Did Your Fall Preview Result in Disappointment?

[ChefinHarmony]

Thanks for this thread - I needed to vent about my poor open house. My recruiter warned that they weren't too sucessful for her. I should have listened. I sent out over 100 invites, made as many reminder calls as possible and emailed reminders the week before. I had 9 people in attendance - everyone who said "yes" was there. The show sales are just over $300. I have one possible catalog show and one possible booking. I'm just bummed. My Mom & I were up until 3am the night before baking flatbread and I cooked (just made the dips and sticky caramel mini-cakes) everything else beforehand. It took me almost and hour to set up the hall. If my sisters, nieces and Mom wouldn't have been there, I would have been totally embarassed. I kept my chin up and talked about PC positively the entire show - then cried all the way home. I was just bummed. I had higher hopes/expectations. Then I got frustrated and decided to make customer care calls tonight to try to get more Sept bookings - ended up with 15 "Nos" in about an hour. I'm a bit "PC" blue today. I don't know what more I can do! Thanks for listening!!
Joanne

 

[pampchefrhondab]

I just received a great email from my director today. It's called 24 bookings in 24 hours. Here it is:

What? Yes, 24 bookings in 24 hours.

On Friday, I got a voicemail from a Party Lite woman that had been to visit a networking group that I belong to. The message went something like this.

Hi Yvette.. this is ______ from Party Lite. I was calling to see if you would be interested in being one of my preferred hosts. I have a challenge to book 24 shows in 24 hours. I'm booking dates between now and December 12th. For booking your show with me in this 24 hours you'll be entered to win a $100 shopping spree with Party Lite. We have a new book and a holiday line for you and your friends to shop from. Our host bonuses in the next months are awesome! Please give me a call back at xxx xxx xxxx to be one of these preferred hosts. My challenge ends at 9pm on Saturday night. Thank you!

So, I called her back. I've been toying with having a party for months now. Would I have called her to book? Nope. It was one of those some day, maybe, if I get around to scheduling it things. What inspired me to call her? First and foremost to help her out. I wanted to be a part of HER WIN! I wanted to be on that winning team- it was exciting to think that I could help her forward that goal. Yeah, being entered in the $100 was nice but I don't normally win things so I didn't think that would happen.

So, I called her and booked my show. Then I asked her some questions. Who gave you the challenge? She told me SHE GAVE HERSELF THE CHALLENGE. How neat! She told me why.. and she inspired me. I was absolutely enrolled in her goals.

I encourage you to set a goal for yourself like this. It's an outrageous, HUGE goal. That was also what had me call. If she had said, I was challenged to book two shows in 24 hours, i would have thought "let someone else do it." Imagine if you did this for your business? For some of you, it would fill your calendars to the end of the year! For others, it would be half of what you want to do. Either way, wouldn't it be cool to spend 24 hours doing this goal and then having your calendar booked.

Thought I would share w/everyone. I'm going to do this, but I'm offers a free set of Professional Cookware which I won from my shopping spree!

Good Luck to everyone!

 

[ILOUANGOUDOM]

Thanks Anne. The only thing is I don't have any of my neighbors' phone #s. I went around the neighborhood and knocked on doors, intoduced myself and gave them flyers. I asked everyone to RSVP by today. I've only received 2. Since I can't contact anyone, I'll probably just do a drawing for those who make it. Thanks for the great idea though. I'll try that next time.

 

[lacychef]

My advise is don't give up on open houses! Once you have a bigger customer base, and do it the same time every year, your customers will plan on coming. Make it fun too; different from a traditional show. (not that shows aren't fun just have it be different) Mine last night was a bingo/sneak peek. It was a blast; I had 18 come, with almost 500 in sales. I've had a loyal group that's been coming to these bingo's, and they keep bringing new friends. I also had some newbies come to the bingo last night. I almost ran out of food!
Anyway, just keep trying--that's my motto. And it's really paid off. Last night was double my last open house attendance. And tons of fun!

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Good Advice Lacy!
I think the consistency has something to do with it! The people who come to my open house every year are hosts & customers whom I have developed a friendship with over the years.....so they aren't just coming to the "Open House" - they also bring pictures of their kids and grandkids, and want to see how my son has grown, and catch up on our lives. One lady at my open house was laughing and reminiscing about how sick I was at her show 3 yrs ago (morning sickness all day long!)
They know to expect a fun time, lots of great food, and great giveaways - and they bring their friends! But this is something I have developed over the years - like everything else with PC - Perseverance = Success!

 

[pchefinski]

I just received a great email from my director today. It's called 24 bookings in 24 hours. Here it is:

What? Yes, 24 bookings in 24 hours.

On Friday, I got a voicemail from a Party Lite woman that had been to visit a networking group that I belong to. The message went something like this.

Hi Yvette.. this is ______ from Party Lite. I was calling to see if you would be interested in being one of my preferred hosts. I have a challenge to book 24 shows in 24 hours. I'm booking dates between now and December 12th. For booking your show with me in this 24 hours you'll be entered to win a $100 shopping spree with Party Lite. We have a new book and a holiday line for you and your friends to shop from. Our host bonuses in the next months are awesome! Please give me a call back at xxx xxx xxxx to be one of these preferred hosts. My challenge ends at 9pm on Saturday night. Thank you!

So, I called her back. I've been toying with having a party for months now. Would I have called her to book? Nope. It was one of those some day, maybe, if I get around to scheduling it things. What inspired me to call her? First and foremost to help her out. I wanted to be a part of HER WIN! I wanted to be on that winning team- it was exciting to think that I could help her forward that goal. Yeah, being entered in the $100 was nice but I don't normally win things so I didn't think that would happen.

So, I called her and booked my show. Then I asked her some questions. Who gave you the challenge? She told me SHE GAVE HERSELF THE CHALLENGE. How neat! She told me why.. and she inspired me. I was absolutely enrolled in her goals.

I encourage you to set a goal for yourself like this. It's an outrageous, HUGE goal. That was also what had me call. If she had said, I was challenged to book two shows in 24 hours, i would have thought "let someone else do it." Imagine if you did this for your business? For some of you, it would fill your calendars to the end of the year! For others, it would be half of what you want to do. Either way, wouldn't it be cool to spend 24 hours doing this goal and then having your calendar booked.

Thought I would share w/everyone. I'm going to do this, but I'm offers a free set of Professional Cookware which I won from my shopping spree!

Good Luck to everyone!

Oh I am definately doing this! So my question is whether this would be more successful if I waited til the end of the week (Friday), or if I should just go ahead and do it tonight (Tuesday). Also, wouldn't it be so fun to invite all 24 of your preferred hosts to a party just for them in mid-November, pull the winner of the shopping spree, have a few other gifts to raffle off, do the Pampered Pool raffle thing, and make it a fun night just to honor and thank them? You could even do it as a mystery host show, each person bringing $100 and getting a share of the host rewards once put together. Then the $100 spree winner would be able to order her stuff, and you could use the host rewards discount so it would save you money.. it sounds SUPER FUN! anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, but I really think this will help me out alot.. I'm calling those I have numbers for, and emailing those that I don't.. totally awesome and I'll get back to you all on how it goes!

 

[cookn' katie]

One thing that I have found to help out my open houses is~ I give tickets/enteries in to my prize drawings. I give a ticket for RSVP'ing even if they can't come, So many tickets for sales, so many tickets for bringing a guests, booking a show, etc. Then I give alot of things away. Free product, discounted total, SB cookbook, I try to give at least half the people in attendance a FREE gift of somesort. I also do an evening open house and a Sat morning show. That way more people can attend. I usually have a good turn out. Katie

 

[pchefinski]

Oh I am definately doing this! So my question is whether this would be more successful if I waited til the end of the week (Friday), or if I should just go ahead and do it tonight (Tuesday). Also, wouldn't it be so fun to invite all 24 of your preferred hosts to a party just for them in mid-November, pull the winner of the shopping spree, have a few other gifts to raffle off, do the Pampered Pool raffle thing, and make it a fun night just to honor and thank them? You could even do it as a mystery host show, each person bringing $100 and getting a share of the host rewards once put together. Then the $100 spree winner would be able to order her stuff, and you could use the host rewards discount so it would save you money.. it sounds SUPER FUN! anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, but I really think this will help me out alot.. I'm calling those I have numbers for, and emailing those that I don't.. totally awesome and I'll get back to you all on how it goes!

*sigh* I called my clientele and ALL of them said "NO" and "please take me off your contact list".. LOL i'm not joking. well, i did leave 2 messages. it sounds unbelievable, but maybe I've got the booking plague or something. guess i was all excited for nothing! But I have my best friend doing a catalog show for me and a girl from church doing one in october (which hers will probably be nice b'c everyone at her work has been asking her to do one every october so they can order their christmas stuff through her). i really thought that would help me fill my calendar between now and Christmas. Ah well, back to the drawing board!

 

[heat123]

*sigh* I called my clientele and ALL of them said "NO" and "please take me off your contact list".. LOL i'm not joking. well, i did leave 2 messages. it sounds unbelievable, but maybe I've got the booking plague or something. guess i was all excited for nothing! But I have my best friend doing a catalog show for me and a girl from church doing one in october (which hers will probably be nice b'c everyone at her work has been asking her to do one every october so they can order their christmas stuff through her). i really thought that would help me fill my calendar between now and Christmas. Ah well, back to the drawing board!

Soo sorry to hear about that! At least you tried! Which is better than I can say about myself! I really want to but I need to get over this phone phobia problem I have and am thinking about getting this self help tape to do it! Good luck at your upcoming shows!

 

[pchefinski]

Oh it was a terrible time starting to get on the phone.. once I started, I thought it would get easier, and it did a little, but I couldn't believe the responses I got. Well, that takes care of my existing clientele.. I need fresh meat! lol

 

[kcjodih]

Fall Preview Results:

Invited all 153 on my email list. Had 21 come and 2 outside orders. Total sales $1037 so far and I'll close Friday. 3 bookings. 5 recipes made. 1 VERY tired consultant

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Jodi,
Awesome job! I was tired after my open house too - I find it very hard to be both the consultant and the host at the same time,
Congratulations on your sales and your bookings!

 

[AJPratt]

Holy crap!

 

[jrstephens]

I second that Anne!

Mine is at $557 right now. I am sending it off tomorrow, so, it should close at about that. I am proud of myself for that! $90.00 in free stuff plus commisision.

 

[pamperedbecky]

Holy crap!

I third that! That's great! I hope for those results with mine in a few weeks. It's also a "Stoneware Workshop." After I try making the caramel apple bread pudding this weekend and if it goes well, that may be my main demo. I did this same theme last September and had a $1000 show. I'm excited!!

 

[gilliandanielle]

My results
75 invites e-mailed
40 invites mailed (some got both)
4 people showed up
3 of those people were related to me
$200 in orders of discontinued product at show
2 show bookings at show
1,000,000 calls made to people to bump up my sales
$837 final show sales including two sets of Gen II cookware from DH's aunt
2 more bookings = 4 bookings

I don't think my show was that bad for only having 4 people show, and for not selling ANY new products!

 

[heat123]

My results
75 invites e-mailed
40 invites mailed (some got both)
4 people showed up
3 of those people were related to me
$200 in orders of discontinued product at show
2 show bookings at show
1,000,000 calls made to people to bump up my sales
$837 final show sales including two sets of Gen II cookware from DH's aunt
2 more bookings = 4 bookings

I don't think my show was that bad for only having 4 people show, and for not selling ANY new products!

Awesome results Gillian and Jodi! Congrats on a great fall preview! I'm crossing my fingers I have a decent turn out ~with 126 evited and 60 mailed invites. Will let ya know how it goes after the 17th!

 

[ChefBeckyD]

My results
75 invites e-mailed
40 invites mailed (some got both)
4 people showed up
3 of those people were related to me
$200 in orders of discontinued product at show
2 show bookings at show
1,000,000 calls made to people to bump up my sales
$837 final show sales including two sets of Gen II cookware from DH's aunt
2 more bookings = 4 bookings

I don't think my show was that bad for only having 4 people show, and for not selling ANY new products!

I KNOW that is an awesome show......$837 in sales & 4 bookings? I don't think anyone could call that "not so bad" - that's awesome!

 

[AJPratt]

WOW! That's great!