Okay - so I started selling jewelry through a direct sales/home party company. No pyramid scheme, no expensive low-quality crap. 30% commission, no quotas. I figured I’d try it for a while - and in the first month, I’d made an extra $540 bucks using very little of my personal time. So I’m gonna try it for a while longer.
Now, I have no desire to be one of “those people” who annoy and irritate people to book shows. So, I’m calling on the smart folks at the Dope to give me some ideas about how to convenience intelligent people to have a show. Their show benefits are excellent, so I just need to work on the presentation…
What would convince me to book a jewelry party? Nothing.
Now, before anyone gets huffy about it, I have hosted a myriad of “parties” before: cooking gadgets and such, jewelry, and sex toys. I hosted because I wanted to from the get-go, not because anyone tried to convince me. In fact, if the presenter tried to “convince” me, that was an immediate no. The ones who’ve had the most success in getting my business are the ones who never asked me at all. It was a fun time, and there was a box on the order form I could check to get more info on it. No pressure, no awkward sales pitch. I had fun, and I decided, independent of any interference, that I would like to do this as well.
Probably not the answer you were looking for, and likely not something that would ever bother anyone else, but there you go. Quite honestly, the types of sales parties that I enjoy the most involve lots of laughter, wine, and music. The dealer is just there to hand out the catalogs and take up the order forms, and there is no “presentation”.
I had just been to one at my friend’s house in November. This friend gives one at that time each year - she says it’s easier to draw a crowd during the buying season of Christmas. That’s one hint right there - find one lady who would be willing to do that (have a pre-Xmas party).
The jewelry lady (Shay) did a good job of explaining how easy it is to host a party, how it doesn’t have to be all fancy, how easy it is to just give your invitation list to her, etc. She does all the work - she’s very good at it too.
I have hosted all kinds before - I’m not adverse to entertaining. So that helps. If you have ladies who are shy about entertaining, they are going to be a ‘hard sell’ about doing it. I think the most important point which Shay makes is how painless it is. Of course she backs that up with doing most all of the work.
I think the sucess which she enjoys is a snowball effect - attend one of her parties and her enthusiasm for it is infectious.
I guess I’m on one end of the spectrum–I do have friends who are willing to host parties and even think it’s fun. I don’t like home parties and go to them unwillingly, when I kind of have to. Even when the product is good I don’t like them.
But, I agree with FaerieBeth above that the best way to do it is just to see who’s interested and go with it. If you do a good party, you’ll get people interested in hosting one. Food and short-n-sweet presentations are good. Expecting me to gush over candles, or listen to you gush over candles, is not.
Nothing. If I want jewelry, I’ll buy online or go to a jeweler. If I want candles, I’ll go to Target. If I want cooking equipment, there’s the whole internet to choose from. If I want (S)crapbooking stuff, I’ll hang myself. If I want something to store leftovers in, I’ll buy the big box of assorted Rubbermaid at Walmart. If I want sex toys, I’ll have ‘em delivered in a plain brown wrapper or go to the big box Gettin’ Wild Emporium.
I would have to really, really love the product you were selling and feel like it would improve the lives of my friends to invite them over to a live infomercial.
I wouldn’t. No matter how it is presented, it’s asking my friends to purchase things they may or may not want. Most people feel obligated to buy something because a friend is hosting.
I’ll tell you what STOPS me. I have a friend who has had several parties for Silpada. The first lady who did it was really nice. I went to two, I think. Then maybe she quit doing it and this other lady started being the person. I went to one and she drove me crazy.
“Okay, this person dress this person in BLING and this person dress this person in BLING and then we’ll decide which one has the best BLING!!!”
Please, just shoot me. She kept saying bling. That’s funny about once.
She sends me email all the time, and I don’t really know her personally, including about when her father was very sick in the hospital. I don’t want to know about that.
I am probably in the “never” camp. But I am willing to share some tips. A party was once hosted on my behalf, by a group of people who weren’t particularly close to me, who wanted to have a wedding shower for me. I thought that was a pretty savvy move by the hostess. A woman at my church hosted a party and donated the proceeds to a church fund. So if you find people who are excited about supporting a cause, you could try that.
If I were to attend a jewelry party, the best thing the program part of it could do for me would be to teach me something. Could you teach people about cleaning jewelry, have them bring a couple of pieces that need cleaning? Or some basics of jewelry making or repair? True, that might result in them feeling they already have the jewelry they need, but to me learning something would be exchanging some value for value.
I have a friend who is seriously into Mary Kay. I try not to find out too much about that aspect of her life , but I know she does a lot of demos at nursing homes. You might try the jewelry cleaning/ repair angle there, too, as sort of a counterpart to the facials she does.
I remembered something else Shay does. At her parties, she gives each lady a card to put noteworthy dates on - birthday, anniversary, etc. The ladies fill these out and include their SO’s name & phone number. Shay collects them (for those who want her to) and throughout the year will call each SO to see if they would like to order anything from the catalog for their lady’s birthday, or whatever. This seems to be very popular.
I remember from my party, that 2 of the men I work with handed me $100 and asked me to ‘pick something’ for them to get their wives. I thought that was sweet.
