Host coaching is critical to the success of your business: the more engaged your host is, the better the results at your parties.
When I was new to direct sales, I deliberately focused on improving my own host coaching, and I noticed a massive increase in attendance, leading to higher sales, bookings, and recruiting leads.
It all flowed from that essential first step: hostess coaching.
You’ll also notice fewer cancellations and no-shows when you do hostess coaching well.
In this article, I present 3 ‘helpers’ to assist you with your host coaching.
Host Coaching Helpers for Direct Sellers
I have 3 host coaching helpers for you:
FRANK
So, first up is FRANK.
Even if you already know FRANK, I’ll teach you a little trick to supercharge its effectiveness.
You want to use FRANK because the most successful parties include guests from the host’s different circles of friends.
By inviting different people from different circles, you gain access to new circles.
It will also reduce the chance invitees decline as they’ve already been at a recent party. Opportunities for multiple bookings are higher as the guests feel they have plenty of friends in their network to invite to their party.
Using the free worksheet (download below), you can help the host develop a list of names. It’s a simple but incredibly effective process to prompt someone to think of all their networks or circles.
However, you can boost the usefulness of the FRANK list even further by using the Friend field to include friends-of-friends. Most of us have met our friends’ connections, but we may not know them well enough to invite them directly.
But what you tell your host to do is to ask her friend to bring this person along: “Don’t you think Chris would like this too?” or “I think Samantha would enjoy this party too, why don’t you bring her along?” A great way to encourage this is to provide the host with written personalized invitations that the friend can then pass along to their connections.
Doing it this way will work much better than telling the invited people to “bring a friend.” That is too broad and open an invitation 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 Jasmine too?” the friend will likely feel obligated to follow through and invite Jasmine.
You want to coach your host to use the FRANK worksheet and name friends-of-friends on the list.
Star Host & Spoil You Rotten Bag
Next up are the Star Host and Spoil You Rotten Bag incentives.
You will need to come up with some incentives: some small prizes or prize packs that you give the host when they’ve achieved the goals that you’ve set. Cheap company products or products you’ve qualified for through incentive programs are ideal.
These are tools to incentivize the host to invite plenty of people, encourage friends to place pre-party orders, and encourage further party bookings.
If you don’t have anything suitable, create your little prize pack with a few luxury chocolates, a pen & notebook, a candle, etc. Place them in an attractive mug or basket and wrap them up with cellophane and a ribbon. It doesn’t have to be hugely expensive. Presentation is vital, though.
The best way to use the Spoil You Rotten Bag is to staple the printable to an actual pretty paper bag and send that to the host as part of their host pack. The idea is that the bag will be filled with the prizes at the party.
As a bonus, the other guests will also see how the host earns gifts, which could lead to more bookings at your party.
The Star Host printable needs to be printed and sent to your host with your host pack before the party. This way, the host knows beforehand what is needed to qualify for their gift and will begin working towards it. And by doing that, she’ll ensure you both have a successful party!
I change over the incentive tool I use each month to keep it fresh. So one month, I’ll be using the Spoil You Rotten Bag, and the next month I’ll change to the Star Host incentive.
