Working with your host to make sure you both have a great party (usually called ‘host coaching‘) makes a big difference in the outcome in terms of attendance, sales, bookings and even recruits.
I think of my hosts as business partners. They want a fun party with friends and freebies and I want to grow my business.
The more people who attend the party from a variety of networks in the host’s life, the better it will be for both of you! When there’s a variety of people, you’re more likely to get bookings. A well attended party is usually also better in terms of sales – and thus host rewards – and you’re more likely to pick up a new team member.
Host coaching is not the icing on the cake, it’s the cake!
Use a worksheet
A great tool you can use with your hosts to help them plan who to invite, is the FRIENDS Contact List (download below). The worksheet helps them to think ‘outside the box’ of their usual go-to friends.
FRIENDS stands for Friends, Relations, In-Laws, Employment, Neighbors, Different Area, and Social. On the worksheet there are examples listed with each section and there’s room to write names. It helps people to think of all the different networks in their life.
When I don’t use a list like this, the hosts tend to invite just from one group of contacts within their network, for example their Tuesday tennis group or the school moms. When I do encourage them to use the worksheet they’ll invite the tennis group, the school moms, their hairdresser they’ve known for 13 years and their sister.
The FRIENDS worksheet will help you and the host to have a well attended and therefore more successful party. And it’s just as important to use this for online events as it is for in-home parties.
I always follow-up with my host before the party to make sure they’ve used it. I like to give it to them on paper, I post it with a thank-you card to anyone who books an online party and personally hand it to everyone who books from an in-home party.
I tend to print it on colored paper, just to make it stand out and it makes it easy when talking in the follow-up to ask how they’re going with the ‘pink FRIENDS list’ and they’ll instantly know what I’m talking about.
If you haven’t used a tool like this before, try it out for your next few parties and see the difference it makes!
Thank you so much for all your suggestions, ideas and encouragement not to give up and how to keep going what we like to do 🙂
Awww, thank you! It’s my pleasure!