It’s important to prepare for your direct sales business restart January, in December (or even November) of the previous year.
“What? Why?” I hear you ask…
The reason you want to prepare for restarting your business is because it way too easy for the weeks to fly by while you’re caught up in the daily stuff.
And before you know it’s Easter before you even restart your business. You don’t want to fall into the trap of taking a break over Christmas and then fizzling out for several months before even thinking about your business.
Instead, by preparing for your restart you’ll enjoy the jump back into your direct sales biz and you’ll be up and running again right at the start of the year.
If you’re reading this and it’s already January don’t worry: Still download the worksheets and plan your year – it’s super important to set goals and get yourself moving. It’s not too late!
Visionboard
Take some time to reflect on what it is that you want to achieve in your direct sales business. What is your vision for your business? Where do you want to be in a year’s time?
Set your intentions for the next year.
However, it’s important that you not just think through your vision but the possible obstacles that you might encounter too, so you can prepare for that.
In the Create Your Ultimate Vision Board article I have more information and a printable for you to use to make that easy.
If you want to something more advanced and interactive than a vision board, check out the article Fuel Your Goals With Positive Prime – that’ll boost your motivation and focus in just 3 minutes per day!
Set Your Business Goals for The Year
Now that you are clear on your vision, it’s time to set your goals. I have a Goal Planner that will help with that.
Don’t skip this step!
Setting tangible goals for the year and then drilling down to January and even the next 3 days, will help you to take actions to actually achieve your vision!
Grab the goal planner below to use for your direct sales biz.
Capitalize on your December parties
During December (or even November), you can start filling up your January diary by inviting the party host to book a party in January now.
Talk to the host at her party (or afterwards if it’s an online party). You explain to her:
- That it would be nice to host another party in January because there were probably people that couldn’t make this party that she might want to invite to the January party.
- There will be new products to play with! Most companies will have new products or product ranges in January.
- Offer a very different party theme, especially if your company doesn’t have new products in January.
- If she books that January party now, she’ll get this wonderful incentive you’ve prepared.
Your booking incentive could be a good quality product, a basket you’ve created with a few smaller products and dressed up with ribbons, or a bottle of bubbly.
Don’t give this incentive at the December party, keep it until January – you don’t want her cancelling on you with you losing your incentive.
Bonus Tip for November and December parties
When someone says in November or December that they’ll call you in January for a booking – pencil in a date immediately instead of waiting for that call. I usually say something like: “January is such a busy time of year for me with so many people wanting a casual catch-up with friends after the busy season. So let’s pencil something in now and you can let your friends know about it if you see them over the festive season. If the date doesn’t end up suiting, we can try to find a better time in January.”
I then follow-up with a postcard to thank them for their booking and I include all the details of their party (such as the date & time and party theme).
Reading this in January?
If you didn’t do this in November or December and it’s now January: don’t worry not all is lost. I would grab the January coupons from this article and contact the hosts that partied with you between October and December. You thank them for hosting a party last year, explain that you have some very different themes or products to try and offer the January coupon as an incentive.
Use the brainstorm printable that will help you kickstart the year
Print the brainstorm printable (grab it below) and take some time to work through it.
This is another activity that you don’t want to skip. Intentionally sitting down and working through all the prompts on the printable will yield more than you think, most people surprise themselves with how much more they can come up with on the worksheet.
This printable will help you to remember and write down contacts, people who said maybe, and work out ways outside of parties to get new bookings.
Once you’ve completed the activity, you’ll have a wonderful checklist for new actions that will help you to kickstart the year!
Host your own party to showcase the new products
If your company has released new products and a new catalog, it’s time to host your own party.
Make it a fun event with some lucky door prizes and invite all your good customers and hosts.
You can run this as a ‘mystery host’ party. This is where you give out tickets or points for every $10 spent (or some other amount that works in your business). At the end of the party you then draw a winner who is the ‘mystery host’ and gets the host rewards for that party (providing a host reward level was achieved).
And of course, from this party you want to get some new bookings.
The best way to get bookings is to have some new themes (perhaps related to the new products) available. Set up a display where you advertise these new themes to entice your guests.
To top it off, set a booking incentive and display it at the party.
Set your own booking incentive
There are different ways you can offer an incentive for bookings.
You can create a bundle of products that you received for free or at a discount, you can offer a high-end product that’s desirable, you can make your own basket with a wine and some chocolates. Just make it look really pretty and enticing!
Here are a few ways in which you can offer the incentive. You can offer the incentive for each person who books in January (don’t book too far ahead, you’ll see more cancellations that way).
However if you need to control your diary, you can offer the incentive for certain dates. I usually print off a calendar and put stars on the dates that I want them to book on. If someone books on a ‘star date’ they earn the incentive.
By setting your intentions and goals for next year, followed by actions to get party bookings, sales and recruits, you’ll set yourself up for a great direct sales year!
