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Party Plan Sales
PARTY PLAN SALES
A Veritable Gold Mine For Wealth Builders
Believe it! You can easily make $50,000 in the next six months or
less! After that, you can practically be guaranteed at least that
much, but probably much more, every year for the rest of your life,
without, really working!
The way to accumulate this kind of wealth is with your own business
of selling merchandise via The Party Plan. Few other businesses can
so easily give you this kind of wealth as quickly, and keep your
income growing.
A recent questionnaire, circulated among hundreds of successful
direct sales merchandisers across the country asked this questions:
"If you were to start over today, knowing what you know now and
could choose the one method of merchandising that would make you
really rich in the shortest period of time, which would you select?"
Of these questionnaires returned, 94% stated they would go The Party
Plan Method.
The sharp party plan operators (and the richest) simply hold
motivational sales meetings for their sub-distributors about once a
month. During these meetings, they are teaching their
sub-distributors how to recruit new hosts and hostesses, or husband
and wife host and hostess teams.
A host or hostess can be any person who is agreeable to holding a
sales party at his or her house. Almost always, this person is
rewarded for having the party with a percentage of the total
business or an agreed upon special merchandise gift.
These people invite friends, neighbors and relatives to the party.
Your sub-distributor doesn't have to do much more than make contact
with people willing to hold parties, supply the merchandise, and
sometimes offer to help or be there to make sure every thing goes
smoothly.
Here's the kind of money you can realize with this business: Say you
have ten sub-distributors, and each one arranges only five parties a
month, and each party does $200 in gross business. That's a total of
$10,000 per month in total volume. And from that total volume, you
make only 30%. Figure it out for yourself. This would give you a
personal income of $3,000 for thirty days in which you did no more
than hold one or two motivational sales meetings!
Besides, each party is almost guaranteed to give your
sub-distributor at least two more hostesses for future parties, and
those future parties will provide still more hostesses. This chain
is endless, and will build as fast as you can keep up with it.
To get your start in this fabulous method of merchandising, become a
host or hostess yourself. Give a few parties yourself, and learn
the ropes.
Choose an evening for your party - any evening excepting Friday
through the weekend. Generally 7:30 is the most convenient time for
the greatest number of people. If it's inconvenient for whatever
reason to hold a party in your home, arrange with a friend to hold
the first couple of parties.
Make up a list of 30 to 60 people you can invite to the party. They
can be friends, neighbors, relatives or people you know from work,
even acquaintances with whom you do business such as the check-out
clerk where you buy your groceries or people you meet at the bus
stop on your way to work.
After formally inviting these people, you then call to remind them
of the party at least a couple of days before the date of the party.
This is important, because of the original 40 people you invite, at
least 15 will not show because it slipped their minds, last minute
circumstances that force a change in plans, and those that really
weren't interested in the first place.
On the day of the party, get your merchandise display set up early.
The party should be held in the largest room in the home - usually
the living room - with the merchandise display the center of
attraction.
The merchandise should be set out on a sturdy table covered with a
good white or light colored cloth, and the merchandise should be
arranged by group or type - the jewelry items together; perfumes,
bath oils and colognes together; crystal together, and so on.
Try to put a bit of imagination and showmanship into your
merchandise display. This will have the effect of making your
merchandise look much more valuable than it actually is. Those that
do put a flair into their merchandise displays find that it in
creases their sales by as much as 25 percent over an ordinary
showing.
For instance, a high intensity light focused on the display will
cause the jewelry to sparkle, the stainless steel to gleam, and the
brass-ware to glimmer like valuable heirlooms.
Another idea would be to tack a piece of velvet onto a 4 by 6 foot
piece of ply wood and use it to display rings, earrings, necklaces
and watches.
In jewelry sales, another idea is to hang a mirror on a wall near
the merchandise display. If you or your hostess has room, you might
want to set up a card table, covered with an expensive looking piece
of material, place a dressing table type mirror on this table, with
a chair available for your guests to sit at the table while they try
on the various items. The guests then make their selections after
determining how each item looks on them.
Regardless of what you do to make it easier for your guests to
select and buy, a hand mirror is an absolute must whenever you're
showing jewelry. It would be wise to have several hand mirrors
available - two for your merchandise display table, and an extra one
on the "admiration" table.
Besides your merchandise display, be sure also you're organized with
your refreshments. These usually consist of coffee, tea, soft
drinks, cookies or other "nibble" items. The host or hostess
usually makes arrangements in advance for one of the guests to
assist with the serving of refreshments.
Be sure you have nametags for your guests, and a couple of felt tip
marking pens. And don't forget the order forms. These should be
standard two-piece self-carbon order forms - one copy for your
customer and the other for your files. The best idea is to buy the
order forms. All these items are commonly available in stationery
stores. Rubber stamp your name and address on each copy of each
order form, at least a couple of days in advance of the party.
Still another item to remember is your merchandise catalogs. Be sure
you have a good supply on hand, rubber stamped with your name and
address. Later on, when you're established and the money is rolling
in, you can have your name and address imprinted on the catalogs.
If you don't have a merchandise catalog, consider making one of your
own.
Back to the Party Plan. About a half hour before your guests are
due to begin arriving, turn on all the lights in the room where the
party is to be held. This will give the room a bright, warm feeling
conducive to a party kind of atmosphere. And by all means, be sure
to turn off all the radios, stereo and TV sets. Eliminate any and
all noises from other rooms in your home that might distract the
attention of your guests.
Every party should be planned, and follow a prescribed format or
agenda. This is because without a plan, it will just be a gathering
of people wasting time at your home instead of theirs. You must have
a plan to know what to do next in order to achieve the desired
results. Having a "pattern" is also the easiest way to teach others
to duplicate your success, and the idea of following a successful
formula is a proven method of making the most sales in the least
time.
Phase one is the greeting and get-acquainted time slot - about
thirty minutes. The hostess greets the guests as they arrive,
prints a name tag for each, introduces them around, gives them a
catalog, points out the refreshments, and leads them into conver
sation with the other guests.
The second phase is the "game-playing" portion of your part. This
phase is used to relax everybody and get them involved in the party.
It should last about 15 to 20 minutes.
Next comes the merchandise presentation by the hostess, who shows
and describes each item on display. If you have jewelry available,
ask different guests to try on particular items and show the others
what these articles look like in use. The length of time spent on
this phase of the party will depend in large part on how much
merchandise you have on display, but generally, you shouldn't spend
more than about 20 minutes showing and describing your merchandise.
Then give your guest s about 10 to 15 minutes to personally inspect
and try on the items that have aroused their interest.
You should mingle and converse with the guests during this time
period in order to answer specific questions or explain the possible
uses of an item, where it might look good in the buyer's home, and
any interesting tidbits relating to where an item came from, how it
was made, or the satisfaction of an earlier buyer.
When you seem to have answered all the questions, and everyone
appears to have made their selections, start writing orders. Don't
hesitate to ask for orders. Writing orders should take about 15
minutes, and then you should let the party begin to winding down.
During this time, mingle with your guests and anyone showing a spark
of interest should be approached with an offer to serve as a future
host or hostess. As each guest starts to leave, thank them for
coming and walk with them to the door.
The total length of your party shouldn't be much more than two
hours. Time and time again, it's been proven that you can do
everything necessary, and make the most sales in this period of
time. You lose effectiveness and make fewer sales with appreciably
more or less time.
There are a couple of proven ways to recruit new hosts or hostesses
from the people attending your party. First of all, watch the
guests as they look over the merchandise, examine, admire and wish
for something they don't quite have enough extra money to buy. When
you've determined that a particular guest wants a specific item but
can't quite fit it into the budget, simply take her aside to a
secluded corner of the room, and explain privately that you're
willing to give her the item she has been looking at and wanting, if
she will agree to invite her friends and relatives to a party in her
home.
This approach works almost every time, and your only expense is the
wholesale price of the item you give her as the free gift.
The second sure-fire approach is to offer a cash incentive. You do
this by offering to allow 5% to 10% of the total sales volume
resulting from the party staged for you by this type of new recruit.
There's a plus factor for you on this one, because you'll be getting
the enthusiastic participation of the host or hostess on the selling
side. Once you've explained to them how your program works, they'll
generally do everything they can to make the party a huge success,
and thereby increase their pay for the evening.
When you give a gift to the hostess for having the party, the
presentation should be a special ceremony staged with all the "Show
Biz" flair you can muster, at the end of your merchandise showing.
However, when your gift is a cash award, carry your pre sentation
over to the next party and make a big production of it as well.
Don't forget to invite the "guest of honor" to your next scheduled
party for the big presentation.
During these presentations many of the other guests will be
favorably impressed, and as a consequence will ask you for details.
Actually, your recruiting efforts should begin when you start taking
orders. Every person you talk with should be offered the
opportunity to hold a party of his or her own. Then just before the
party begins breaking up, ask your guests as a group if any of them
would be interested in holding a similar party in his or her home.
You ask those who voice an interest to stay over for a few minutes
in order to work out the details.
You should have an Appointment Book for this scheduling. Simply ask
what date would be favorable for them, mark that date in the book,
along with the name, address and telephone number. Then assure each
that you'll call in the next day or two to work out the details.
Many party plan merchandisers also use a letter. They write a
letter extolling the fun and excitement of the parties, explaining
briefly the opportunities to receive free gifts of their choice or
big commission checks. Then they invite the letter recipients to
call for complete details on how they can stage a party. These
letters are usually printed in volume, and then slipped inside the
covers of the catalog these merchandisers give to each person
attending the parties. Sometimes these letters are handed to each
guest as the party breaks up.
Some party plan merchandisers also run small classified ads in the
area newspapers. Their advertising plays up the opportunities
available to make regular commission checks (extra income) simply by
holding parties in their homes. People interested are invited to
phone for more details. Response to this kind of ad is generally
very good, with the conversion rate better than sixty percent!
Most people tend to feel party plan merchandising is exclusive to
women, but don't you believe it! It's true that women generally
establish themselves more rapidly than men with this kind of sales
operation, but over the long haul, there are just as many men
operating successful party plan sales operations as there are women.
Men are usually not as adept in establishing social "chit-chat"
relationships as women. Therefore, the man who wants in on the vast
potential of party plan merchandising should consider working with a
woman.
A husband and wife partnership is an ideal working arrangement. An
acquaintance, girlfriend or relative will often work out just as
successfully. The basic requirement is simply that the "couple"
must function as a team, with the individual talents of one
complementing those of the other.
Probably one of the greatest secrets of success with this kind of
sales operation is that in order to make the sales, and talk about
$400 parties, you must have the widest selection of merchandise
possible.
Many beginners, not understanding that offering the potential buyers
a wide and varied selection of items to choose from is what builds
your profits in a hurry, base their entire merchandising plan around
a selection that's of special interest or particularly appealing to
themselves. It's all right to include the items that you especially
like, but don't base your entire merchandise line on the things you
like; you're selling to others, not yourself!
Most successful party plan merchandisers advise that you should
display at least forty different items, and more if you have the
supplier contacts or the buying expertise. The actual decisions on
which products to carry and display at your parties should be based
upon these four factors: 1) The kinds of gift items, personal decor
articles, and general merchandise the people in your area are
buying; 2) The styles or fads currently in vogue in your area; 3)
Contacts with enough suppliers who can furnish you with the kind of
merchandise your potential buyers want; 4) Your ability to shop
among the various suppliers, and verify that you are getting the
very best merchandise value obtainable.
Still another important point to consider before buying merchandise
to display and sell: Do the prices you're having to pay for your
products wholesale allow you enough room for a reasonable profit
when compared to your time and expense?
Do some market research relative to your ambitions; get answers to
the questions we've set forth for you, and when you're satisfied
that you understand the workings of Party Plan Merchandising, grab
the opportunity and run with it!
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