CHAPTER 11

Step into the Spotlight

PARTIES ARE PAYDAYS, but you will have to work hard and smart to hit the jackpot.

Sales are your instant profit, bookings your future profit, and recruits could be your lifetime profit! Keep all three top of your mind from the moment the first guest arrives until the last one leaves.

It’s not enough to think business, bookings, and sales, or display business, bookings, and sales. You have to give significant talk time to all three.

If you allow sales to dominate your parties, you will never build your business beyond the most basic reward level. You have to weave all three components throughout your party. If you’re as interested as you are interesting, people will listen.

Let the party and business bags act as reminders of your goals and measures of your progress. At the end of the party, all six of them should be in the hands of your best host and business prospects.

Every party gives you four chances to work your magic:

1. Meet-and-greet time

2. Presentation time

3. Closing time

4. One-on-one time

I’ll cover the first two in this chapter. In Chapter 12, you’ll learn how to close, and in Chapter 13 you’ll learn to make the most of your one-on-one time.

Meet-and-Greet Time

Allow at least fifteen minutes to get to know your guests and for them to get to know you. Introduce yourself as they arrive and thank them for coming. Help with their name tag, pens, and paperwork, and invite them to browse your display. Then relax and enjoy their company.

Start identifying your best prospects immediately. Who’s the bright light? Who’s the most interested? Who’s the most interesting? Who has children? Who’s wearing your products? Who’s on your prospect-shopping list?

Asking questions will help you get to know them:

“How do you know Ellen?”

“What made you decide to come tonight?”

“Do you have children?”

“Have you been to any other parties recently?”

If you start your presentation too early, you’ll be talking to strangers and you’ll deny guests time to mix, mingle, and peek at your display. Meet-and-greet time also allows latecomers to slip in so that your presentation is not disrupted.

Presentation Time

Presentation time is when you step into the spotlight. There are no retakes in a live show so step up and give your best performance.

As you work through your presentation, keep sight of where you are taking guests: on a journey toward the business, the booking, and the order. Having a basic structure mapped out will keep you on track as you put your games, tools, questions, stories, and commercials to work. But don’t be so rigid that you can’t adapt to your audience’s interests.

Invite your host to introduce you. All she needs to say is “Hi everyone. Let’s get started. I want to thank you all for coming and introduce you to Nikki, our consultant.” By sparing yourself the task of attracting guests’ attention, you can focus on making a great first impression.

The start of the party is not the time to subject guests to a five-minute lecture on your company history or founders’ vision. If your first few minutes are flat, you’ll deflate the mood quicker than you can pop a balloon. It’s time to dazzle guests so they think, “This is going to be great. I’m glad I came.”

I suggest saying, “Hi everyone. Thank you for being here. I’m so glad that you made it and I can’t wait for you to experience our amazing products. But first, let’s thank Ellen for inviting us all into her home.”

Thanking your host for “inviting us all into her home” includes you as a guest, not an outsider.

Hand her a beautifully wrapped thank-you gift as your first bookings commercial. You may like to add, “You’re going to love it. I’ve had hosts who have booked a party just for the gift.”

Or you can say, “It’s a gift that we reserve exclusively for our hosts. So don’t look for it on the order form. You have to host a party to get one.”

If the gift your company provides is not especially exciting, you can substitute it with a better gift or let the wrapping work its magic. The recognition is worth more than the value of the gift.

Set a positive tone by being generous at the start of the party. Say, “Who feels lucky? Did you remember to bring your invitation? That’s great, because we’re about to draw our first winner. If the sticker on the front of your invitation matches the one I draw, it’s going to be you! But you have to be here to win. So, if I don’t draw an exact match, we’ll draw again.”

As the winner chooses her gift, say, “One of the best parts of hosting your own party is knowing your friends will win free gifts. Enjoying your own free shopping spree is the other.”

Point to your party bags and say, “Who loves to shop? Everything you need to earn your own free shopping spree is in this bag. I’ll tell you more about it later but, meanwhile, if you’re already thinking you want your own party, make sure one of these bags has your name on it.”

Hold up your calendar and say, “My party calendar has all my available dates highlighted. All you have to do is find a date that suits you and it’s yours.”

Draw attention to your star dates by saying, “You will see that some of the dates are marked with a star. Star dates mean extra gifts. But there aren’t many, so you have to be quick to spot one, because the first person to write her name on that date wins.”

If you prefer not to use the star dates, say, “And the best part is, if you book a party before I ask you to, you’ll get this extra gift!”

Hold up a gift as you hand your calendar to the nearest guest so she can choose a date or pass it on.

Hold up two pens and say, “You may be wondering why you have two pens. It’s so that you can use the blue pen to mark products you are most interested in and the green pen for products you may be interested in, or that you think may be a little over your budget. I have some more news about that later.”

“Does everyone have an order form? You’ll also notice that some products are highlighted. They’re the ones that I’ll be focusing on tonight [are our best sellers/are on special right now/are my top personal picks].”

Now is a good time to play a game to reveal a top prospect. There is a wealth of games to choose from in Chapter 15, “It Pays to Play,” including my surefire booking game “Icebreaker.”

Pop the prize into one your business bags, and when you congratulate the winner, say, “Congratulations, you win [this amazing hand cream] plus all you need to know to start your own party plan business.”

Hold up your guest slips and say, “I have plenty more gifts. Make sure you fill in your guest draw slip so you can be in the next lucky guest draw.”

Briefly share your story, keeping it to a one-minute maximum. You can say a lot in sixty seconds if you choose your words carefully:

“Has anyone ever dreamed of owning her own business? I know I did but I never thought it would happen. I thought it would cost too much and I was nervous about being on my own if things didn’t work out. Then my best friend started selling these fabulous spa products and I hosted a party for her. “But I still didn’t think about joining. It was only when she called to say she had won a cruise that I thought, ‘That’s my kind of job.’ That was a little over a year ago and right now I’m working toward earning a cruise to the Bahamas. But the best part is that I finally achieved my dream of owning my own business.
“So if your dreams are bigger than your paycheck, take a business bag home with you and find out how you can join us on our next cruise.”

Or you can say:

“I started this business when my children were small. I love being a mom but I love working, too. I was the first of my friends to start a family and I remember them talking about a book they had all read and thinking, ‘The only book I’ve read in the last six months, probably a hundred times, is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.’ I felt isolated and I didn’t like not having my own money. All that changed when I started my business.
“So, if you’re a mom who wants to have the best of both worlds, take one of these business bags home with you so you can read more about how to be a mom and own your own business.”
Switch to a different angle if you’re not seeing the lights go on:

“My husband calls this my ‘bling job’ because the first thing I bought with my earnings was this ring. But the extra money has made a huge difference to us. It’s taken the pressure off my husband, for a start. He has a good job but our money always used to run out before our week did.
“My party business pays for things we didn’t used to be able to afford, like our weekly ‘date night,’ and we just bought a new car. Does anyone else here want a lifestyle that’s bigger than her paycheck?”

Don’t get so carried away with your story that you forget why you are sharing it. The fastest route to a new recruit is to trigger as many of these responses as you can:

“I could do this!”

“I’d love to do something like this!”

“Maybe it’s time I did something about my job.”

“This sounds like the perfect job for me.”

“This sounds like my dream job.”

If you’re not sure how to create your story, try filling the blanks in this sentence:

“I was _____ but_____ so _____.”
“I was a loan officer for a bank but I got tired of all the petty politics, so when I learned about this business, I knew it would be perfect for me. My only regret is I didn’t do it sooner.”

Anyone who hates game playing at work will think, “Kaching!”

If you’re working full-time and running your business, complete this sentence:

“I am _____ but _____ so _____.”
“I am a physiotherapist but I could never afford to travel on my income. So I started doing parties. My parties are my travel money. I’m saving to take my mom on a trip back to Italy. She can’t wait to catch up with family she hasn’t seen in twenty years and I can’t wait to shop till I drop. Who loves to travel?”

You don’t have to share your whole story at one time. You can introduce different parts of it at different times. You could follow the previous story with this:

“What I love most about this business is not having to ask, ‘Can I afford it?’ when I want something. If I really want it, I book more parties so I can pay for it. Who loves to shop?”

Learn to encourage feedback by asking questions at the end of every story:

“I’m a mom but I do parties to help pay the bills and so that my husband and I can leave the kids with grandma and go on a trip once a year. My company offers an incentive trip every year, and working toward earning it keeps me motivated. The kids love it too because they get spoiled rotten at Grandma’s. Who has a job that comes with a free vacation every year?”

Guests will be ready to hear about your products, but don’t forget: Less is more! Aim for maximum impact in minimum time by leaving out the details and illustrating your products with vivid word pictures:

“These brownies will melt in your mouth.”

“This fragrance will transport you to a tropical island.”

“Add these salts to your bath and you will feel like you’re floating in silk.”

“Once you try one of our saucepans, you will want to switch all your saucepans. The difference in the quality of the food will amaze you.”

“Your skin will look and feel five years younger.”

Don’t forget to add a personal endorsement:

“Once I started using these products, I didn’t want to try anything else. That’s why I decided to sell them.”

Don’t be tempted to oversell. The more you say, the less guests will listen and the secret is to explain what your products will do, not what they are:

“One week on our detox program and you’ll feel like you’ve been on vacation.”
“This lavender oil is so pure and concentrated that one drop will ease away all your tension. Add a drop to each temple when you go to bed and you won’t be awake all night fretting when you want to be sleeping.”

In the same way, talk about the host rewards, not how to host a party:

“Wait until you see what you get when you host your own party.”

Using your imagination to come up with interesting suggestions will stretch your sales. If you sell books, talk about how a specific title makes a great potty book, car book, or book for grandma’s library.

Place tabs in your catalogs to mark products that you will be talking about so guests can easily find them. You can turn that into a game. See “Fast Finger” and other sales games in Chapter 15.

Remind guests about the highlighted products on their order form, and to use both their pens, one for “musts” and the other for “maybes.”

Learn to ask questions before you offer solutions:

“Who hasn’t yet found the perfect skin care? I tried everything and then a friend recommended this brand. My skin felt different immediately.”

Remember to keep stoking the booking and business fires. Most party planners don’t talk nearly enough about bookings and the business and then they wonder why they’re not getting enough bookings and business leads. You can’t toy with those topics and expect results. You have to integrate them throughout your entire presentation.

Try merging business bids into your product presentation:

“When you become a consultant, you’ll get this pendant in your Starter Kit.”
“I actually have two jobs: selling this beautiful silver jewelry and helping other women start their own businesses.”

In the same way, you can combine your booking and business bids:

“I hosted a party and received more than $150 in free products. That’s when the light went on. I thought, ‘My friends would love free jewelry,’ so I signed on and asked my friends to host a party for me. When they saw what they got for helping me get started, they were lining up to be my first hosts.”

The fastest way to light a fire is with fire, so share your enthusiasm and experiences:

“People often ask me what the best part of this job is and I have to say … everything. I’ve never had so much fun and I’ve never felt so happy with my job.”
“The best part is I get to deduct all my expenses off my taxes.”
“As women, we give so much and one of the things I love most about this job is the appreciation and recognition we get.”

Or you can say:

“I went to a party and was blown away by what the consultant was saying. I thought, if even half of it is true, I want to do this.”

What matters is that you are sincere. If you’re working parttime, say so:

“I am still teaching but my goal is to do this full-time.”

If you are new, say so:

“I’m still learning, but the training and support have been amazing.”

Give your business meaning beyond the financial rewards. If you are selling do-it-yourself tools say:

“When I discovered that most of my friends were like me and had no idea how to do basic repairs or maintenance around our homes, I decided to make it my business. What I love about my job is I’m showing women how to be independent. It’s empowering to know you don’t have to rely on others.”

Look for hints that show you someone is interested. To the guest who is being attentive, say,

“Thanks for being so interested. I’m guessing you love scrapbooking as much as I do.”

Don’t shy away from talking about fears that hold people back from starting. You will always have their attention when you talk about what’s on their minds:

“How many of you think you can’t sell? That’s exactly what I thought. But when I saw how much people loved our jewelry, I realized it was more about sharing than selling. Parties are great because everyone gets to try the jewelry on and get instant feedback from their friends.”

You’ll gather valuable information by keeping your ears open. Look for questions that indicate interest.

Question: “How did you get started?”

Answer: “I went to a party and just loved it. I never thought I would end up being a consultant but I’m glad I did. This is by far the best job I have ever had.”

Question: “How did you learn about it all?”

Answer: “I remember thinking the same thing. Learning is the fun part. We have the most amazing training program and it’s ongoing. I never felt that I had to know everything at the beginning. I just started doing parties and learned as I went.”

Question: “How much do you make?”

Answer: “My parties average around $500 and I earn 30 percent of that. Our company even pays for the host gifts, so I earn about $150 a party. This is the first job I’ve ever had that I would do even if I didn’t get paid.”

Question: “Are there many people selling this around here?”

Answer: “Everyone loves our products so we have a few consultants in the area. But we could have ten times the number we have, and we’re always looking for the right people to join us. Why don’t you come to our next meeting? We meet for around ninety minutes and it’s a great way to learn about the business without feeling obligated. Plus you can meet some of the other consultants. They’re a fun group and they’d love you.”

Question: “What did you do before?”

Answer: “I’m actually a registered nurse but nothing would persuade me to do that again. Working shifts takes its toll after a few years. I just love having my own business and I love helping others become self-employed, too. What do you do?”

Question: “Is this your full-time job?”

Answer: “It sure is. It didn’t start out that way. I was working full-time as a loan officer but I quit as soon as I began earning more doing parties than I earned at the bank. Plus, I’m working half the hours. Now I wonder why it took me so long.”
Or, “Actually I am a full-time mom but my parties are my ‘me’ time. The money I make pays for things I’d feel guilty buying if I didn’t have my own income.”

Make sure you are asking questions that will reveal guests on your prospect-shopping list:

“Has anyone been a party planner?”

“Who has been in direct selling?”

“Who was a cheerleader at school?”

“Who would have loved to be a cheerleader but didn’t have the nerve to try out?”

“Who would describe themselves as artistic?”

“Who has the worst job [or the worst boss] ever?”

“Who would quit their job tomorrow if they could?”

Keep the pace moving. If you sense guests’ attention is wavering, change the pace—introduce a game, award a prize, or bring out a hidden item. The more fun they’re having, the more attentive they’ll be and the more likely it is that they’ll buy, book, and consider the business.