I attended a home party last week for one of the Direct Sales companies and the consultant with that company played a party game that I thought was pretty clever so I thought I would share with you today the game she calls:

Get The Monkey Off Your Back Recruiting Game

You will need to go out to the toy store and purchase one of those Monkey’s In A Barrel Games in the children’s game section. The game has numerous plastic monkeys in a variety of colors that are packaged in a plastic barrel. You will also need to purchase colored index cards (or make your own) in the colors to match the monkeys. She then wrote on the index cards reasons why someone should join a direct sales company.

examples:

* Pay off the mortgage
* Buy a vacation home
* Go on a dream vacation
* Pay off medical/dental debt
* Pay off credit card debt
* Buy a new vehicle
* Pay off a current vehicle
* Pay for a home remodeling project
* Pay for kid’s college tuition
etc. etc. etc. (you will want to write one of these things on each index card)

As guests came in for the party she handed each guest a colored plastic monkey. During her business opportunity presentation she explained to us why she gave us these plastic monkeys and that was because she wanted all of us to know that we could get the DEBT MONKEY off our backs by starting a home business with her company and generation additional income to pay off our debts.

After she spent 5-8 minutes talking to us about everything her company has to offer and how a home business with her company can help us pay off our debt or help us to afford new things she asked guests to return the plastic monkey to her as they handed her their orders and checked out.

When the guest handed her the plastic monkey…she spent 2-3 minutes talking with them one on one about her home business opportunity. After the party was over…she had generated 4 recruit leads from the party!

I asked her why she uses this game and she said it was a way to “slyly” get the guests to think about their current debt issues or to get them to think about what they could use extra money for…in other words…get their minds thinking about joining her home business opportunity.

I thought it was very clever and would share her Get The Monkey Off Your Back Recruiting Game with all of you!

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

For this particular game it is easier if you write up your 10 questions and print them out on paper to take to your home parties with you. You can use the 10 questions listed below or come up with 10 questions all on your own.

During the party you will ask the guests to answer the 10 questions on the sheet about the party hostess. Once they are done you will read the questions out loud and have each guest state their answer for everyone to hear. If they guess the correct answer about the host they get a point and the guest with the most points at the end of the game..wins and gets a prize!

A quick, easy and super fun game to see how well they know their party host!

1. How old is your party host? _______________
2. In what city was your party host born? _______________
3. What color is your party host’s favorite color? _______________
4. What is your party host’s favorite dessert? _______________
5. When it comes to bedroom attire what does your party host like to sleep in? ______________
6. What movie is your party host’s favorite movie? ______________
7. Who is your party host’s favorite singer or music group? ___________
8. When it comes to professional sport’s teams which team is your party host’s favorite team? _____________
9. What is your party host’s favorite beverage? ____________
10. What day of the week is your party host’s favorite day? ____________

In the event there is a tie, here is our tie breaker question:

Where is your party host’s favorite place to vacation at? _______________________________________________________

Now let’s see how well everyone knows their party host!

For this game you will ask the questions below and if the guest says yes they raise their hand and they get 3 points for that question. If the guest answers no, they get zero points for that question. The guest with the lowest amount of points wins! (don’t tell the guests that the winner will be the person with the lowest points, let them assume that it is the person with the highest amount of points).

This is a fun game that gets the guests laughing and helps them to get to know one another. The person with the lowest amount of points will win the prize you are offering at the home party.

Have You Ever…Home Party Game

1. Have you ever called in sick to work and weren’t sick? (hookie day).
2. While driving…have you ever ran a red light on purpose?
3. While shopping have you ever placed a bag or item onto the roof of your car and driven off and forgotten about the item on top of your car?
4. As an adult have you ever made a prank phone call to a friend or stranger?
5. Have you ever walked out of a store and left your credit/debit card behind?
6. Have you ever went out to eat and after your meal has arrived to your table forgotten that you didn’t bring money with you?
7. Have you ever ran out of gas and had to call for help?
8. Have you ever been embarrassed by wearing a piece of clothing outside of your house that had a stain, tear, hole or broken zipper?
9. Have you ever left your home and forgot to brush your hair?
10. Have you ever forgotten your spouses or significant other’s birthday?

Note: You can change these questions to suit your own needs or taste. The point is to ask questions that “could be” a little embarrasing to the guest and to get them laughing and into the party shopping mood.

Home Party Games For Home Party Consultants

By Dee Schrock

When you hold home party games, you can benefit in many ways. It is a great way to showcase your items; you can give your products as prizes, get all of the guests in a great mood, and hopefully generate more parties on your calendar.

It is very beneficial to have party games when you have a home party. A game is the best way to break the ice and allow everyone to get to know the names of all of the guests and a little bit about each other. Games allow the guests to feel comfortable and even in the party mood. The more relaxed and comfortable your guests are, the more likely you are going to sell your products.

Playing home party games requires space in your home if you are the host. If you have your own business then you want to be sure the host has enough space for the type of game you are planning. If the home is really small then you will be limited and not be able to play interactive games that require the people to all stand and move around. Always have a few different types of games that can be played from the home in case you come across a problem with space.

When you have activities it is important to integrate your products into the games. This is an excellent method for nonchalantly showcasing your items and allowing people to see the great products you have for sale. You should integrate your products because it allows people to get a good look at what you have.

One of the best things you can do when you are making home party plans is to use your products as the prizes when you play games. Prizes are an excellent incentive for playing a game but they also are perfect for creating motivation of all of the guests. Giving your products is the best option because the other guests will have the opportunity to buy the neat prizes too.

Guests should be feeling great and having a good time. This should be the ultimate goal to make all of the guests as comfortable as possible. If everyone is having a great time then they will want to have their own event too. This will be a really simple method of filling up your calendar and making more dates for additional bookings.

It is important to plan based on the space the host has in their home. You can integrate the products being sold into the game by making them prizes for the winners. You want the guests to be as comfortable as possible and ensure they are having a really good time. This will ensure you sell as many of your products as possible and get as many new dates on your calendar as you can.

For more home party games, business ideas, and tips on increasing sales, visit http://www.craft-selling-parties.com for great advice on making money from home in your own home party business.

? Copyright 2009. Feel free to reprint this article on your site as long as the article is not modified in any way and the resource information (about the author) is listed as above.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dee_Schrock
http://EzineArticles.com/?Home-Party-Games-For-Home-Party-Consultants&id=2097103

5 Fun Party Games for Direct Sales That Will Boost Your Business

By S Myers

If you are in direct sales, the money is all in the parties you do. You want your hostess and her guests to have as much fun as possible, but at the same time, you need to educate them on and interest them in your products. You may also want to plant the idea of one of them becoming a consultant. Party games can accomplish all of this while providing entertainment to the guests. Here are a few of our favorite games. Give them a try and watch your business grow.

1) Bingo

This is an easy all-time favorite and an easy way to introduce a wide variety of products to the group.

Create some bingo cards by drawing a 4 by 4 box grid on a piece of paper. Write “Free” on the center box. Then write the names of your products on the remaining boxes in random order on each of the bingo cards and make yourself a set of cards with just one of the products on each card. You will use this set of cards to draw the bingo “numbers”. You may want to have a sample of each of the products with you and show it and talk about it when the product is drawn during the bingo game. As in ordinary bingo, the first person who has a row of items checked off wins a prize.

2) Get To Know Each Other Game

This game makes for a nice icebreaker, especially if most of the guests don’t know each other. It can also provide you some clues about who may be a potential prospect.

Pass around a bag of M&Ms. Tell everyone to take as many as they would like. Quickly ask them to count the number of candies in their hand. Each person then takes a turn standing up and telling as many things about themselves and their family as they have M&M’s. Of course no one is allowed to eat their M&Ms until they have had their turn.

3) How Well Do You Know Your Hostess?

Give a piece of paper to each of your guests and have them number it from 1 to 10. Then ask them to answer the following questions.

1) What is your hostess’s favorite color?

2) If she could have any vehicle, what would it be?

3) How many kids does she have?

4) What is her favorite hobby?

5) Who is her favorite actor?

6) What is her favorite animal?

7) What is her favorite TV show?

8) What is her favorite food?

9) What is her favorite scent or smell?

10) If you were in need of something, would your hostess give it to you if she can?

After everyone writes down their answers (including the hostess), read the questions again and have the hostess tell everyone her answers. The other guests mark on their papers if they got it right or wrong. The person with the most write answers wins a small prize or discount on their purchase.

You can change and rearrange any of the questions, but leave the last one in place. It provides a nice lead- in to mention that the hostess will get free product if they purchase a certain amount, and/or book their own parties.

4) Left Right Game

This game is a great way to start a party, right before you go into your presentation. Pass out one or two small gifts. Tell your guests that you will read them a story and that they should pass the gift to the person to the right when they hear the word “right” and to the left when you mention “left. The person holding the gift at the end of the story gets to keep it.

Here is the story:

I left my house and was on my way to (insert hostess’s name) house. But I soon discovered that I had left my directions at home, right by the phone! Well, I knew right away that I needed to have the right directions to (insert hostess’s name) house, so I turned left and I turned left and I turned right and made my way back to my house for the right directions. Sure enough, there they were, right where I had left them, right next to the phone.

Finally, I was on the right track. I arrived right on time and set up my (insert your company name) presentation right over here. You all arrived and sat down. I’m going to get right down to work and tell you about (name of company). I hope nothing will be left out. In a moment I’ll show you our new line of (insert your type of products) products. If you left home with the intention of shopping for gifts tonight, you’ll find we have the right gift for everyone. Think about upcoming birthdays and holidays, we don’t want anyone left out. I’d be happy to help you find the right gift for that special someone.

(Insert name of company) has a (insert number of days) -day return policy. When your merchandise comes in please check it right away. If something is not right please call me right away and you can be sure I will take care of it right away. You don’t want to be left with something you are not 100% satisfied with, right? If you’d like to be a hostess and earn free and discounted merchandise, this is the right time for you to explore hosting a party.

I’m enjoying being here with all of you tonight and I hope you are having fun, too. I know you can’t wait to see if we have that special item you have been looking for, so without further delay I will get right to the point of this party, which is showing you our great products! So, there is really nothing left for me to do except congratulate the winner, right?

5) Ask Me About My Job

This game is a great way to get your guests thinking about joining your company.

Get or make up some tickets.

Tell your guests that for the next 3 minutes you are going to play ” Ask Me About My Job”. The first person to come up with a question will get 3 tickets, the second person will get 2 and every question after that earns one ticket.

You will hear questions like “How long have you been doing this?” and “How many hours a week do you work?” Answer them as positively as possible. Good answers to the questions above would be “I’ve been doing this for 12 months and I’ve never had so much fun” and ” I only work evenings and weekends because I want to be home with my kids”.

After the three minutes are up, tell you guests to hang on to their tickets. You will have another short Q&A session towards the end of the party (your guests will have thought of some additional questions by then). After that have a drawing for a small prize.

This game is a great opportunity for you to teach your guests about your business and they may see how could benefit them.

Give a few of these games a try and put your own spin on them. All of these can easily be adapted and modified to work for you and the particular direct sales company that you represent. Go out there and have fun!

For great advice on building your direct sales business using the internet visit http://www.momva.com/mmm.html And for a review of Mom Masterminds visit [http://www.mommastermindsreview.com]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=S_Myers
http://EzineArticles.com/?5-Fun-Party-Games-for-Direct-Sales-That-Will-Boost-Your-Business&id=117659

The Pen and Winning Number Game

This party game is super simple and is great for consultants who don’t want to stand up in front of guests and play a 5-10 minute long party game. For this game…you will want to place a label on each pen that you hand to guests with their order forms.

Ask each guest to write the numer down that is on their writing pen onto their order form and circle it. At the end of the party ask your host to select a number and the guest who has the winning number/pen will win a prize.

The Catalog and Winning Number Game

This is just like the game above except you place a number on the back of each catalog that is being used at the party. At the end of the party you ask the host to select a number (at random) and the guest who has that number on the back of his/her catalog will win the prize.

Divide the group into teams and appoint team captains. Ask guests to supply the missing number in the following phrases. The first person to say the missing number wins a point for her team. Team captains keep a running tally of their team’s points. The team with the most point wins.

The Three Bears
Thousand Island Dressing
A-One Sauce
The Three Musketeers
Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd
A One-Horse Town
Heinz 57 Varieties
The Three Wise Men
The Twelve Apostles
The Roaring Twenties
Behind the Eight Ball
Thirty Days Hath September
Seven-UP
Three Men and a Baby
Thirty Days and Thirty Nights
8 Mile (movie)
Two Lovers (movie)
My One and Only
Five Minutes of Heaven (movie)
The Sixth Sense (movie)

Read it to the guests like this…

The ____ Bears
_____ Island Dressing
A- _____ Sauce
The ______ Musketeers

and so forth!

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!

How To Suceed as A Home Party Sales Consultant – Tips on Marketing, Party Themes & Game Ideas
By Sarah Makowsky

You went to a home show not expecting to buy much, but then you fell in love with the products, signed some papers, and WHAM you are now the proud owner of a home business. When you wake up the morning after the party, you may feel like you are waking up with a hang over as you wonder, “what have I done?!?” Especially when you try to muster up the enthusiasm to explain the new business venture that you’ve signed up for to your not so enthusiastic and down right unimpressed husband.

If your husband’s cynicism has you second guessing your decision, rest assured you have made a good choice. You are in the right place at the right time. With the fast paced stressful lifestyles of today, many people turn to the internet for after hours shopping from home. Another side effect of today’s hectic lifestyle is that it leaves women disconnected and longing for girlfriend time. So a home party show fills two modern needs: shopping and girlfriend time. It is a concept that was destined to succeed. Maybe that is why the direct party home sales industry is growing so rapidly. According to the IRS tax records from 2005, an estimated 13.3 million people nationwide and over 47.3 million people worldwide that have decided to enter the home party direct sales industry.

It seems like a new direct sale business opens every day. It used to be that Tupperware was in a league of its own and the Tupperware parties were pretty much the only home party company on the scene. But those days of dominance are gone. Tupperware began breaking off into many different subsidiaries set up to target diverse markets. Other companies ran to get in the game.

Now there are companies that specialize in everything from spa, make-up, home specialty products, children’s books, scrapbooking, stamping and so much more. If you can dream it, there is probably already a direct sale company that already sells it. All of this makes it easier than ever to find a company (or several companies) that sell products you love. Becoming a consultant for the company gives you a great opportunity to get the products at great discounts. Plus when your friends and family love it too, you have a great opportunity for part time income.

So even if the fast talking home party consultant that signed you up started to make you feel like a used car buyer with her smooth talking well rehearsed speech about how rosy things will be for you and how much money you will make with her company, don’t feel like you were duped. The truth is, if you are careful and do your research so you can avoid falling into common pitfalls, you can get a lot for a very low cash investment. This book will give you all kinds of tips and suggestions for managing your time wisely and making the most of your business in a short time. Most important, it will give you the tools you need to advertise yourself and your business with enthusiasm.

You were smart to enter this booming market. Sales are setting new records every year. New people are constantly signing up. There are so many opportunities for you if you know how to take advantage of them. So where do you begin? Get new leads with these theme & booking ideas:

Sneak Preview: If someone is interested in finding out more about your products, invite them over for a one-on-one preview of your products. After you’ve shown her all your products, offer a package deal that is too good to pass up! For instance you may put together a group of 10 bestsellers and offer it at a discount. This is not as much as your new consultant bundle that she would get if she becomes a consultant. You do not want her to feel like all you are interested in doing here is sign her up! You really want to generate interest in your products, so just put together a few things that may add up to about $60 or $70 to thank her and get her hooked on your favorite products.

Nights Too Busy to Party: Do a quick get-together over brunch! Bagels, donuts, a fresh pot of coffee and me! Perfect for a Saturday or Sunday morning. In an hour or two your party will be complete and the rest of the day is yours! Each guest who brings a goodie to share will receive a free gift.

Book To Look: Give everyone an envelope that says book to look on the outside and tell everyone that they can open it at the end of the demonstration if they plan on booking a party. Inside I put either coupons or gift certificates for them to use at their show. Everyone is usually dying to see what they receive so they book a show just to see what they get.

Make your parties fun so others want to book with these game ideas:

Get To Know Each Other Game: This game makes a nice icebreaker, especially if most of the guests do not know each other. It can also provide you some clues about who may be a potential prospect. Pass around a bag of M&Ms. Tell everyone to take as many as they would like. Quickly ask them to count the number of candies in their hand. Each person then takes a turn standing up and telling as many things about themselves and their family as they have M&M.s. Of course no one is allowed to eat their M&Ms until they have had their turn.

Purse Scavenger Hunt or Let’s Make a Deal: Remember that old game show, Let’s Make a Deal? At the end of every show, Monty Hall would give audience members money for a specific unusual item. This is the same idea. Divide guests into teams of two or three, giving them a list of slightly unusual items, including a few “why in the world would you carry that in a purse?” items. Assign points to each item based on the likelihood that someone will have it. (a lipstick carries 10 points, a can opener 90 points). The team with the most points is the winner.

Replace It Game: Give each guest an index card. Ask each guest to write down an appliance, piece of furniture or other thing in their home that they would like to replace. Ask them to list 5 or 6 reasons why they would like to get rid of it. When they have all finished their lists, have them cross out the item to replace and put in the name of their husband (or their significant other). Now have each of them read their cards one person at a time. They have to say, “I want to get rid of _______ (Ron, Tim, Bill), because he is, and then list the five reasons. Example: Couch. 1. Old. 2. Ugly. 3. Too Small. 4. Wrong Color. 5. Stinks. Now have them change couch to their husband’s name and when they read it, it goes like this: I want to get rid of Ron because he is old, ugly he’s to small, he’s the wrong color and he stinks.

Visit http://www.homebusinessmakeover.com for a great selection of tips and products that will help you work more efficiently. We offer a huge selection of cute, catchy & professional templates full of EVERYTHING you need to make your life a little easier! We offer customized marketing items and templates for flyers, handouts, business cards, thank you notes, incentive plans, hostess helpers, client loyalty plans, exciting party themes, and fun new games to jazz up your home business. Plus our bookkeeping & inventory management spreadsheets will store all your critical information like cash flow, inventory & events in one spot!

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

http://EzineArticles.com/?How-To-Suceed-as-A-Home-Party-Sales-Consultant—Tips-on-Marketing,-Party-Themes-and-Game-Ideas&id=1042290

If you want to make your own BINGO cards to use as a game at your direct sales home parties there is free software online that you can use to draft up and print out your own BINGO cards and you can tailor the game spaces to suit your own company’s needs.

The Bingo Card Maker is really easy to use and the best thing is that it is FREE! You can also use this same FREE software to make and print out your own Tic-Tac-Toe game cards too!