In my recent travels and training I am always intrigued when someone complains about not having enough parties (presentations) booked. I ask this simple question, “Why not?”
Let me ask you a simple question, “If you don’t have enough parties booked on your calendar, why not?” Do you believe in what your company has to offer? Do you believe you have a fantastic product? Do you believe it’s better to be a Hostess and earn product than it is to pay full price for everything? When you can answer “Yes” to all of these questions and really believe it’s better to “Host than Buy” you will have more bookings than you can hold!
So how do you get more parties? It’s simple…ASK! It blows me away that someone will go across town looking for leads and not focus on who’s in their own backyard. Let’s face it, we come in contact with at least 10 people every week that can use our products and services. Have you gone to the Post Office this week? What about UPS or Federal Express? Have you been to the grocery store, drug store, bank, credit union, restaurant, gym, dentist, doctors office, or office supply store? Have you been to your child’s’ hockey game, basketball game, gymnastics or dance class, PTA meeting, etc.? When you go somewhere I you prepared with a quick ten second introduction of yourself and what you do?
The fact is we do come in contact with people every week and we don’t mention what we do. Worse yet, we don’t mention what we have to offer! All you have to say is, “I’m with a fantastic company that has the best widgets on this side of the world and I will bring you a free widget just for inviting me and a few friends over for an evening of fun!” If you took 6 friends to Nieman-Marcus or Sears, for a shopping spree and spent $600 between all of you, would the store give you something FREE just for bringing them? I don’t think so! Yet that’s what you do! You are the Store that is going to give the Hostess Free and discounted product!
January 22, 1996, I held a party for a lady I met while conducting a meeting at the local hotel. She had a $275.00 party and had 3 bookings. I traced the chain of parties on a poster board for 2 years and stopped only when I ran out of room on the poster. Here are the totals: 121 parties were already held, total sales for the parties were $35,072.66, my commission was $14,029.06. I had sponsored 10 people from this chain, I still had 8 more parties booked and had given 8 shows to my team in the last month!
I thought I’d share this just in case you’ve been thinking, “What difference does one new party make?”
One of the best books I have ever read is “Who Moved My Cheese?” If you haven’t read it yet, buy it or borrow it and read it soon! It could make a difference in your life. The book is an easy read about life in the “Maze”. I’ve been in the maze before and I’m sure most of you have been too! The maze is the time of your life when you settle for what is now because you fear what lies ahead!
We all enter the maze at various times in our life and we know that change is around the corner. Sometimes we respond quickly and embrace change and at other times we hesitate to venture into the maze and hope that the “cheese supply does not run out”.
The number one reason people don’t want to change is because they are afraid of what lies ahead. Remember, the only person who really likes change is a “wet baby”! Even when we are pretty sure that the change will be better for us, we do everything we can to avoid it. “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” That is the question you will ask yourself over and over when you read the book! Here are few ways to help you look at “change” in a different light!
1. Focus on what’s the best that could happen! Instead of asking…”What’s the worst that could happen, ask yourself…What’s the best thing that could happen from this?” Often we tend to focus on the negative aspect of change rather than the positive aspects. We develop a paralyzing fear because of the negative results we foresee. Refocusing on the positive effects of change will lead to excitement and we’ll be ready to try something new. “Remember, you can’t steal second if you don’t take your foot off first.” ~ Mike Todd (1909-1958) American Showman
2. Set and review your goals. It’s a proven fact that people who set goals and make an action plan to reach them are not afraid of change. They are “risk takers” and know that if you want to grow, you have to change. People who fear change often become stagnant in their job and careers. Ask yourself, “What can I do better to help me reach my goals? What do I need to change? What do I nee to add?”
3. Vision yourself enjoying the benefits of change. Keep a mental picture of what your life will be like when you change. Reward yourself when you make a change for the better! Review the process of change and give yourself credit for facing the “fear of change”! ENJOY THE TRIP!!
How can we implement these ideas into our Direct Selling business? Very easily! I have come to the realization that we become comfortable with the way we do things and even when we learn a new idea that could increase sales, bookings or sponsoring, because it is often outside our “comfort zone” we refuse to make the change.
As I was holding the coaching tele-seminar series I found that even though some people were having tremendous success from trying some of the ideas I suggested others were paralyzed with fear at trying something new! Here’s an example: “One consultant played the “envelope booking game” I teach in my workbook and the video and she booked five people of the nine that attended the party.
Another consultant that same week told me “She was afraid that people would think she was being too pushy!” Her fear of the way others will judge her will prevent her from making a change that could potentially explode her business.
Here’s another example: “One consultant played the “sponsoring game” that is also in my workbook and video and she e-mailed me that two people wrote down they might be interested in finding out about the business.”
Another consultant e-mailed me and asked me what if everyone puts “No” they are not interested? She said she would “feel uncomfortable” if no one was interested. Will her “fear” prevent her from making a change that could explode her sponsoring? I hope not! If you are having a hard time changing take it SLOW! Often change comes easily one step at a time!
“What would you do if you were not afraid?”
I’m not sure if you had a chance to see the movie “Pay it Forward” but it was awesome! A young boy begins by challenging others to do a good deed for someone and hopefully the person who was on the receiving end of the deed would “pay it forward” by doing a good deed for someone else.
Well, I had the chance to observe the “pay it forward” having the reverse effect on people as I traveled last weekend. There was terrible weather throughout the US and Canada and flights were delayed for hours. I spent 14 hours in airports on Friday and Saturday and even though I’m used to traveling I was finding my own positive attitude challenged. Each time they delayed the departure time on my flight my mood sank and I had to work hard to get it back up!
Not everyone was able to do so! There was no way I would want to work as a gate agent at an airport and have to listen to passengers complain to me when I had nothing to do with it. The gate agents, airlines etc. cannot control the weather, all they can do is try to accomodate all the passengers the best they can.
How often do you “pay it forward” when you become irrate with what’s happening to you? We can’t always control our circumstances but we can control our attitude about what happens to us. More importantly we must always try to control how we treat others! Sometimes it’s best not to “pay it forward”, especially when it comes to a bad attitude.
How do I react when everything doesn’t go as I planned?
Problem: We had an awesome teleseminar the other night but we had a few difficulties because so many people registered some could not make it on the call.
Solution: Post the call to a replay number for one week to allow those who could not get on the call to listen.
Problem: Sound quality of the call was terrible and several times the call cuts in and out.
Solution: Pull the original recording, re-record the call and post it for replay next week.
These were just a few of the challenges I’ve had within the last 24 hours. I’m also sitting at the airport waiting for a connecting flight that was supposed to leave at 10:18 a.m. and is now scheduled to leave at 1:20 p.m. I got up at 5:00 a.m. to get to the airport for the first flight and had to go throw salt and sand on our driveway which looks like a skating rink from the rain and ice we got overnight. Hey, what else can I do but “GET OVER IT!”
We all have things that happen in our life that can cause us to lose our cool and go into a tailspin for the rest of the day. We can choose to “get over it” and move on or we can dwell on it, pout about it, complain and whine about it but the fact of the matter is…it is what it is!
What do you do when everything is not going your way? You can choose to ACT or REACT! The choice is up to you!
Well, right now I’m handling everything as it comes. I’ll let you know what happens if I’m still at this airport tonight!
The Direct Selling Leadership 101 call last night was awesome but we had a few difficulties getting everyone on the call so if you couldn’t get on the call we are allowing you to listen to the replay until March 17′th.
See the article below describing what you will learn on this call!
