Hosting a direct sales party is amazing: you earn free or discounted products, you get to have a fun catch-up with friends or family and you get to shop leisurely.

I certainly can’t imagine walking into a normal retail store with eight friends and three bottles of bubbly and expect a staff member to spend two hours exclusively with us. Can you imagine the response if we demanded to sample as many products as we wanted and then expect free and discounted products at the end? I suspect we’d be invited never to return…

What we have to offer in our industry is very special. The best way to overcome booking objections is to be confident with the fact that you are in fact offering something fabulous. If you anticipate objections and are prepared with an answer, you’ll have a full diary!

I’ve written about common booking objections such as no time, house too small, and the worry that friends aren’t interested. You can read about that here.

Below I’ve listed 3 more common objections to hosting a party with suggestions on how to respond.

“My husband won’t like the idea”

Perhaps their husband is tired and just wants to watch television and decompress in the evening. Perhaps their husband likes peace and quiet when at home because he sees enough people through their work. Either way, there are several things you can offer this person.

First of all, you can offer to work around the husband’s schedule. Perhaps you can offer a party or workshop on a morning or afternoon when the husband is not home.

Remember that you can also offer different party formats. Perhaps this host is more comfortable with a couple of friends around the kitchen table, or perhaps she would actually love to have 10 of her friends over. Make sure she knows you can accommodate her.

If your company offers men’s products, it might be nice for this host to shop for a few things for her husband so he gets something out of it too.

“We are tired of parties”

Oh dear, your potential hostess is all partied out! Again, make sure she knows you can offer different party formats and different themes to accommodate her tastes.

Also explain that a direct sales party isn’t just a party, it’s an interactive and fun shopping experience. Tell her you are her boutique retailer and you bring the shop to her and some friends. Sometimes reframing what it is that you offer will make all the difference.

My friends don’t have extra money

Explain the different payment methods you accept. You can also point out that hosting a party is the best way to get free or discounted products. If you have any guest offers going as well, make sure to mention them.

Remember that practice is key. The more you attempt to overcome objections, the easier it will be become and the more confidence you gain.

I’m curious to hear if you’ve come across any other objections to booking an in-home party. Be sure to leave a comment below to share your experiences with the community.

Do you want more bookings in your diary? Most direct sellers do so I’m guessing you said ‘yes’ to that question.

If you’re not sure what to do to get more bookings or if you find yourself making a start on getting bookings but then fizzling out, I’ve got just the thing for you!

I’ve designed a series of practical actions that you can do that will lead to more bookings. I’ve called them ‘booking behaviors’. Using the printable below you can keep yourself accountable and set yourself a challenge to keep doing these booking behaviors month after month.

You want to be doing these actions consistently to keep your diary full. Because with more parties you’ll not only have more sales, you’ll also have more opportunity to recruit or sponsor and that means your business is growing!

If you do 100 of these booking behaviors in a month your business will be in a really good place. So what I want you to do is to grab the printable worksheet below and see if you can reach that magic goal of 100 actions towards bookings this month.

What are booking behaviors?

Booking behaviors are the practical things that you do that tend to lead to more bookings. These actions include:

• Asking everyone at a party (individually) to book a party
• Posting 3 catalogs each week to past hosts, good customers, friends
• Mailing the guest or host offer to past hosts, good customers or friends
• Reading a chapter of a self-development or party-plan book each week (ideas here)
• Revisiting your FRANK list (download here)
• Posting quality content on your biz page or in your customer group (download ideas here)
• Texting or phoning hosts that have postponed parties with a follow-up and new offers at the start of the month
• Texting new guest offers to past good guests
• Putting up a poster at community notice boards to promote your business
• Using old catalogs with a personal note to letterdrop in your neighborhood
• Setting a booking incentive and promote at parties and your social media
• Proposing a fundraiser to a local sports club or church
• Attending a fair, expo, vendor event
• Trading a party with a consultant from another party plan
• Updating your referral vouchers
• Creating a survey box

On the worksheet you’ll also find some space to make notes or set goals and a space to write down some booking behaviors that are specific to your direct sales business.

Every time you complete an action, you color in a square or add a tick or gold star. It’s psychologically very satisfying and motivating to watch your chart fill up. Every time you record your success (completing an action) you get a little hit of dopamine in your brain’s reward system. And this helps you to train your brain to keep doing these behaviors. This is how you train your brain for success.

There’s a lot of psychological accountability science backing the effectiveness of a practice like this. Add a reward for yourself to reaching the 100 and you’re on to a winner!

Let us know in the comments below what your specific booking behaviors are.

Have you ever had people wanting a party with you but not locking in the date? They’ll say something like “I will ask my friends and get back to you” or “I need to double check with my husband before setting a date.”

I used to just leave it at that and say something like “No worries, I’ll chat to you soon” and hope to hear from them again. But they rarely got back to me with an actual date. When I followed-up with them they wouldn’t have checked with their friends or husband yet and they still couldn’t lock in a date.

It was so frustrating so I had to come up with a strategy that stopped this. Now I’m so much better at getting actual dates locked in and no more vague promises of a booking.

Let me walk you through my strategy.

The ‘lock in’ strategy for party bookings

This strategy helps you to direct the conversation, to get an actual date for your party and to keep control of your diary. So here’s how it starts:

Potential Host: I will ask my friends and get back to you
You: That’s okay lovely, but when you ask your friends if they’d like to come to a [company] party, the first thing your friends will ask is “When is it?” So let’s pencil in a date that suits you and see how you go. We can always move it if necessary.

Then you move straight into what I call the ‘choice of 2 yesses process’. This will also help you to keep the party close in your diary (the further into the future they book parties, the higher the chance of cancellations).

When you ask a question, don’t ask an open question just offer 2 options (either is a ‘yes’ for you – they don’t get offered an option to say ‘no’). So you would ask “Would you prefer a weekday or weekend?” Rather than “What’s a good time for you?“

Below is an example of how such a conversation would go:

It goes without saying that you want this conversation to be friendly and natural, not like an interrogation!

Once the date is ‘penciled in’ I recommend you host coach them as though the date is already confirmed. Start by posting a thank-you note in the mail.

Here’s an example of a thank-you note:

Mary,
It was great to meet you last night. Thank you for booking a [company] party on Friday 24 June at 7pm – I am really looking forward to meeting your friends and an evening of fun.
Kind regards,
Christine

Once you make this strategy your own, you’ll see that it’s easier to firm up bookings and not get vague promises that don’t actually eventuate.

If you want to read a bit more on host coaching, check out these articles:

• Using the ‘Friends’ Contact List
  Working with your host to make sure you both have a great party (usually called ‘host coaching‘) makes a big difference… Read More
• Host Coaching for Online Parties
  So many direct sellers and party plan consultants promote their virtual event as the ‘easy‘ option. They say their hosts ‘don’t… Read More
• How to double your bookings
  Bookings, bookings, bookings! In direct sales or party plan it’s all about the bookings. So, would you like to double your… Read More
• How to capitalize on Easter for your direct sales business
  Do you want to have an eggcelent Easter this year? (sorry, couldn’t resist a cheesy pun) In this article I have… Read More
• How to get more pre-party orders
  This simple strategy will help you to power-up the results from your direct sales parties or demonstrations: Give every host a sample box.

A common mistake I see a lot of direct sellers make is to take party bookings whenever and wherever people want them. I used to make this mistake myself. I’d be so happy someone booked with me and I wanted to accommodate my hosts so I’d basically let them dictate my diary.

This caused chaos in my family life and interrupted plans. I even started to resent hosts who booked at a time that I didn’t really wanted to work or times that actually interrupted family time. Of course that was a little silly because I was the person who allowed that happen in the first place and it wasn’t the host’s fault – they had no idea!

The solution is to take control of your diary and your bookings so you can have a life too!

How to take control of your bookings diary

Step 1: Decide when you want to do parties or demonstrations.
If, for example, Sunday is a family day for you then mark Sundays as family time not as business time. If you play sports on a Tuesday, then cross that off as business time.

I used to keep my weekends open for bookings but I would only party on one day. If I booked a party on Sunday I’d keep Saturday for family and the other way around. That way I’d always have one day each weekend to spend with my family.

If you’d like a free direct sales planner to help you take control of your time, you can grab one here.

Step 2: Learn what to say to help promote the times you want to take bookings.
I’ve always found that once you get one party on your preferred day, it’s easier to keep that flow because bookings from that event usually stick to the same day and time because it worked for them in the first place.

Here are some examples you can make your own:

Monday is often a lost night for many people. Why not start your week in a really positive way by having a ….. party?

Tuesday is a very popular night for parties. I find that people have so many activities scheduled for family towards the end of the week that my Tuesday parties have the best attendance.

Wednesday parties are usually very successful! It’s the middle of the week and people generally feel caught up on work and are happy to socialize and play with our beautiful products.

For many people Thursdays are a night out. The parties I book on Thursdays are usually a hoot because everyone is already looking forward to the weekend.

Friday parties are excellent! It’s the end of the week and most people have finished work so they’re happy to come and have a glass of wine and a chat.

Step 3: Have a system to direct bookings to specific days
You can also control your diary by using ‘Star Dates’ and an incentive for people who book on your preferred dates. Print off a calendar for the month and put stars on the dates you want to party. Say something like: I have Wednesday the 17th free, which is a Star Date. That means you get a product XYZ / other incentive if you book on that day!

To prevent cancellations and no-shows, follow that up with: I have found that parties held within 2 weeks are always the most successful. People know what they’re doing in the coming fortnight but usually don’t want to commit yet to a month down the track.

This way you can control your diary and they get an extra little something for accommodating you!

These tips will help you to have a better work/life balance and not let your hosts dictate your life. It’s tempting to just take any time and date someone wants a booking, but in the long run you’ll need to direct bookings to times that suit you and your family so you don’t burn out.

Have you ever been in a situation where you offered party guests a booking with you but they had all kinds of reasons to turn you down?

Let me teach you some strategies to turn those objections into parties! Next time someone brings up a reason why they can’t have a party, you’ll be ready to help them find a solution instead!

Objection 1: “I don’t have time to host a party”

Many people are busy and worry that hosting a party would take too much time. To this person I say something like: “Parties only take a couple of hours and are actually perfect for busy people who don’t want the hassle of going to the store! And besides, you get to catch up with friends at the same time!”

You can also offer an “express” party at the office during lunch or offer a Facebook party.

You can help this busy host to have a fun and successful party by making everything super easy for her!

Objection 2: “Everybody I know is already here”

It’s understandable that people don’t want to ‘double up’ on party plan parties! This is the reason you want to offer some different themes and have lots of different games in your stash. That way you can offer something fresh and new to repeat guests.

So you can say something like: “When you invite people, ask them to bring a friend. That way the group is little different with some new people in the mix. We’ll also choose one of these fun themes that your friends haven’t seen before!”

Objection 3: “My house is too small for parties”

In my many years in business I’ve never found this a problem! So when I hear this objection, I say something like: “I actually prefer it that way! Many of my best parties are in small homes and offices…it seems more intimate.”

I then offer a ‘workshop style’ party and limit attendance to 5 or 6 people to make sure everybody gets personal attention and makes the most of the workshop.

Make sure you also help the hostess collect some orders before the party from people who can’t make it so she has a good chance to earn host rewards.

Objection 4: “My friends may not be interested in this”

The last objection I want to mention is this one that I sometimes hear: “I loved this party, but my friends may not be interested in something like this!”

I reassure this person that she only needs a few people to have a successful party. You can offer the same type of workshop-style party as above.

I say something like: “That’s fine, you only need a handful of people at your party. I like to keep my parties small so I can give each guest personalized attention…”

Now that you have some solutions for these common objections, I’m sure you’ll book more parties! And if they don’t book with you, don’t take it personally. They may just be all partied-out…

Have you heard any other objections to booking a party that you’d like to share in the comments?

If you plan ahead during the busy Christmas season, you can make sure you have an awesome start to your direct sales or party plan business in the New Year.

To get you off to a great start, you want to fill your January diary with bookings. And to help you with that, I have 2 tips and a kick-ass printable you can grab by filling in the form below.

Simply ask….

The first way you can plan ahead for an awesome January is to re-book parties with your hosts from the holiday trade season. Simply put, you ask for another booking!

Most direct sales companies have either a new range released or extra special deals for January that you can use as a draw card for a new party. I encourage all my hosts from October to December to host another gathering in January.

I remind hosts that it’s a more relaxed time in January to catch up with friends after the silly season. And to help with that I offer some party themes that work well with relaxing and catching up. By asking that way coupled with the new products or January specials, I usually get a good response.

Offer January coupons

The second method you can use to fill your January diary is by offering coupons or discount certificates.

You give these coupons to every customer you meet during the Christmas selling season! Make sure that the offer is only valid during January – this creates some urgency and helps you to fill your diary! (I have some samples for you to download below.)

To really make this work for you, create a list with every person you’ve given a coupon to. At the start of January you send them an SMS or Facebook message to remind them of the offer.

A great way to encourage your customers to use their vouchers in time is to invite them to an open home or an online party hosted by you.

If you didn’t get organized during the Christmas season with coupons – never fear! You can create the coupons in January and contact your customers and hosts with the offer as a belated thank you for shopping with you during the Christmas season. It’s the perfect reason to get back in touch!