Imagine how much easier it would be if you had a simple 10 Step Party Framework of exactly what to do and say at every direct selling party you do, which would increase the number of bookings, sales and recruits? BRING IT ON!
If I can help you by sharing the 10 steps of running a party, you will find that your confidence grows, your nerves start to disappear & you will be able to enjoy the party and give focused attention to each party guest to give them the personal service that they are craving for at both in-home parties and facebook parties. These steps will help you keep control and remember what to do or say at any given moment during the party.
I have implemented this 10-step party framework for almost six years in a row, doing five to six parties per week, so, what I am sharing with you is my personal experience and proven techniques. During the first three to six months, I have to admit, it wasn’t as easy for me to remember the correct order of the steps as it is today. I made mistakes and didn’t get the results I wanted right away.
Luckily, I had help at hand (literally!) in form of a special little book – 10 Step Party Plan Flip Book. It is special because of the bullet point memory tips written inside the book. One side of each page is designed for your guests to see each step of the party and the other (magical!) side is for your eyes only. It contains extra information and bullet points which serve as a reminder for you. This way you won’t forget what to say or do during the party. So, have your flip book with all steps in hand! You can get your own copy here:
Let’s Dive Into the 10 Steps
The 10 Steps of the Party are just a very small part of a home study course – The Road Map to Party Plan Success (CLICK HERE to check it out). The course is the biggest and the best training we have in offer. In it, I have incorporated everything I was doing for six consecutive years of party planning. It also includes physical products which are sent to you. In this blog post, I’m going to give you a little bit of a snap shot overview of what each of those 10 steps are. And then, of course, there’s lots of extra info inside the Road Map to Party Plan Success course.
Step 1: The Party Introduction
The first step is, of course – the party introduction. The big questions are –
- What is the goal of the party introduction? and
- How can you capture the interest of your party guests in the first 30-60 seconds?
The party introduction is very important for two reasons:
- The first, it’s building a bridge between you and your party guests. Keep in mind that the guests will book a party with you only if they like and trust you. So, use the party introduction to leave a great first impression by building rapport with your guests.
- The second reason is the party introduction serves to catch the interest of your guests from the very beginning. The goal is to provoke reactions and make your guests want to know more about what you’re offering. Our party guests should be starting to sit on the edge of their seat a little bit and they’re going to be thinking, “Oh, what is she talking about? How do I know more about that? How do I get the free products she’s giving away today?”
So, the 10 Step Party Flip Book says that the first thing I should do during Step 1 is to – introduce myself, make a warm welcome, and express gratitude to the hostess for inviting me and the guests for showing up. After this, my little helper prompts me to – explain how hostess rewards work and describe what the previous hostess got in free products and bonuses at her party. If you met the current hostess at a previous party, mention this because this way you are showing that parties like this help in building friendships & that is a common social activity to do with friends.
Think about how your party introduction will outline the opportunities the guests can get by joining the company, booking a party or purchasing. We want to avoid being pushy and salesy; instead, make an effort to truly wake the desire in your guests to say yes to what you’re offering.
Your party introduction would begin like this:
“Ladies, welcome! We’re so excited and we’re so happy to have you here today. Thank you to Joan, our hostess, for inviting us all into your beautiful home here and thank you to each and every one of you for taking the time to come on over and spend your time with Joan and myself today. I’m Melanie Parker and I’m here representing XYZ Company, and I cannot wait to show you everything that we’ve got coming up today.”
I have introduced myself. I thanked the hostess Joan and I’ve thanked our party guests for showing up. So tick, we’ve done that one.
Then the 10 Steps Party Flip Book says; explain the previous hostess rewards.
Next, you might say something like:
“Now ladies, let me explain to you how I met Joan. Joan came along to Jody’s party just a couple of weeks ago and it was awesome to have Joan there on the day. She had a huge wish list. She started highlighting all of her favourite products in her wish list and on that day Jody…. didn’t you end up with about $200 in free products for your hostess rewards? And in fact, today, you’ll get to go shopping complements of XYZ Company as a thank you and you’ll get to choose anything in the whole entire range today at half price as a thank you for introducing me to Joan. So, make the most of that one, Jody, and choose wisely so that you get the best value.”
So what I’ve done there is I’ve shown that, first of all, Joan has booked from Jody’s party. We’re showing straight away that friends are helping friends to have a fun get together like we’re doing today. I’ve talked about the bonuses that Jody got from her party and did you notice that I also said, “It was only about two weeks ago”?
And so, the party guests are starting to think, “Oh wow! Melanie is doing regular parties” and it’s fine to book a party into only the next two weeks and we’ve got a great little group here today. It doesn’t take a long time to organise a great party. I’ve also explained the hostess rewards, so I’m showing that Jody really has qualified for freebies and discounts as a thank you for Joan having her party today. And so, straight away, that’s showing everyone that hostesses are getting awesome rewards and hostesses are helping each other.
You can see how straight away that is already starting to catch the attention of the party guests and they’re starting to think, “Jody got $200 of free products. Maybe I can get free products. Maybe I don’t have to spend $200. I can get some for free and get all the benefits by doing what Joan is doing today.” So, that’s why you’re doing it like that as part of the party introduction.
Then the next step in the party flip book is saying, “Let the guests know what to expect today.” We can do that by saying:
“Ladies, I’ve got three or four different combinations of products to show today. I can’t wait to get them out. We’re going to get some of you to help me out to be my assistant and to show off the products. And have you all got a wish list in front of you? As we go through all the products, every time you see anything that you like, ask me the name of that product and we’re going to highlight that on your wish list along the way.”
“And then, I’m going to give you time to do find four or five favourite products that you love most & mark them on your wish list and then, once everyone has done that, we’re going to give away the free products–everyone’s favourite part–and then I can help you out one-on-one in the shopping time while you have some social time to get-together with your friends and some snacks. And of course, we’ll help Joan choose all of her rewards and bonuses at the end. So, does that sound good, ladies? Yes! Great! Let’s get started.”
Next, tell them a tiny little bit about your company; just maybe a couple of little things about when your company started or what kind of products you’ve got and maybe something special, a unique selling point, something like a special guarantee that you might offer, but don’t go on and on for too long because they start to get a bit bored and I have found that the party guests simply can’t wait to see the products….. that’s what the party is all about!
At this stage, we’re going to bring in the idea of three offers as a part of our party introduction. You would tailor these words for your company. What we’re going to do is say:
“So, ladies, XYZ Company is so generous. We’ve got so much on offer for you today. In fact, if you fall in love with everything that you see, check out this cute little pink brochure because this is the one that’s all about our generous income opportunity and you’re going to get so excited because we have loads and loads of free products to give away today. The great news is that we’re looking for the first three ladies who would love to say yes to the free products. And of course, you can build your own designer collection of our beautiful range of products by saying yes to becoming our next valued customer in support of Joan, our hostess.”
So what have I done there? I’ve outlined the opportunities that we have to give about joining the company, booking a party and purchasing products. But, I’ve used words that are not pushy, that are not salesy, and that attract attention. I’m increasing the desire for our party guests to genuinely want to say yes to our offers and I’ve done all of that in the party introduction.
Now, I haven’t given them all the answers. I haven’t started talking about how to buy the kit. I haven’t started talking about all the holidays or the company car or the free products. I haven’t started talking about the hostess rewards and saying that we need two people to book a party today. I haven’t even started talking about hoping that everyone buys up big today to help Joan because all of that kind of wording is a little bit pushy & salesy. What I’m doing is giving the party guests a little bit of info, creating the curiosity and helping them to want to know more.
Step 2: I-Story (Planting a recruitment seed)
I’m going to give you a framework in which to tell your personal story as a recruiting seed of “I am…..” or “I was……” …. “But….” “So now…..”
Facts tell, stories sell, and the fact is that sharing stories from your personal experience, or even stories about your team members and leaders, will certainly attract people’s attention, and will make them more appreciative of what you do and offer. They will start to think. “If she can do that, maybe I can do it too!” The key point here is for you to gain their trust and build that celebrated – rapport.
Let me give you an example, by sharing my personal story with you. It took me at least two to six months to get the 10 Steps of the Party right and to feel comfortable and confident while doing my job. I remember that after six months of my party plan career, I got into my car after doing a party one night & thought: “I actually just remembered how to do all the 10 steps properly & in the right order. I finally nailed it!” So it takes practice and patience and don’t be too hard on yourself.
Let’s get back to the -Story framework as a recruiting seed of “I am…..” or “I was……” …. “But….” “So now…..”
Here’s an I-Story example (you adapt this to your real story):
“I am a mum. I’ve got two little kids at home, but I’ve been going a little bit crazy and I need some adult time, so when my friend Samantha showed me these beautiful products and said that I could do this to get out of the house a couple of times a week and make an income at the same time, I felt like, you know, what have I got to lose? So now I’m so excited that I jumped in to give this part time business a go. I started just six months ago. I’ve already earned myself a free weekend conference away that’s coming up in the next month. And if any of you would like to know more about this today, just come and ask me some questions.”
At this stage some of your party guests are starting to think, “Ahh, if she can do that, maybe I can do that too. How would this business help me?”
Step 3: Interaction No.1 (1st Product Demonstration)
This is where we start to get the party guests involved with your products hands on, picking up the products, falling in love with them. Once your party guests start to pick up, test and try the products, they can’t help but fall in love with them and then they want them.
During Interaction #1, we’re going to show a combination of our products.
Show a bundle of about 4-10 products in one demonstration so that the party guests are starting to build a wishlist of several items, instead of just 1-2. They can probably afford to buy just 1 or 2 products, but we are aiming to create a problem for the party guest where they fall in love with so many of our products that they can’t afford to buy them all…. because a little later we are going to show them the solution & how they CAN have it all! (More on that below)
We’re going to get one of our party guests to be an assistant or a model who can demonstrate those products for us. We’re going to get the guests actively involved in demonstrating the products and as each guest sees any product they like, we keep highlighting all of their favourite products on their wish list.
This starts to get your guest excited about the products and just falling in love with them, and they’re not worried about the prices. Now this next bit of advice might be going way into a new zone for you here. My advice is not to have a price list on display or catalog. I don’t want you to have catalogs that show all of the prices of the products out for the guests to see during the party demonstration time. There’s 2 reasons for this:
- The catalog can become a distraction that causes the eye contact and focus to be on the catalog instead of interacting with you as the consultant. This decreases the rapport level between you and your guest, which may result in less sales, bookings and recruiting.
- When the catalog is out on display, each time a guest sees a product they love, they instantly want to start looking for the price of that product. And if that product is above their price range, they then dis-engage from the product and don’t want to touch more products because they feel they can’t afford to buy them.
BUT… we want them to build a huge wish list of what they love FIRST, because in the next steps we are about to show them the SOLUTION of how they can own their favorite products without buying them…. YES! Either book a party or join the team! But first, we must increase their desire to simply WANT the products.
They’ll get the price list in the shopping time, which is going to be Step #9. That comes towards the very end of the party. What we’re doing here is building the momentum along the way so that we’re increasing the desire that the party guests want to book a party with you.
Step 4: Infomercial No. 1 (Free Product Commercial Break)
Now we start to talk to our party guests about how they can get the free products as the hostess rewards, using the combination of products that we just demonstrated as the example.
It is very important to present the information you talk about VISUALLY. Hold your company’s brochure while talking about your hostess rewards bonuses. This makes your message travel faster and more efficiently.
For the free product commercial break…. As you finish demonstrating your whole combination of products, with one of your party guests being an assistant or a model, you turn to that guest and talk to everyone while holding up your free product hostess reward brochure, and you might say something like,
“Now ladies, if you wanted to get a whole combination of products like this, one of the best ways of doing that is by doing what Joan is doing today and saying yes to the free products, because a lot of our hostesses at the moment are choosing things like this one as a free gift on the day of their party as a thank you for having their get together with their friends.
And then, a lot of the ladies that are hosts are choosing to use their credits for some of the smaller items like this one and this one. And then, hostesses like Jody who get extra half price bonuses for coming along to their friend’s parties, they will often choose the really big and glamorous items like this one and choose that as their half-priced product so that they’re saving the most amount of money.
Imagine that! A lot of hosts can very simply end up with two or three hundred dollars of free products just for having their own get-together with their friends. In fact, last week, I even had one lady that ended up to about $390.”
So, notice…. I didn’t make that salesy. I didn’t make it pushy. It was more like just me giving them information. I’ve highlighted the hostess rewards. I started to get them to visualize seeing themselves as our next host, but I haven’t been pushy. Now the party guests are beginning to understand that one of the solutions of how to own lots of the products on their wish list is by becoming our next hostess….. Then we move on. The party keeps going.
Step 5: Interaction No. 2 (2nd Product Demonstration)
It’s time to bring out some more products! The 5th step is basically the same as Step 3, with a slight difference of showing different products. Maybe some of the guests haven’t found anything they like yet, so this is an opportunity for them to see something completely different than during the first product demonstration. So if you can make sure that your second interaction is bundled with products that are very, very different to the first one, hopefully, you’re going to catch their attention and start to build a big wish list for every single party guest.
Be sure to get one of your party guests involved again as a model or assistant to show off the products; a different party guest. Quite often I find the models/assistants end up being the first ones to book a party because they have had such a hands-on experience with the products and are loving them.
Step 6: Informercial No. 2 (Income Opportunity Commercial Break)
This step should remind you of the importance of facts and storytelling. You will relate to your guest on a much greater level if you share with them some personal stories – this time you might present some benefits of working in your company. Mention the upcoming conference trip, a chance to earn a free holiday, etc. It is important that you personalize the story.
EG. Let me share with you a quick story that reminds me of the beauty of being able to choose our own hours: when we want to work and how much we want to work…. There’s a lady in our team named Meredith; she’s been fighting a battle with cancer & thankfully her recent tests are showing a brilliant recovery…. but what Meredith was sharing in our team meeting last week was the way that she is so grateful for the flexibility our company allows our consultants to have. When Meredith needed time off to be in hospital, our Company Director had no problem with that at all. When she first came out of hospital, all she could do was a few hours of work on the phone or computer, so her team helped to take over her in-home parties during that time, to support her and keep her business going. Now Meredith is feeling energetic again and so now she wants to work full time for a while to build her business back up… so amazing!
Most importantly, talk about the benefits of belonging to your company by share little stories. They could either be your stories, your leaders’, stories from other team members, stories that you’ve read out of your company magazine. It plants the seed for the income opportunity, for building a team and recruiting your next consultant.
Step 7: I Wish
Oh, this is a fun one! It’s the Wish List. Time to get hands-on. Every single party guest….. Pick up the products! Each party guest will have a printed Wish List that you have personalized using the template below.
Have lots of fun and build a big wish list so that our party guests are falling in love with our products and they want to own lots and lots and lots of them. We want every single one of our party guests to be saying, “I wish I could own all of it. I love all of it. I want all of those products.”
What we are doing here is getting our party guests to pick up all the products. I give them about 10 minutes just to go crazy with the products. Pick them up. Play with them. Have some fun. Test them out. Try them on ….. and I walk around the room while they’re doing that & assist them with highlighting all of their favorite products on their wish list.
The way that we introduce this to everyone is we say:
“Now, ladies, I’ll give you 5-10 minutes to pick everything up. Test it. Try it on and let’s get each and every one of you to highlight four or five of your favorite products on your wish list. Every time you see something you like, hold it up, ask me the name of it and let’s highlight it on your wish list. I’ll come around and help each of you individually and then once every single one of you has four or five of your favorite products highlighted on your wish list, what we will do after that is move on to the next bit which is….. giving away the FREE PRODUCTS!”
So, again, we’re catching the attention of the guest here and they still might be thinking, “How do I get those free products? What is she talking about?” And even if they say that you say, “Let’s do your wish list first and then I can tell you all about it in the next step.” And you (reading this) might be thinking, “What is Melanie talking about ‘FREE PRODUCTS’?” Well, I’m about to show you in Step #8.
Now, remember, you can get the Wish List template from us at http://www.partyplan123.com/free-resources/, but you’re going to personalize it to list the products that you own in your kit and that you take to your parties and show to your guests. Every time that a party guest is seeing you demonstrate a product, they pick it up and they say, “I love this one. What’s it called?” You tell them what it’s called and that item should be on your wish list. Your wish list does not need to have all of the products that your entire company has in the range. It just needs to have the products that you are showing at your party that you physically own.
So Step 7 is all about getting every guest to create that wish list and to say, “Oh, if only I could have ALL of my favorite products.”
Step 8: I Book
You will remember this step like the magic eight. It includes an excellent strategy which can help you get more than one booking per party.
So, the goal is to ask every party guest if they would like to book a party with you before they leave the current party. This is not an easy task, because the guests are sometimes in a hurry, and have to leave the party earlier. You simply might miss the opportunity to do 1-on-1 time with each guest before they leave.
So, I’ve come up with a solution – The Group Bookings Pitch. Let me explain how it works. After each guest highlights four or five products on the wish list, move on to giving away free products….. meaning; ask who wants to book a party to get the free products like today’s hostess is doing!
Hopefully, you have created by now a sweet problem for your guests – they can’t afford to buy everything that is highlighted on their huge Wish List.
This is a problem for which you have the solution – offer them a chance to get free products by being the next hostess. Keep your calendar at hand, so you know when your next available booking date is. Besides the calendar, also your party results form with the list of guests written on it to help you remember each person’s name. Having the list in front of you will make it easier to approach each guest in a personal manner. Your guests will certainly feel more special if you speak to them directly by name.
The best way for me to show you how to do The Group Bookings Pitch is in a video. (You’ll have a bit of a giggle as you watch me because in my training videos I often pretend that I am working for a company called ‘Fantastic Fruit’ … that means in this video you will see me book ladies in to host a FRUIT PARTY!) Watch the way in which I ask WHO would like to be the first one to say yes to the FREE PRODUCTS? Without being pushy; I’ll use attractive and appealing language, that creates the desire for the party guest to want to say yes to the booking:
The Group Bookings Pitch helped me more than you can imagine. In fact, I don’t think I would have survived in party planning business without it. A lack of bookings is the leading cause many people quit their direct sales business. Don’t let this be you!
Step 9: I-Shop
One of the most precious things in our line of work and at these parties is to meet with each guest one-on-one. Since your presentation is coming to an end, it is the perfect time to pay special attention to each of your guests. Ask them to show you their wishlist so you know which products they are most interested in.
During these 1-on-1 “sessions”, directly present the guest with the three opportunities you’ve mentioned earlier in the presentation:
- Firstly, ask if they would consider joining your company
- Second, see if they would like to book a party with you
- Finally, ask what they would like to purchase and take their order
If you want to get more sales, bookings & sponsor leads, it’s essential to offer every opportunity to every guest…. YES! I am talking about asking EVERY single party guest all 3 questions above; despite their age, race, gender or where they live. Your job is to simply ask the question…. and let them decide if they’d like to say yes, but don’t ever let anyone miss out on an opportunity that you have to give, because you didn’t ask them.
OFFER EVERYONE, JUDGE NO-ONE.
Again, I can’t stress this enough – avoid being blunt and pushy; instead, use appealing and discreet language. The chance of getting at least one yes is very high!
Step 10: I-Share (Thank You & Wrap Up)
As your presentation comes to an end, and you are doing your one-on-one shopping time, the party guests get the chance to socialize. There’s a lot of chit chatting and the atmosphere is usually very friendly. After you make sure that you’ve talked with every guest in person, make an announcement – thank the guests for coming and let them know what you’ve all achieved for the hostess – bonuses, discounts, free gifts, etc. Talk in numbers because it is more effective. Say exactly how much sales have you accomplished and how much shopping credit this secured for the hostess.
You might say:
“So, ladies, thanks for coming along. I just want to let you all know what we achieved for Joan in her bonuses today, so thank you to each and every one of you for being here. We’ve ended up with $925 in sales today and another three bookings, so Joan is going to get loads and loads of free products. In fact, Joan gets to go shopping for FREE today too! She’s got $160 in credit to spend today and then, she’s got a half-priced product to get at the first two parties and then, anything completely for free at the third party. So, Joan, wow! You could end up with $400 or $500 of free products depending on what you’re going to choose with all your bonuses.”
“Thanks to each and every one of you. I’d like to see you at the next parties again and by the way, if you might be a little bit curious… at this kind of party, if you had been the consultant running this party this as a brand new consultant today, do you know that your income would be? A brand new consultant could have made $200 just from doing a party like this today. So, if that has pricked up the ears of any of you and if you’d love to know a little bit more about that, why don’t you come and ask me for a little bit of info to take away with you today while I’m packing up. So, thank you and we will see you at the next party.”
It’s a great way to finish the party and once again, we’ve wrapped it up with all three of these offers and the main pillars in our business, which is joining the company, the free products for hosting and being a customer through purchasing. But, we’ve done it again in ways that are not pushy. We’re using words that are not salesy and that everyone loves as well.
Trust in Yourself and Follow the Golden Rules
If you trust and follow these 10 Steps of the Party, you will be well on your way to party plan success. Of course, it is not an easy thing to do. It took me more than 6 months to master these 10 steps! As you begin to implement these 10 Steps of the Party, you will also probably be less than perfect the first time you do a party, but you will get better with practice. Just think of every party event as a valuable experience, and by following these 10 steps, my wish is that you too will never run out of bookings again!
You are ready now… be brave, ignore the nerves you may feel in your belly as you start to put this into action…. Go out and create endless bookings, sales and recruits with these 10 steps from the very next party that you do.
~ Melanie
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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