ZOOM

Happy MONDAY!  I wanted to tell you that YOU are one in a Minion!  🙂

What a crazy week-end, right?  Jonas, the Blizzard of 2016, will go down in the record books at the Jersey Shore – as well as some other places.  Our wonderful neighbor blessed us by shoveling LOTS of the snow after he did his before he got ready to go to work.  I had to do some shoveling to get the SUV ready for hubby since he went in early to relieve those who had worked all weekend.  I was able to stay home – safe and warm.  I had fun cooking which allowed me to relax a little.  What did you do for fun?

Being snowbound was actually a blessing in disguise for me.  Let me explain…

I had a party scheduled in North Jersey with a group of my favorite ladies who live about 1 1/2 hours away from me.  When I work up Saturday morning to an avalanche of snow and a State of Emergency – I knew that I wasn’t going to be making  my road trip.  I couldn’t get out of my driveway or the street even if I wanted to, so I had to come up with another plan to help my hostess get her wish list for FREE.

My hostess is NOT on Facebook.  I know amazing, right?  So, I asked her to be my guinea pig with  ZOOM – a video conferencing program.  Our Home Office at Thirty One uses this for our Leadership calls and so does my upline.  She was up for the challenge.  I didn’t want to invest any money yet so I told her that it would be just 40 minutes of chatting and showing some of the products that everyone wanted to see.  If we went any longer there was a monthly cost.  Not a lot but I wasn’t ready to make an investment yet.

 So at 7:25PM, we jumped on..

There were 6 guests and me.  My hostess was well prepared with a list of things that everyone wanted to see so I was ready too.  The 40 minutes went by really fast but I was able to answer everyone’s questions, highlight some great products and share with them an upcoming Retirement Sale that starts TODAY!  By the time the call was over my hostess was at $340 with orders still coming in.  She was thrilled since her goal was to get the Hostess Special which was an organizing set of products and all she needed was $200 in orders.

I will definitely use ZOOM again BUT the next time I will pay for the month so that we can talk for a lot longer.  I actually liked this BETTER than a Facebook party because you get to see everyone who is attending just like at a party.  Everyone interacted with each other and helped each other out with product ideas.  I am sure I could Skype or FaceTime too with people BUT I don’t do either of them very well.  I liked ZOOM because I could do it from my computer or a tablet or a phone.

Are you wondering what the Retirement Sale is all about?  You can check it out on my website at www.partywithHope.com.  The sale is through January 31st and is while supplies last.

So, who is ready to conquer the world? Ready to tackle the week?

Have a ThirtyOne-deful day!

Hostess Coaching and Party Games

This party idea is courtesy of Melanie Moore, and Melissa Feitsam.

Do your parties need a boost?  Do they seem dull and boring?  Are you struggling with Hostess Coaching? How about adding some more excitement just 24 hours prior to the party?  Here is what you do:

Call your hostess 24 hours before the party. You say, “I need you to call everyone and tell them they need to bring a candy bar. Doesn’t matter what kind, but they HAVE to bring one. And there’s a prize involved that they don’t want to miss!”. You can even send a text picture with this information that she could send a reminder RIGHT BEFORE the party the next day!

So, besides re-confirming the party; you are creating some excitement.  This will get your hostess to call her guests to reconfirm that they will be coming to the party.  You get everyone thinking about the party and NOW they want to be there.  Of course, chocolate will spark some interest because who can resist a reason to buy their favorite chocolate bar.

After the guests arrive, give points for their chocolate bar as follows:

• Milk chocolate – 1 Point
• Dark chocolate – 5 points
• White chocolate – 10 points
• Without nuts = 1 point
• With nuts = 5 points
• With caramel = 10 points
• In aluminum wrapper = 5 points
• If you bought it before tonight = 10 points
• If you bought it on the way here = -5 points
• If you forgot yours & borrowed this one from the hostess/friend = -10 points
• If it is a mini bar = 1 point
• If it is a regular size bar = 5 points
• If it is a king size bar = 10 points

Bonus points can be given for a tie AND it is also a way to plant booking or recruiting seeds:

• 5 points = if you arrived on time tonight
• 15 points = Say sweetly that you want to host your own sweet party with me in the next 30 days
• 20 points – Ask me sweetly for a quick “no-risk”, it’s just paper info pack on our business opportunity
• 25 points = share your best “chocoholic shuffle” days moves right now!

Time for a Winner:

1) Collect all of the chocolate bars from the guests
2) Add up your point totals on your sheet, the person with the highest score wins ALL of the chocolate bars that night (provide a nice gift bag to hold them all in!)
3) Everyone glares at the winner and wishes her acne breakouts and 10 pound weight gain from all of the chocolate!

This is a fun way to kick off your party – I mean everyone LOVES chocolate, right?  The most important part is that your hostess is connecting with the guests about the party.  If they can’t make it, she is reminding them to order online.  If they were on the fence about coming, this may be the deciding factor for them.

Now, you can change this up by having guests bring canned food to donate to the local food pantry or old purses to donate to Dress for Success.  The possibilities are endless – use your imagination and have fun.

Hostess coaching is the key to successful parties!  Whose ready to try “Death by Chocolate”?

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

Facebook Party Tips

In direct sales, Facebook parties are the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae.  They are an extra bonus.  They are not something that you would traditionally use as the foundation for your business.  Okay, no hate mail because I know that there are ALOT of success Facebook partiers out there.  I am just skeptical that you can run your business solely on Facebook parties.

I was all for Facebook parties in the beginning.  I thought it  was a great way to add parties to a hectic month’s schedule. SMACK!  Then reality set in.  I found out that they can bomb just like a any other direct sales party.  There are a lot of trainings out there – ones that claim that you can have HUGE Facebook parties.  I have tried some of them and have not had any HUGE results.  I had some successful ones but the hostess was excited and motivated to reach HER goal.

I recently had a Facebook party with another direct sales company.  I really liked the format – it was short and sweet but I felt like I had enough information to make informed decisions.  It was based on the Tag Team’s 30 minute Facebook Party.  It moved faster than my 15 post Facebook party with a lot more interaction.  Not a lot of text but lots of informational pictures.  So, I was curious and I listened to one of the Tag Team’s FREE 5 Top Tips for Facebook Party calls.

Here is their top 5 tips:

1. Do your party in a group not as an event. I have to admit, this makes me nervous because I don’t want to spam anyone.  The truth is, if you or your hostess personally invites guests and they agree to be added to the party – it is all good.  This means private messages or emails or text messages.
2. HOSTESS COACHING!!!  Just because the party is online, it doesn’t mean you don’t hostess coach.  Encourage your hostess to invite no more than 50 people to the party.  The same guidelines as she would if she was inviting people to her home.  This should be done via personal invitations and NOT a general invite on Facebook.  Most people don’t see those invitations but they do read their private messages, email or text messages.  In some cases, snail mail may even work.  Encourage people to RSVP – offer an incentive.
3. Pre-posts set the tone of the party.  They should be clear and concise with good quality pictures and few words.  You can use pic monkey to design collages or Facebook covers.  Make them fun so that there is interaction between guests.
4. No sales pitch.  Make the pre-posts about the product and not about sales or specials.  Get people talking about the benefits of the product and its different uses.
5. Overposting.  This seems to be the downfall according to the Tag Team of a successful Facebook party.  Pre-posts should be limited to once a day.  As for the party, a total of 5 posts.  YIKES!!  I almost feel like that is not possible but with the use of photo albums guests are able to see a lot of product pictures.

I have always been a multi post person – usually twice a day before the party, then up to 15 or 20 posts during the party.  I have used auto-posting programs like CinchShare so that posts can be posted every 2 – 3 minutes.  The goal was for me to have time to interact with the guests.  I still feel lost and confused, like I am missing things.

So, I am going to tweak my format and incorporate some of the Tag Team’s tips.  My goal is to have a system that gets the hostess and her guests excited so she can earn lots of FREE product.  I mean isn’t that the goal of any direct sales party – REWARDING the hostess with lots of FREE and discounted products.

So, what is YOUR best tip for a Facebook party?  Tell us how many posts you use and what was YOUR highest sales with a Facebook party.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

Will a Mistake End Your Business

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you’ll make one.” ~Elbert Hubbard

Have you ever felt STUCK?  Have you ever had a “less than perfect” party?  Maybe gotten home from a party and realized that forgot to tell the guests LOTS of things about your product, panicked and felt like a failure?How about having a guest rattle off more facts than you did about your products? Did you ever make the decision NOT to do home parties out of fear of failing or making a mistake?  If you are in direct sales, I can almost best that fear and self doubt has crept into your thinking at some point.  Admit it, I am not alone, right?

What do you do when this happens?  Do you retreat to the “safe zone”?  Do you start to wonder if you were cut out for direct sales?  OR did you deal with the fear, embarrassment, self doubt or whatever negative feeling head on?

I had my first home party in several months and I was ready. Outline – check.  Bags packed – check.  Guests – check.  Outcome – priceless (okay, I say that now but that is not what I was thinking as I drove home).

I did all of the right things – hostess coached, posted tempting product pictures on Facebook and arrived ready to WOW every guest.  Well, after two days of being snow bound with kids these wonderful ladies were ready for a “girl’s night out”.  As we gathered around the table, these ladies were not interested in what I had to say, they were more interested in talking, looking at the product, and calling out product to see.  As I collected orders and talked to each guest I tried hard to not feel like i had failed them.

As I totaled the orders from the party to tell the hostess about her benefits, I was pleasantly surprised.  Over $500 in orders, two tentative dates for home parties AND a potential recruit.  Everyone said they had a good time and would see me again soon.

Driving home, I called hubby as I always do and said “not exactly like I planned but good”.  My main goal for each home party is to leave with more bookings. and a potential recruit is the cherry on top!  So, despite what some may consider a mistake ridden party – it was a success.

In the past, I would have spent the entire next day rehashing all that I “shoulda”, “coulda” or “woulda” done differently but I read a blog yesterday by Tiny Buddha that changed my perspective.  It helped me to see failures (real or perceived) and mistakes differently:

1. View mistakes as learning experiences and stepping-stones to get where you want to go.

We all make mistakes when we are learning. It’s the forward motion that’s important, no matter how small.

2. Stop comparing yourself to others. 

We often have unrealistic expectations of ourselves and compare ourselves to those with much greater expertise when we are just beginning. Even the experts made mistakes when they were learning.

3. Mistakes are seldom fatal.

You will live. It’s important to learn to admit that we are human, we make mistakes, and we learn from them. Mistakes are about learning, not about shame.

4. It takes guts to get up wherever you may fall, brush yourself off, and to try again. 

If the direction you are going is true to your heart, you simply need to keep honing your skills.

So, who is ready to learn from their “mistake” or “failure”, move on and ROCK their business?

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

What If

Are you in direct sales?  It doesn’t matter what company because I am sure you ALL have access to this information in your back office.  If you don’t, maybe you are with the wrong direct sales company… Just saying!!!

For those who are with Thirty One, you may already know this but I think it is a GREAT way for you personally or your team to take baby steps in growing their business.  Can you answer the following questions about YOUR business?

1. What is your party average per quarter or catalog season?
2. What is your average total party sales for the same period?
3. What is the average number of people at your parties?
4. What is the average guest spend at your parties?

Did you know that by answering these four questions, you have the knowledge to grow your business by leaps and bounds.  You may be wondering how, right?  They are numbers and maybe you don’t focus on the numbers.  Maybe numbers scare you?  Numbers can be scary but when we put them in simple terms, they can help to motivate you by taking the baby steps necessary to grow your business.  Here how is works (I am going to assign some numbers :

• Your party average for last catalog season: 3
• Your average party total: $548
• The average number of people at your parties: 6
• The average guest spends: $67

Now, time for the math problem…what if you were to add just 2 people to each of your parties.

2 people x $67 per person x 3 parties = $402 in additional sales for a $100 increase in your commission

So now add 1 party per month, for a total of 4 parties.  Nothing else changes..

1 parties x 6 people per party x $67 per person = $402 in additional sales for a $100 increase in commission

Here is what your month would look like if you added BOTH 2 people and 1 party:

4 parties x 8 people per party x $67 per person = $2,144 in total sales for the month – AWESOME

Growing your business doesn’t have to be taking HUGE steps.  Just little ones that can make a difference.  Don’t have time to add another party per month, that is okay.  If you were to just hostess coach and add 2 more people at each of your current parties, you would add to your commission check.

Maybe you already hostess coach and the numbers still are stuck at 6 – try something different.  Encourage your hostess to collect outside orders.  They are the “invisible” guests at a party.

Despite my background in grant writing, numbers can sometimes confuse me.  I need to think through the logical steps of what answer I am trying to reach then it all makes sense (sometimes).  If the numbers are confusing to you, talk with your upline, find a friend who can help you understand them, and let them be your friend.  Believe it or not, they can be the key to growing your business.

Work smarter not harder…

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

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