What Can I Do On A Day That I Have No Bookings?

You know the feeling, right?

My phone buzzed…. an SMS was coming through…. and it was…. “OH NO! NOT ANOTHER PARTY BOOKING CANCELLATION!!!!!”

My hostess for this afternoon messaged me to say her 2 year old was sick and so she needed to take care of him and keep everyone else away to avoid them getting sick too….

…. Fair enough…. BUT…. that means that I am now staring at an empty calendar where I WANTED to be working.

….. I had planned to be DOING that party today and making money….

I asked myself…. ‘WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?’

Is it the date I have chosen for the booking? Am I booking my new hostesses in within 3 weeks from the date they make the booking?
Is it the Hostess Coaching? Am I making the effort to sit down with my new hostess and go through the Hostess Party Pack together, showing how she can get her Wish List items with the hostess rewards and writing a guest list of 20 names together straight away so she knows who she will invite?

The reality is….. SOMETIMES we will get an occasional party booking cancellation at late notice and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. I couldn’t stop today’s hostess’ son from getting sick & it is reasonable to say that the party can’t go ahead today if my hostess needs to be the one to stay home and care for her sick child.

So, that leaves me wondering…..

>>>> ‘WHAT CAN I DO ON A DAY THAT I HAVE NO BOOKINGS?’ <<<<

Sure…. I could get on Facebook and do some posts to say I’m placing an order this weekend & throw in a free gift for everyone who orders by Sunday 6pm…

…. OR… I could quickly schedule a Facebook party for Sunday night and send a whole heap of private messages out to everyone in my friends list as well as adding a bunch of new friends online so I can invite them too…

….. BUT NONE OF MY FACEBOOK EFFORTS SEEM TO BE GETTING ME ANYWHERE RIGHT NOW…. it’s so frustrating! I feel like I keep making mistakes online with my social media facebook posts & I kinda get the feeling I might be turning people away from following me…. (anyway, that’s a learning curve for another day, I think).

Back to the question….. “What can I do on a day that I have no bookings?”

I want to do something that will get me into a new circle of contacts… I’m tired of seeing the same party guests showing up and no new bookings coming from those parties because all of their friends have already had parties.

I think I need to get out and show my products to some new people.

….. I’ve done that through vendor events in the past.

…….. You know where I have got some of my best new hostess bookings from? The local markets! And even a small display table inside my local hair dresser salon or childcare centre or even go back to the gym and have a stand in their entry foyer again and show my products to the health club members as they arrive and give the gym manager a free product or a gift voucher as a thank you for being there.

OK….. it’s Saturday today….. I have no bookings for tomorrow morning either, just one booking late in the afternoon….

….. So….. I’m going to call the local market-fair oganiser and book a spot for the local market for Sunday morning & meet some new people…..

………… Even if I only get a few bookings, I only need 1 or 2 new hostesses’ parties to go ahead and that can then get me into a whole new circle of people coming to the parties and then that will make it easier to get the bookings from the parties, because those people haven’t been to my parties before.

ALRIGHT…. I’m feeling more motivated now…. I’m going to turn today’s party cancellation into a positive!

I’m going to try something a bit different at my vendor event stand at the market tomorrow….

…. I’m going to just have my best & most popular products out on the table with no prices & when people stop by I’m going to tell them that everything on the table today is here to pick up and test out and then I’m going to ask them a question….

“Out of everything on the table, which one do you like the look of the most?” And then as soon as they point to something I’ll pick it up and get them to test it, try it, imagine owning it…. kinda like using the Wish List like I do for my party guests at the party….

BUT THEN….. HERE’S WHAT I’M GOING TO DO THAT’S DIFFERENT FOR VENDOR EVENTS…..

….. I’m going to go straight to asking for the booking, instead of just collecting a name and number as a lead to follow up!

I’m going to offer a $50 gift voucher for anyone who books a day and time while at the market stand……

….. It won’t cost me $50, because I’ll take my consultant commission discount off of that, and I’ll only be giving that $50 voucher away if the party goes ahead within 3 weeks from today…. so I think it’s worth it….. I’ll use the Bookings Funnel technique to get the party booking dated into a maximum of 3 weeks away.

So, here’s what I think I’ll say to them once they have stopped by my table and picked up something they love to try it and test it:

“I’m actually looking for people who would prefer FREE PRODUCTS here today…. Because I normally do in-home parties where the hostess gets FREE PRODUCTS for having a get-together with her friends…
“So what I am doing at the market here today, is giving anyone who books a party from here, a $50 gift voucher as a thank you from me…. and that’s on top of all the other free products that the company always gives to our hostesses!
“So, (NAME)…. If you DID have a party….. what would you prefer…. a weekday or weekend?”
And then if they answer positively with either a ‘weekday’ or ‘weekend’ response, I’ll offer them my next 2 available dates in my calendar and book them in!

…. WHAT DO YOU THINK…. SOUND GOOD?

You can give this a try too, if you like. I’ve done this so many times before and it has worked so well!

…. I believe that without doing these vendor events I would never have been able to do a consistent 5-6 parties a week for 6 years in a row….

THIS is exactly what I did to start my bookings:

when I was brand new,
when I had to re-start my bookings again from scratch when I moved interstate into an area where I knew no-one,
and even did this again when I went through the horrible experience of my company closing down and then I joined another company and re-started again….

…. ALWAYS using this vendor event strategy as my Number One choice for ‘How to Get Bookings WHEN YOU HAVE NONE’.

Let me know if you need more help with how to do this for your company or your type of products.

And send me through your questions, so I can help you get new bookings fast too!

…. OH! And can you please send me through your SUCCESS STORIES when you do this and it works for you too? It warms my heart and just makes me feel good when I know that what I’ve shared has helped another Party Plan Consultant to NEVER EVER Run out of Bookings AGAIN!

Cheers to endless bookings!!

~ Mel xx

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***********************************************************

Melanie Parker
Founder of Party Plan 123
“NEVER EVER Run out of Bookings AGAIN!”
Phone: +61 408 084 128
Email: Melanie@PartyPlan123.com
Website: www.PartyPlan123.com