The Direct Sellers’ 1 Month Action Plan to Get Your Bookings from Scratch
Today I am going to share with you a really practical 1-month action plan, which can truly help you to get more bookings. If you have the ambition of going from zero to hero as a direct seller and learn how to restart your bookings from scratch, this story is for you.
Rather than just giving you the final plan, I am going to take you step-by-step through the process of making it. This is the only way you can really understand and use this calendar. Every one of you is welcome to get your own copy of the 1-month action plan HERE.
So, let’s start from the beginning. When we join our companies, most of us have a goal of doing two or three parties a week. This can give us a really great income, in exchange for a few hours of work. Rather than only having 2-3 parties booked, we want to aim for 3-4 parties booked each week to have a little bit extra; This is what I call “your insurance policy,” which can come in handy if you get a cancellation or a postponement.
Most party plan consultants work about 15 hours per week, holding 3 parties per week. For me, personally, that was not enough. I had to do about five to six parties per week to maintain the regular, steady and reliable income I needed to cover all my living expenses. This is why I was doing my party plan business full time.
I actually did a lot more than what the calendar shows, but I am aware of the fact that everyone is not working at that level. A lot of us are trying to do this while fulfilling our part-time work, family, school responsibilities and combine it with everything else that’s been going on in our lives.
We are going to break this down into four different categories:
- promotional work,
- hostess coaching,
- parties, and
- training.
(1) Promotional work
Promotional work is about what we can do to find a brand new hostess, outside of our friends and family circle. I am emphasizing outside friends and family because I suppose that, by now, you would have already asked all your friends and family if they would like to book a party with you, join your company or become a valued customer.
This category is mostly intended for newbies, those who have none or little bookings or don’t know where to go.
If you take a look at the calendar, you’ll notice that the month starts on Friday the 1st and ends on Sunday the 31st. This category is labeled green and starts on Friday morning, when we are going to place competition lead boxes, between 10 AM and noon.
If you are having trouble with understanding the particular strategies I am mentioning, they are explained in detail in our biggest, and best course called The Road Map to Party Plan Success. But, to give you a brief overview, competition lead boxes are a tool for having a giveaway, which you run as a prize draw. Quite often, I do that for a calendar month and might have one prize I give away at the end of the month. The best surroundings for placing competition entry boxes are the local businesses – fast food shops, hairdressers, schools, child care centers, fitness centers…All the places where people are queuing and looking around. They can have a little prize drawing entry form that they fill in and this is what you can follow up and work with. You can call them and offer a bonus if they book a party with you, or if they say no to booking their own party you can then invite them to your Mystery Hostess Party (more on that below). This way there is no pressure for your guests to have their own party, but they are coming as guests and joining the fun. Quite often, after experiencing the products you’re offering and seeing your party demonstration, your party guests say yes to the free products and host their party.
So, on Friday we place some competition lead boxes. Here comes the weekend – a great local market. From the hours of 7:00 AM until 2:00 PM we are going to be at a vendor event. This can take place anywhere where people are walking by a small table display of your products. You’ll have an opportunity to make the visitors fall in love with your products by saying a little bit about them.
Then comes the moment when you can give them a special offer by saying, “Today, I’m actually here because I’m looking for people who would prefer free products. What I normally do are in-home parties where the hostess gets freebies and discounts for gathering all of her friends together for a bit of a social party. What I’m doing today from this market, vendor event, fund raiser, school fete, wherever you were doing this, is giving every single person who books a party from here an extra $50 gift voucher as a “thank you” from me. That’s on top of everything else that our company always gives to our hostesses. So, if you did have a party, would you prefer to do a weekday or a weekend?”
This way you will walk away from that vendor event with bookings in your calendar. Personally, although these events require a lot of your energy, I had a lot of fun doing them. My average results were getting between 3 and 5 bookings, for spending the morning hours at the vendor event.
During the following week, we’re doing some more promotional work. For example, there is a little fundraiser event in your local area on Thursday. Depending on the nature of the fundraiser event, you can provide entertainment or even run the entire party. In return, you can give the percentage of your sales back to the specific organization.
Step outside the box, think about ideas like this and use this promotional work to be creative and get bookings when you have none. There is no limit.
After attending the fundraiser event, we are going to check our lead boxes, because we want to make sure that our plan is working. If there are entry forms in the boxes, take them out and ask the business owner is it ok to leave the box for longer, since it is obviously functioning. If not, move it. Do not take it home, but visit other shops to find a new place for the competition lead box to work in. This is how you get real results, be determined in what you do and think of the box as something that actively works for you.
During the 3rd week, we are doing another vendor event, but this one is a little different – it is a fitness center vendor event. Going in little places like fitness centers or hairdressers allows you to meet new people without visiting markets, expos or big events.
Although you are not interrupting the business, everything you do must be approved by the business owner before set up. I would often offer something in return: Give bonuses back to the owner, who can use them as a prize, gifts for the staff, raffles for the customers or the business owner may just keep it as a treat.
Our promotional work during one month ends on Sunday the 24th, when we are going to hold a mystery hostess party. This is a party you are hosting yourself, but it is not a strategy to get your family and friends to come along. This is about inviting people who generally say no to the green events on your calendar. Invite them to come to your mystery hostess party.
I strongly recommend you to organize the party at a public location. I often choose a café or a restaurant at a quiet time, and maybe buy some drinks, to make a little business for them.
I actually followed this exact plan three major times in my direct sales career. The first time was when I started my party planning career, because I lived in an area where I did not have many friends and family.
The second time was after eighteen months when I moved again to an unfamiliar, but beautiful area. I wanted to survive and make a living from my parties. I incorporated the plan again and within 4 to 6 weeks, I had my 5 to 6 parties per week, original income. If I could do it, so can you.
The third time was a very sad period because a company I worked with closed down. Then I joined a different company. I was determined to be proactive and prepared. That’s why I used this action plan again.
(2) Hostess coaching
Hostess coaching is absolutely essential when you are getting bookings from all of the types of promotional work and events and you want them to sustain. Most of you just don’t like doing hostesses coaching, it’s not like you don’t know how. I was the same. But I practiced and got a lot better. Although you might not enjoy it, do it anyway. You will soon find the motivation and see the success.
Keep track on the orange part of the calendar above. On Monday, I usually spent my time doing hostess letters, between 11 and 1 o’clock. I send out some letters in the mail and maybe do some vendor phone calls later on.
As soon as those letters arrive, I make the hostess coaching phone calls, usually around 7:00 to 8:00pm or 6:30 to 8:30pm. The first phone call is quick and easy. As these hostesses are booked in, we’re going to make more host phone calls on Tuesday night, from 6:30 until 8:00. The phone call number two is where you’re taking them through the checklist or the hostess tips form, which we give you in the Road Map Party Plan Success. Here you can find out what exactly to say during your hostess coaching.
I got into the habit of doing this kind of phone call every week. This should also become your weekly schedule because our goal is never to run out of bookings again.
The second step is posting a letter or a card in the mail, and the third is phone call number 1, done only a few days after booking is made. The fourth step is phone call number 2, roughly about 5 days before the party date. This is when you just talk through the hostess tip form inside the Road Map to Party Plan Success HERE, so you know you’ve covered all your bases. The fifth step is party arrival – showing up on time to prepare, get your host ready and show off the wish list.
(3) Parties
We’ve been actively working on promotional work to get bookings. So, when you are at vendor events, you’ll be able to get bookings within 2 or 3 weeks. By the time we get to the 15th of the month, we already have bookings. Since more parties are going to happen next week, we can just write the first name on the calendar and label it with pink color.
Just a reminder: Our original goal is to work 15 hours a week. We want or need to have 3 parties we can make a sufficient income. Just in case, we need to have a little bit more than that booked in.
(4) Training
Training is all about learning how to do something and giving you the confidence for taking action. I strongly recommend you do some type of focused and dedicated training every single week in your direct sales business, even if you are aiming for 3 parties r week and you have 15 hours per week.
The best thing would be to invest one hour per week, in order to see the results. I am giving you an example where a big conference is going on for your company (on the 3rd of the month). If your company is organizing some events and they’ve invited you to be there, my advice is to go. Make yourself a part of the group and connect with people who are going through the same things as you. Learn how to be successful, see the latest products etc.
Make it a regular routine and a habit to learn new skills, keep yourself motivated and attend training events. I still do training in my business today. It’s important for all of us to never stop learning.
Thank you for your support.
Love, Mel
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
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