The holidays are finally over so it’s time to get back down to business and January is the perfect time for you to buckle down & get busy building your direct sales home business!

The majority of direct sales companies launch all kinds of great booking incentives for the month of January each & every year and it is YOUR JOB to use those booking incentives to fill up your January and February booking calendar.

A lot of companies will offer double host rewards, extra 1/2 price off items, attendance specials and other great deals to get people to book parties during the month of January. In addition, they often offer deep discounts and unbeatable deals to guests/customers who attend those booked parties!

Let’s get busy today calling up all of your past party hosts and asking them to book a party right away! They can call up those they want to invite or send them email invitations to the party. You can plan and get a party onto the books and ready to go in just one week. Trust me, it can be done! 

You also want to call up potential hosts who have been dragging their feet in booking a party with you and let them know about all those great booking incentives you have going on for the month. While you are at it let them know about the customer sales deals too…give it all to them and “rev them up” for a party booking! Make sure you sound super excited when speaking to them so that your excitement becomes contagious and they catch it!

If you work hard this first week in January lining up bookings/datings for the month of January that will carry you over into February and March because you will get bookings from those January parties to feed the next 2 months on your calendar.

So what are you waiting for? Time to get busy, make those calls and book those parties!!!

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out that site!

Over the past 2 1/2 years I have written several blog posts on promoting your direct sales home business during the holiday season and how to utilize this season to make even more money than what you usually do!

It is now November 4th and you need to GET BUSY booking your holiday parties NOW (if you have not already begun to do so) and since it is the beginning of the holiday season I thought I would make a little list of some tips I have posted over the years regarding direct sales and the holiday season.

You can click on each title/link below and it will take you to the post that I previously made on this blog regarding the subject title.

Fun and Interactive Holiday Party Ideas

Direct Sales – 9 Fall, Winter and Holiday Party Theme Ideas

Are You Booking Your Holiday Parties Now?

Direct Sales – 20 Seasonal Home Party Theme Ideas

In addition…browse around the Direct Sales category here on my blog and you will find 100′s of blog posts to help guide you to a successful holiday selling season!

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out that site!

Many consultants jump into Direct Sales and don’t know anything about it and they don’t take the time out to educate themselves on it and this is a big mistake!  Just like any “job” or any “business” you need to know what you are doing and if you don’t know…well, you need to take the time out and educate yourself on it!

One good source of business education when it comes to Direct Sales is education that is provided to you from your corporate offices. This can be training seminars, company sponsored conferences, online webinars, phone teleseminars, etc. Whatever your company offers in business training it is YOUR job to take it! Many consultants “blow it off” and make “excuses” as to why they don’t participate in company sponsored training. Like I said, that is a big mistake!

Many Direct Sales companies already know what works and doesn’t work in regards to having a DS business and they tailor their training programs around what they know to be a successful system. They want to teach this system to you so that you can have a successful business. So…whatever training that is offered to you by the home office, make sure you take it!

Another good source of business education comes from your immediate and distant upline managers and team leaders. As someone who worked in Direct Sales for over 23 years…I can personally tell you that over the years only about 40-45% of my downline team ever attended my meetings and/or rallies. Many said they were too busy, had kids, too tired, blah blah blah and let me tell you…those who did attend my meetings and those who did attend company sponsored training sessions were more successful than those who did not. Now grant ya…this doesn’t apply to everyone but it does apply to those who have NEVER done Direct Sales before and just jump in with no intentions on getting officially trained!

Now…do you need to attend all of the training opportunities that are offered to you? No…we all have real lives and we all are busy people but you should participate in as many of them that you can so that you are constantly learning new business skills and staying on top of what works in Direct Sales and what doesn’t.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out this site!

Many consultants who are with Direct Sales companies are turning to online party bookings as a way to help bring in additional bookings and income with their home businesses. A lot of these Direct Sales companies even have online party options that are connected to the consultants “company provided rep site” that a consultant can utilize with their business.

However…many consultants are telling me that they don’t know how to promote an online party…online! Today I am going to give you a few tips. The first thing I do want to say is that if you have a party host…it is HER JOB to promote her own online party and not yours! With that said, if you are trying to get people to book online parties from you and you want to target people online for those bookings here is a few things you can do.

1. Take out an advertisement over on Facebook.com. These ads vary in price but can be effective when you use the right wording and marketing strategy when purchasing them. Facebook has millions of users so you only want your ADs to target those who are in your area or at the very least…in the same country as you. So, don’t waste your advertising dollars by targeting everyone, everywhere, around the world.

2. Utilize Twitter.com as part of your marketing strategy. You will need to spend time on Twitter conversing with your followers, finding new followers, etc. You can NOT just open up a Twitter account and spam your business ads at people 24/7. No one does business with someone who sits there and spams or does self-promoting all day long. You need to network & converse with followers & others on Twitter for it to be effective.

3. Join a few of the work at home mom and/or stay at home mom online forum boards. Again, you can’t just join and spam ads in their business folders. You will need to introduce yourself, converse with members in that community and make yourself a valuable member of that community before folks will do business with you. When posting ads about your online party options you need to make sure you ONLY post them in the designated advertisement folders on those forums.

4. Write some Direct Sales articles on online parties, offline parties or even just general DS business topics. (these can’t be ads, they must be articles & be informative). You can then submit these to various online Direct Sales web sites, DS Blogs and to article directory sites. Make sure your Author’s Resource Box includes a little bit about your biz, online party option, your link, etc. These articles can then be used all over the internet to drive some traffic to your site.

5. Take out some classified ads online that are specifically for your area (online local newspapers, magazines, directory sites, etc.) where you can advertise your online party booking option to those who are local to you & in your area. Often times these little classified online ads are free or extremely low-cost.

6. This next tip is done offline…you want to tell everyone you meet, come into contact with at your home parties, etc. That you have an online party option for those who are too busy for a home show booking. Don’t just assume that people you come into contact with…know this information, many do not! Your offline contacts can be a fabulous source to book online parties from you!

I hope these 6 tips will help you broaden your horizons and help you promote your online Direct Sales business party options.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out that site!

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out that site!

In Direct Sales – Increase The Number Of Bookings From Your Shows

By Jane Deuber

Bookings are the lifeline of your business because they provide immediate income, future bookings, and lead to new team members. Following are four simple ways to increase the number of bookings you receive at every show.

Ask Every Guest

Without a doubt, the most successful Direct Sellers ASK EVERY GUEST “when” (not “if”) they would like to hold a show/party of their own. The more people you ask, the better at it you’ll get, and the more bookings you will receive. In addition, when you ask every guest to hold a show, you are increasing the chances for the current hostess to receive more credit.

Get Your Hostess Involved

Your Hostess is the key to receiving numerous bookings from every show. Ask your hostess to:

1. Have at least one booking before her show

2. Ask friends and relatives who cannot attend to hold a show of their own

3. Let you know which guests are most likely to book a show

4. Play at least one booking game at her show

Also, plan to re-book your hostess for another show within 90 days.

Control Your Schedule

When scheduling shows, use only the current month calendar. If you present a future hostess with an entire year, chances are she will flip ahead to the next month to select her date.

Highlight in a special color “Key Dates” on which you would like to book your next shows and offer an extra incentive for selecting the next open date.

Expand your “income-earning hours” by offering creative daytime alternatives for shows, for example: Office Lunch-hour Shows, Five O’clock Happy Hours, Start-the Day Shows, and Sunday Brunch Shows.

Reduce Cancellations

Do not schedule shows more than 30 days in advance and always fill your booking schedule for the next week before moving to the following week.

Release the “obligation” when someone has booked a show only to help the hostess. “Ellen, I know you booked your show to help our hostess Carol, but I want you to have this show because you want it. Which items are you most excited about receiving FREE with your hostess credit. (Bring them to her.) Great Ellen. Let’s set a goal for you to receive all these products FREE by having a really successful show. Can I count on you?”

Secure the booking “Ellen, I am so excited to hold a show with you. You and your guests will have so much fun! Because this is my business and I always keep my schedule full, I would appreciate holding your show on this date I have reserved for you. I promise I’ll be there come rain or shine. Can I count on you to do the same?” “Great!”

Jane Deuber is a Co-Founder of the only association dedicated to the needs of the independent party plan and network marketing professionals. Discover what makes the DSWA so unique. Listen to three motivating and informative free teleseminars by visiting http://www.mydswa.org/tele_class.asp

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jane_Deuber
http://EzineArticles.com/?In-Direct-Sales—Increase-The-Number-Of-Bookings-From-Your-Shows&id=494325

Several months ago a new consultant with one of the direct sales companies emailed me and asked me for my opinion on this specific question. “Is it okay for me to refuse a party booking if the host lives in an unsafe area here in our city?” Well, I thought I would share my answer and opinion on this topic here on my blog.

In my personal opinion and experience…YES, it is okay for you to refuse that particular party booking. However…you should help the host find a new consultant who doesn’t mind traveling to that area of your city. If you don’t know one, you should refer the host to your company’s corporate office.

An alternative to refusing the booking would be to suggest to your host a different location for her party.

I have refused a handful of party bookings in my 20+ years of being in direct sales…but I don’t do it often and I always help the host find a consultant to do the party for her.

When I have refused a party booking it has been for the following reasons:

I refused 2 bookings because they were in a dangerous area of town that I refuse to travel to. I refused 1 booking because this particular host was a pet hoarder (over 20+ roaming cats & dogs in her home along with the smell that goes with it) and with my severe allergies to dogs…I had to refuse her booking. The only other time I refused a booking was when a lady who I knew called me to book a party but I knew from past experience with her that she writes bad checks, reschedules party dates 4+ times before she actually goes through with them and she only ever has 3-4 guests who only came to her parties to get food and beer (not place orders).

So…in my personal opinion it is okay to refuse a party booking but you do have the responsibility to help that host find another consultants who will do it. If not, refer him/her to your corporate office. With all of that said…you should have a very good valid reason on “why” you are refusing the booking!

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out that site!

Barb’s Better Booking Checklist —For Direct Sales Home Parties by Barb Girson

I learned quickly in direct sales that I had to approach booking parties with a plan or I would not book parties. Thus when I decided to become a booking expert and truly master the skill, my booking average went up to 3-4 bookings per party.

Because my success was not without struggle, my experience helped me relate to the discomfort involved with asking for parties and ultimately made it possible for me to help others overcome it. I will never forget how uncomfortable I felt when I first started. Learning can be painful but building skill is priceless.

I perfected my strategy when I fused the mindset of booking parties with my method of securing new commitments on the calendar. I broke down the mechanics into the following formula:

• Guests are more likely to book when they anticipate you to invite them. Set the stage for bookings.

• Guests are more likely to book parties when they know you, like you and trust you.

Read on to see how many of the booking steps you practice from my ‘Barb’s Better Booking’ Checklist’. As you can tell, it is not one single action that yields more bookings, but many small intentional actions that will improve results. See if you can incorporate a few new steps into your booking protocol, steps designed to enhance the know, like, and trust factors for you.

Barb’s Better Booking Checklist

___1. Build Party Attendance – It is hard to book a party or earn money with a chair, sofa or lamp so remember, the more people at the party, the more potential for prosperity (for you and your Host). Make sure your Host is talking up the benefits of attending the party. Emphasize the education, as well as the fun factor, as the combination draws a bigger crowd.

___2. Challenge Your Host To Help – Ask your Host to have a booking waiting for you before you arrive. Enlist the Host to help you and make it worth your Host’s worthwhile.

___3. Offer To Call Each Guest Before The Party – As a service to your Host, offer to call each guest to confirm their attendance, and in doing so encourage them to bring a friend. Making a personal connection with potential guests prior to the party helps you build the “know, like and trust” factor and establishes your standard of customer service. Even leaving a voice mail can highlight your professionalism and show how you support each Host. Most direct sellers overlook this step, so making pre-party calls will set yourself apart.

___3. Arrive Early To Be Booking Ready – Arriving before guests allows you to not only to set up early and chat with your Host but also frees you to greet guests when they do arrive. Take advantage of the opportunity to build rapport. Ask your Host to share a little about each guest with you. Who likes to have parties? Who is involved in organizations? Who might appreciate free products or want to earn some money? Make notes on your guest list.

___4. Greet Guests With Interest – Learn something special about each guest in your pre-party chat. What do they do? Where do they live? How do they know the Host? How familiar are they with your product line?

___5. Remember Guest Names – When you sincerely address guests by name, you communicate that they are important to you. If you cannot remember everyone’s name, consider using name tags.

___6. Decide To Deliver Booking Bids – Determine before you start when you will deliver 3 booking bids to the group. This means deciding when you will invite others to consider booking and what you will say in each invitation. Be prepared, not scripted or robotic. Be direct or you might drive home and realize you forgot to ask.

___7. Promote Your Host Benefits – Promote the benefits of being a Host through both your verbal and non-verbal communication. Pass around Host specials. Refer to the Host program. Inform others what Hosts can earn when they open up their homes for a party.

___8. Highlight Your Host – Make each Host feel genuinely appreciated and special. Without their hospitality you would not have a vehicle to build your party plan business. Publicly acknowledge your Host today and others will be more inclined to Host in the future.

___9. Party With Play – Always remember, it is a party you are promoting. Infuse fun and laughter into your party process and bookings will follow. The more your guests enjoy the time together, the more they will want to repeat the experience and get their own friends together. It is up to you to create the party atmosphere.

___10. Give Personal Invitations – Ask each guest individually to be one of your special Hosts. “Would you be willing to invite me into your home to host your own party [or get together]?” Do not pre-determine who will and who won’t say yes. Ask everyone. This single practice boosted my booking results tremendously.

With practice, you will increase your bookings and build a business with solid confidence. Develop your style so that you are using the most effective word choices that work for you. Challenge yourself to get to a point where if your calendar ever looks slim, you have the power to rebuild it. With this knowledge you will attract others intentionally to schedule with YOU!

About The Author

Barb Girson, International Direct Selling Industry Expert, Trainer &
Coach, helps companies, teams & entrepreneurs gain confidence, get into action, & most importantly… grow sales by sharing her “Strategies That Stick™”. Barb is a highly interactive, creative speaker and author offering customized, professional skill development programs for workshops,meetings and teleclass training programs.
Visit http://www.MySalesTactics.com  to join her mailing list & get invited to her next FREE teleclass.

Article Source: WAHM Articles

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out that site!

Top 5 Ways to Get More Datings At Your Direct Sales Home Party

By Rayven Perkins

The very heart of the home party plan business is dating more parties. Without parties, your business is at a virtual standstill, with no ways to generate substantial sales. With your date book filled with scheduled parties, a world of opportunity opens up for you to grow your business and experience financial rewards.

So how do you generate more parties? Here are my 5 favorite ways to get more parties dated during a home party demonstration.

#5 Offer Incentives

As you go about your demonstration, be sure you point out various dating incentives to your guests. Make sure the guests know that they can receive a gift just for dating a party, and another for holding the party. Go over your party plan companies hostess plans, and when possible, show guests the actual items they can receive.

#4 Stack Your Hostess

Play a game of Show and Tell. You can explain hostess gifts to your guests until you are blue in the face, but until the guests actually see what it is that they can receive, it doesn’t mean much to them.

Towards the end of your presentation, have your hostess sit in a chair at the front of the room. Take this opportunity to thank her for hosting the party. Then begin to stack her.

Starting with the gift of least value, hand all the items to her one by one that she has received for hosting the party. Give her the conversation starter gift, the dating gift, the hosting gift. Make sure you stack her with all the items it is possible to receive, even if the party sales are not totaled yet. Does your company offer half price items in addition to other hostess gifts? Stack her with those as well.

When guests see just how much they can receive, they are more likely to date a party themselves.

#3 The Theme Book

Your party guests want to have fun! What better way to get them excited than by offering a wide array of themed parties? Everything from the traditional Auction Party to a Banana Split Party, Couples Party, Children’s Party or Margarita with the Girls. Get creative and think of fun ways that your guests can come together with their friends.

Print out a simple information page with each of these ideas and put the pages in a 3-ring binder. Leave the binder on the coffee table before and during the party. When your guests find a theme that interests them, they will be happy to date a show with you.

#2 Dating Games

Most home party consultants offer their guests some sort of prize or trinket for coming to a show. Reserve your most sought after trinkets and prizes for a special dating game. At the end of your show, offer the best goodies to your guests for participating in the Dating Game.

Have all the trinkets in a large bowl or decorated box. On each trinket, attach a note. Half the notes should say “Host a Party” while the other half should have a variety of messages ranging from “Draw Again” to “You’ve Won a Free Item”. Tell the guests that participation in this game is optional. Explain to the guests that on each prize is a note, and whatever the note says is what is to be done. If a guest draws a “free item” prize, you will give her a specified free item, but if she draws a “Host a Party” prize, you expect her to date a party tonight.

This really helps to determine which guests are willing to hold a party. Only guests who are willing to consider the idea will draw a prize.

#1 ASK!

This might seem obvious, but the best way to date more parties at your next demonstration is to get into the habit of asking each guest. Do not feel that you are being pushy. The guests expect you to ask them to host a party! One method I have used to force myself to ask each and every guest when they place their order is this.

At the beginning of the party, I make an announcement. I hold out a $20 bill and say “At the end of the show I will be asking each and every one of you to host a party to be eligible to receive all these wonderful hostess gifts! If, however, I forget to ask you to host a show, I will give you $20 worth of product of your choice!”

This forces me to ask each guest, and makes each guest aware, prepared, and even looking forward to my question.

Did you like these ideas? See the complete Direct Sales Resources section at Direct Sales Resources

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rayven_Perkins

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out that site!

Now that summer is over and fall is getting ready to begin, it is time to start thinking ahead to the holidays.

Do you have a holiday marketing plan? If not, it’s now the time to draft one up and time to get busy putting it into action.

During the month of September, you should be getting your holiday advertising in order and reserving your advertising spots. In addition, it is time to mail out new holiday catalogs and start calling up your customers and party hosts and getting them to book their holiday parties now.

I also recommend hosting your own Holiday open house at the end of September to show off all of your holiday products and to help jump start your holiday bookings.

The time to start your holiday business game plan is now!

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out that site!

If you are in Direct Sales, you have probably noticed how popular themed home parties have become. These days party hosts are looking for something different. We have all been to those parties where a consultant just stands up there and shows you her business products, but these days, those type of parties are less appealing.

Party Hosts now want an interactive and fun themed party. I have compiled a list of some very popular home themed parties for you to consider that are seasonal in nature, meaning that they are great at certain times of the calendar year.

1. New Year, New You Party: (great for home organization ideas, weightloss and healthy eating, pampering and spa type of parties).

2. Beat The Winter Blues Party: During the winters months, people get the winter blues from being stuck indoors. If you have a fun and exciting party concept, try labeling it the “Beat The Winter Blues” party. You can have all of your guests dress in blue or have them do the opposite and dress in sunny cheerful colors.

3. Halloween Costume Party: If you are doing any parties during the month of October, turn it into a Halloween Costume Party and have all the party guests wear their favorite costume.

4. Men Only Holiday Shopping Party: Invite the men over to shop for gifts for their wives, girlfriends, mothers, sisters etc.

5. Holiday Baking with Children Party: If you are with a gourmet food company or one of the kitchen companies, this is a great party theme around the holidays. Have parents bring their children along to the party for some baking fun.

6. Holiday Cookie Exchange Party: Have all the party guests bring a dozen of their freshly made holiday cookies to the party with them. Have each guest take home a few of the cookies that others brought to the party.

7. Secret Santa Party: (have the guests make a list of 3 items below $25 each) then have each guest draw a slip of paper and they have to buy one of those items on that list for the Secret Santa pal without letting them know its for her. Then you have the second half of the party in a few weeks when the orders come in and invite guests back to exchange their gifts and for them to try to guess who it was that was their secret Santa!)

8. Secret Santa Office Gift Party: A lot of workplace offices these days do secret santa parties and exchanges. I make up a list ahead of time of all items that we sell that are $12 and less! I attach the list to the front of the catalog and only demo those items. Guests are always looking for affordable gifts for their secret santa office parties and you can help them find them!)

9. Trim-the-tree party: Have the hostess put up her Holiday Tree and dig out her holiday tree decorations. You all have a tree trimming party and afterwards you can hold your regular sales party.

So when it comes to booking parties this fall and winter…think of a theme to suit the season. I find that my bookings and rebookings increase when I do theme parties…and in turn, my party sales are higher as my guests enjoy themselves a lot more!

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out that site!