Money, Money, MONEY!

            In the direct sales industry or the home party business industry, bookings are the life lines of our businesses, but retail is how we make money.  So retailing is certainly one of the most important aspects of our business.  If we aren’t retailing, we aren’t making any money and if we aren’t making any money then we can’t fulfill our needs for our personal as well as business lives.  I will spend this blog talking about how to get orders before the show, because that is where you need to start, and then I will follow up on other ways of retailing.

So what do I do at my parties to make retailing higher?  First, you have to start BEFORE your party even takes place.  I always hostess coach my hostesses.  In a future post, I will write about the topic of hostess coaching, but in this post, I will only deal with the retail part. 

Hostess coaching is extremely important to the party.  You cannot just give your hostess a packet of stuff and say “have fun and call if you need anything,” and expect to have a great party.  Why is it important for retailing?  Because you coach her and show her exactly what to do to get orders before her party starts.

If your company’s hostess plan doesn’t already award your hostess with something when she gets a certain amount in pre-sales, you need to offer her something.  My hostess gets $25 in free product when she reaches $100 in pre-sales AND when she gets to $300 in pre-sales, she get a free product (I give a watch) that costs around $70 out of the catalog.  Now, I have had a few ladies reach the $300 mark, but most of the time, they get around $200-$250 sold before their party – who wouldn’t love to have a $200-$250 party before the party even starts?! 

Another thing to be doing is keeping in touch with her before her party.  I make about 2 calls after I hostess coach her and check on her.  I always remind her about her pre-sales and how important it is for her to get them so that she can get even more free product.  I encourage her to show the catalog to everyone who is unable to come to the party and ask if they could help her out with even just a small order.  (5 $20 orders is $100!)

Offer a special for her pre-sale orders.  Tell her to offer her customers a buy 3, get the 4^th half price special (I always let the half price piece be the most expensive).  This helps to get retail up.  Or offer a package deal – put together products that work well together and offer them all at a discounted price.  I suggest putting these specials on a piece of paper and going over it with the hostess during the hostess coaching.

Hopefully, this tips help and I will be back with more ways to increase your retail in later posts!

Happy Selling!

Jules ~ The Fun Party Lady