Find out how much in outside sales she’s received and give her an estimated amount that she needs to sell at the show to get the hostess gift she oh so desires. If she has exceeded the amount she needed in outside sales (which is totally awesome and we love it when that happens!) tell her what the next item to work toward is! (Just a little side note here: a hostess who has amazing sales from the get-go is a potential new recruit!) If she hasn’t gotten any outside sales, let her know it’s okay and that her show sales will probably be enough to receive the hostess gift she wants.
8. Make Other Options Available: If, after doing all of the above, your hostess still wants to cancel encourage her to book the show at a later date instead of canceling all together. Try not to get frustrated with your hostess if she does cancel and don’t let a cancellation discourage you from reaching your goals.
Life happens, stuff comes up that your hostess can’t avoid, so there will be cancellations, but if you follow up, encourage and help your hostess be the best hostess she can be, you will get fewer cancellations. Less cancellation means more profitable shows and future business.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=65caedbc-a55a-49b8-b349-0d4af34e7126)
All these points are rocking………..
Great
Business Cards´s last blog ..Targeting Areas When Wanting To Renovate And Flip
Very good points. While I`m not into direct sales, but this would be interesting to some of my friends and I will share this with them.
I am really looking for ideas on direct sales. I will try to do your tips. Thanks!
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Deborah
http://maternitymotherhood.net