Ok, I'm Taking a Deep Breath and Trying Hard Not to Get Irritated

[Chefstover2]

My two cents here...You know that saying that 20% of the people will do 80% of the work? I'm guessing it's the 20% that are attending. I'm not yet a director, but I've started holding meetings b/c it's too far to my hospitality director's meetings.

So my first two meetings I've had 2 consultants and 1 potential attend. We had a great time, I asked the consultants to do some training (one spoke on bookings, the other did a recipe demo).

The ones who don't come speak loud and clear as to where pc is in their lives. It's OK. When I do new consultant training, I tell them that I expect them to qualify and attend cluster meetings (and stay in touch with me) and in turn I will be in their back pocket and give them the support they deserve.

 

[sfdavis918]

What about delegating some of the meeting to the consultants? Maybe have them do a small presentation on a topic. That might get them a bit more interested.

 

[Paula R. Lewis]

After reading this, I can also tell you something I've heard Consultants say about meetings...if they don't get "something" to take home with them, they lose interest real fast!! This is stuff like...invitations, recipe cards, products, etc. Business supplies.
Now, they mean to "earn them", not to just have them given to them. But, my director decided to join up with her director for awhile, and they decided to give all of us "credits" for about 6 months for each category, then, at the end, draw ONE winner, giving them about $50 worth of stuff! NOT a good thing, unless you're the winner!! Everyone else got nothing.
Now it might sound petty to some of you, but please understand. These are Consultants who are very limited, financially speaking. For them to spend their hard-earned gas money to travel half an hour or so to a meeting, they feel much better about that little "investment" if they can go home again with a few catalogs or sales receipts that they didn't have to buy this month.

We have an "on-time" drawing for a small gift, usually $5 or less. We also have a monthly drawing for a product. Your name is entered in this drawing, once for coming to the meeting, once for each $1000 in sales from the previous month, and once for RSVP'ing for the meeting.

We also have basket picks, which can be earned for ...

Attending 3 meetings in a row
$1250 in sales last month
$1250 in sales for the last 3 months in a row..3 picks
$1000 show
Bring a potential recruit to a meeting
Signing a recruit...3 picks
$2500 in sales last month..2 picks
$4000 in sales last month..3 picks
Doing a demo at the meeting
Listening to a CD or DVD and giving 5 tips from it

Different stuff like that. Each pick is worth about $1.50 or so..

Paula

 

[Intrepid_Chef]

My director has incentives at the end of the year, and one of the requirements is that you must attend 50 percent of the trainings offered to you.

If my director held hers on the FIRST Monday of the month I could be there ... but since it's the SECOND I cannot due to a standing work conflict.

She has launched breakfast/lunch meetings on Saturdays and I go there when I can ... also to trainings offered by our advanced director.

My recruiter tries to balance her time ... it's hard for her because she's pregnant with Baby #2, works full time and has other stuff going on ... and she doesn't want DH to be resentful when she spends too much time away from home. Also, she has to think about her health and that of Baby #2 when she does too much!

 

[wickednoodle]

Babysitters are EXPENSIVE. I have the cheapest one around and even she is $8 an hour. Also, when you have kids and you're already spending time away from them to do your shows, it's sometimes hard to justify another night away from them. I do try to go to my meetings as often as I can, but if DH is out of town that night, I don't get a sitter. Our meetings are a half hour drive for me, then I'd spend at least another two hours there, so at a minimum I would pay $24 to attend. Yikes.

 

[cmdtrgd]

My director and I keep our meeting on the second Tuesday of each month. We go over the upcoming dates about 3-4 months in the future. I understand babysitting is expensive, especially for a good one, but there are other ideas you can try. Since you (should) know your meeting dates well in advance, you can ask DH to make sure he is home that night (of course, this may not work for various reasons). You could offer products to a friend in exchange for watching the kids. You could swap babysitting with a friend so you cover once a month for three hours for her. If your meeting is at someone's house, you could ask if they had ever thought of having a babysitting room where you pay $4 per kid or something. There would need to be rules such as absolutely NO somewhat or totally sick kids. You could also ask your director if there is a speaker phone in her house. If so, she could easily set up a conference call line (email me at [email protected] if you need info on this) for you to call into and at least get the information if all of this falls through. It would also be nice to have this available to long-distance consultants as well as ones who are sick or incapacitated. Just some ideas.