Partner with Your Hostess for Higher Sales at Your Direct Selling Home Parties

OK, so you’ve booked a few parties…now what do you do? Do you find yourself screening your phone calls? Are you afraid to have contact with your Hostesses for fear they may cancel or postpone their party? What can you do to insure a good party so both you and your Hostess will benefit? Booking parties is easy but in order to make it a fun and profitable party for both you and the Hostess there are basic techniques that will help guarantee success. In this article you will learn what to do to increase your party consistency, sales average and booking ratio.

First, arrive at the party with at least six Hostess packets. I found the easiest way to put my Hostess packets together was to make about twenty at a time. I got everything I needed out, put a label with my name, address and phone number on everything that was going to go into the Hostess packet and sat down for a few minutes and got everything ready. Every Hostess packet should include these items.

At least one catalog or brochure if your company has a supplement make sure to include one of those also.

Company Hostess Award Brochure or a list of everything the Hostess can earn

Guest List with a self-addressed and stamped envelope (New triplicate guest list can be ordered here) Order Guest List

Hostess Wish List or a bright paper for Hostess to write down the items she would like to earn at her party.

Material about joining your company preferably marketing material that will spark interest and curiosity.

Order forms (at least 4-6) or outside order sheet

Large Envelope to hold everything (if your company does not provide. Bright colored envelopes can be purchased at most office supply stores)

Now that you have your Hostess packets put together make sure you pack your case with at least 6 for every party. Once you begin to play the envelope game (from my It’s a Party Out There program) at your parties you will be booking more parties than you ever thought possible. Also have your “Open Date Card” (also from the program) ready so the new people booking parties can select one of “your available dates”. 

After you have played the envelope game and secured your bookings hand the “Open Date Card” and a Hostess Packet to the first person who booked and ask her to write her name in the space next to the date she would like. Then hand the card to the next person to have her select a date and so on until all of the guests have selected a date for their party. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THE PERSON WHO IS BOOKING SELECTS A DATE THAT NIGHT! Remember, it’s not a booking until you have a date. Don’t waste your time trying to call later, if she is hesitant and wants to check her schedule say, “Let’s pick a tentative date right now and you can check your calendar when you get home. If you need to change it you can call me first thing tomorrow so you will still qualify for the bonus gift for selecting a date on my open date card.” I found that 9 out of 10 times the original date we agreed on was the date the Hostess was going to keep.

After each person has selected a date bring them aside and go through the entire contents of the Hostess Packet with them. Here is exactly what I would say. “Judy, I’m excited you are going to be having a party. Let’s go over everything in your packet. First, this is your guest list that you will need to fill out and return to me in three days so that I can mail your invitations out for you. Your Hostess will also be able to receive the credit for your booking when I have received your list. There is room for 24 names on each list and I have given you two. Try to fill out one complete list and use the other one if you need to. Please press hard as you are making three copies and the top copy will be the label that goes on the invitation. You will have a place to write the phone numbers on this list so you can have a call list to call and remind everyone to come and bring a friend. Please keep your catalog with you all the time and if someone cannot come you can share the catalog and ask if they would like to order or book a party. There are order forms in the packet for you to use for these orders. Also, please take this Hostess Wish List and list all the items you would like to earn at your party and return the Wish List to me with your Guest List. I will figure out what you will need to do to earn all the items on your list. I have added some information about our company so you can browse through it. Have you ever thought of doing something like this? No, well, I think you’d be great! Read through the information and I can call you tomorrow at 3:00 or 5:00 and answer any questions. Which time would be best to call? Great, I’ll call you at 5:00. Here’s your packet and I look forward to helping you earn all the products you would like. Don’t forget to have your guest list to me in 3 days. Thanks.”

During this time you have went through all of the contents of the packet while you were reviewing it with her. You have her working on her guest list and wish list and you have planted the seed about her joining you in the business. Hostess Coaching is an art and you can master it when you practice it over and over and over. When you implement these techniques I guarantee that you will have less cancellations and postponements and more enthusiastic Hostesses which should result in higher sales and more bookings. So “partner with your Hostess” to help her get everything she wants and you will get everything you want! As Zig Ziglar always says, “You can get everything in life you want when you help enough other people get what they want.”