Hostess Coaching
Hostess coaching is probably the most important thing that a consultant can do to ensure sales party success. Think of your hostess as your business partner and provide the information she needs to help produce sales. Here are a two excellent articles on hostess coaching.
Hostess Coaching – Your Roadway to Successful Home Shows
By Sabrina Coffin
Many direct sales distributors rely heavily on home shows to market their products. Unfortunately, this method of marketing seems to be a bit more challenging than in previous decades.
While many of your friends and family may have good intentions of opening up their homes, the busy lifestyle that has swept the nation prevents many hostesses from following through with their original intent. Sporting events, school breaks, holidays, illnesses and weather conditions are only a few of the factors leading to low party attendance or cancellations.
In a world where shopping on the internet has become rather convenient, we seem to have moved away from community entertainment in our homes. This has created a difficult situation for those who have chosen to work from home while relying on home shows as a primary source of income.
For those who are motivated by a challenge, I encourage you to take a closer look at your method of hostess coaching. You will find that your contact with your hostess prior to your show will greatly determine the outcome of both attendance and sales. If you are ready to take the reigns of your success, the following steps will prove to be beneficial in giving your business a financial face-lift.
Hostess coaching begins the moment you and your hostess agree on a date for your show. At the time a date is determined, you will want to have a hostess packet ready to hand over to your hostess so she can begin to make arrangements with her friends to attend her party. This packet should include the following:
* 3-4 catalogs
* 3-4 order forms for any outside orders
* A ‘wish list’ for her to begin working towards her goal of earning FREE products
* A guest list for her to document the name, address, phone number and email addresses
* A self addressed, stamped envelope
Give your hostess a deadline to have her wish list and guest list in the mail. I recommend a postmark date of 3 days after she has received the hostess packet. Reward her with a special gift item if she has both of these lists to you by the specified date and offer an additional gift item if she gives you a completed guest list of 30 names or more.
Personally mail the postcard invitations for your hostess. You are kidding yourself if you think your hostesses are getting their invitations out in a timely manner, if at all. This is your responsibility and is simply a business expense. If done properly, your party attendance and sales will far outweigh the additional cost of postage.
Make personal contact with each guest 1-2 days prior to the event. Remember to remind them to bring a friend and let them know of any incentives you offer if they follow through. If you are unable to make personal contact, by all means leave a message!
Host a drawing. This is a great way to get more information from your guests. Be sure to encourage each person to put down their email address for future notification of specials and new seasonal catalogs. This is critical in finding out who might be interested in joining your team or perhaps hosting a show.
Display future openings for home shows. With this method, you determine the dates and times you want to work. Write the date and time down on a note card and display this on your table for all to see. Make it available for the guests to pluck the card from the display and bring it directly to you upon checkout. You may want to offer an incentive for booking a show that will be presented to your hostess at the If time of the show.
Have ready-made hostess packets available. You will want to go over all the information in the packet with your hostess. This way she can begin making plans immediately after she leaves the party.
Be sure to publicly thank your hostess. You must show your appreciation for your hostess publicly. During this time, inform her guests of free or ½ price items she has earned as a result of hosting the show. Let them know her goal to earn free items and remind the guests that this is a great time to purchase gifts for birthdays, holidays, graduations and special occasions.
Finally, have a Hostess Appreciation Show immediately after the new catalog is introduced. It is a lot of fun to open your home to recognize your hostesses. As a special hostess incentive, you may want to offer a discounted price on any inventory you have accumulated during the previous season or present them with a gift certificate for any purchases made from the new catalog. This is a wonderful opportunity to book new shows by providing a special luncheon with thank you gifts for each hostess. It may be wise to invite frequent buyers to your appreciation show as a way of saying thank you for their support of your business.
It is important to remember that while you are self employed and fortunate to be able to work from your homes, you must be self-motivated and willing to work the business. Direct sales requires you to get out in your community and begin networking with others to be successful. Be excited about your product and promote your business opportunity and product line to everyone you meet to obtain maximum exposure. You business will begin to flourish once you begin to take the reigns and reap the benefits of being in the driver’s seat leading to financial success!
Sabrina Coffin enjoys working exclusively from her home in the Pacific Northwest on the Washington Coast. She has been in marketing for the past 10 years and has enjoyed the home show aspect of the direct sales career opportunity. If you are interested in learning more about her home business and how she has learned to successfully work her business from the internet, you may visit her website at http://www.DeliveringWellnessToYou.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sabrina_Coffin
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How to Coach Your Hostess Through a Successful Catalog Party
Catalog parties are sometimes more convenient to our hostesses, therefore you should never discourage a catalog party. A hostess will just cancel all together if she feels pressured into doing something she does not want to. If a hostess wants to try a catalog party, allow her to! If the party turns out successful, she is more likely to agree to an in-home show in the future.
Catalog parties CAN be very successful if the hostess is coached properly. Here are some tips for coaching your hostesses through a catalog party.
- Have your hostess pick out the things she wants for free. Then calculate it up to figure out how much she needs to sell to get what she wants for free. This gives the hostess a goal to work towards.
- Make sure the hostess writes out a list of all of her friends and family so she won’t forget to contact anyone.
- Give your hostess a start date and an end date. This way you will not be faced with a month long catalog show. If she has a date she must close by, she will work to make sure she can all orders within her time frame.
- Remind your hostesses to ask everyone if they would be interested in hosting their own party and she can still qualify for more rewards for getting bookings for either in-home or catalog parties.
- Call the hostess at least 2 time though out the set time frame to see if she needs any order forms or more catalogs. Doing this will also give you a chance to “check in” and see how things are going. Ask if there is anything you can do to help her. Offer encouragement at this point if things are not going as well as planned.
- If the catalog party is local, deliver the products yourself instead of having the hostess to make the deliveries. This way you have a chance to meet each customer, introduce yourself, and possibly gain future shows or recruits, by dealing directly with the customers.
