Patricia Kagwiria Makhulo asked:


Dear Home Party Consultant, Direct Sales Rep., & Direct Selling Business Owner,

In my last article, An Open Letter To : Direct Sales Consultant, Direct Selling Business Owners On How To Triple Home Party Sales we laid the foundation for improving direct selling ratios. Today we are going to focus our minds of increasing and improving home party sales ratios. This will lead to more home party sales and direct sales profit!

There are 5 ratios that will factor into your tracking:

1. Dialing/Contact Ratio : How may dials and/or contacts to do you make a week?

2. The Home Party Booking & Appointment Ratio — Of the people you do connect with or have a conversation with, how many of them book an at home party?

3. The Hosting/At Home Party Show Ratio — Of those who make the appointment to host an in home show party, how many actually showed.

4. The Closing Ratio — Of those who showed, how many of those resulted in home party sales? In other words how many people made a purchase? These sales do not have to be limited to your in home party demonstration. Did you send out catalog to your hostess to hand out to those who are unable to attend home parties?

5. Follow Up & Follow Through Ratio — How often to you follow up with those have expressed an interest but haven’t nailed a time or place? What about those that show up to a home party and don’t purchase? What about catalog sales? The are sales waiting to happen. Don’t drop the ball because you got a no or a not now.

The most powerful direct sales training tips I ever got were from a man name Jeffery Zalweski “the power of 45”.

To get on the right track you must first set some benchmarks. For example, depending on what you are selling and how frequently people buy what you’re selling, set a target amount of people to speak to per day this is what we call a benchmark!

I recommend a 10 a day regimen. Most people will tell you that sales is a numbers game and they are right about that. Problem is what numbers count? Make it about quality not quantity! Make 10 dials/per day or 10 -15 contacts/day

Then, set a benchmark for the number of people you want to make an appointment to host a home party. Finally set a bench mark for the number or amount of home party sales you would like.

Start each day by tabulating/documenting exactly what happens. That will give you a rough idea of what your ratios look like.

The Appointment Ratio – 40% (If you speak to 10 people, 4 people will book home parties)

The Show Ratio – 60% (If you make an appointment with 10 people, 6 will show/attend the in home party)

The Close Ratio 50% – (If you do a home party demo/presentation to 10 people 5 will buy).

Based on these ratios, to get 3 sales per day, you would need to contact 40 people per day. Of those 40, 12 would make an appointment, 6 would show and 3 would buy.

As you put this process in place, you will see what your true ratios are, but it’s at the very least a starting point. As time goes on, you will also begin to figure out how many calls you need to make each day to reach your estimated goals. This right here is the key to home party plan success, knowing that it takes to get you to the next level.

Here is the best news ever, with time you will notice an interesting phenomenon, that once you improve your booking ratio, you will need to speak to less people to make the same amount of money. Or you could speak to the same amount of people and make more money.

In either case, you will be in a better position to be successful in direct sales, once you start learning direct selling ratios and managing your home party business based on real time numbers and not hear-say or upline advice.

Myself, and Ann Sieg, the Renegade Network Marketer, top notch sales people and others who are successful have been using these strategies for years.

Here’s to a more profitable home party business.

Party Plan Pat



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Patricia Kagwiria Makhulo asked:


Direct sales and home party businesses are booming. Direct selling is definitely the wave of the future as the world goes the current economic restructuring. With party plan companies blooming on every street corner how do you pick the right home party plan company for you? Do you like jewelry? How about make-up? Perhaps food is your thing, no fashion! Skin-care, that’s it! Seems as long as there are products being made, there is a party plan company selling it. The following are the 7 Pillars & Tips For Direct Sales Home Party Consultants for the success to consider when selecting a party plan company.

1) You, The Home Party Consultant: As an independent direct sales home consultant you are the company representative. People will judge the company by how you conduct yourself and your direct selling business. If you find people are a little resistant to what you have to say, don’t take it personally. I can guarantee they had a bad experience with another direct sales consultant. Now is your chance to build a new relationship.

Home Parties Tip: A home party business is not about the party plan company. A home party business is about the home party consultant.

2). Home Party Plan Company Leadership: Does your company of choice have proven MLM/Network Marketing/Direct Sales Experience? How long have they been in business? Are they ethical? –What about their integrity? Is the company privately held or publicly traded? (If the home party company of choice is publicly traded I hope it is one that Warren Buffet owns e.g., Pampered Chef) Have you actually read their Policies & Procedures? How Many pages? (Less is usually better.) WHY? Because the more paper work the less creativity and options you have. It means your every move will be monitored by the party plan company gate-keepers. You might as well get a job! Who does it protect? Comp plan set up to favor/protect distributors or company? Allow ‘walk away’ income? Loopholes to steal your commissions someday?

LONG TERM focus with a solid foundation, or “get rich quick” mentality? I recently read up on the ‘dead’ Circuit city company. The CEO said that their greatest failure was focusing on short term profits instead of long term value. Is your company of choice has not been in business for 5 years…think again

3) Timing of INDUSTRY and COMPANY: Did you know that jewelry home party plan companies are the hottest thing in the party plan industry? Yes Gold home parties are taking the nation by storm. Bill Gates willingly shares his secrets to success, he says:

1. Recognize the future of an industry

2. Take immediate massive action

3. Be at the right place at the right time!

If you can grasp this, success as a home party consultant is all but guaranteed! That said people will never be too young, too thin, too fashionable, too glamorous or too ****. Any home party plan business surrounding these questions and problems will always be a hit! Run from Startups are to be avoided at all costs. This is what we call trending in the direct sales industry. E.g., once Mary Kay unveiled her company suddenly everyone had a beauty and skin care line you could sell from home. You want to find balance in your choice.

What phase is the Party Plan Company? Formulation? Momentum? Critical Mass? Plateau? Companies in the plateau phase offer more name recognition and less of an opportunity. (Under 5 year or 25 + I’d stay away)!

4). TARGET MARKET for your PRODUCTS: Is there huge demand for the home party products you plan on representing? Is the Future bright? Does the product meet Long Term TRENDS? The BIGGEST mistake people make is by making an emotional decision about their choice to become involved in direct sales. Sure your neighbor who is only a high school graduate jumped into party plan company ABC and made a killing and drives the car of your dreams. That is all well and good. However are you suited to the direct selling business? Is it the right time for you to jump in? More importantly have you identified a market for your product? Want to know why most home party consultants fail? because they found a product but have no one to sell it to. Your first step in succeeding is identifying a market for your product and then finding the right home party company. Trust me on this one, you will save yourself a whole lot of trouble!

5) Flagship PRODUCT(s): Products have to be REMARKABLE Not over-priced CONSUMABLE! Seth Godin, author of the best seller Purple Cow speaks at length on the issue of product remarkability. He talks about the mundane-ness of a regular black and white cow over a purple cow. A purple cow is remarkable. Remarkable incidentally doesn’t mean good or awesome

adjective

worthy of attention; striking

Is your home party product of choice one that will compel other to talk about and thus market for you? This is the essence of word of mouth. Is your product average or top of the line? Your product must be good enough to compel repeat buys and persuade me or any other person to tell a friend or ten about it!

6) Compensation Plan: The comp. plan should be the least of your worries, but I will discuss it for your benefit. The home party, direct sales and direct selling industry are all victims of the recruitment scam. You see you are paid for volume not the number of recruits you get. Look it this way what benefit is it to enroll 100 people who buy nothing? However if you make get 10 customers, and each buy $100 of products then you have a percentage of $1000 home party sales. The compensation needs to pay the average person fair percentage. Party plan companies reward home party consultants for selling products NOT for recruiting reps. Avoid comp. plan that pay on levels. Volume is quantifiable. Levels is cut throat and breeds the scams and failings that network marketing has a bad reputation. Paying on VOLUME not levels – drives BEHAVIOR in the field. Do you have a break-away plan? I would be cautious and careful. Best ’statistics’ to determine comp. plan include

‘TAC’ Total Average Commission? ‘PTV’ Percentage of TOTAL volume ?

7) Training, Education, Experience & Personal Development: Duplication is all well and good. Remember what I said at the beginning a home party plan business is about you. You are the single most important determinant of how successful this home party business. There is no such thing as proven SYSTEMS, UPLINE SUPPORT. The only thing that will help you build a successful business is personal development, training, education and experience. Do you have an Action Plan / Game Plan? It is one that can be taught to others i.e., duplicatable while still leaving room for creativity, innovation and expansion? Times have changed. Some things that worked just a few years ago, do not today. Many companies and TEAMS are using outdated systems and methods. Most people (92+% of population) do not like to sell or be sold. Are you building a home party business using 8 track methods in an iPod world? Don’t get caught in a rut!

Wishing you success,

Party Plan Pat



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