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by NASP Team
Direct selling is a person-to-person sales method that involves selling products or services to customers directly rather than in a retail environment. Salespeople involved in this line of work are solely responsible for presenting, demonstrating, and selling their products to others.
Whether selling cosmetics or cleaning products, decor or homeware, or something else entirely, direct sellers often use parties to grow their clientele base.
In this article, we will discuss what these parties are for, how to book parties for direct sales, and how you can host successful sales parties yourself as an aspiring entrepreneur. If you’d like to find out more about this unique business model, read on!
So, why is booking parties so important in the world of direct sales? In short, it’s because direct sellers do the bulk of their selling at these parties! Additionally, it’s a great way for these salespeople to find new customers and grow their clientele base.
Direct sellers will bring a selection of products with them to show party guests. A highlight of a particular party may be a new product or a seasonal item.
Hosting a direct sales party around your merchandise can help create some hype around your business and get people excited about what you’re selling. It also provides you with a great opportunity to get to know your customers and their needs.
One of the most difficult parts of booking a direct sales party is convincing someone to host for you. Whether you’re trying to convince a customer, friend, or family member, sometimes you need that extra bit of assistance.
That’s where direct sales booking scripts come in. There are plenty of script templates online for you to peruse, but think about what you’d like to include in them.
You might choose to open with an inquiry about how they enjoyed a recent purchase before segueing into a discussion of some recent products, and finally ending with your booking request.
Whatever you do, avoid being pushy. Do your best to sound enthused about the product, and demonstrate how excited you are at the chance to share it with them.
So, your script worked, and you managed to convince one of your customers to host a party for you—congrats! But getting your friends to host a direct sales party is only the first part of the challenge. Next comes holding the party itself.
There are a few steps you can take to make sure that your party is successful and everything goes smoothly. In this section, we’ve included a few helpful pieces of advice to help you make the most of your bookings.
The first step to holding a successful direct sales party is promoting your business in your local area. Many direct sellers get their business off the ground by sharing their products with friends and family.
While this will help get you off to a good start, at some point you are going to have to expand your clientele.
Encouraging your friends and relatives to spread the word about your business can help increase the size of your guest list. You could even put up posters and pamphlets advertising the event and encouraging people to come along and see your products for themselves.
Another tip for holding successful direct sales home parties is to choose a theme for the night. The theme you choose in the end will largely depend on what types of products you sell, but a few general ideas might include:
To ensure that your guests are all entertained, why not introduce some simple party games? Not only will these help keep energy high and help your guests stay focused, but these direct sales booking party games can also give you a great opportunity to talk about your products some more.
Some party game ideas include:
If you’re worried about not being able to book enough parties even using a script, you might consider offering incentives to hosts. Everyone loves a freebie; by offering someone the chance to snag a free gift, you increase the likelihood of them agreeing to host.
To kill two birds with one stone, you could combine host incentives with various party games. For example, you could say that in order for guests to claim the prizes they won, they first have to agree to host a party of their own.
Especially when you’re new to direct sales, booking parties can be a little daunting. On the one hand, the last thing you want to do is be an imposition; on the other hand, booking parties is an essential part of growing your business.
But on top of that, there’s the party itself. You may not be hosting the get-together, but you’re still going to have to do a lot of the legwork in putting it together.
There are certainly a lot of moving parts involved in running a successful direct sales party. Nonetheless, we hope that our direct sales marketing ideas will help give you some confidence in booking your next event!
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