Moving people from their comfort zone to a win-win business relationship It happened when you least expected it. You became a salesperson! You not only design beautiful handcrafted jewelry, you have the opportunity to recruit people who will help you share your art with the world. You need simply to find them, create a successful environment for them, and help them succeed. After all, this is a win-win strategy.
When you sell at jewelry parties, you will share a portion of the revenue with the host.
This can be accomplished through percentages of sales; i.e. $1000 worth of sales =
$200 to the host, and $800 to you, or you can “gift” your host with jewelry. Of course, for
you, the profit margins are better with gifting. However, in this case, you want to offer
the kinds of incentives that motivate hosts to work with you, and the small profit you save
may not be worth losing the 20 sales you make.
It Begins With Your Mindset
You will need to decide how many parties you would like to do a month. Are you game
for once a week or once a month? Whatever your goal, you need to be clear with
yourself about it, and follow up on all leads that come your way. Once you have a few
parties, you can work with a “warm market;” people who are familiar with your work and
the party idea. The key is in the follow up!
You might want to set a specific time of day that you spend making contact with people.
Make it your goal to contact a consistent number of people a day or a week, and make
the calls when you are in your best energy. If you are a morning person, call first thing!
Get yourself into action before you talk yourself into procrastination.
Don’t be Afraid to Share the Wealth
Of course, when you are starting a business, the last thing you really want to do is share
the profits. You need every penny you can get. But in reality, you can have a lot more
pennies by rewarding the people who help you.
As mentioned above, you want to share your profits strategically with your hosts.
It is their job to invite people, provide the refreshments, set up the seating etc. They
work with you for your mutual success.
You can decide to:
1. Reward your host with a percentage of your sales in cash.
2. Reward your host with a percentage of sales in product.
3. You can create a mix of numbers 1 and 2 by graduating the reward.
Let.s say, for the first $500 in sales you give 20% to your host in jewelry.
That means you gift them with $100 of jewelry at retail cost – or less than $50 at
your cost. From $501-$1000 you gift for the first $500 in jewelry and the second
$500 in cash. For sales at $1500, offer gift certificates that the host can use
within a year from the date of the party.
4. You can reward your host for parties booked at the party.
5. You can reward your host for parties booked at any time from people who were
at their party.
6. You can go so far as second tier rewards. Reward the host with 20% either in
cash or merchandise, and the honoring host (who gave the party where this host
attended and decided to have a party) another 10% of sales. Now you have
these two possible friends working together to create success for you, and them-
selves. It is win-win strategy.
Although you are in a direct selling business, you may want to visit a few of the Multi-
Level Marketing company websites for more tips on arranging successful home parties.
But for the jewelry business, I strongly recommend Jewelry Party Book. Lorrie Ely leaves
no stone unturned when it come to planning a party, preparing stock, booking with new
hostesses, recruiting repeat business and having fun while you do it.
Lorrie includes several charts and templates on incentives that show you how to
increase sales at the party, through sharing the profits. Much like I mentioned, Lorrie
digs in and shares the win-win strategy.
Think of your party host as advertisements that go direct to would-be buyers: his or her
friends. Treat them right, and they will help you launch and continue to feed your
growing business.
Our next chapter deals with a testy subject: how do we get people to GO to your host.s
party? (Secret: it.s the WIIFM again: What.s In It For Me?)