For the past few weeks I have been giving you an brief overview about online Direct Sales Vendor Events. Today, I will finish up by telling you how to find a good DS Vendor Fair to participate in.

To find online vendor fairs, you need to visit various work at home mom (wahm) forum boards and/or web sites, work at home web sites or Direct Sales web sites. You can also find some by doing a web search on google for the keyword Direct Sales Vendor Fair.

Most vendor fair hosts do charge you a small amount of money to participate, usually $3.00 to $20.00 to help cover the costs of the chat room and advertising of the event. However, you will find a few free ones if you look for them.

When it comes to signing up and participating in an online vendor fair, there are a few things you need to look for.

1. How is the event being advertised? If the host site is charging you to particpate, they are equally responsible for helping to advertise the event.

Look online or ask them directly how they are advertising the event? Is this advertising online and/or offline? Text Ads, Banner Ads, Social Network Ads or forum ads?

Once you have that information, INVESTIGATE and make sure you are seeing those advertisements. Why? In my 5 years of doing online vendor events, way too often I have seen host sites take your money and then never advertise the event, they are clearly doing this for profit. If they are charging you…you have the RIGHT to expect that they are advertising the event. (and not just ads on their site).

2. Are the times posted for the Vendor Fair Time Slots, convenient? What I mean is this, are the time slots great ones that can be utilized by all time zones?

Example: a 9am to 12 noon EST time are NOT good time slots because West Coast Shoppers are still in bed or busy that early in the morning.

3. Fair Spots should run 30-60 minutes in length. Anything under 30 minutes is a joke in my opinion. I once attended a fair that the vendors had 10 minute spots, are you kidding me? By the time they got done with their intro, they cut them off and moved onto the next vendor. Anything over 60 minutes loses the customers attention.

4. Is there a variety of companies being represented? If you sell jewelry, you don’t want to present your items on the same day that 8 other jewelry consultants present their products. There needs to be a variety of vendors with a variety of products.

I once attended a vendor fair online and in a 6 hour period of time, there were 5 candle company consultants…this was candle company over-kill.

5. Reputation and Word Of Mouth. You should always ask other consultants online if they have ever heard of XYZ site and if anyone has ever participated in one of their vendor events. Why? Reputation! Over time, a good vendor site will build a strong following that produces the results that you seek. A newer site will not have the same results as an established one. So, you should ask other consultants who do business online for their recommendations and experience.

In a nut shell, particpating in online vendor events can prove to be a great extension of your business to garner in some additional product sales. However, you need to participate with vendor sites who know what they are doing.

Important Reminder: Just as its important for the host site to advertise and promote the event, its equally IMPORTANT that you help to advertise the event too. A vendor event can ONLY be successful if both the host site and ALL of the vendors help to promote the event.

Shelly

Last week I gave a brief overview on what an online Direct Sales Vendor Fair was. This week, I am going to go more in depth and tell you how your home business can benefit by participating in an online vendor fair.

When you participate in a vendor fair, you are exposing your home business to customers and other vendors who you normally wouldn’t have contact with which means you are building a relationship with them during the event.

This relationship can yield you some additional product sales or generate recruit leads for you. However, those product sales and leads might not immediately come for that particular vendor fair. Let me explain…

A few months ago I had a woman contact me via email to ask me about a certain product that I sell. She had crossed paths with me 15 months ago at a online vendor fair and she kept my information for future reference. At the time, she didn’t have the funds available to purchase the $55 item that she wanted and I was happy to give her my information for a future purchase. I haven’t heard from her since and never expected for her to contact me again. However…15 months later, she was now in the position to make the purchase and not only that, she had an additional $85 in items that she wanted. I was more than happy to process her order. About 14 days after processing her order, I got another email from her…this time it was for $45 in items that her mother wanted.

The reason I am sharing this scenerio with you is that often times Direct Sales Consultants get discouraged when they don’t walk away from an online vendor fair with a slew of orders in hand. Building up an online customer base takes a lot of hard work and patience.

Product sales from online vendor fairs for the majority…are a lot less than the average home party sales. However, if you keep exposing your business and keep participating in vendor fairs, you can build a reputation for yourself and your business which will yield product orders when you least expect them.

Another benefit of participating in online vendor fairs is that it gives you practice for when you are doing offline events. Some consultants get very nervous when they stand up and speak in front of a group of people. One way to get comfortable with presenting products and information to others is by doing virtual parties aka vendor fairs.

Furthermore, Participating in online vendor events is a great way to fill-in the open dates on your booking calendar. (your home parties and offline vendor events get top priority, but there is nothing wrong with filling-in the other dates with online virtual parties).

With my personal experience, I didn’t get any orders or leads with the first 2 or 3 online events that I participated in several years ago when I first started. However, as time went on and I got more experienced and online party go’ers and vendor hosts got to know me, they felt more comfortable in doing business with me.

Is it worth your time? In my opinion…it is. With that said, you need to look for the ‘right’ online vendor events to participate in.

Next week I will give you several tips on how to find good online Direct Sales events to participate in.

Happy Selling,

Shelly

If you have been networking your Direct Sales business online, I am sure you have heard the coined phrase “Online Vendor Fair”…but, do you know what they are?

Online Vendor Fairs are online multi-vendor hosted parties. They are held in an online chat room and hosted by a web site or a group of Direct Sales consultants.

As a vendor, you reserve a spot during the vendor fair for your business presentation. This presentation can consist of product specials and/or your business opportunity. These presentations are usually 30 to 60 minutes in length and on some web sites, they can include visual and audio features or just held in a regular what you see, what you get type of chat room.

You will find some free admission vendor fairs and some will charge you a small fee to participate. As a vendor, it is your responsibility to help advertise the event to your customer base and/or by posting advertisements on social media outlets or online forum boards.

The best way to prepare for your presentation is by pre-typing up your speech and spell-checking it for any errors. Then when it comes time to do your presentation, all you have to do is copy and paste.

A good presentation goes something like this:

Introduction (personal and business)
Ordering Process (how they should place their orders with you)
3 to 4 product specials (where you specifically talk about a few products)
Question and Answer Segment
Play a quick party game (optional)
Your closing

All of the above should fit within the specified time that you are given.

If you are looking to participate in some online vendor party events, you can usually find them listed on work at home mom or direct sales types of web sites and forum boards. You can do a keyword search for “Online Vendor Fairs” through a search engine of your choice.

My blog post next week will take an in depth look at Vendor Fairs and how they can help to promote your business online.

Shelly

Online parties are really popular these days and are much like a home party. If you are looking for some fun online party games, I have 5 game ideas to share with you.

1. Guest Scavenger Hunt – Before the party begins, pick 5-7 items from your website to use for your Scavenger Hunt Game. Write them down and come up with 2-3 clues about the product and its location on your site. When you begin the game during your party, let the guests know that you will give them a few clues about a particular product and they have to find that product on your website. The first person to find it, gets a point. The one with the most points, wins the game.

2. Word Scramble – Before the party begins, come up with a list of 10 of your products and scramble up the letters. During the game, copy and paste in the scrambled word and have the guests unscramble the letters to form the correct word. Award 1 point to the person who correctly types in the word the fastest. The person with the most points, wins the game.

3. Power Word – Before the party begins, decide on which word that you would like to use for the Power Word. I am with Tupperware so I like to use the power word ROCKS! Let your party guests know that every time you use your company name during the presentation, that the first person to type in the power word gets a point. Example: Tupperware has lunch products to…first person to type in ROCKS! gets the point. At the end of the party, the person with the most points wins a prize. This game is great as it holds the attention of all party guests during the entire length of the party.

4. Trivia Game – Before the party begins, decide on a few trivia questions that pertain to your niche. Example: If you sell kitchenware, make your trivia questions related to food and cooking. If you sell jewelry, have your trivia questions related to jewelry. I like to use 7-10 questions for this game. The person who gets the most correct answers, wins the game.

5. Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader – Before this party game begins, decide on what type of questions you would like to ask (similar to trivia questions but from a variety of topics). I like to use 10 questions. Have each party guest type their answer into the chat room. If they answered correctly, they get a point. If they type in the incorrect answer, they lose 1 point. If they don’t type in any answer, they lose 2 points. Give them a time limit of 20 seconds per question that you ask. The person who has the highest amount of points, wins the game.

If you are in Direct Sales, you are probably pretty familiar with conducting home parties. If you are looking to increase your party business, consider adding online parties, to your party line-up.

Online parties are much like their home party counterparts. In fact, I find a lot of hostesses these days, are preferring an online party.

Here is an overview on how to conduct an online party.

Time Involved: 45-60 minutes in an online chat room

Introduction (5 minutes)

Introduce yourself to the party guests. (recruiting message) Give a brief speech about the company you are representing.

(break the ice) Ask all of the guests to type in their first names, along with their location.

Benefits Of Hosting A Party (5 minutes)

Thank your host for booking her _________ party. (dating message) Spend a few brief minutes discussing the benefits of hosting a party. Point out any current hostess specials that are being offered by your company.

Have the attendees open another browser window. Post the link to your online website or catalog.

Product Specials (5-10 minutes)

Announce what the product specials are for this party. What’s currently on sale, what’s a hot ‘must have’ and any purchase with purchase specials.

Q&A Break (3-5 minutes)

Ask party guests if they have any questions about the specials, that you just discussed.

Featured Products: (10 minutes)

Pick 3-5 specific products that you would like to focus on and talk about them.
Allow party guests to ask you any questions they may have, about your featured products.

Game Time/Fun Time (5 minutes)

If you choose to play a game with the party guests, this would be a great time to do it. You could do a Trivia Game about the Host Specials and Featured Products that you just discussed. Award the winner a prize or a discount, on their personal order.

Open Discussion (5-10 minutes)

You can use this time to help customers/party guests find specific products on your website.

Hostess Appreciation (3-5 minutes)

Thank your party host for booking the party. Briefly remind guests about the benefits of hosting their own _______ Party. (dating message)

Business Opportunity (3-5 minutes)

Let guests know about the current _________ business start-up specials, along with information on how they can start their own business with __________.(recruiting message)

Finalize Party (3-5 minutes)

Give guests your contact information. Ask the attendees for their email addresses, so that you can email each guest a summary of the party specials. Let the attendees know when you will be closing the party.

Thank your party hosts and guests for attending the party.

Shelly Hill has been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989 and is a Manager with Tupperware. Shelly has been providing online Tupperware Parties for 5 years. You can contact Shelly at:
Web: Classy Home Business Women
Web: Shelly’s Tupperware Home Business

Online vendor parties are a lot of fun and can be a great tool to expose your home business to non-local customers.

Here is a brief overview of how to conduct an online party during an Online Vendor Show.

Vendor Introduction ~ Let the guests and fellow vendors know who you are, what company or business you are with and a brief overview of your business. During this introduction, make sure you post the web site address to your web site.

Vendor Business Policy ~ Let the guests know what forms of payment you accept, how they are place to their orders (web site, private message or via email), and about your shipping policy. Let them know up front when you will be submitting orders, when will payment be due and how long it will take for them to receive their orders.

Vendor Presentation ~ Depending on the length of time of your vendor fair spot, you will want to talk about 5-12 products. These can be your best sellers, your favorite products or products that you have on sale right now. Try to offer a variety of price points. I have noticed that most guests like to hear about products that cost less than $50.00 so keep that in mind during your presentation. Direct the guests to view the products on your web site while you are talking to them about the products by opening up a new browser window. You will also find that the majority of vendors will play a game during their vendor presentation to keep the presentation fun and active for the chat room guests, as a prize you could offer a $5.00 gift certificate or an inexpensive prize. Vendors are responsible for shipping costs of the prize to the prize winner (in most cases).

Vendor Q& A Time ~ Allow a few minutes for guests to ask you questions about the products and your business.

Vendor Closing Time ~ This is when you will repost your web site link, ordering instructions and your contact information. Make sure you thank the guests for attending your Vendor Fair Spot!

As you can see, its a great interactive way to expose your business to others online. Just think of it as a mini home party but held online!

Shelly Hill has been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989 and is a Manager with Tupperware. You can contact Shelly at:
Web: Classy Home Business Women
Web: Shelly’s Tupperware Home Business

An Online Vendor Fair is an Event held online to showcase those who have a Direct Sales Home Business. A Vendor Fair can be about product sales, business networking or recruiting others who might be interested in getting started in a Direct Sales home business.

Online Vendor Fairs are held in a online, live chat room. The chat room can hold many guests at one time and is a fun and interactive way for the guests and vendors to communicate with one another.

For an Online Vendor Fair Event to be successful, it needs to be advertised by the host web site and by the vendors who will be attending the event. Reputable vendor fair hosts will charge a small fee for participating in the event and this fee is used to help advertise the event and to pay for the chat room.

A vendor fair spot should never be less than 30 minutes in duration and never more than 60 minutes to be effective. The most effective vendor fairs will have vendors pre-assigned to a time slot and this information will be posted online, this is known as the Vendor Fair Schedule.

Vendors who participate in Online Vendor Fairs are usually involved in Home Party Plans, Direct Sales or Self-Owned home based businesses. Vendors who showcase their businesses are looking for an avenue to expose their businesses to people they normally would not come in contact with.

For those in Home Party Plans and Direct Sales, a Online Vendor Fair is like a mini home party but held online in a live chat room. It is important to make your vendor fair spot fun and interactive for the guests who are attending. You want the attendees full attention when its your time to shine!

The majority of vendors will pre-type up what they want to say during their presentation ahead of time that way it will be easier for them during the presentation to copy and paste their text into the chat room. This can be done in Microsoft Word or in a Email and then saved for later use. It’s always best to proofread it and to spell check it for accuracy.

Just think of it as a mini home party but held online!

Shelly Hill has been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989 and is a Manager with Tupperware. You can contact Shelly at:
Web: Classy Home Business Women
Web: Shelly’s Tupperware Home Business

I have participated in Online Direct Sales Vendor Fairs for the past 5 years. I am often asked, “How do you find good vendor fairs to participate in?”

You should really sit down and make a list of what ‘you’ expect to see and get from participating in a online vendor fair. Next, go to a major search engine and do a key word search for vendor fairs, direct sales, wahm parties, etc.

You can also find several vendor fairs online by visiting wahm (work at home mom) forum boards as members will post information about them in the online party folders.

Here are the tips of what you should be looking for when it comes to choosing the right vendor fair to participate in.

1. Convenience: Are the times posted for the Vendor Fair Time Slots, convenient? What I mean is this, are the time slots great ones that can be utilized by all time zones?

Example: a 9am to 12 noon EST time are not good time slots because West Coast Shoppers are still in bed or busy that early in the morning.

2. Is there a Fair Buzz? Are you seeing Fair Advertising? Are you seeing others talking about it? Does it have a previously established success rate?

3. Fair Spots should run 30-60 minutes in length. Anything under 30 minutes is a joke in my opinion. I once attended a fair that the vendors had 10 minute spots, are you kidding me? By the time they got done with their intro, they cut them off and moved onto the next vendor. Anything over 60 minutes loses the customers attention.

4. Be prepared ahead of time. Type up what you want to say, the specials you are running and so forth. Proof-read it and then copy/paste when its your time to present.

5. Will there be staff (moderators) or hosts of the fair in the chat room at all times? This is important because you will get spammers who run around online who invade chat rooms to cause trouble. So make sure the fair host or staff will be present should problems arise, PHYSICALLY present in the chat room! Not available via PM, IM or email.

6. Incentives for Fair Shoppers. Will there be contest drawings? Fair only specials? All of this helps to attract shoppers to the event.

7. Is there a back up chat room? When we hold fairs we have a back up chat room available should the host server go down. This is also an important fact that is often over looked. I also prefer fairs that the owner uses a paid chat room. They are more reliable, have nicer features and if trouble makers show up, they can be booted and banned.

8. Rules and Guidelines for Vendors. I think this helps to run a smooth and successful fair. Vendors should know UP FRONT what their responsibilities will be. Vendors should have to agree to them before signing up.

9. Reasonable Vendor Fees aka the costs. I think it should be less than $20 per spot.

10. Reputation…extremely important! There are too many website owners doing these vendor fairs and not properly promoting them! They are taking your hard earned money and it ends up being a handful (less than 5 people) in the fair and they are ALL vendors!!! You want to make sure that the vendor fair that you are participating in is being heavily advertised!

Ask around to see if others have done that particular fair and find out if it was successful for them. The more you ask, the more you find out!

11. Variety, again this is important! You don’t want to attend or participate in a fair that doesn’t have a variety of vendors on board. The more variety, the more shoppers it pulls in. I once attended a fair that had 4 cosmetic company consultants in 1 1/2 days and they were all from the same company.! Then there were 3 other cosmetic companies also being presented during that time, too many cosmetic consultants. Make sure there is a variety. I like to see fairs that limit it to ONLY 2 reps per company and that those reps can not present on the same day.

12. Is this fair being held on a professional looking website? I get irritated when I see these fair owners charging for fair spots but hosting the fair on a freebie website and using a freebie chat room or the website is not professionally done. Customers upon entering a fair site or chat room should see professional looking sites. You want customers to take your business seriously!

13. Are there Vendor Orientation Chats before the fair begins? I feel this is helpful too, especially to newbie vendors. Orientation Chats should occur to explain to you the process of the fair, your responsibilities and so forth.

14. Is there sufficient Pre-Fair communication between the vendor and fair site owner? Are they keeping you informed on things before the fair starts? I feel this is important, way too many times I see no communication between fair owner and the vendor.

15. Are you added to the Fair Schedule Promptly? How often is the public fair schedule updated? I had a friend who did a online fair and the fair owner took 9 days to add her to the fair schedule, which is unacceptable.

16. Are you provided with free banners, buttons and fair ads? This is great advertising and should be utilized. Vendors should be responsible for helping to advertise the event. The more we all pitch in to help advertise the event, the better the turn out and success!

17. I also believe Vendors should be screened. Is this fair site owner allowing anyone and everyone to be a vendor? Are they checking out the Vendors to make sure they are legit?

These are 17 very important things you need to remember when you are selecting a online vendor site to host your online party. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and please do your research before signing up and paying them money for you to participate in their online vendor fair.

Shelly Hill has been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989 and is a Manager with Tupperware. You can contact Shelly at:
Web: Classy Home Business Women
Web: Shelly’s Tupperware Home Business