Nervous but Excited.. First Party on the 16Th

[nay62]

Man oh man, lately it seems I don't do anything but go to work come home and jump onto my laptop.

I have realized that I'm not as prepared as I would like. No booking slide, no door prizes, etc. Ok Ok Ok breath in ... breath out, I can do this!

I am pretty confident with what I will be making {Chicken Penne Al Fresco}, nervous about the product information (Cookware, Knives). Here is what I'm thinking of doing, writing out a script in index cards. Keep reading it until I have it memorized {fingers, toes crossed}.

So here I am reaching out to you all, if you have a moment and would share some tips/advise I would soooo appreciate it

Carmen

 

[gailz2]

Relax. You will not be able to know everything about our products right away. If I were beginning all over, I'd practice the recipe at home, then write down the page number from the catalog where each of the items you are going to use is located. Tell them, "this is the food chopper, one of our top selling items, it is located on page xyz of the catalog." Keep a copy of the catalog handy in case someone asks you something about the item. Definitely tell them it is your first show and you are still learning and may need their help if someone there can help you out with answers. People are very anxious to help you out and have you succeed. It should be fun!

 

[babywings76]

One thing you can do is buy a roll of tickets from the dollar store or Walmart. I like to give out tickets to people who help me, either with steps of a recipe, finding pages that the products are on, etc. When you mention a product, have someone find the page and give a ticket to the first person. Then ask someone to read out the info about them (knives, cookware, etc. that have info about them that you want to share) and give them a ticket. Any product you show, you could ask someone if they have it, what they use it for, etc. It does help take the pressure off of you needing to know everything, and it gets some people involved. Do a prize drawing at the end to reward them for participating. It's okay if you don't have a booking slide (plan on purchasing that booster pack thing-can't remember what it's technically called-there's a flyer in your business materials. It includes a Booking Slide.) Anyway, just have everyone open their catalog and ask someone to call out something listed there that they'd love to get as a reward for hosting. If it's a quiet group, you can just hold up the catalog as you refer to the bullet points and they can follow along in their own catalogs.But just relax and have fun. Good luck!

 

[Brenda.the.chef]

When I first started, I picked just a few of my products that I would talk "extensively" about. It was usually the cutting board, the forged cutlery and the batter bowl (since they were and still are my favorites)What you could do is make yourself a little cheat sheet about the page numbers of each product. This way you can have them turn to the page in the catalog and you can ask that person who asked a question about it read it out loud for you.Now, after nearly two years, I still don't know "everything" about the technical selling terms for the products so I just say "who can find this in the catalog first and yell out the page number?" I then ask for a volunteer to read it.Either way, just relax and breathe. Refer to notes and make sure they know you're just starting out. It's amazing how many people will want to help you be successful. Have a great show!

 

[Shari in TX]

People will buy based on the recommendations of their friends before they'll buy from you. So, I second the suggestion to have the guests talk about the products as much or more than you do.

Before I was a Consultant, I hosted annual PC shows at my house. I loved the products so much that I was always talking about them during the show while my Consultant was demoing them. I will never forget one of my friends telling me that she bought a product because I used it and raved about it, not because the Consultant said it was good. She felt the Consultant would try to sell her everything equally whereas I, as her friend, would only sell her on the stuff I really loved and used.

I've remembered this at my shows since I became a Consultant and try to make sure that the host and other guests are talking about what they love and even what they don't love. If someone says, "Oh, I have that and I hate it/never use it," I don't immediately jump in with how great the product is. I'm not going to win over the guests doing that. I try to find out what they don't like about it and then maybe say something like, "Well, not everyone loves all our products. I use [product] for [blank], but some people find that [other product] works just as well for that task." I've validated their statement and then maybe I've actually given them a use they hadn't thought of that will make them love the product after all.

Case in point, my mom saw me using the Easy Accent Decorator and said, "Oh, that's cute, but I don't really make desserts, so I'd never use it." I told her that not all products are loved and used by everyone and that was fine. I went on to say that some people use it to fill deviled eggs and she actually squealed. She makes deviled eggs for every potluck her church has and she hates trying to fill them. She bought one immediately. And I wasn't even trying to sell one to her!

Anyway, I guess I got a little off topic. Just wanted to mention that I have found that the option of being less of an expert lecturer and more of a facilitator of discussions among friends works well at some of my shows. Letting them sell the products to each other makes your job really easy.

Shari in TX

 

[Brenda.the.chef]

This is SO true! Case in point: My fundraiser that I had in May. One of my guests raved and raved about the salad chopper. I passed around the batter bowl with salsa ingredients and the salad choppers and told everyone to take 5-10 cuts to make the salsa. I sold 12 salad choppers, 7 Classic Batter bowls and 31 mini serving spatulas. These were ALL based on guest conversations. I've learned to just shut up and let them sell the products for me!

 

[nay62]

AWESOME!!! Thank you all sooo much for your tips.

I could just give you all a hug

 

[ShellBeach]

Have fun! That is the best part. I was worried like you, too and it turned out fine. In fact I had set out the mesaure-all cup since it came in the consultant intro kit and someone asked me about it. I couldn't figure out how to put it back together (which end went in which way of the tube) so another guest piped up & explained it, and we all had a laugh.

Agree with others - talk it up how this is your first show & you're excited & nervous. Enthusiasm will sell the stuff, not trying to pretend you're an old pro at it!

Here's to a great show your first time out! Come back to us and tell us all the successes!