Increase your success

To me, the term “party plan” means group selling—leveraging a sales person’s time by allowing them to present to multiple people at once instead of a doing multiple one-on-one presentations. It’s perfect for the busy mom or any part-time consultant.

If you are launching your own party plan company, there are five unique things you must consider and prepare for to best support your consultants and help them succeed.

One: Who are you?

You need to be able to identify and differentiate yourself and your company. Why are you different? What is your unique selling proposition and why would someone buy from you over someone else? Why would someone join your company? These are important questions that can help you identify who your customer is, who your host is, and who your consultant is.

Let’s say you want to sell jewelry. Many companies sell jewelry in a party plan. The most unique ones are usually the most successful. “Jewelry is jewelry,” you might say.  But each company has their own unique feel. Find out what yours will be. Become strongly identified with who you are and confident in what makes you unique. Establish your singular look and feel everywhere—your message, vision, and mission—and differentiate your company from the masses. This will significantly impact your success.

Two: Speak with your customers. 

Who are you trying to attract?  Although a broad range of people may love your product, take a look at who they are. Your typical customer may not be the same as your typical consultant. You want to be sure that all of the external facing and marketing—including social media—is attractive to the demographic of customers you are targeting. The more customers you attract, the more successful your consultants will be. Remember: Your consultants are the smallest group of people you’re going to attract.  You will have more customers and hosts than you will have consultants, so the more you are able to attract customers and hosts, the happier your consultants will be. The happier your consultants, the better your company will succeed!

Three: Consider Your Host.

Unique to and critically important for party plans, a host is someone who has a circle of influence—a group of people they can draw from to invite to parties. They like to entertain and have people in their home. Your consultants will use a host to introduce them to their “warm market”—the friends and family that are already sold on your product!

Four: Motivate your Host.

Why are people going to want to open their homes and share your products with their friends? What kinds of incentives will you offer hosts to inspire them? Ultimately, hosts are “super” customers and need to be rewarded for the gifts they bring you: pre-sold customers by the bushel!

Five – Set your goals.

You’ve got a clear company vision. You understand your customers and what motivates them. You understand your hosts. You can attract and retain consultants.

Now, set some goals. At the end of the next twelve months, what would make you feel successful? Would it be that your brand is known? Would it be that you’ve sold your product to a certain number of customers? Would it be that your consultants have had a certain number of parties? How many customers, hosts, and consultants will you want by then? What do you want your average customer sale, average party sale, and consultant check to be?

This may feel like throwing darts—it’s hard to know in the beginning exactly what to aim for—but it will help to picture your company at the end of the next twelve months.  Really think about it and put some numbers up on your whiteboard. Now you’ve made your ideas real and that can help you reach them. You need to know what you’re shooting for—now you can exceed it!

Before you start, get clear on these five things and you will improve your chance of success.