BOOK SELL RECRUIT

Have you ever received a mailing from a store that is a national chain?  Stores send out thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS OF THOUSANDS of fliers in one mailing.  Do you know what that store considers a good return on it’s mailing?  Do you think 50% ?  Maybe they consider a 20% return to be pretty good?  How about 10% ?   In reality, that chain is thrilled to death with a 2% return.  If 2% of the people who receive that mailing, respond to that mailing by coming into the store, that is considered a hugely successful campaign.  2%!!!!!  Most mailing campaigns have a return response more in the range of 1%.

What do we, in the direct sales profession, do?  We send out a mailing to our list of hostesses and some of our good customers.  So how many fliers or postcards are we sending out?  50?  100?  200?  When you realize when stores send out a mailing and get a 1% response, is it any wonder that when we send out a mailing our phone doesn’t ring?  I sent out a mailing to 100 people and had one person call me to book a party.  I got a 1% return. 

Let’s say you want to send out postcards to get more bookings and you send it to 100 people.  Just the postage is costing you $28.  If you make that mailing a letter, the postage is going to cost you $44.  If you sit next to your phone or your computer just waiting for everyone who received your mailing to respond,  you’re going to be profoundly disappointed when only 1 person responds to your great offer.  So it has cost you $28 to $44 dollars, just for the postage,  to get one booking – if you’re lucky.

So what’s a consultant to do?  I’m not telling you not to do mailings.  I’m telling you to make a mailing a two step process.  The mailing I mentioned earlier, when one person responded and called me, was to get more bookings.  By the end of my promotion I had 10 parties booked, which was a 10% return on my mailing.  How did I do that?  I called them.  I called each and every one of those 100 people and asked them if they received the mailing and if they were interested in taking advantage of the offer.  Nine people responded, “I’m so glad you called because I was meaning to call you!”  And yes, I had to hear no many, many times before I got to the nine who said yes.   Some said, “Now’s not a good time but could you call me back in a month or 3 months or when the new catalog comes out?” 

Was it worth my time and trouble to call all of them?  Well, you be the judge.  I had 10 additional bookings for the month my company was giving double points towards the trip I really wanted to earn.  I wouldn’t have had those additional bookings if I had not done the mailing with the follow-up phone calls.   Plus I was able to book additional parties with the people who told me to call them in the future.  Those 10 parties brought in over $6000 in sales plus additional bookings – and – it gave me over 12,000 points towards the trip I was working for. 

When you do a mailing (other then a monthly newsletter that you send out to every one of your customers) make sure you follow it up with a phone call!

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So many times consultants will ask me how to ask for the booking.  What are the magic words to get them to book?  Consultants tell me they have a fear of asking for the booking.  That fear stems from not wanting to appear pushy or go into begging mode to get more bookings.

Being pushy or begging doesn’t work.  When you come off pushy or begging  – those often are the parties that cancel, the people who don’t answer their phones, and you end up doing a lot of work for nothing in return.

You need to be doing booking bids throughout your presentation.  Comments on what a hostess receives with your hostess plan, better, a visual using the former hostess who is in the group, is a way to get them thinking about booking their own party.  Show your highest priced item and telling them how they can get it under your hostess program.  Thank the guest for taking time out of their busy schedule to be there.   Comment how we just don’t seem to have the time to get together with friends anymore and isn’t it great that you could all be together today.

Use a door prize slip.  My door prize slip has the words yes, no and maybe available for the guest to circle.  When I am going over the door prize slip with them and get to the question about “book a party”  I say:  If you know you want to have a party go ahead and circle yes.  If you have questions about doing a party go ahead and circle maybe and we’ll talk when I take your order.

After the drawing I look through the slips and put them to the side.  As I’m taking people’s orders I say to them, “Sally, I don’t have your door prize slip right in front of me at the moment.  Are you interested in having your own party or do you have questions about having a party?”

Now that’s all well and good in a perfect world, but the world isn’t always perfect.  A lot of guests will just come up and set their slip down for you to figure out while they rejoin the party and visit with friends.  If you have a lot of guests you may have a problem putting a slip of paper with a name on it to a face.  In other words, you may need to call people after the party to get them to book.

When I have to do that I simply introduce myself, “Hi Sally this is Ruth.  I’m the consultant from XYZ Company.  We met at Mary’s party.  Sally, I didn’t have time in the rush of orders to talk to you and I noticed you marked on your door prize slip you’re interested in having a party.  Let’s find a date that works for both of us.”

If she circled maybe I say, “I noticed you circled maybe on your door prize slip about having a party.  Do you have any questions I can answer for you about having a party?”  If she doesn’t have any questions then say, “Is this something you would like to persue?   We can set a date for your party right now if you’d like.”

The main point that I’m trying to make here is: forcing, bribing, or manipulating people to have a party doesn’t work.  We feel like we are pressuring people to have a party.  They are feeling pressured, and then the party doesn’t hold.    When that person feels pressured into having a party she doesn’t want to have, what will happen the next time she gets an invitation to another party?  She won’t go.  You lost a potential hostess and you lost a buying guest.

When you treat people right, the way you want to be treated, you’ll end up with more bookings in the long run.  When I see the same guest several times I’ll ask, “Lynn, when are you going to have your own party?”  I have one guest who comes to every party she is invited to.  Because my products are new to this area at the first party she bought a little.  At the next party she bought significantly more.  At the third party she bought a whole lot.  So when I handed her slip back to her I say, “Lynn!  When are you going to have your own party so you can get some of these items free?”  She responded, “Can’t!” 

“Can’t?  How come?”

” Because I want written on my gravestone, ‘The only woman in America who never had a home selling party.”

I laughed!  I found that really funny.  She’ll come to the parties but she refuses to book a party.  So I said, “Okay.  Let’s do this.  I think you should come and do this with me and then you can say you’re the only consultant in America who never, ever, had a home selling party yourself.”  She laughed at that. 

I continued my conversation with her by saying, “Lynn, make sure you bring a catalog home with you and if you aren’t invited to a party, but need something, all you have to do is give me a call.”  She was delighted with that idea.

Booking a party is simply finding a need and filling it.  Stop stressing on getting bookings.  Mary Kay Ash, the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, said it best, “Get the dollar signs out of your eyes.”  When you are desperate for bookings you come off being desperate.  Do you want to do business with a desperate person? 

Relax!  Have fun at your parties.  Find out how you can best serve the people who are at your party.  When you find a need and fill it, people are much more willing to book.  When you stop pressuring people to book – they will book. 

Want to share this post with others?  Go right ahead and do so.  Please keep the following with it:  Reprinted with permission of Ruth Fuersten at http://www.booksellrecruit.com/sq

I’ve heard from a number of you telling me you are new to your area, or you don’t know many people and you’re wondering how you can get bookings.   The most obvious thing to do is vendor events.  But doing vendor events can get costly.  If you don’t have much money, doing a major vendor event by yourself is simply out of the question.  But, could you team up with other people to do the vendor event, and each share in the cost?  Could you look for smaller events, something that would fit into your budget?

Our local county fair is a big event and the cost of doing it, for one person, is staggering.  But when I looked into the county fairs in the neighboring counties I discovered they were much more reasonable to do.

Are there community events in your area?  Go to the local Chamber of Commerce or the Visitor and Convention Bureau and get a listing of the local events.  Those listings usually have the names and phone numbers of the contact people for you to call to find out how much it costs to participate.

Piggy back onto other events.  Consultants have told me they have been involved  with  fund raisers for individual people or families who have had catastrophic medical expenses.  They go to these events, sell, or take orders, for their products and give a portion of their earnings to the family.  If you add on to that, “Book a party today to be held (within a month?  within 6 or 8 weeks of tonight’s event) and I will provide an additional ($25 or $50 or  a certain percent of the sales) to the family.” you could get some additional bookings?

Look for groups that are having auctions and silent auctions and offer a gift certificate to that event.  Suggest to the person who gets your gift certificate that they get more bang for their gift certificate buck by booking a party and using the gift certificate to help pay for their half price or discounted products according to your hostess program.

Look for groups who are fund raising and offer your products as a fund raiser to them.  The school or PTA may not be interested in using your products for an all-school fund raiser but are there groups within the school that would be interested?  The volleyball team or the eighth graders working for a class trip may be extremely interested in talking to you about your products.  Again, you can offer something if there are bookings.  Could you do a party for them or do they want to take orders?

What’s happening in your church?  Does the choir need robes?  Could you help them get new robes by having each member of the choir invite some friends in and do a fund raising party for the group? 

Can you put out a box in a business to collect names of interested people?  If you sell make-up or skin care products could you put a box out in a nail business?  If you sell jewelry and your local bridal store doesn’t sell jewelry could you put a box in their?  You want to look for businesses that correspond to yours but don’t compete with yours.

When you’re out and about running errands do you chat with the people you come into contact with?  You may not feel comfortable asking someone you’ve just met to have a party but could you talk to her about something that she has that relates to your business?  “What a cute pin you have on.”  “Your eyes are really pretty.”  The next time you’re in that business you want to make sure that person waits on you again.  Make another comment about her jewelry or what an attractive lipstick she is wearing.  Seeing them again?  Do they recognize you?  Comment again about them.  Make them feel good about themselves.  Out again?  “You know, every time I see you, you have such attractive jewelry on.  I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but I sell jewelry…….”

Who do you know who is also in a party plan business?  Do you know several others?  How about all of you having an open house together?  Everyone sends out invitations to their list of clients, you can put an ad in the local papers, and you can put signs up to advertise.  That’s a great way to get in contact with people who are already holding parties or are customers of other direct selling companies.

When you meet people and they ask you, “What do you do?” are you ready with your elevator pitch?  Does your response to that question encourage them to ask you questions about your business?

Are you a product of your product?  When I sold kitchen gizmo’s I couldn’t very easily pin a vegetable peeler to my jacket before I went out the door.  But I could wear a shirt with the company logo on it.  I did have people come up to me and tell me how much they just love the products.  Chat with them.  Find out if they have a consultant and if they don’t  – you’d love to be their personal consultant.

What’s one of the very first words you learned to read?  LOOK.  Always LOOK  for ways to introduce your products to people. 

But a word of warning here.  Don’t be rude.  Don’t do what happened to a friend of mine.  She was dealing with a sick child at home, hadn’t had much sleep and taking a shower that morning was out of the question.  Her husband got home from work and she flew out the door to get to the post office to mail out a number of packages.  While she was standing in line trying to balance her packages, and struggling at doing that, the woman behind her said, “Here.  You need this.”  and put a business card on top of my friend’s packages for a party plan make-up company.

Now the interesting part of it is – my friend was in the market for skin care.  Do you think my friend called that woman?  Not in her lifetime!  That was just plain rude of that consultant.  How much better if she had said, “Here, let me help you hold those packages” and then struck up a conversation with her.  She might have found out that my friend was looking for her!

Feel free to share this post with others.  Please keep the following attached:  Reprinted with permission of Ruth Fuersten at http://www.booksellrecruit.com/sq

You may recall a while back when I told you about my coaching client, Alva, and how she recruited 14 people in one month.  Now you may be asking, “Ruth!  Your title is about booking and the economy and your first sentence is about recruiting — which is it Lady?”  Well, just hold on and I’ll explain.  Alva lives in the Detroit area which was certainly hit hard by the current economy.  I recall Alva (who is a very wise woman) saying to me, “I’m not looking for the people who don’t have money to spend.”  Isn’t that obvious?  Stop looking for the people who don’t have money and start looking for the people who do!  Another way of looking at this is – I’ve decided not to participate in the current economic issues.

When I was selling kitchen gizmos we were having a serious localized economic crisis.  The area was very tourist dependent and we were in our second winter of no snow.  That meant no one was coming to our area to ski, snowmobile or even to go ice fishing on our many, many lakes.   For two years we had little to no snow and bitter cold.    That second year we had 100% cancellations of reservations for every resort and motel in the entire county for the month of January.  Local school districts were in serious discussion of consolidation.  Public service announcements told the locals that if we had company coming to visit, and if they could afford it, to have them stay at a resort or hotel rather then in our homes.  One of the restaurants in town had a sign up saying, “Stop in for lunch!  Then we can both eat!!”  To say it was bleak is an understatement!

What do we as women do?  We “make do.”  We don’t spend money on ourselves when our kids need shoes, school supplies or a visit to the dentist.  We make do with what we have.  So how do you get women to book when they are making do?

First off – why should they book a party?  What can y0u offer people to entice them to book a party?  Take out the wish lists you’ve collected and make people an offer.   If they want Product A when it goes on special then make it a special.  Call them and say, “I don’t know if you’d be interested but XYZ Company is offering Product A at (free or half price or whatever you can afford to offer that product for) just by having a party with 8 -10 guests.  Of course you’ll also be able to take advantage of our generous hostess program to get the other things you want.  Is that something you’d be interested in taking advantage of?”  Notice I didn’t say, “I have a special.”  As soon as you say that you might as easily say, “I’m totally out of bookings so I’m trying to bribe you into having a party for me.”  The special is always from the company – and – aren’t you the company to your hostesses and customers?

Now at those bookings you are going to want to present your highest priced item first.  The best thing to do is show them the highest priced item your company offers but, if you don’t have it, then show them the highest priced item you have.  Show it first and mention the features but hit on the benefits.  What are the benefits, to them, of having that product?  For me, my highest priced item was a set of cookware that cost $200.  Who do you get to buy $200 cookware in and economic crisis?  Would you believe  – lots of people! 

When you show that item you want to include that you have good news and you have better news.  The good news is they can purchase that item tonight for only $200 and the better news is you can book a party tonight and get the cookware at your party for 50% off. 

What are items that go with your highest priced item?  For me there were open stock pieces that went along with the cookware.  They were things like the saute pan, a large frying pan and and other additional pieces.  So along with my booking bid I also said, “You might be interested in getting some of the open stock items tonight and then book your party to get the set for 50% off, or you might want to reverse that and get the cookware tonight and then you can receive the open stock items for free and half price at your party.”

One of the reasons I was so wanting people to book to get the cookware was because the company was having a special for the consultants.  If we sold X amount, and it was in the thousands of dollars, of the cookware we could get the set for free.  I wanted that cookware!   I had one lonely saucepan of the set and loved it, so I really wanted the rest of the set. 

What I discovered was by showing the cookware first I was giving them the rest of the time there to decide if they were going to buy it or book to get it.  When you show your highest priced item last they aren’t necessarily going to change their order to purchase your more expensive item and, when you realize they walked in promising themselves they weren’t going to book a party, you’re not giving them enough time to change their mind.

Have fun!  Fun doesn’t necessarily mean playing games either (if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know my opinion on games).  Let the guests have fun.  What can you do in your presentation to  bring fun into it?  What can you do in your presentation to bring information into it?  The top two reasons people book a party is because they had fun or else they learned something.  What happens when both fun and learning happens plus there is a product they want to get for free or at a reduced price?  You’ll have more bookings then you’ll know what to do with!

Oh!  By the way, I did earn the cookware and also just about every open stock piece, too!

Feel free to share this post with others.   Please keep the following with it:  Reprinted with permission of Ruth Fuersten at http://www.booksellrecruit.com/sq

Cheryl asked:  At my parties I do booking bids throughout the demo and ask everyone, individually, when they place their order, if they would like to book their own party.  Despite having new people at these parties, it is always the same people booking.  I seem to be going around in circles and can’t break out.

What is a girl to do???  I’ve been there, too, and it is frustrating.    Until I realized I had people I could count on to have parties.  I had a couple of groups of people who had a party with each new catalog.  When you think about it that is really great.  A quick phone call to one of them insured me a booking.

But how do you break out from that crowd and get new bookings?  Obviously Cheryl is doing everything rght but not getting the results she wants.  There are a couple of things you, and Cheryl, can do.

First, when you are doing hostess coaching you want to point out that you dearly love her and all her friends – but – for her to get more free stuff she needs to invite not only the old crowd but also new people.  A lot of new people.   She and her friends have so many of your products already that for her to have higher sales, and therefore be able to take full advantage of your hostess program, she needs to get some new blood at her party. 

Encourage your hostess to get bookings before the party.  Most companies provide incentives for the hostess if there are bookings at the party.  What could you provide your hostess if it is someone new hosting a party?

Use the KISS method – Keep It Simple Silly.  Remind your hostess of what she receives when she has bookings.  Tell her that one way to prevent her guests from bookings is to have all kinds of things to munch on.  When someone is considering booking and then sees a table groaning from the weight of food, what is she going to think?  I don’t have the time or the money to make all this food.  I won’t book a party after all.

Use a door prize slip or a wish list.  One of the things I have on my door prize slip is, “I would like to know when my wish list items go on special!”  When I get to that on my door prize slip I read it to them and then I say, “If you’d like me to call you when anything on your door prize slip goes on special make sure you circle yes and have your phone number on your wish list.”  Pick something on their list that you can afford to give away and call them.  “Hi Sally, this is Ruth from XYZ company.  We met when Mary had her party.  I noticed on your wish list (or door prize list if you combine them) you had written down you’d be interested in this item if it even went on special.  I don’t know if you’d be interested or not but just by having a party to be held in September with 10 buying guests or 10 orders, you can receive that item free.  Is that something you’d like to take advantage of?”

Have some retired items as a special display at your party.  Point them out to the guests and talk about how great they are.  Then tell them you have good news and bad news about those items.  The bad news is they are now retired and you can’t buy them anymore.  The good news is – you can get the one of your choice absolutely free just by holding a party.

Do some vendor events.  Have a gift certificate as your door prize.  Some people won’t fill out your door prize slip because they don’t like the item you are offering.  But when you offer a gift certificate (redeemable through you ONLY) they can get something of their choice.  When you call the winner suggest she host a party to get more bang out of her gift certificate buck and use the gift certificate to pay for her half-price item or whatever else your company offers at a discounted price for hostesses.

The whole idea of doing a vendor event is to get new contacts.  Although the perceived notion is that one lucky person will win the gift certificate that isn’t exactly what I do.  If I have several people who have indicated that “maybe they would like to have a party,” when I call them – it’s to tell them they have won the door prize and now have this much money to spend – free – on anything they want in the catalog.  I follow that quickly with, “Sally, I have an idea for you that might interest you.  You indicated on your slip that you might be interested in having a party.  What we could do is, save your gift certificate for your party and then you could use it to purchase a half-price item or a discounted hostess only item and that way you could get a lot more when you use that gift certificate.  Do you have any questions about having a party?”

Develop a rapport with people.  Recently, while doing a vendor event, a consultant from another company commented about her daughter needing exactly what I sell.  So I gave her a catalog for her daughter.  A little while later we talked about business and how it was going for each of us.  A little while after that we chatted about our families.  A little while later I suggested that she and her daughter have a party, invite her daughter’s friends and their moms, and the daughter could get what she needed for free.  I suggested that as “something you might want to think about.”  “What a good idea!” the other consultant said, and yes, I’m having a party with her.  In other words, don’t pounce on people to have a party!  Instead, find their need and fill it.

When you find their need, and fill it, you’ll have a calendar full of bookings.

Want to share this post with others?  Feel free to do so but please keep the following with it:  Reprinted with permission of Ruth Fuersten at http://www.booksellrecruit.com/sq

Doesn’t it just frost your cookies?  You need that party to meet your goal, to pay that bill, to earn the incentive – and she cancels on you.

Cancellations happen.  That’s part of direct sales.  People get sick, kids get sick, bosses inform them they need to work late, are just a couple of reasons why people cancel.  I think there are as many reasons to cancel as there are hostesses.  When life happens there isn’t a whole lot you can do to save that party.  After all, if she’s sick – she’s sick!

But there are ways to prevent cancellations, and the easiest is to have solid bookings to begin with.  What you are saying to your potential hostess and how she is responding back to you is what is going to determine whether or not she is going to hold her booking.  I see so many consultants give away their power from the very beginning of the booking process.

A guest says, “I’d like to have a party.”  What does the consultant say?  “When would you like to have it?”  You’ve just given away your calendar and your power.   Who is in charge of when you work?   The potential hostess!

First off, fill your calendar with activity.  Appear to be busy.  If there are days you don’t want to work then make those dates look like they are already booked.  When my husband was alive we went fishing.  That was our time together sharing an activity we both enjoyed.  We fished just about every Saturday from the beginning of fishing season until it was too cold to go out.  I never offered Saturday afternoons for parties.  To make sure they didn’t try to book I took my calendar and filled every single Saturday with what looked like bookings.  What I did was take family member names and wrote them in, making them look like it was a booking.  I knew it wasn’t a booking but to a potential hostess it looked like my Saturdays were filled for months.

Write every appointment you have in your business calendar to look like a booking.  Parent-teacher conference?  Write the teacher’s name in your calendar, the time and a phone number.  Getting your teeth cleaned?  Write your hygienists name with a number and time.  Put an address in if you need to.  However you indicate a booking in your calendar – have everything you do in your life in your business calendar and make it look like a booking.

Why?  Because the busier you appear to be the fewer cancellations you’ll get.  When a potential hostess sees that you have a blinding snowstorm on your calendar (a lot of white and not much of anything else) that is giving her a non-verbal communication that you’re not busy, and if she can’t hold her party there are plenty of other dates where she can change it to.

How serious are you about your business?  Are you projecting that to your potential hostesses?  I’ve told hostesses, “This may be a party to you but it is a business to me.  If you can’t hold this date I need to know ____ days in advance so I can book someone else for that date.  I want to make sure I am working that day so I can pay my bills.”  That startles a number of people and takes me out of being the “consultant with a hobby” and takes me to a serious business woman.

What are you saying when you make booking bids during your presentation?  Are you saying, “When you book your party your hostess will receive…..” or are you saying, “When you hold your party your hostess will receive….”

Do you send out the invitations or do you hand her some invitations and wish her luck?  When you send out the invitations you know how many people she has actually invited!  Yes, I know, it costs you more.  But isn’t it worth the expense?

If she is hemming and hawing about a date, do you suggest that you could call her tomorrow when she has her calendar in front of her?

If you provide an incentive for her to book a party – never, NEVER, give it to her until the night of the party.  If you give it to her when she books the odds are stacked against you.  She has your product and you will probably never see her again.

Are you staying in contact with her either through email the phone or both?  If she’s not taking your calls or not responding to your emails that’s a pretty good hint she is not going to hold.  Then I would leave the message, “Sally, I haven’t heard back from you.  I hope nothing is wrong.  I do need to know if you are planning to hold your party.  If I don’t hear back from you within 48 hours I’ll need to give that date to another person who wants to have a party on that date.”

Get your potential hostess excited.  Find out why she is having the party.  Just recently a potential hostess told my hostess, “This was really fun.  I think my friends would enjoy it too.”  So when I talked to her about booking I talked to her about the fun her friends would have and, if they took advantage of that month’s guest special, they would save money, too.

And, finally, don’t be a push-over.  A hostess called as I was packing to do her party and told me her phone had been ringing off the hook with people telling her they wouldn’t be able to come after all.  She was very upset that she would be having only four people instead of the ten she had told me.  She was calling to tell me not to come.  So I said, “You know what Sally?  You set aside this time to have  a party and those four people set aside the time, too.  We’re going to do it anyway and we’ll have fun with the four people.”  Her party ended up being a $700 party with two bookings.  All from 4 people!!

Want to share this post with others?  Feel free to do so, but please, keep the following with it.  Reprinted with permission of Ruth Fuersten at http://www.booksellrecruit.com/sq

How do you get the idea of booking a party plan direct selling party to look and feel easy for the hostess? 

One of my favorite people is Tammy Stanley who is one of the co-authors in the book Direct Selling POWER.  Tammy’s chapter deals exactly with this issue, and she called it, The Art Of Persuasive Selling.  The chapter is subtitled “How to Influence Prospects with Suggestive Booking Bids.”  So I’m going to borrow, if I may, from Tammy to answer this question.

First off, think about your behavior – before you became a consultant – as you were driving to a home party.  Didn’t you decide how much money you were going to spend and didn’t you decide, before you even got to your friend’s house, that NO WAY would you book a party?  I know I have.  I know lots of people do that.  So do the guests coming to your parties.

Have you ever been at a party and the consultant found out, either from you or your hostess, that you are a consultant and she’s interested in trading parties?  You know, she’ll have a party for you and you’ll have a party for her.  Have you been resistant to doing that?  Why?  Because with a full-time job, a couple of kids, and now a part-time job – you’re busy.  The idea of squeezing something else into your busy life is less than desirable, even if it means getting a booking.  Getting that booking is costing you having a party.  What are your guests thinking?  I’m too busy to have a party.

What are the reasons people (and you) don’t book a party? 

• too busy
• don’t know many people
• house is too small
• hosted a party in the past and it wasn’t very good

So the objective here is – what can you say that addresses the very issues why people don’t book?    See, all of us tell them all about the free products that they will receive when they book a party.  Anyone who has been to one selling party already knows they can get products free if they book.  You’re not telling them anything new!  Do people book to get free products?  Yes they do.  But the idea here is to get more people to book.  What Tammy suggests you do is – get inside their head to get more bookings.

What wording seems better to you when you thank your guests for coming?  “I’d like to thank everyone for coming tonight and I have a very special gift for our hostess ……” OR, as Tammy suggests, “I want to thank all of you for coming tonight.  We all seem so busy these days, and I think one of the most positive things about a home party like this is that it gives us a chance to build a sense of community with our friends, family and acquaintances.  When we feel a part of a community, we feel good about ourselves and we increase our capacity to get through some of life’s challenges.”

Is there anyway a person sitting there could disagree with what you just said?  No.  As a matter of fact, she may well be nodding her head in agreement with you.  Get them to agree with you that holding a party is a good thing for her and her friends.

What’s are the biggest complaints you hear from people today?  Not enough time and not enough money.  ALWAYS coach your hostesses to follow the KISS method – Keep It Simple Silly.  Absolute death to getting bookings from a party is when the hostess has gone overboard in the kitchen.  When guests see all kinds of things to eat they think, “I don’t have the time to make all of this and I sure don’t have the money, either.”  What does your company provide the hostess when her guests book?  Remind her of that and let her know that the one of the things she can do to get more bookings is to keep it simple.  Part of your job is to point that out to the guests.  Tammy suggests you say, “I like all my hostesses to save time and money.  That is why I suggest exactly what our hostess tonight has done – a bowl of pretzels and a bowl of chocolate candies alongside a favorite beverage.  Hosting a party really can be simple because your friends care more about getting together.”

Isn’t that true?  Don’t friends care more about getting together?  Do you think your guests will agree with that statement?  Do you see how you are “moving them along” to getting them to saying yes to booking their own party?

These are the kinds of booking bids that will get you booked.    Talking about booking from the guests’ point of view and overcoming their objectives to bookings before they even have an opportunity to voice it, is a way to get your calendar full.  Think about what people have told you as to why they aren’t booking and come up with a way of overcoming that objective, and say it as part of your demonstration, before they even have a chance to voice it to you.

Did you like what Tammy had to say about booking?  Doesn’t it make sense?  What I shared with you is just a snippet of her chapter.  Something else I’d like to share with you is that I think Direct Selling POWER is a fabulous book.  There are things in it for every level of direct sales.  Whether you have just started or have a team of thousands there is information in Direct Selling POWER for you.   Because I’m so convinced that this is a great book and needs to be in the hands of every person in direct sales I went into my website and did a couple of changes.  Usually the book sells for $24 plus shipping and handling which brings it up to $30.   But if you go into my website at http://www.booksellrecruit.com click on the PRODUCT button  and order the book before Monday August 2, 2010, I’ll send the book out to you for only $20 and I’ll pick up the shipping.

Want to share this post with others?  Feel free to do so.  Please keep the following link with it when you do.  Reprinted with permission of Ruth Fuersten at http://www.booksellrecruit.com/sq

When I sent out the email asking you for you biggest issues around your business, several of you expressed this :  You have a customer who has expressed an interest in booking a party.  How do you get them to follow through and actually book the party?

Have you ever been interested in seeing a movie but the movie came to your community and you didn’t see it?  Have you ever been interested in buying an item but you didn’t buy it?  Why?  Because it was something you were interested in.  It wasn’t something you absolutely need to do or buy.  You simply have expressed an interest.  So are your customers. They are expressing an interest in booking.

What would it take for you to see that movie or buy that item?  For me it would take more information.  Maybe talking to a friend who has seen the movie and loved it.  Maybe for an item I’m interested in purchasing, the sales clerk telling me it’s going on sale next week.  So the question is – what does the guest need to know to go from interest in booking to actually booking.

One of the things you can do is to explain your hostess program.  Yes, I know, you explained it to them as part of your demonstration.  The issue is – was she listening?  Probably not.  Unless she was already interested in booking when you explained it she may not have been listening to you.  So when someone expresses an interest in booking but isn’t booking tell her, “Let me explain to you what you receive as a hostesses ….”  She may have questions about booking a party.  Ask her, “Do you have any questions about having a party?”

And there is the dreaded phone!  The person who tells you to call her but when you do she doesn’t answer.  You call her several times and she doesn’t respond to your calls.  Always try to get a date and time for the call.  If she doesn’t answer but you get her machine leave a message:  Hi Sally, this is Ruth from XYZ Company.  We met at Mary’s last night and you asked me to call you today to set a date and time for your party.  I hope I’m calling you at the right time and I sure hope nothing is wrong.  Give me a call back at 333-1234 and I can answer any questions you may have about having an XYZ party.

By saying, “I hope I’m calling you at at the right time” you’re saying you may have made a mistake.  I’ve called people at the wrong time.  Just yesterday I called a coaching client 30 minutes early.  I had on my calendar 5:30 but in my mind I was thinking 5 o’clock.  Everyone makes a mistake and you may have made one.  Something may have come up and that is why she isn’t answering.  Expressing concern to another person, reaching out to another person is never the wrong thing to do.

Several days go past and she doesn’t respond so now what do we do?  Do we call her?  Do we not call her?  I’d give her the benefit of the doubt and call her again.  Hi Sally, this is Ruth from XYZ Company.  Just wanted to touch bases with you and see where you are at for having your party.  If you have decided not to have a party that’s okay.  But would you just give me a quick call so I know and I can take you off my list of people I need to call?  My number is 333-1234. Thanks!

We don’t know why she isn’t taking or returning our calls.  She may have gotten home to find out her mother is ill and she had to leave town to be with her mother.  Her husband may have said, “No – I don’t want you to have a selling party.”  Her child may have come down with the flu.  She may have decided not to have a party and she isn’t taking or returning the call because she doesn’t know how to tell you.  That’s why I gave her the “out” on the second call by saying, “If you have decided not to have a party that’s okay.”

Now why would I do that?  Why would I give her an out?  Because is she has decided not to have a party and she feels forced into having a party will it be a good one?  Will it be worth your time and effort?  Probably not.  It takes the pressure off of her and allows her to, as the Chinese say, “Save face.”

If she doesn’t call I would assume she has decided not to have the party.  But for those of you who are determined to call her again I’d suggest you say: Hi Sally, Ruth calling again.  I’m assuming you’re not wanting to have a party.  If I’m wrong on that would you give me a call back at 333-1234?  Thanks.

Always leave a pleasant message.  You do that by having a nice tone in your voice.  After all, if she has decided not to book you want to keep her as a customer.  If she is invited to another party you want her to come and buy again don’t you?

Direct sales is a numbers game.  You need to go through the numbers to get bookings and to get recruits.  If she doesn’t book it’s not the end of the world.  Just go on to the next person.

Feel free to reprint this post to share with others.  Please keep the following with it:  Reprinted with permission of Ruth Fuersten at http://www.booksellrecruit.com/sq

Continuing on our quest of getting bookings, let it be known that in over 13 years of party plan selling I never played a game.  I really don’t like them!   I hate passing things to the right and to the left.  I hate digging in my purse for things.  Every time I’m at a selling party and the consultant says, “Now we’re going to play another game” my thought is – get on with it lady! 

As a consultant I’ve walked into hostesses home and have had them tell me, “My friends told me to tell you if you play a game they are going to leave.”  I had guest come up to me and thank me for not playing those “stupid” (their word, not mine) games.  Only once in 13 years did I ever have a guest ask me why I didn’t play any games.

Why all the negative around games?  Because people have been in situations where they have felt pressured.  Pressured to book a party or pressured to take recruiting information and all of it was done around a “game.”  People don’t like to feel pressured.

The top two reasons people book a party from you is because they either had fun or else they learned something.  Having fun does not necessarily mean they played games.  Let me give you an example of a party I had where the consultant had at least a $1000 show and 3 bookings.  She ended up with a $400 show and no bookings.

The product was clothing.  I had 6 or 7 friends that came to the party and one had brought her teen-age daughter.  We were trying on the clothing, modeling for each other, telling each other to try this or that on – we were having fun.  There were howls of laughter as one of the guests came out of the bedroom wearing a crazy combination and said, “So tell me, is this ME?”   Guests paraded around the kitchen table doing their best imitation of a model.  Oh my gosh were we having fun!  Guests had piles of things on “their” corner of the bed in various bedrooms they were seriously considering buying.   Guests were saying things to me like, “Please tell me she takes credit cards!”  “This is so much fun and they are all so cute I can’t decide what to get.”  “I’m going to book a party so I can get everything I want.”  “There’s 5 things I’m getting so far.”

Doing a quick count I knew two of my friends were going to book and I had already decided I was re-booking for the new catalog.  I figured if everyone got at least half of what they were saying they wanted I had a $1000  to $1500 party going here, and I would be getting everything I wanted through the hostess program plus a lot more. 

And then disaster struck!

The consultant called everyone back into the living room and said we were going to play the Egg Game.  She held up a basket of about 50  plastic eggs and told us that in each egg there was a slip of paper.  The slips said:

• $5 off your purchase tonight
• $10 off your purchase tonight
• 10% off your purchase tonight
• 20% off your purchase tonight
• book a party

All we had to do was draw an egg to “win” but if it said Book a Party we had to do that.  The consultant stood there with a big grin on her face and asked each guest if they would like to take an egg.  Everyone said no.  The consultant ended up with egg on her face.  No one took an egg.  She tried to coax people into taking an egg.  Again they said no.  She reminded people they could get 20% off their purchase.  Everyone said no. 

What did everyone do?  They grabbed their sales slip and started filling it out.  Once they had paid for their orders they left.  Hardly anyone stayed for the dessert I had made.  In other words – they bolted.

After everyone had left I looked through the slips.  My guest who said she was getting 5 things bought 2.  People who had a pile of things they were considering bought one.  Sales were $400.  Bookings?  None.  Nada.  Zero.  I didn’t re-book either.

Why?

The next day I called my friends and asked them.   They had the exact same feeling I had and the exact same reason to not book.  When the consultant broke up the party to play her egg game she had interrupted everyone having a lot of fun.  The number one reason people book.  Everyone felt pressured to take an egg.  The comments I heard were, “I didn’t book a party because I don’t want my friends to feel pressured to have a party like I was.”  “I couldn’t believe how she tried to pressure everyone into booking.  I cute my order down too.”  “I didn’t tell you, but I wanted to book a party but after that so-called game there was no way I was going to have one.”  I ended up apologizing to my friends!

What happened?  Two things.  First, it was what the guests, and I, perceived to be going on.  Every one of us thought the same thing.  We knew the eggs were stacked against us.  We knew, in that basket of 50 eggs, there was ONE slip that said $5 off, ONE slip saying $10 off, ONE slip saying 10% off and ONE slip saying 20% off.  We all felt pressured to book a party.  Was that reality?  She may well have had an equal number of slips.  But is was what the guests perceived to be going on that was the turn off to them booking – and buying.

Secondly, the consultant wasn’t in the kitchen were the action was.  She was in the living room where she had set up her display.  I’m not sure what she was doing in there.  I guess she was helping people pick out what they were going to try next.  Be where the action is!  If she had been in the kitchen she would have realized how much fun everyone was having.  She would have answered that yes, as a matter of fact, she does take credit cards.  She may well have realized she had a couple of bookings already.  She would have realized she had people who were considering buying a lot of her products and quietly said to them, “You may want to consider buying three or four things tonight and getting the rest of the things you want at your own party.”

Now do you understand why I tell you to analyze your party?  Where do you “have” them and when did you “lose” them?

Something else you might want to do is say to your hostess, “On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate this party?”  If they don’t say 10 then ask them, “What do you think I could do to make my presentation a 10?”

Feel free to share this post with others.  Please keep the following link with it:  Reprinted with permission of Ruth Fuersten at http://www.booksellrecruit.com/sq

Recently I sent you an email asking what your 3 major issues are in dong your direct sales business.  The response was truly overwhelming!  The number one issue?  Bookings!  I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how I want to respond to your issues.  My thought is “Ruth, start at the beginning.”

Many of you asked how to get bookings over the phone  What did we all do when we first started our business?  We got on the phone and called our friends and family members and asked them for bookings to help us get started.  The issue now, because we have started our businesses is, how do I ask for a booking without sounding like I am begging people to book?

First off you have got to be collecting information from the guests at your parties.  This is crucial.  Why?  Because the more you know about people the more business you can do with them.  Use either a Wish List or a Door Prize slip, and have an area on the door prize list for them to write down products they would be interested in if they ever go on SPECIAL.  Do not use the word SALE on your door prize slip or your wish list.  Always use the word special.

Now to use that information to get bookings over the phone is not all that difficult.  When your company offers a product for free as a booking bonus you can go through your wish lists or door prize slips and see who has written down that product as something they would like if it ever goes on special.

If your company doesn’t offer booking specials or hostess specials, then you can decide how much are you willing to give away to get a booking.  If you’re willing to give away, say $15 cost to you to get a booking, then how much does that turn into for the the retail price of a product?  If your take is 40% that means you can give away a $25 product and the cost to you will be $15.  So starting there, go through your lists and find products people have written down that cost around $25, and start calling people offering them the product they want as a special for booking.

That call would go like this:

Hi Sally, this is Ruth from XYZ Company.  We met at Mary’s when she had her XYZ party.  Sally, I noticed at Mary’s that you indicated on your door prize slip (wish list) that you wanted to know when Product A goes on special.  Do you have a couple of minutes for me to tell you about the special we have on that product?

Sally I don’t know if you’d be interested or not, but I didn’t want this special to end and you not be aware of it.  XYZ Company is offering that product for (month), absolutely free, just for booking a party.  Of course you’ll also be able to take advantage of our generous hostess program.  Sally is that something you would be interested in taking advantage of?

Did you notice how you are not saying, “I have a special.”  You’re not saying I have a special because as soon as you do you sound like you’re out of bookings and your desperate.  No matter if it is your special or a special from the company you are always presenting the special to people as being from the company.  Are you lying?  No!  You’re not.  YOU are XYZ Company to your customers.  Therefore, the special is from XYZ Company.

Did you notice how you are not begging anyone to have a party for you?  Basically what you are saying to the person is – you told me you wanted to know when this product goes on special.  It’s on special.  Are you interested in taking advantage of the special?

When you get to your closing line, “Are you interested in taking advantage of this special” you are going to get one of three responses.  She might say – no – not interested.  She may tell you she doesn’t like to have selling parties.  Then ask her if she would like you to call her if that item ever goes on sale.  If she answers yes to that, mark her slip sale person, doesn’t do parties.  A second response is she may ask you questions about what she needs to do to have a party.  Simply answer her questions and again ask for the booking.  Or she may say yes, she’d love to have a party.

The issue often is, how do we ask for the booking?  We get all done with our offer but how do we ask for the booking?  That’s why I like the question, “Is this something you’d like to take advantage of?”  Ir is asking for the booking based on the information you provided, plus it’s getting to a yes, no or maybe quickly and easily.  If I want to call a number of people I want to get through the no’s so I can get onto the yes’s as fast as I can.  This is a quick and easy way for me to get bookings over the phone without feeling like I am begging family, friends and former hostesses to book again.

Want to share this post with others?  Feel free to do so but, please, keep the following link with it.  Reprinted with permission from Ruth Fuersten at http://www.booksellrecruit.com/sq