|
Back To Business 3 Index
Back To Main Index
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 question: "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 those
questionnaires returned, 94% stated they would go with
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 a 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 the people willing to hold
parties, supply the merchandise, and sometimes offer to
help or be there to make sure everything 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 at least 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.
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 40 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 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 bat 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 increases their sales by as much as 25 percent
over an ordinary showing.
For instances, a high intensity light focused on the display
will cause the jewelry to sparkle, the stainless steel to
gleam, and the brassware to glimmer like valuable heirlooms.
Another idea would be to tack a piece of velvet onto a 4 by
6 foot piece of plywood 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 forms---one
copy for your customers 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 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 your catalogs.
If you don't have a merchandise catalog, consider making one
of your own. A valuable and easy-to-follow- manual "HOW TO
PREPARE YOUR OWN CATALOG" (book #1203) is currently available.
Another manual that will be of special interest to you is the
"CLOSEOUT MERCHANDISE MONEY MAKING MANUAL" (book # 1668). Both
these manuals are available from the dealer who supplied this
report.
While we're on the idea of catalogs, we'd like to point out
that a lot of Party Plan Merchandisers are also dealers for
the extra-income book catalog, "Unique Books". They feel that
almost everyone is interested in extra income ideas, and the
Unique Books catalog has a wide selection of reports and manuals
describing supplemental income opportunities. Leaving one of
the book catalogs with guests at the party results in an on
going flow of book orders for months afterward.
Back to the Party Plan. about 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 conductive 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
agenda. This is because without a plan, it'll 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 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, introduce them around, gives them
a catalog, points out the refreshments, and leads them into
conversation with the other guests.
The second phase is the " game-playing"portion of your party.
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 a
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 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 guests
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 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 are looking 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 a free give.
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 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
presentation over to the next party and make it 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 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 you guest 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
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 and 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. This advertising plays up to the
opportunities available to make regular commission checks
(extra income) simply by holding parties in their home.
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 women.
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 style
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 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!
Back To
Business 3 Index Back To Main Index |
|