Archive for the ‘Hostesses’ Category
June 26, 2009
In my direct sales career, there are many small incidents that don’t seem worthy of a blog post all their own, yet I’d like to have a record of them for posterity or amusement. So I hereby present a random assortment of recent happenings:
* I have a repeat customer with a shopping compulsion that she hides from her husband. She refused to give me her credit card number over the phone the other night, because her husband was in the vicinity and would overhear her. I can’t imagine keeping secrets like that from my spouse. I feel a bit guilty that I’m somehow enabling her…
* When I do booths at fairs, I often put out some crackers and dip as a way to entice people to stop and check out my display and engage them in conversation. At a recent fair, a Board of Health inspector came along and told me that was illegal and I had to throw it out. I understood his position and happily complied, but I thought it was strange that I’ve done this at 30+ fairs before without anybody ever commenting on it.
* I was unloading my car in the rain before a recent party. I opened my trunk to grab the next round of products, and a cat leaped out! I would have got a shock if I’d been driving home and had suddenly discovered I had a live stowaway souvenir from my hostess…
* At another recent party, the glass screen door slammed behind me as I had my hands full of products, hard enough to knock some tchotchkes off a shelf in the next room. Everyone came running to see if I was OK. Fortunately the damaged teapot and photo frame didn’t appear to be of great monetary or sentimental value, but I felt awful! I am meant to be leaving the hostess with additional items, not breaking them!
Tags:craft fairs, credit card, customer, direct sales, display, Hostesses, Party summaries, vendor fairs
Posted in Customers, Hostesses, Party summaries, vendor fairs | Leave a Comment »
June 13, 2009
Recently I was at a fair when a pair of women approached my booth. They began admiring the products I had on display and chatting in an animated fashion. I quickly gathered that one of the ladies had previously hosted two parties with another consultant with my company. However, that consultant left the company a while ago, and since then the customer had not found another source for the products.
She was excited to find me and began filling out an order form; then, after very little persuasion on my part, she changed her mind and decided to host a party with me instead. I love these repeat hostesses, because they know what the deal is and how hosting works. Typically they have a circle of friends who also like the items and keep asking when the next party is going to be!
It got me thinking about what happens when a consultant quits. Usually when that happens, it’s because they feel they have exhausted their pool of leads. It’s rare to find someone who resigns with a calendar full of bookings! However, even with nothing scheduled, they presumably still have a database of past customers and hostesses. Those people liked the product enough to purchase it or be a hostess in the past (they weren’t all just doing the consultant a favor!). When their source decides to leave the business, are they left high and dry?
A couple of local women who were formerly with my company actually came to me and passed over their customer contact lists when they left the business due to changing circumstances. They sent a message to their customers explaining why they were leaving, and introducing me as the person their customers should now contact for products. I thought this was a very responsible decision, and I felt honored to be chosen (especially as I was not the consultant’s direct upline in either case, but just someone they felt would be reliable and provide good service). If you ever quit your direct sales position, I highly encourage you to “Think of the customers!” and do the same.
This is also a prime example of why you should try to stay in your fellow consultants’ good books. It doesn’t cost anything to be helpful and supportive of others in your wider team or company family, and you never know when they might quit and send business your way!
Tags:craft fairs, customer, direct sales, Hostesses, Other consultants, vendor fairs
Posted in Customers, Hostesses, Other consultants, Referrals | 2 Comments »
June 6, 2009
How many times do you sit down to make calls and you just get people’s voicemails? It can be very frustrating to leave message after message and not connect with a human. It could be customer service calls, or calls to get bookings, or calling leads for your business opportunity. Whatever it is, it can be tough to figure out what to say in that message that is going to make the person want to call you back.
This article by Al Pittampalli entitled “7 tips for leaving great sales voicemails” has some great suggestions. I plan on using it to come up with a script specifically for when I get an answering machine. Then I’m going to hit those phones and see what results I get!
Tags:customer, direct sales, Hostesses, phone, phone calls, Recruiting, voicemail
Posted in Customers, Hostesses, Recruiting, phone | Leave a Comment »
May 7, 2009
Have you ever tracked where your parties come from? It can be a worthwhile exercise and can help you refine the best places to concentrate your marketing efforts. I believe it is Karen Phelps’s site where I first read about the idea of tracking your parties to see how long each chain lasts.
For example, I met Annie at a fair I did at the hospital where she works one Spring. At the fair itself I didn’t sell much, and I had to waste a lot of time and energy dealing with a bounced check from a customer – so when I thought about the event afterwards, it left a sour taste in my mouth. But Annie booked a party, and from that original contact I ended up with 9 other parties and thousands of dollars’ worth of sales…all from people I never would have met if I hadn’t booked Annie.
Or there’s the more recent example of Caroline – I set up my display in a restaurant foyer for their “girls’ night out”. Caroline took my card, and called me a few days later to order a small item. Even though the order wasn’t large, I tried to provide extraordinary customer service, going out of my way to deliver the item (and probably canceling out my commission in the process!) However, Caroline was impressed and told several friends. Three of them then contacted me about the business opportunity, and I’m working with them now, and Caroline wants to have a party in her swanky new city apartment, introducing me to a whole new clientele.
So if you’re feeling like you are stuck in a rut or can’t break out of your circle to get any bookings, remember: it might be that next call or one single contact you make at a playground, mall or fair that turns your fortunes around!
Tags:customer, delivery, direct sales, Hostesses, Marketing, Recruiting, vendor fairs
Posted in Customers, Hostesses, Marketing, Recruiting, Referrals, vendor fairs | 1 Comment »
April 29, 2009
Direct sales is always touted as one of those businesses where you control the schedule and the hours. That’s true to a degree, in that I could avoid scheduling any parties this weekend so that my husband and I could get away together for a much-needed romantic break. However, I am not in control of people who don’t call me back when they say they will! As a result, my weekend was interrupted by my work more than I care to mention, and my poor husband is a very long-suffering guy.
I had a party last week which the hostess promised to close by Thursday – I heard from her at lunchtime with a question, and then not for the rest of the day, despite me leaving two messages. For reasons outside my control, this party HAD to be entered by Friday. That is how I found myself leaving messages from my cellphone while driving on an out-of-state turnpike, and logging on from a distant Starbucks to check if she had emailed me. As they day went on and I hadn’t heard from her, my stress level mounted. I was going to have a lot of annoyed customers if this party didn’t get closed.
Eventually the necessary phone call came, just as I was heading out to dinner with my husband. He patiently sat there in the parking lot which I scribbled down the hostess’ order on a scrap of paper, hoping I was hearing her correctly over the background noise. But she didn’t have her credit card number on her, so I was still missing one significant piece of information and needed to connect with her one more time that night. We ate our dinner and returned to our hotel room, where all thoughts of a relaxing evening watching a movie together went out the window. Instead my husband watched the baseball game on TV while I frantically typed in her order, dealt with a customer check made out to the wrong person, and generally got more and more stressed.
Finally it got to 11pm, my husband was fully-clothed but snoring on the bed, and this woman was still not answering her phone despite many messages. I had to make the executive decision to put her order on my own credit card in order to get the party into the system. I hate doing that, but not doing so would have resulted in many angry customers not receiving their products on time. She called me apologetically the next day, and promised to send me a check. I’m grateful that the money arrived in today’s mail, and thankful that my trust in her was not misplaced. Still, it was unnecessary drama I could have done without.
During the weekend I also had to handle impatient leads requesting more information, past hostesses querying things about their deliveries, and several team members with what they perceived as business crises. I had to deal with so many phone calls and emails, it was crazy. Maybe I should have ignored them all? But my conscientious streak makes it impossible to ignore requests for help, even on a romantic getaway. I might need an intervention! “Hello, my name is The Traveling Saleswoman and I’m addicted to providing exemplary customer service, even at the cost of my personal life and sanity.”
Tags:customer, direct sales, Hostesses, Pet peeves, service
Posted in Hostesses, Pet peeves, priorities | Leave a Comment »
March 27, 2009
A career in direct sales is not a good fit for those who like predictability and routine. If that’s what you crave, I suggest an office job.
When you walk into a hostess’ home, you never know what will greet you. Will there be giant slobbering dogs, a deaf grandma, or rude children? Will the house be a chaotic mess or look like an uninhabited museum? (In both cases I am often scared to touch anything, but for different reasons!)
When the phone rings, will it be your next hostess calling to cancel her party at 12 hours’ notice, or an enthusiastic lead who wants to join your team? It could be a $300 order out of the blue or a team member calling to complain that “no-one wants to have parties anymore.”
At your next party, will you get 3 dates booked and a new team member, or will the crowd stare at you blankly as if you are speaking in Martian? Will there be 20 guests who won’t stop talking, or 3 guests who don’t say a word?
At the end of the month, will your sales and recruiting be enough to promote to the next level in your company, or will you be scrabbling around for sales or worried about missing out on your leadership bonus?
You just never know! That’s what makes this job interesting. You have to be prepared for everything. You have to expect the worst and hope for the best. It keeps you on your toes.
Let’s just say my toes are getting a good workout this week….
Tags:children, customer, direct sales, Hostesses, Pet peeves, phone, Recruiting
Posted in Customers, Hostesses, Pet peeves, Recruiting, phone | 1 Comment »
January 31, 2009
Dear inconsiderate hostess,
I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I usually give clients a second chance. But I’m afraid in your case, you have finally exceeded the limits of even my patience.
I met you at a craft fair in November. You booked a party for a date 3 weeks later. When I called you the day before to find out how many people you were expecting, you told me “only a couple” and that you wanted to reschedule to January “to make it worth my while”. Fair enough; we fixed a January date.
Two days before that, I call you for your numbers – you tell me that you unexpectedly have to work that day and need to reschedule, but you “definitely still want to do it in January because I know people who want to order”. Fair enough; we settle on the last day of January.
Yesterday, I make that courtesy call again. You tell me you are expecting about 6 people, and already have orders waiting for me. You specify a couple of products you want to see in person. We have a brief chat and I confirm that I’ll arrive at your house at 1.15. I begin to get my hopes up at last, concluding that this won’t be the biggest party the world has ever known, but it should still be worth my time.
I locate the requested products, stamp catalogs and load up the car. I get changed into my working clothes and dispatch my husband to entertain the children. I drive to your town, stopping at the post office because I have a few minutes to spare and don’t wish to appear rude by arriving early.
While I’m in the line at the post office, my cellphone rings. It’s you. You need to cancel the party. “But aren’t 6 people planning to show up at your house in 45 minutes?”, I splutter in disbelief. “I can’t do this today”, you say, offering no further explanation. “What about the orders you already have?”, I ask. “I’ll email you, ” you say before hanging up. My mouth hangs open in shock as the call disconnects.
So I just thought I’d write and say thank you. Thank you for messing me around at such short notice – not once, not twice, but three times. Thank you for considering your own time so much more valuable than my own. Thank you for not realizing that this is how I earn my living, and I was counting on this income. Thank you for officially claiming the title of my rudest hostess ever.
I wouldn’t hold your breath if you’re expecting to hear from me again. I have better things to do with my time than waste it chasing after you.
Regards
The Traveling Saleswoman
Tags:cancelation, direct sales, Hostesses, Pet peeves, rude
Posted in Hostesses, Party summaries, Pet peeves | 1 Comment »
January 26, 2009
I do enjoy getting back to a regular schedule of home parties after the lull that often occurs in late December and early January. People seem reluctant to book around the holidays and immediately after the New Year. But I get rusty if I too long between parties. They are much easier to do when you maintain a consistent schedule and don’t have to recreate the wheel with your display or demonstration each time.
The added bonus is that regular parties give me lots of blog-worthy material. I’m almost spoilt for choice after this week’s events. I could write about how I rang the wrong doorbell, because my GPS told me, “You have reached your destination” and I couldn’t see the house number. It turned out that the actual house I needed was a quarter mile away! Or I could tell you how mid-way through my spiel, two heavy products fell off my display and clonked me on the head. Or how I got the shock of my life on the way home late at night, when it turned out I was being followed by a police car that suddenly turned on its lights and siren and passed me at great speed, causing me to nearly swerve off the quiet country road in shock.
But instead I’m going to talk about dogs. Now, I should state that I am not a dog owner. I bear them no ill will, but I am not really an animal lover. But it amazes me the lengths my customers will go to in order to accommodate pets. At one recent party, there was a new puppy who was extremely curious. I am not kidding when I tell you that the owner must have said, “Down!” at least 200 times over the course of the evening. All her guests (including one with two replacement knees) had to climb over gates to get in and out of the family room when they wanted food or drink – the gates were to keep the puppy in the kitchen. At one point a beer bottle cap went flying and the puppy promptly ate it, and there was much wrangling required to get the dog to spit it out. I swear, it was more work than having a baby.
At the other end of the spectrum, another house I visited recently had a dog in a diaper. I’m guessing illness or age had rendered the poor thing incontinent. It wore a velcroed piece of material fastened around its tail with a removable pad inside. Maybe it’s a common accessory, but I’d never seen this before. I can only admire a person’s devotion to their pet that they would be willing to deal with such an unpleasant and frequent task as changing that.
However, it always amazes me when I go to homes where the owners are fastidious about housecleaning and cleanliness, yet seem oblivious to the pet hair being shaken everywhere. I washed every item of clothing when I got home, yet I’m still picking dog hair off things!
Tags:direct sales, dog, gps, parties
Posted in Customers, Hostesses, Party summaries | 1 Comment »
January 18, 2009
In my experience, the best hostesses are the ones who come to me as online leads. They have gone to the trouble of going to the corporate website, navigating various links and requesting that a local consultant contacts them. They are usually (a) pretty committed to having a party and unlikely to cancel (b) passionate about the products and (c) open to considering the business opportunity. Several of my team members are people who first came to me as online hostess leads and whom I had never met before I rang their doorbell on the night of their party. If you are not currently part of your company’s online hostess leads program, either because it costs money or because you have to do something to qualify for it, I suggest you make this a priority if you want to grow your business and have an easier time booking parties.
The worst kinds of hostesses are the ones who get talked into it so that a current hostess can get more free stuff for getting a booking. This is especially true in small groups of friends where sales are low at parties, but they know that getting bookings will qualify them for more free products. They all keep booking off each other, but eventually the enthusiasm runs out and I am stuck with reluctant hostesses who postpone their parties repeatedly or won’t return my calls.
Tags:direct sales, Hostesses
Posted in Hostesses | 1 Comment »
January 8, 2009
Diane Darling wrote a great blog entry today about hybrid networking. What really jumped out at me was this line:
“And do not forget the invention from Alexander Graham Bell. In many cases, picking up the phone and having a conversation will cut through many layers of clutter and expedite your efforts.”
This spoke to me, because (as I’ve alluded to previously) I’m beginning to think I suffer from a clinical case of phone phobia. On many occasions I will do ANYTHING to avoid picking up the phone and calling a lead, customer or potential hostess. It is my least favorite requirement of having my own business. I’m fine face-to-face, love email, enjoy blogging and I’m a confident public speaker. But I would rather scrub my toilet or go for a Brazilian wax than pick up the phone and follow up with a lead or ask for a booking. Many times, I have “call A and B” on my to-do list for days at a time, looming depressingly over me as I endlessly put off the task from one day to the next.
Why is this?
a) A few bad experiences
b) A fear of interrupting someone
c) Finding it much harder to explain myself over the phone than in writing
d) I hate putting someone on the spot to give me an answer immediately
e) I can never figure out how often I should leave a message, or how many times I should call someone before giving up
I welcome any and all suggestions for overcoming my phone phobia!
Tags:direct sales, phobia, phone
Posted in Customers, Hostesses, Recruiting, phone | 2 Comments »
