Using Samples to Boost Your Direct Sales Biz

Title: Make the most of samples in you direct sales biz

If you sell a consumable product in your direct sales business, sampling is a fantastic way to grow your direct sales business.

According to GCI Magazine, the objective of sampling is to enhance your customers’ experience and increase loyalty. Providing product samples allows your customers to try different products and create an opportunity for customer care calls to gain feedback and stay in touch.

Pyschologists have shown that people who receive free samples are more likely to buy the products and become loyal customers. Giving out samples helps you to:

Raise awareness: 60% of customers were not aware of a product before receiving a sample.
Increase purchase intent: 92% of people say they will buy a product if they like it after receiving a sample.

How to Maximize the Sample Opportunity as a Direct Seller

Whenever you give a sample, always ask permission to follow-up with the customer in a few days to find out how they found the product. Make sure you jot down their details and book a follow-up call when you give them the sample. At the very least, give them your details and ask them to provide feedback.

Sampling is a great opportunity for follow-up contact, so don’t squander it! (If you find following-up difficult, check out this article for some tips)

Avoid offering a sample too early in the conversation. You want to make sure they don’t already have the intention to purchase the product you want to encourage them to try. Making a sale on the spot is always the first preference.

Try to offer a sample that complements the other products they have where possible, they might just love the entire range!

Sampling also works well when an entirely new product or range is released. Remember that figure above? 92% Of people say they’ll buy a product if they liked the sample!

What to say when giving a sample

If you find it hard to find the words to secure that follow-up, here are some ideas to get you started:

Let’s chat briefly in a few days so you can give me feedback on this product.
Let’s book in a follow-up consultation to see how you’re going with this neproduct….is an evening or weekend better for you?
The sample I’ll leave you with today compliments your purchase wonderfully. I’ll touch base in a few days to see how you’re finding using the these together and to see if you have any questions.
I’d like to give you a super quick call in a few days about the product. It’s brand new so I’m so curious to know what you think of it!

Top Sampling Tips

How to make the most of sampling in your direct sales biz

If your direct sales company doesn’t offer samples, it’s easy to create your own. Jump online and do a quick search for sample pots or sample sachets. There are a lot of affordable options out there.

If you want to fancy it up, you can even order your own stickers and labels to make it look professional. Remember to put your contact details on them!

Keep a log of who you’ve given samples to. It’ll help you when it comes to follow-up too!

Always keep some samples with you so you can make new connections and create new leads when an opportunity arises.

Direct Sales Parties with a Difference

Direct sales events are critical to your business success. Don’t believe me? Check this article where I talk more about why parties and events matter so much.

However, the word ‘party’ can be limited and for some newer consultants it sounds old fashioned. It evokes images of a ’50s style Tupperware party and many people don’t relate to that at all. So, perhaps you want to reinvent parties to something different and more up-to-date!

Different Direct Sales Parties

Workshop. Whatever you sell, there’s probably a way that you could market your product via an educational workshop.

I’ve always found that workshops are very popular, people expect to learn something and get some in-depth knowledge. I market workshops as a small event where we do a deeper dive into the products and how to use them.

Bonus Tip: when you ask for bookings and someone says “I don’t have that many friends for a party”, a workshop is the perfect event to offer them because they work much better with smaller numbers!

Tutorial or Class. A tutorial-style event is similar to workshop in many ways in that it focuses on educating guests about a particular product line or range. The key difference is that these style of events are more educational and less hands-on.

Tutorials lend themselves to a product or range that is quite detailed and is the perfect event for people who want to learn how something works and how to make the most of it, not just what a product does.

Fundraising Fiesta. Any party or event or theme can be easily turned into a fundraiser. You just need to add a few fundraising games and perhaps a raffle – depending on the rules and regulations in your area.

You will most likely be donating a percentage of your profits. A fundraising fiesta can be used for any cause, any company and in any month – but doesn’t a February Fundraising Fiesta sound wonderful?

I personally run two to three fiesta’s every year to raise funds for causes close to my heart…I’m also booked regularly to help other people raise funds too. I find that a fundraising event often attracts a completely different type of host and guest than any other event so it’s a great way to expand into new networks. For more ideas for fundraisers, check this article.

You Plus 2. This is a super easy alternative for any host or rep who doesn’t want a full party or showing. The idea is that all the host has to do is find 2 friends for an hour.

You then do a quick personalized chat or demonstration. It’s less daunting for a host who is worried that they won’t be able to get a big crowd for a party or for a host who is time-poor.

I often have great success with a You Plus 2. I advise the host to invite a couple of extra people, just to make sure there are 2 guests – and if everybody does come that’s fine too. I also help the host to gather a few pre-party orders. Because this type of event is small and personal, I often have sales similar to my average parties.

Girls’ Night Out. It doesn’t matter what you sell, there’s bound to be a way that you can market it by focusing on a fun night out. Let’s face it, this is really just a party but with a fun spin. I tend to do an extra game or two and a couple of giveaways.

Stop n’ Shop or Express Shop. This is the perfect event for anyone who doesn’t have time for a full party. I offer to set up a display, either at their home or a workplace, for just an hour. People can drop in and get help with their shopping. This is a popular event in the leadup to Christmas.

Event. If you don’t want to use the word ‘party’, you could just call it an ‘event’. If you use it well, it can sound very exciting. For example a ‘skincare event’, is definitely something I’d attend as a guest!

Bonus tip: Use an online registration system (Trybooking for example) to market your event as something special and more exclusive. It also looks professional and more official!

In the end though, it doesn’t matter what it’s called….as long as you get people together with you and your products! Have fun experimenting with these different formats, I’d like to hear what works for you so drop me line in the comments below.

Why parties are vital to direct sales success

Title: Why parties are vital for your direct sales success

Ok, so I know this is somewhat controversial, but I’m a true believer that events of some sort are vital to your success in direct sales.

Parties are by far the easiest and fastest way to grow your business.

I don’t think it matters if the event is in-person or online, the important part is gathering a group of people together to have an experience with you.

Why parties matter so much to direct sales success

At a party, you have more exposure to more people who can be encouraged to book a party, to join your business and join your customer group. (Read more on how to do that here) Parties are far more time-efficient than trying to sell to individuals one by one. It’s the best way to make more money faster.

By focusing on parties you avoid ‘buyer fatigue’. There’s only a certain amount you can sell to a customer group. Even with a large and highly engaged group you will hit a limit. Customers in a group are also more likely to wait for the next sale or other great offer, it’s hard to sell in between offers!

By filling your diary with parties and events, you are less reliant on social media algorithms that you cannot control. If you solely rely on Facebook groups (and I know many direct sellers do), you can never be sure from day to day that your business is safe. Remember that you don’t ‘own’ or control that piece of online real estate, you have no say in what happens to it!

You can increase the value of each customer to your business by offering parties or events with different themes. This helps to keep interest in booking with you high, which means you’ll get repeat bookings. You’ll find that you build lasting relationships with many of your hosts and customers. Read more on setting themes and get some ideas here.

At a party you can focus on different ranges of your product and you’ll be in a position to offer better education on them. This means that guests are more likely to buy and you’ll notice it increases loyalty and repeat orders from you.

If you want to see the benefits for yourself, set yourself a goal of booking 2 parties into your diary this month. Then aim to get more bookings from those parties and keep the momentum going!

Here are some more articles to help you make the most from your parties and events:

Facebook Messenger Parties for your Direct Sales Biz

Title: How to use Facebook Messenger Rooms for online parties

In late April, Facebook introduced a new feature in Messenger: Messenger Rooms.

Direct sellers and party plan consultants may be able to use it as an alternative to Zoom for online parties.

Let’s do a quick compare of Facebook Messenger Rooms vs Zoom for parties:

Facebook Messenger Rooms	Zoom
Up to 50 participants	Free plan up to 100 participants
Unlimited talk time	Free plan limited to 40 minutes
Invite via link (no need to be ‘friends’ to get access)	Invite via link
No meeting scheduling	Meeting scheduling available
Screen sharing*	Screen sharing
Lock room option	Password protection
	Waiting Room
Virtual backgrounds & effects in the Messenger mobile app	Virtual backgrounds
	Host can mute participants

* I have not been able to get screen sharing to work on my laptop when I played around with the Messenger Room feature. It’s probably just teething problems.

As you can see, you do get way more features and control with Zoom, and I didn’t even list all the features you get with Zoom’s free plan.

Facebook Messenger Room Party Tips

If you are going to use Facebook Messenger Rooms for a direct sales party, I’ve got some tips to make the most of it:

Facebook Messenger Rooms and Direct Sellers

Practice with a few friends or family first. I have not been able to get all features to work on my phone or computer just yet. Make sure you know all the features you can access before you dive in.
Start the room about 20 minutes before your announced start time. That way you get a link that you can send to guests or ask the host to send to guests. Leave the Messenger app open – once you close it, you close the room.
Since you don’t have a waiting room option, mute yourself but share a message either via a piece of paper in front of your camera or via screen sharing. The message could say something like “Welcome to the XYZ party! We’ll be starting at 2pm, I’m just getting ready 🙂 “
I recommend you do your Messenger Room Party via a laptop or computer because you don’t have to hold it up (although a tripod can help there) and – if it works – you have better screen sharing options than on a phone.

For more tips, check the article I did on Zoom parties, many of the tips apply to video call parties in general.

Let me know in the comments if you have any tips to add!

If you’d like a detailed, step-by-step guide for running Zoom parties, you can grab this quick online training that I’ve put together. It comes with printables, done-for-you images for your social media, suitable games to play, extra tips and ideas, and how-to guides for your online direct sales events.

Mothers Day Magic for Your Direct Sales Business

Mother’s Day is such a lovely celebration and a beautiful way to inject some magic into your direct sales or party plan business.

I’ve got some ideas for you that you can adapt to your particular business.

Mommy and Me Parties

This type of party works with lots of different products. You could offer a handful of special “Mommy and Me Party” dates in your diary around Mother’s Day to encourage bookings on those dates.

Skincare Companies: Offer Mommy and Me Facials or provide training to the daughters on how to pamper Mom.

Make-up Companies: Offer Mommy and Me Make Overs. This is not only great for teens but little girls love their lip gloss too.

Food/Kitchen Companies: Offer Mommy and Me Cooking Sessions, cupcake decorating sessions, tasting sessions or similar.

Clothing/Accessories Companies: If you have a children’s range you can offer Mommy and Me Styling Sessions. If you don’t offer children’s clothing, perhaps a Kids Style Mom Session where the kids are encouraged to help style their Mom – this lends itself to lots of fun pictures and videos for your social media!

Retreats

This is the opposite of “Mommy and Me” – you offer adults only ‘retreats’. Bring out the bubbly and offer an grown-up evening with you! Market it as a “Mommy Me-Time” theme. You can use this theme with any type of product, it’s all about presentation and marketing.

Gift Packs

Make the most of Mother's Day in your direct sales business with these tips and ideas. Don't forget to grab the free social media images! #directsales #directselling

If your products lend themselves to creating gift packs or hampers, now’s the time! Add some chocolates, wine or luxury teas and wrap it up with a pretty bow.

To make this strategy work for you, create a couple of sample gift packs well before Mother’s Day and take them along to your in-home events. You can allow people to customize their gift pack with you as they order.

Bonus tip: take your gift packs to workplaces dominated by guys such as car mechanics or construction companies. They’ll love a pre-prepared gift for Mum!

Don’t forget to take some great photos of your hampers and promote it in your customer Facebook group as last-minute gifts (if you have stock on hand or sell your sample packs).

Social Media

Remember to add some Mother’s Day theming to your Facebook parties, customer groups and your business pages. Check this article on how to maximize your Facebook page.

To help you, I’ve created a couple of Mother’s Day tiles (including a Facebook game) that you can download and use straight away.

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I hope these ideas help you to have a magical Mothers Day in your party plan or direct sales business.

Please comment below with your Mothers Day staples – what do you do in your biz to make the most of this special day?

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 5 ideas for you to capitalize on Easter in your direct sales or party plan biz.

1. Booking Incentives

Create an Easter-themed booking incentive by adding some brightly colored Easter eggs with a product and/or a bottle of wine. Wrap this all up with a pretty ribbon and some cellophane. The trick to making booking incentives like this work for you is to make them look beautiful and enticing.

Offer these incentives to guests who book a party in April or in the week before Easter – whatever dates you want to highlight in your calendar. Adding some cute Easter eggs really adds to the visual appeal of your incentive and strengthens your seasonal theme.

Promote your Easter theme at parties and your social media.

2. Guessing Competition

This is a great little game that you can play in-home or online (or both).

Fill a jar with mini Easter eggs to create a guessing competition where people guess the number of eggs in the jar.

You can use this an icebreaker at your in-home parties by taking it along and putting it on your display. Also take a good photo of the jar and post it on your social media for an online competition in your customer group or on your business page.

You’ll need a prize for the winners and you can also give away the jar itself as a prize at your last in-home party (or online) before Easter.

3. Chocolate Games

How to make the most of Easter in your direct sales business. Read the 5 quick and easy tips!

Easter is a great opportunity to use a Chocolate theme in your parties. As you know I love themes – themes really help your parties to stand out and it will help you to get more bookings.

I have a fun chocolate game you can download here but I’ve also got a host coaching trick and chocolate game combination called “Chocolate Extravaganza” that you can read about here.

4. Facebook Tiles

If you’re running any Facebook parties in April, you’ll want to add some Easter-themed games to your parties. Also add some tiles to your business page and customer groups to add some seasonal fun and engagement.

Read this article on how to increase interaction and grab the free Easter-themed Facebook games.

5. Customer Love

Our aim with our direct sales businesses should be to be remarkable. And little things like having a bowl of Easter eggs at the ‘check-out’ at your parties makes you stand out.

I also like to pop in a few mini Easter eggs with my deliveries in the weeks leading up to Easter. Small thoughtful gestures like these make you remarkable!

Are you looking for more games to add to your stash? Check out the Ultimate Games Bundle for Direct Sellers. It comes with 26 done-for-you games for in-home and Facebook parties. Check it out now!

Cheap, easy and effective tips to rock your parties

If you’re new to party plan or direct selling, this article has some quick tips to rock your parties or events.

These tips are easy to apply, won’t break the bank andwill make a difference in your business.

Tip 1: Make invitations super easy

It’s important to help the host invite guests. You want your host to succeed so she can enjoy host rewards and so you meet lots of new guests and make sales.

To help your host do this, you can provide personalized paper invitations (perhaps your company has them for you to use or make your own) or you can provide pretty images and proforma text she can message via text or Messenger to her friends as an invite.

Tip 2: Looks matter

Looks are everything, it’s your calling card and your sales display.

With a little bit of attention your displays can look great, even if arranging a display is not your strong point.

Some quick ideas:

Put ribbons around any towels or cloths that you might be using
Float some beautiful flowers in a pretty bowl for a luxurious spa feel
Add some candles to your display
If you don’t have a company table cloth, use a neat black tablecloth. It looks stylish and professional and won’t clash with anything
Make sure you devote some space to the business opportunity
Also make some space to display incentives or information to encourage further bookings with you
For displaying information sheets or opportunity posters, a pretty frame is essential
Get yourself some stack display stands for small products (in a pinch you can use a cake stand to get some height)
Don’t overload the display. Less is more.

Tip 3: Music is your friend when you’re new to direct sales

When you’re new to party plan or direct selling, it may be hard for you to set the atmosphere. By playing some music you set the mood immediately and it helps to make you look professional.

You can play spa-style music or perhaps something upbeat and motivational.

The kind of music you play really depends on your product or style of event. Think about the mood you want to set and choose some music accordingly.

Make sure it’s not too loud though, you don’t want guests or yourself to have to shout over it!

Tip 4: Use people’s names

Use people’s names. Using a name is much more professional and friendly than “hey you“, or just avoiding names altogether because you can’t remember.

You can use name tags for the guests or use these strategies to remember people’s names. By using names you show that you’re interested and that you care.

Tip 5: After your party

The party is over. The orders are in. But you’re not done yet!

Have a think about what you can do to wow them with something unexpected
Send the guests a thank-you card or message
Put thank-you stickers on the receipt or delivery bag or put in a thank-you note
Add a little seasonal treat such as Christmas candy canes or Easter eggs to the order

Quick tips to rock your direct sales parties. Great tips for beginner consultants.

These are some very quick tips but the point is that they’re easy to do for brand new party plan or direct sales consultants.

Those of you who are no longer brand new, probably already apply these in your business.

Leaders: I’m curious what quick tips (cheap, easy, effective) would you give a new consultant?

3 Tips to increase attendance at your direct sales parties

So you’ve got a party booked and you’re all pumped to go. You are ready to have some fun and make some sales. But your host apologizes as she explains that several people haven’t turned up.

She’s disappointed. You’re disappointed. Sales are less than you’d hoped.

You’re wondering what’s wrong with you. Maybe you’re even wondering if you’re in the right industry…

Let me tell you, there’s nothing wrong with you or your host! You’re great and direct selling is an awesome industry with plenty of opportunities.

So what can you do? You can help your host to increase attendance so you and her will have a great time!

Here are 3 ways to help your host

1.) Ensure your host invites contacts from a variety of networks in her life. Help the host to use the FRANK worksheet (download below) to come up with a list of names. FRANK stands for Friends, Relations, Acquaintances, Neighbors, and Kids’ contacts. Most of you will know it. But the secret to boost the usefulness of the FRANK list is to use the Friend field to include friends-of-friends. These are people that are friends with your hosts friends (she may even have met them) but she doesn’t know them well enough to invite them directly.

But what she can do is ask her friend to bring this person along: “Don’t you think Lateisha would like this too?” “I think Joanna would enjoy this party too, why don’t you bring her along?”

This will work much better than just saying “bring a friend”. That is too broad and open a comment and too easy to ignore. Admit it, you have ignored it in the past! We all have. However, if your host asks her friend “why don’t you invite Anna too?”, the friend will likely feel obligated to follow through and actually invite Anna. That’s why you want to coach your host to use the FRANK worksheet and actually name friends-of-friends.

2.) Go the extra mile and write out invitations for your host to hand out. Make it super easy for the host by printing out pretty invites that already have all the details on them. All they have to do is write in the names and pass them along to their friends. Sending invites via snail mail will work well as that is becoming rare in this era of email.

For digital invites, I recommend the Shuffle by Elify app so the invite goes directly to a contact’s phone. Shuffle allows you to text great looking invites that really grab people’s attention. You create the invite with all the details, all the host has to do is text the link to her guests.

3.) Get your host to remind her guests close to the date of the party. Shuffle is ideal for this, it’s pretty, it’s easy, and it’s right on a guest’s phone so they can quickly pop it in their calendar if they haven’t done so already. I have also noticed that when I include a link to the catalog in the reminder message, I get more pre-party orders too! But your host can use plain text as well, as long as a reminder does go out.

You can increase the success of your parties by paying a little more attention in the invite phase. This way you’ll make more sales and increase the chances of further bookings and recruits. And it’s more fun for you and the host too.

Please let me know in the comments how you’ve been using FRANK.

3 Ways to increase attendance at your direct sales parties. Help your host to make your parties a big success.

My tricks for remembering people’s names

You know how at a party, you can suddenly hear your name being spoken even at the other side of the room?

We love hearing our own name spoken so much we can pick it out in a hubbub of voices.

This is why remembering names is an incredibly useful skill in direct sales, because in our business it’s all about relationships.

I like to use people’s names when I’m running a direct sales event or party. I regularly get comments about how great am at remembering people’s names. But I don’t actually have any special talent or amazing brain for remembering names. It’s a skill that I’ve developed over the years once I realized how useful it is.

On the flip side, it can be embarrassing to call people by the wrong name or to blank out and resort to the generic “love” or “doll”. Calling someone by their name makes them feel special and valued. After all, you’ve made an effort to remember their name!

Most of us find it hard to remember people’s names. That’s because your brain finds it hard to remember “random” bits of information. And a name of a person you’ve never met before has very little connection to anything else in your brain.

So the name “Brian” will likely just slip your mind just as soon as Brian introduces himself. This is even worse at parties where you meet many new people with new names in a short period of time.

However, there are a few tricks you can use to become a Name-Memorizer-Grand-Master. (That exists, right?) You can find many strategies when you search the Internet, but these are my personal favorites and have worked really well for me.

Commit
Start by deciding that you’re going to be great at remembering names. Many of us tell ourselves that we’re bad at remembering names…Stop it! Be nice to yourself and remember that it has very little to do with talent and everything with developing a skill. Start with your attitude. When you go to a direct sales party, just before you get out of car or just before guests arrive tell yourself: “I will make my best effort today to remember everybody’s names.”
Repeat, repeat, repeat
Once someone introduces themselves, repeat the name: “Hi Jasmine, so lovely to meet you”. You can make a comment about how pretty the name is, that your niece has the same name, or something else that’s a compliment. If it’s an unusual name, you can ask for the spelling or the proper pronunciation, that way the person repeats the name so it will stick in your brain better. Make sure you do this in a warm and interested manner, don’t make them feel uncomfortable because they have an unusual name. You could say something like: “Sorry, I can’t hear too well with this noise in the background. Could you repeat how to pronounce your name?” or “That’s a very pretty name. I’ve never heard that before, could you say it one more time so I get it right?”
Focus
Often the reason a name slips your mind 2 seconds after hearing it, is because we’re not focused when we’re introduced to someone. That’s the reason you want to start with a change to your attitude. If you change your attitude to a genuine desire to remember names, you will focus when you are introduced to someone. Often a “bad” memory for names isn’t a memory problem but a focus problem. Work on focusing fully on the person you’re being introduced to. As someone is about to be introduced to you, make sure you concentrate. Remind yourself that you really want to learn their name.
Lucky Door Prize
Get all event guests that arrive on time to fill out their name on a card to go in the draw for a lucky door prize. This way you have their name written down!
Jason Bourne
Jason Bourne your way to their names. I mean, listen in to conversations and mentally note what name people call each other. That way you can pick up names you’ve missed or forgotten. This is especially useful is there’s a rush of people arriving at the same time and some people weren’t introduced to you.
Connect
By connecting a person or a name to something else that’s already in your brain, you’ll be more likely to remember it. You can connect a person or a name to a celebrity (Brian looks just like Ryan Gosling, and the names rhyme too), to a characteristic (Jasmine smells lovely), or to their job (Margarita works in a bar). Connections like that will help a name to stick in your mind.

Tricks for direct sellers to remember names at parties.

These are my favorite tricks for remembering names. However, the tricks aren’t the most important step to remembering names.

For me the most important thing was the decision to start making an effort to remember people’s names.

Once I had made the decision, my attitude changed. I focused more and I was more present during the introductions. The other tricks were just extra little ways to help my brain remember names.