Many WAHMs are using a Party Plan. One of the challenges is when to close a party and other deadlines. So often you are either told or tempted to keep a party open for a certain amount of time. Most times this turns into more of a hassle than it is beneficial to you and your hostess.
Here are a few tips in creating that deadline:
Be clear about your expectations of her party. Make sure she understands her party will close the night of the party. Holding it open in most cases does not allow for more orders. It just lengthens the time her guests can receive their items.
Be sure to include plenty of order forms and catalogs in your hostess packet. Your hostess is most excited and motivated prior to the party. Providing her with these gives her an opportunity to start off your party.
Offer an incentive to have orders prior to her party. Offer double hostess credits for any outside orders or offer a specific product if she has a certain amount in outside orders prior to the party. I like to use a hostess tic tac toe. It makes it fun and gives a few options for the hostess to earn extra goodies.
Coach your hostess. During the first meeting be excited. Provide her with everything she needs to start her party right. Give her a deadline to getting that guest list to you. If you send out the invites you are making it easy for her to enjoy her time and less chance of forgetting that party. Meet or call your hostess weekly leading up to the party. By staying in contact you can be sure she has all she needs and address her questions. You also keep the party on track and all deadlines on target.
During the party be clear the party will close that night. Some are afraid to say they have no money or not interested in buying and often ask if they can place an order in a couple days. Explain that for their friend to receive credit they will need to place their order that evening but offer a party date to them which will benefit their friend.
When booking other parties to benefit the hostess, place a deadline on when these need to take place. I personally like to use a 60 day window. Many times I use this because you will be inviting some of the same people and do not want to overload them on the products. I don't know how many times I have been invited to the same party every 2 weeks until the cycle was broken. When you overwhelm guests the bookings stop and so do the sales. If you are on constant contact, receive their guest list in a timely manner, and begin to take outside orders, the success of the party is greater.
When you have a hostess who is insisting on holding a party open beyond the party date kindly explain you are penalizing the guests who did attend and could cause them to not receive their order as promised. Offer a secondary catalog party if your hostess is adamant about holding that party open. This allows you to process orders for guests getting them their orders in a timely manner, pleasing your hostess in her hopes of getting more orders, and allows you the chance to increase sales.
Catalog parties need deadlines and be strict. Open a window of no more than 14 days for a catalog party to be open. I personally use a 7 day window. This is plenty of time for your hostess to share the catalogs and pick up orders. Beyond that it is easy to lose orders, lose checks, or those wanting to order brush it off ending in no orders.
Deadlines are not just for your hostess. They are for you as well. Create and stick to deadlines when meeting with a hostess for her hostess packet or to collect outside orders. Sticking to your own rules sets the tone for the entire process. Stick to the rules with family and friends. It is so easy to be relaxed with the rules for family and friends because you want to give them extra just because of who they are. Don't fall for the relaxed attitude. This is still a business and personal business should not be compromised. Give everyone the same deals across the board and you will never have an issue.
Do you have tips that work for you? We want to hear about them.
Olivia Vidal
© 2009-2011
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Find Articles for building a better business, Sales and Specials, from fellow WAHMs, Party tips, Fundraisers, Product Reviews, Advertising, WAHM Tips, Recipes, and so much, much more! Take a moment to visit some of our favorite links before you leave. Don't forget to leave your comments and interact with others. Enjoy!
"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible"
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Find Articles for building a better business, Sales and Specials, from fellow WAHMs, Party tips, Fundraisers, Product Reviews, Advertising, WAHM Tips, Recipes, and so much, much more! Take a moment to visit some of our favorite links before you leave. Don't forget to leave your comments and interact with others. Enjoy!
"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible"
~ Anonymous
Showing posts with label coaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coaching. Show all posts
Coach for success
|
Friday, April 17, 2009
|
Labels:
business,
coaching,
motivation,
recruiting,
sales,
team,
training,
wahm
|
2
comments
You join a company to build a business. With that business you come to build a team. Now that you have a team, what do you do?
Educate, motivate, support.
Be the cheerleader. Cheer on all successes no matter how big or small. Recognition is a big key in team success. When a team member achieves something, show your appreciation with incentives, perks, and gifts. Also acknowledge the success publicly so that he/she feels recognized and appreciated. Post it on your team blog, business blog, business group. This can be the best booster to strive for further success.
I have a consultant who has a tough team. Low participation. She emails them all ever month at least once a month. No matter how little they participate. Little by little they are coming out of the woodwork and participating. Just because they are timid and want to stand back to see how things go, coach them anyways. Include them. This will entice them.
They are part of your team no matter what they do. It is your job as their team leader to coach them to success. This is why you earn commission on team sales. Its compensation for taking care of your team and assisting them as they succeed. They all deserve your time. Team members should never have to earn your time or gain so much in sales. You are to give each and every team member your time regardless until such a time comes they are no longer part of your team.
There are great individuals in great teams and the team leader's job is to appreciate that all team members bring something unique and valuable to the table. Every team member needs to know that they are important and contribute value to the team. This is regardless how significant the value is. All value is priceless. Treat it as such.
Many join a company but stand back to see how things run rather than jump in with both feet. It doesn't mean they aren't interested. They are adsorbing all that is put out there.and see how things run. They just do it in a different way than we expect.
You may have a super star among the quiet group. Don't let them smolder. Keep them motivated and wait for them to shine. It can happen when you least expect it. It may happen in an unexpected way. Quiet does not equal uninterested.
Build a website dedicated to your team. Post team news, recognize top performers, top supporters, new team members, hold contests. Hold training and team meetings. On one of the pages on your team site, put a chat room. Go to xat.com (personally recommend due to the fun nature), parachat.com, or addonchat.com, and get one for free. Free websites such as webs.com (formerly freewebs.com) are not just for creating a site for sales. Choose and use the features that work best such as the event calendar, discussion boards, blogs. Its about thinking outside the box.
If you want the best from your team members, it's vital that you give them what they need to perform well. Offer tips on getting those sales. Teach team members how to close a sale. Distribute articles to building and succeeding in their business. Create flyers and share them. You need to educate not expect they already know it all.
Keep your relationships open and honest when you are team building. You will encourage activities within your team. This will also mean that all of your team members as well as yourself accept positive as well as constructive feedback. Encourage feedback. When giving constructive feedback always follow a negative with a positive. With positive feedback stay positive. Don't throw in the "but". When you receive feedback, accept it without being defensive or angry no matter if the approach was angry.
Successful team building is not about recruiting perfect people. You as the team leader can make a huge difference to who you have already, by the actions and influences that you have yourself - and create a powerful team which can rise up and lead your business to much bigger things.
The quickest way to change behavior is to reinforce the effort initially, not the results. Profit follows performance, and performance follows effort. If team members put forth the effort you desire, they will create the results you want, and they need your on-the-spot coaching to adjust their performance to work more effectively.
Lead by example. Set the bar for where you expect your team to meet and exceed your success. You can't expect to build a solid successful team if you yourself can not reach a level of success others want to achieve. Put into motion all that you push. Whenever possible have a team member shadow you. Take them on recruiting meetings, home parties, fairs, etc. Hands on can be powerful. Some do better by watching and doing.
As a team leader, coaching is your number one job. This is not for when you have time or "feel like it." If you are too busy or unable to provide the tools to your team, you need to rethink building a team. Never build a team right off. Learn your company, your products, your field, your competition.
As a team leader you must know your team thoroughly. You must know the strengths and weaknesses of each member of your team. A team leader has to work with the team that they have recruited. Each sales person has certain strengths and weaknesses. Capitalize on those strengths. Utilize previous job experience. Know among the team members who works well with who. Pair them. Use your experienced team members to mentor new team members. Ultimately you want them to perform better and having a coherently working team is always good to achieve the sales goals of the individual and the organization.
As a team leader you can be the friend, adviser, and guide of your team. Encourage them to open up with you and discuss their personal matters with you on a one-on-one basis. Try to provide friendly shoulder when they need it. Offer solutions. Encourage them to keep moving forward. Knowing their personal joys and troubles you can be a part of their lives and they would trust you more as a leader. This will help you in getting things done. Also it will be easier for you to understand that the reason for a team members poor sales during a given time frame are the challenges in their personal life.
When somebody on the team is not reaching their sales goals be gentle with them. The worst thing would be to single them out in front of everybody. Try to find out why they are not meeting goals. Ask to meet and talk to you one-on-one if possible and find out what has been holding them back. Provide solutions. Point out where they can improve and give them pointers. Be gentle and firm with these team members. Allow them enough chance to improve. A little compassion and understanding goes a long way as a team leader and can help your sales team to get back on track to sales success.
Don't ignore anyone in your team. If they are meeting and exceeding, keep encouraging to meet and exceed new goals. Just because they are successful does not mean they don't need you. If they are floundering, take them step by step even if that means starting over.
As a team leader never stop learning. You do not want to be stagnant in your own success. Keep reaching higher and never settle. Don't hold back secrets. If you have something that will help your team members succeed, offer it to them. Why keep something to yourself because you don't want others to use it. Your knowledge is only valuable if you share it. If it is kept tucked away in your pocket, it is useless.
Watch how you speak to team members. If you are intimidating, aggressive, rude, you will not bring out the best in your team. You will likely create a team that will dwindle in size or disappear all together. Don't discuss how you will only help those who deserve your time. It devalues others. Word it differently. Instead say you will offer certain meetings, training, one on one, etc to anyone who willing to utilize your time.
Reality is not all team members are going to want to make good money. Some join companies to take advantage of the discount. Some want a hobby. Others just want some pocket change. The rest want to build a business. Be realistic. At the same time don't look down on anyone for their desire to join. Your job is not to judge. Your job as their team leader is to support, motivate, educate.
Coaching to success doesn't mean leading a team by the hand to do it all. Its about supplying your team with tools to succeed and supporting them along the way. You can't do it for them and you should not be expected to do so.
Building a team is not sweet talking a potential recruit into joining them letting them fend for themselves. Sitting back and watching the money come rolling in is not going to happen. OK maybe there are a few times it does but this is certainly not the norm. You are paid a small compensation of a percentage of their sales because you coach them to succeed. Earn it. Teach them. Support them. Help them succeed. If they succeed, you succeed.
Coaching your team is work. It is rewarding work not to be taken lightly. Take the time to research and provide the tools to your team. Take the time to get to know your team. The time you invest will be worth the work.
Olivia Vidal
© 2009
http://sochicbagboutique.com
Educate, motivate, support.
Be the cheerleader. Cheer on all successes no matter how big or small. Recognition is a big key in team success. When a team member achieves something, show your appreciation with incentives, perks, and gifts. Also acknowledge the success publicly so that he/she feels recognized and appreciated. Post it on your team blog, business blog, business group. This can be the best booster to strive for further success.
I have a consultant who has a tough team. Low participation. She emails them all ever month at least once a month. No matter how little they participate. Little by little they are coming out of the woodwork and participating. Just because they are timid and want to stand back to see how things go, coach them anyways. Include them. This will entice them.
They are part of your team no matter what they do. It is your job as their team leader to coach them to success. This is why you earn commission on team sales. Its compensation for taking care of your team and assisting them as they succeed. They all deserve your time. Team members should never have to earn your time or gain so much in sales. You are to give each and every team member your time regardless until such a time comes they are no longer part of your team.
There are great individuals in great teams and the team leader's job is to appreciate that all team members bring something unique and valuable to the table. Every team member needs to know that they are important and contribute value to the team. This is regardless how significant the value is. All value is priceless. Treat it as such.
Many join a company but stand back to see how things run rather than jump in with both feet. It doesn't mean they aren't interested. They are adsorbing all that is put out there.and see how things run. They just do it in a different way than we expect.
You may have a super star among the quiet group. Don't let them smolder. Keep them motivated and wait for them to shine. It can happen when you least expect it. It may happen in an unexpected way. Quiet does not equal uninterested.
Build a website dedicated to your team. Post team news, recognize top performers, top supporters, new team members, hold contests. Hold training and team meetings. On one of the pages on your team site, put a chat room. Go to xat.com (personally recommend due to the fun nature), parachat.com, or addonchat.com, and get one for free. Free websites such as webs.com (formerly freewebs.com) are not just for creating a site for sales. Choose and use the features that work best such as the event calendar, discussion boards, blogs. Its about thinking outside the box.
If you want the best from your team members, it's vital that you give them what they need to perform well. Offer tips on getting those sales. Teach team members how to close a sale. Distribute articles to building and succeeding in their business. Create flyers and share them. You need to educate not expect they already know it all.
Keep your relationships open and honest when you are team building. You will encourage activities within your team. This will also mean that all of your team members as well as yourself accept positive as well as constructive feedback. Encourage feedback. When giving constructive feedback always follow a negative with a positive. With positive feedback stay positive. Don't throw in the "but". When you receive feedback, accept it without being defensive or angry no matter if the approach was angry.
Successful team building is not about recruiting perfect people. You as the team leader can make a huge difference to who you have already, by the actions and influences that you have yourself - and create a powerful team which can rise up and lead your business to much bigger things.
The quickest way to change behavior is to reinforce the effort initially, not the results. Profit follows performance, and performance follows effort. If team members put forth the effort you desire, they will create the results you want, and they need your on-the-spot coaching to adjust their performance to work more effectively.
Lead by example. Set the bar for where you expect your team to meet and exceed your success. You can't expect to build a solid successful team if you yourself can not reach a level of success others want to achieve. Put into motion all that you push. Whenever possible have a team member shadow you. Take them on recruiting meetings, home parties, fairs, etc. Hands on can be powerful. Some do better by watching and doing.
As a team leader, coaching is your number one job. This is not for when you have time or "feel like it." If you are too busy or unable to provide the tools to your team, you need to rethink building a team. Never build a team right off. Learn your company, your products, your field, your competition.
As a team leader you must know your team thoroughly. You must know the strengths and weaknesses of each member of your team. A team leader has to work with the team that they have recruited. Each sales person has certain strengths and weaknesses. Capitalize on those strengths. Utilize previous job experience. Know among the team members who works well with who. Pair them. Use your experienced team members to mentor new team members. Ultimately you want them to perform better and having a coherently working team is always good to achieve the sales goals of the individual and the organization.
As a team leader you can be the friend, adviser, and guide of your team. Encourage them to open up with you and discuss their personal matters with you on a one-on-one basis. Try to provide friendly shoulder when they need it. Offer solutions. Encourage them to keep moving forward. Knowing their personal joys and troubles you can be a part of their lives and they would trust you more as a leader. This will help you in getting things done. Also it will be easier for you to understand that the reason for a team members poor sales during a given time frame are the challenges in their personal life.
When somebody on the team is not reaching their sales goals be gentle with them. The worst thing would be to single them out in front of everybody. Try to find out why they are not meeting goals. Ask to meet and talk to you one-on-one if possible and find out what has been holding them back. Provide solutions. Point out where they can improve and give them pointers. Be gentle and firm with these team members. Allow them enough chance to improve. A little compassion and understanding goes a long way as a team leader and can help your sales team to get back on track to sales success.
Don't ignore anyone in your team. If they are meeting and exceeding, keep encouraging to meet and exceed new goals. Just because they are successful does not mean they don't need you. If they are floundering, take them step by step even if that means starting over.
As a team leader never stop learning. You do not want to be stagnant in your own success. Keep reaching higher and never settle. Don't hold back secrets. If you have something that will help your team members succeed, offer it to them. Why keep something to yourself because you don't want others to use it. Your knowledge is only valuable if you share it. If it is kept tucked away in your pocket, it is useless.
Watch how you speak to team members. If you are intimidating, aggressive, rude, you will not bring out the best in your team. You will likely create a team that will dwindle in size or disappear all together. Don't discuss how you will only help those who deserve your time. It devalues others. Word it differently. Instead say you will offer certain meetings, training, one on one, etc to anyone who willing to utilize your time.
Reality is not all team members are going to want to make good money. Some join companies to take advantage of the discount. Some want a hobby. Others just want some pocket change. The rest want to build a business. Be realistic. At the same time don't look down on anyone for their desire to join. Your job is not to judge. Your job as their team leader is to support, motivate, educate.
Coaching to success doesn't mean leading a team by the hand to do it all. Its about supplying your team with tools to succeed and supporting them along the way. You can't do it for them and you should not be expected to do so.
Building a team is not sweet talking a potential recruit into joining them letting them fend for themselves. Sitting back and watching the money come rolling in is not going to happen. OK maybe there are a few times it does but this is certainly not the norm. You are paid a small compensation of a percentage of their sales because you coach them to succeed. Earn it. Teach them. Support them. Help them succeed. If they succeed, you succeed.
Coaching your team is work. It is rewarding work not to be taken lightly. Take the time to research and provide the tools to your team. Take the time to get to know your team. The time you invest will be worth the work.
Olivia Vidal
© 2009
http://sochicbagboutique.com
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