Our mind can play terrible tricks on us when starting in Party Plan, can’t it? As someone who is NOT your leader, your husband, your mother or your best friend, I can be a little more upfront with you. To each other, you and I can admit what really goes on inside our minds when we are starting in direct sales….. Any of these thoughts sound familiar?
“I’m not a sales person, so I don’t think I’m going to be very good at this!”
“All of these direct sales things die out once I’ve worked through my contacts with family & friends, don’t they?”
“There are so many consultants from my company in this area already…. I don’t think there’s enough business to keep us all going.”
“SHE definitely won’t want to have a party for me….. it’s not worth even telling her what I am doing.”
“I’m no good at talking in front of people…. I am terrified to stand in front of the group at my parties!”
“I just can’t ask people to book a party…. I hate being pushy!”
We have a battlefield of negativity to work through in Party Plan….. and guess where the war is going on? Right in the forefront of our own mind!
The thoughts which we dwell on have a habit of becoming our reality. So when we allow ourselves to repeat these thoughts of negativity over and over again, our own thoughts become the poison which eventually kills our business.
NOW…… I want you to imagine that it’s as simple as picking up a big, thick, bright red pen/marker/texter and I want you to see yourself physically crossing out every single one of those negative thoughts which you just read on the screen.
Let’s see if we can flip them around into something that’s a little more positive:
“I know I’m not a sales person, but I also know that good sales come from first building good relationships with the guests I meet… and I can do that!”
“I understand the importance of finding ways to meet new people to offer my free products to as my hostess. I’m sure there’s ways I can learn how to do that!”
“The population of women who use my kind of products in this town is ‘X’….. have they ALL really heard of AND tried AND seen my products within the last 12 months? I highly doubt it! I’m looking for the women who haven’t been to one of our parties in the last year.”
“Maybe she won’t want to book a party, but I guess there’s no harm in offering the free products to her and just seeing what she says! If she says no, I’m not going to take it personally and I’m not going to let that get in the way of our friendship…. I’ll just find someone else to offer the hostess bonuses to and always put our friendship first.”
“Yes, I am terrified of standing in front of the ladies at my party, but I think if I just tell them that I am brand new, a little nervous, but promise to do my best to help them & to have a great time, I think they will be ok with me practicing my party with them. I know if I can just get more bookings, I will get better with each one and my confidence will grow.”
“I never want to be known as the pushy direct seller. So, I’m going to dedicate myself to learning how to skillfully offer what I have to give to my guests instead of trying to get something out of it for myself. If I make people feel special and communicate clearly about what’s in it for them to have a party, then I believe I will find guests who WANT to book a party with me.”
You know, when I started out in party plan I was really BAD at doing some of my first parties…. I was BAD at getting the bookings, stopping cancellations, inviting the right people to join my team & even sometimes just getting the sales!
But, I had also been really BAD at sales when I started in my old career as a sales person in the gym. So bad, in fact, that when my 3 month probation was over, my boss opted to extend my probation another 3 months again just to make sure I was going to be an employee that was worth keeping! I guess in the long run, she’s glad she didn’t fire me as I ended up becoming one of the top sales people for the company in the whole country…. but it took me many small steps to get there, many embarrassing mistakes along the way & a keen desire to learn from my expert trainers.
Because I had gone through that personal growth and understanding in my fitness sales career, when it came to Party Plan, I already knew that I could be successful as long as I first had a strong desire to be in direct sales with a keen sense of WHY I wanted to do this. I was quietly confident that the skills of a GREAT Party Plan Consultant could be learned if I only invested my time diligently into learning them. And the final piece of the puzzle was in the daily ACTION…. I knew that any great result requires consistent action on the right activities. If I did small things every day that helped me produce income as a direct seller, then nothing could stop me from going from BAD to GREAT!
It’s those core principles of personal development which empowered me to go and fight that battle of negativity in my mind as a new party plan consultant.
Stomp out those negative thoughts in your mind, because they are NOT going to help you, they will only DESTROY you.
Replace those thoughts by constantly visually the positive picture in your mind of what life will be like for you when you too go from BAD to GREAT in Party Plan!
FIRST…. SEE YOUR SELF AS THE GREAT PARTY PLAN CONSULTANT YOU WANT TO BE! Just like a pro-boxer visualizes himself beating his opponent before he even steps in the ring.
Then…. BECOME the great party plan consultant. One small step at a time in the right direction… you truly CAN go from BAD to GREAT in Party Plan!
~ Melanie Parker, founder of www.PartyPlan123.com
P.S. JOIN US FOR OUR WEBINAR ON THIS TOPIC!
