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Director What's the Best Way to Boost January Sales and Earn Double Points in February?

In summary, the person's team has not submitted any sales for January, and they are worried about their February points. They want to squeeze in their own show on Friday in hopes of getting orders and then offer a customer appreciation discount.
pamperedbecky
4,488
**~~ Warning: there will be some whining below! ~~**

Ok, I'm having the most pathetic month EVER!! I have NOTHING on the calendar. I had a show and a couple other possibilities, but that show rescheduled for APRIL (ha!) and none of the others came through...they want to wait.

I'm sort of panicked and sort of apathetic about the whole thing. I don't even care much about having a lot of sales or being paid as a director this month because I just KNOW it's not gonna happen based on my team. Last month they actually did pretty well, considering it was a holiday month, but I only had one SC line active. Blah. This month, my team has only submitted $416 so far!! I know a few have shows the 2nd half of the month, but I'm doubting it'll be $4000 worth. I've had a few online orders, but only have $117 in sales.

My main concern is this whole double points thing for Feb. I HATE that it's contingent on January. I don't even care about getting that sling, although I'd love it and think it's cute. I just don't want to lose out on double points for Feb since I didn't earn the last trip. I've tried to offer bonuses and ask my friends to host. Nobody has bitten for January. At least it's helped my Feb start to get bookings, but I'm stressed about January.

So, I'm going to squeeze in my own show on Friday the 28th in hopes I get at least $300 in orders and can split it into two shows. Then maybe instead of doing a mystery host show like I usually do when I host my own, I"ll give away two of the bakers that are the 60% off items or something. I'll pay the difference.

I want to do the show as a "workshop" to try to attract more attention and get people here (in the past it's usually my awesome neighbors who show up to these things, but I don't want to tap them out) and I want to incorporate QUICK and EASY family meals as the theme, but I need a catchy title or something. Maybe just QUICK FAMILY MEALS or something like that. I guess it's not really a workshop because I wasn't planning on doing it interactively, but will maybe type up handouts of the recipes and stuff. Maybe I can call it "quick family meal solutions" or something like that. Have any of you creative people used a title something like that or something catchy??

Ugggg. I need help and I just dont' seem to have the motivation to get all gung ho about it. I seem to feel this slump every January and question whether or not this is all worth continuing. I'm maybe going to offer a Customer Appreciation discount or something in January and send out another email with that offer. Maybe offer 15% off and if they COME to my show, they'll get 20% off. I don't care if I'm giving away a chunk of my commission - I just want the shows!

I could do the "pamper a business" thing and try to go around and collect orders, but to be honest, I just don't have much time. i don't want to drag my dtr with me and she's only in Kindergarten from 7:30-10:30 am including bus time and most days I go to exercise classes during that time. I'm going to my salon Friday morning and I could try to bring a treat and put out catalogs, but they always have my catalogs out anyway. I suppose it's worth a try.

Any other ideas? Mostly I just needed to vent, but I'm trying to find my mojo again, but I'm so ticked about this January thing and Feb. points. I want to get in touch with tons of past hosts and stuff and I HAVE been better about phone calls, but I'm also spending time getting my dang P3 stuff updated so I can sync with PWS to get on the newsletter bandwagon for this next issue. I know it's not "income-producing" but I've been wanting to do it for a long time so I can get rid of the $30/month iContact thing I do. Although I love it and love Tasty Tidbits, I want to see how the PC one goes, then cancel it.

I'm going to send one more TT newsletter through iContact where I'll announce the new newsletter I'll be doing, invite people to my show on 1/28 and announce the Customer Appreciation discount. I want this all done in the next day. Aaaaahhhh!!

Thanks for letting me vent. I'd love any other suggestions or a good catchy name for my show on 1/28 if you have any!! :) THANKS!!
 
I'm SO with you Becky! I am all set up to make calls right now and here I am on DCS!!!I have $250 in sales in already from online orders. My team has submitted ZERO! One consultant has 2 shows (one tonight which she scheduled two weeks ago and another one next Wed which she scheduled last week!) I personally have 3 shows next week and will do my best to get them closed and IN for the sling and double points.One suggestion I have and I've done this a few times when I've needed sales is just make customer care calls and say, "Just calling to let you know I'm putting in an order if you'd like me to add anything to it for you..." It's just dialing for $$ and I was able to get the sales I needed.I'm also calling and offering Valentine's Day Cupcake Shows as a theme. And going forward, my plan is to offer $25 in free product value to anyone who schedules a show within 2 weeks of the current show. Okay... off to make my calls! :D
 
With the workshop that you are talking about, I have had good luck doing a "Power Cooking Clinic" using the power cooking brochure that I found off Chef Success or you can just use what is online as well on Consultants Corner.

Along what Colleen was saying, you could also offer a kids cupcake party at a daycare/library, etc as a fundraiser party.

I am working on a HUGE February, so I am offering 25% donation of total sales for fundraisers held in February - whatever the difference between the amount the company pays and the 25% I am donating out of my commission.

I am finding the also anytime you can get someone to do a purse/pampered chef party it has worked out GOOD. Because people HAVE to come to shop the purses, so see if you can find a purse lady buddy that might be willing to come to your party to boost attendance and draw in some of your closest friends that might be getting "pampered cheffed" out.

In december I partnered with a winery to do a wine tasting open house, I made the honey brie bites and then had our sauces over cream cheese and the tapanade in the catalog, plus a cupcake bar. I sent out invitaitons to all my customer list and they also sent to some of their customers, plus most people came in groups-- bringing uninvited friends with them.. we did a Friday night event. Easily could be adapted to the valentines theme.

Another idea I am trying to get all worked out in my head is a chili cookoff in February as a fundraiser for the local fire department.

I am also working on mentioning to everyone I talk to about doing pamper the kitchen parties for church/VFW, etc. kitchens they might be involved with.
 
Also -- I ordered the FREE postcards off Vista Print to use for Invitations for the winery event and people were super impressed by how professional they were.

There is a cute cupcake one, that can be done for cupcake parties too.
 
  • Thread starter
  • #5
Great ideas!

I've actually already done a Power Cooking workshop. It was pretty well-attended. I think I'm going to call it a "QUICK Mealtime Solutions Cooking Show." Since I'm not even sure if I'll be demoing anything or making it ahead of time, I don't think I'll call it a workshop. I think people most likely just want the ideas anyway.

I've also partnered with several wineries/wine shops in the past, serving appetizers in THEIR shops. I just had a wine party a few months ago with a consultant from "Wine Shop at Home" and that was mostly for my friends, not really a business thing. It went ok. They basically have NO hostess reward program, but I was able to at least get some friends together and drink which is really what I wanted to do!

Thanks for the great ideas!
 
  • Thread starter
  • #6
finley1991 said:
I'm SO with you Becky! I am all set up to make calls right now and here I am on DCS!!!

I have $250 in sales in already from online orders. My team has submitted ZERO! One consultant has 2 shows (one tonight which she scheduled two weeks ago and another one next Wed which she scheduled last week!) I personally have 3 shows next week and will do my best to get them closed and IN for the sling and double points.

One suggestion I have and I've done this a few times when I've needed sales is just make customer care calls and say, "Just calling to let you know I'm putting in an order if you'd like me to add anything to it for you..." It's just dialing for $$ and I was able to get the sales I needed.

I'm also calling and offering Valentine's Day Cupcake Shows as a theme. And going forward, my plan is to offer $25 in free product value to anyone who schedules a show within 2 weeks of the current show.

Okay... off to make my calls! :D

Sorry to hear your month isn't going as great as you want either! Good luck with your shows! Great wording for those calls. I'd LOVE to get bookings out of the calls I make, but sometimes it's just nice to reconnect with people without that added pressure of "Oh, I'd better get a booking out of this!!" And that's a nice line to use during those phone calls. I'm going to mail out about 60-80 invites with the mini catalog for the show I'm doing and then maybe I'll follow up next week with those people and say those words.

And I LOVE the idea of doing the $25 in free product value if they book within 2 weeks. It would be TOTALLY worth it to get the ball rolling again. :)

Thanks!
 
What I did in November to boost my SAT was to offer a Kids in the Kitchen class. I put together 2 sets for them to choose from and preordered them (instant catalog show :)) and held the actual cooking class in Dec - the kids took their products home with them at the cooking class. I also got more orders at the cooking class. It was a ton of fun and didn't cost me too much either. I centered my kids cooking class recipes around the MMP. I'll attach my flyer for you. I had a total of 11 kids here - my kitchen was trashed, but oh well.

The recipes we made were the S'mores Cups (huge hit!), Mini Corn Dog Muffins (they ate all of them and wanted more)....I put ketchup and mustard in the decorator bottles for them to use on the muffins, peanut butter cookis with kisses in them, and I premade mini-cupcakes for them to decorate using the decorator bottles (this was their favorite part)

I gave a discount on the products, and had it all shipped to me. I wasn't doing this one for the commission, I wanted the SAT level.
 

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  • #8
pamperedlinda said:
What I did in November to boost my SAT was to offer a Kids in the Kitchen class. I put together 2 sets for them to choose from and preordered them (instant catalog show :)) and held the actual cooking class in Dec - the kids took their products home with them at the cooking class. I also got more orders at the cooking class. It was a ton of fun and didn't cost me too much either. I centered my kids cooking class recipes around the MMP. I'll attach my flyer for you. I had a total of 11 kids here - my kitchen was trashed, but oh well.

The recipes we made were the S'mores Cups (huge hit!), Mini Corn Dog Muffins (they ate all of them and wanted more)....I put ketchup and mustard in the decorator bottles for them to use on the muffins, peanut butter cookis with kisses in them, and I premade mini-cupcakes for them to decorate using the decorator bottles (this was their favorite part)

I gave a discount on the products, and had it all shipped to me. I wasn't doing this one for the commission, I wanted the SAT level.
OOooh, I like the idea of pre-ordering. Great! I used to do Kids in the Kitchen shows YEARS ago and haven't done one in a long time. Now with the decorator bottles, doing the cupcakes sounds fun!

I'll throw that out there!!

Well, here's something I should have done FIRST before setting up my own show on the 28th. I just put a blurb on FB about a show canceling and I'd love to fill the date. Suggested "SUPER appetizers for the Superbowl" theme which would be the next weekend. WIthin 3 minutes, I had someone PM me! So, now I've booked the 30th. Yay! :) And it's in my town - even better. Shoulda done that first! But, it'll be good to have two "real" shows. :) And a back up incase one stinks.
 
Linda! That is fabulous! Most of the schools here have mid-winter break the 3rd week of Feb (boo! bye-bye double points) so maybe I'll offer this for the few who choose to stay in town!!!!Becky... love the idea of the Super Appetizers for Super Bowl!!! I might steal that and see what happens! I have nothing to lose!!!! :) Wish me luck! :pray:
 
  • #10
finley1991 said:
Linda! That is fabulous! Most of the schools here have mid-winter break the 3rd week of Feb (boo! bye-bye double points) so maybe I'll offer this for the few who choose to stay in town!!!!

Becky... love the idea of the Super Appetizers for Super Bowl!!! I might steal that and see what happens! I have nothing to lose!!!! :) Wish me luck! :pray:

We were supposed to have winter break that week too. But, with our ice storm from last week, the administration decided to use that week as a make-up week and cancelling the break....a lot of pissed parents and upset kids. Maybe now I can get a few more shows booked for that week...silver lining?
 
  • #11
Wow! I bet a lot of people are pissed!!! Whenever they've had to do that here, they just tack on the days at the end of the school year in June. But that's only happened 1-2 times ever. We're used to having snow days each year.Go get those shows!!!!! You can name them something catchy... ;)
 
  • #12
One more question for you Linda... how did you market this? Who did you send the invitation to?
 
  • #13
Yes Linda, I would love to hear more about your idea. I've tried a Kids clinic before and it was not successful at all! I am dying to hear any tips you may have about marketing this. Also, I did a fundraiser with my daughter's pre-school in December and wouldn't mind targeting another pre-school. We didn't have a show though I just handed out packets.

I also love the idea of pairing with a winery. I wonder if it'll be too late to contact one and get something together before Valentine's Day or should I even try to use that?
 
  • #14
finley1991 said:
One more question for you Linda... how did you market this? Who did you send the invitation to?

I went through my list and sent it to everyone I knew who had kids. I also posted it on facebook and I put a blurb about it in my newsletter.
 
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  • #15
pamperedlinda said:
I went through my list and sent it to everyone I knew who had kids. I also posted it on facebook and I put a blurb about it in my newsletter.

Oooh , awesome. I'll also put this in my newsletter I'm going to send out in the next day or two.


Colleen - I saw your FB post. I hope you get some bites!! I was so excited! Now I'm off to print up invites for this last minute host.
 
  • #16
No bites yet but it was worth a try!!!
 
  • #17
I love how a thread like this turns into a thread like this! :D

You are an awesome group of women!
 
  • Thread starter
  • #18
I love it too!! Thanks for all the awesome ideas. I'm feeling much better now. I have had a pretty good response to the last-minute show I'm throwing together, although they are mostly maybes. But I've heard from several who need a few things, so that will help. AND from posting on FB, I got a booking for Jan 30th so even if it isn't huge, I'm just glad it's happening. So I HOPE that will make up my two shows for January.

I'm a little scared to do one of those "Kids in the Kitchen" things at my house! But maybe I'll try that in February. It would be cute to do it around Valentine's Day, but I don't think I can squeeze it in. I suppose even if I do it the following weekend, I could still use Valentine's candy to decorate cupcakes. Plus it'll all be on sale! I'd rather someone else do it in their house though(a host), but I suppose they wouldn't really get the host benefits from the pre-orders, unless I do that as their show too.

Thanks to these comments and encouragement, I feel MUCH better about my January, although it's still pretty sad! But it's getting me motivated to have MUCH better months after that. And I can't wait til March when all this SC line stress is GONE!!!!
 
  • #19
pamperedlinda said:
What I did in November to boost my SAT was to offer a Kids in the Kitchen class. I put together 2 sets for them to choose from and preordered them (instant catalog show :)) and held the actual cooking class in Dec - the kids took their products home with them at the cooking class. I also got more orders at the cooking class. It was a ton of fun and didn't cost me too much either. I centered my kids cooking class recipes around the MMP. I'll attach my flyer for you. I had a total of 11 kids here - my kitchen was trashed, but oh well.

The recipes we made were the S'mores Cups (huge hit!), Mini Corn Dog Muffins (they ate all of them and wanted more)....I put ketchup and mustard in the decorator bottles for them to use on the muffins, peanut butter cookis with kisses in them, and I premade mini-cupcakes for them to decorate using the decorator bottles (this was their favorite part)

I gave a discount on the products, and had it all shipped to me. I wasn't doing this one for the commission, I wanted the SAT level.

I am soooo doing this!! I'm psyched! Thanks so much to everyone on this forum. You ladies are awesome!!
 
  • #20
Im so loving the Kids in the Kitchen show with preorders. Ive thought of doing Kids Kitchen classes but Im thinking if I do this in March and have them pre-order no later than the end of Feb, then the orders will be double points. And since we have Mardi Gras here and the kids are off on Ash Wednesday from school then I can do it that day for parents who are looking for activities for their kids to do!!Thank you so much for sharing!!!!
 
  • #21
Just wanted to share that a director in my area is doing these very successfully. She has a "host mom" and it is at the hosts house!!! Since I have 4 small kids this is much better for me, she does pre-orders, about 15-25 kids and I am guessing the host mom gets the free product. I am looking forward to trying this in Feb.
 
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  • #22
Yay!! My own show that I just scheduled a couple weeks ago that takes place tonight already has $200 in outside orders!! So, I already have at least ONE show from that. I can use the orders from tonight to make my 2nd January show and I still have one on Sunday and that host is planning to close out by the 31st. Whew....... (Of course, now that I look to have 2 January shows, I'm tempted to make Sunday's show a February show for double points. Not sure if I want to confuse the host and guests though. Hmmmmmm...)
 
  • #23
My fundraiser and one of my 2 catalog shows bailed on me this month. My Cooking Show from last night really wanted Feb specials so I can't use her show for Jan. As of today my 2nd catalog show hadn't done anything. So I sent out an e-mail to all my customers that I'm celebrating my promotion & offering a 40% off sale - it ends at $1,000 in sales or Sat night, which ever comes first. I hit send, ate dinner & then checked the computer. $768 in sales! So I'm happy! I refuse to be inactive! LOL I'd rather make some very happy customers than buy the whole $1,250 this month! ;) 2 of the customers each placed over $300 for themself, so I made them each their own catalog show which meant that they each got a host special, a half-priced item & $25 in free stuff. The first one added the Cranberry Rectangle Baker & 2 more grill items for her hubby and still walked away $5 cheaper than she was going to if I had added her to my Catalog show. She was happy. #2 is currently looking to see what else she wants with her host benefits. So there's my 2 shows right there. Waiting to see what else rolls in for a 3rd show & some host benefits for ME! I could have been stingy & put the other $600+ in with the rest of the orders and had a really good catalog show for me, but I wanted to give the customers the best deal possible. :D

Oh, and TWO who saw my announcement called tonight to book catalog shows for Feb! :D So hopefully, the Consultant Discount that I'm offering tonight will pay off in the end! ;)
 
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  • #24
Awesome, Sheila!! Glad it's working out. And great job getting those Feb bookings!
 
  • #25
#2 came back & added even MORE stuff to her list. Her order total (with Host flyer and guest flyer items) came out to $931.25 in catalog purchase price. By putting her in as a Catalog Show, I got her price knocked down to $679.70 with a $4.50 ship-to-host cost. After my 40% off, she's paying $410.52! That's a 55% savings off the catalog price. She is so freaking excited!!! $543 is Commissionable Sales for me, which brings my day's total to $1,004.70. It's 5:30 AM and I'm about to go nap for a few hours. I think I'll go ahead and let the sale hit $1,250 for Home Office Leads purposes & then cut it off. ;)
 

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