Parties are where it’s at! It’s where you see new faces, and we all know that new faces take you places!
But how do we make sure that the parties we book are actually profitable?
Everything starts with the hostess.
It took me a while before I understood how my hostess packet could make a direct impact on how profitable my party was. In fact, although I had heard of some different ideas here and there, it wasn’t until I was a hostess for someone else’s small business that it finally clicked. While the goal of having a party is ultimately to get more sales, hostess packets are NOT about selling.
Let me say that again. Hostess packets are not about selling.
Instead, they're about setting the stage for your hostess to have the night of her life – and it's easy when you use the Happy Hostess Framework.
- Empower your hostess to take responsibility for her party
- Give her an incentive to invite, share, and sell
- Provide her with tools so she has everything she needs
- Plant the seed to become a consultant herself
Empowering Your Hostess
The first page of your hostess packet is all about empowering your hostess to be successful. Just like your new consultant doesn't need EVERYTHING in their first 30 days (you remember when we talked about that a few weeks ago, right?), what you show your hostess should be targeted and intentional as well.
The first page of your hostess packet is the best place to give her a simple checklist where she can feel accomplished as she completes tasks. Remind her of how she can get in touch with you, make note of her guest list, and encourage her to have her guests RSVP on your digital business card.
This is your opportunity to make sure that she never feels like she doesn't know what to do. Help her feel like it's all laid out for her, and all she needs to do is check the boxes. This will help keep those parties booked, too, as the hostess will feel confident in what is going to happen and what she needs to do to make it a fun gathering for her guests. This also helps you as the consultant knows what to follow up with her about via text as you keep in touch leading up to her party. (Aren’t checklists the best??)
Incentivizing Your Hostess
If we get super honest about the purpose of a party, it is to sell. At the end of the day, one of the easiest and most tangible ways to measure the success of a party is by looking at the sales that were generated. The beauty of a party is that you have a cheerleader of your business hosting it, and she is your best form of advertisement.
While the guests most likely don’t know you before the party, and therefore, you haven’t been able to establish any relationship or trust, your hostess has already built trust among her friends. They hear what she has to say, and they not only believe it, but take on her feelings towards the product as well. For example, if she tells her friends that your eye cream is the best thing since sliced bread, they will already have that thought in their head when you let them demo your eye cream.
So with that, the purpose of the second page in your hostess packet, the hostess PLAN, is to incentivize your hostess to share her opinion and talk up your business. People love free things…(I know I do!), so they are totally willing to put in some work to get something for free. Just last week, I was sitting in the vet’s office waiting to be seen, and I saw a sign saying that if I checked in on Facebook and left a review, I would get a $10 credit on my account. You better believe I was all over that! Your hostess is no different! Get her excited about earning FREE products, and you will both reap the rewards.
Your hostess program serves the purpose of giving your hostess a tangible motivation to talk up your business and to encourage her friends to show up at her party.
The secret that most people don't realize is that it almost doesn’t matter what your hostess program is…
What matters the most is YOUR enthusiasm about the hostess program and how you make your customer feel about it. If you are excited, confident, and totally sold on your hostess program, those feelings will be passed along to her as well.
Give Her Tools to Work With
The third page that every great hostess packet needs includes pre-party order forms, and y'all, when I tell you this is the most underrated page in the entire packet, I am not kidding.
You know what is GUARANTEED not to happen when you don't include order forms in your hostess packet? Outside orders.
You know what your hostess assumes is normal if she sees them as part of your hostess packet? Outside orders.
Just by including order forms in your packet, it sends a message to your hostess that 1) this is normal, and everyone else is doing it, and 2) she should, too.
Now, with verbal coaching when you give her her hostess packet, you can reinforce the idea of collecting outside orders by talking to her about it and directing her to look at this page.
Planting the Seed
The number changes depending on which research article you read, but the bottom line is people are NOT wired to make a purchase the first time they interact with you, and the same goes for committing to the business opportunity In order to get to YES when asking someone to join your team, they have to know you, like you, and trust you first, and that takes multiple interactions.
So rather than letting the party itself be the first time your hostess considers the business opportunity, the marketing page in your packet serves as the first interaction, or first touch point. It's the first seed planted in the garden that is your long-term opportunity marketing plan. This touch point is casual, non-committal, and low key. There is zero pressure because it's at your hostess’ discretion and in her own home without you present. Her walls are down and it helps keep those walls down when you bring up the business opportunity again later at the party.
Start Hosting!
Now, let's do a quick audit of your hostess packet. Are you using the Happy Hostess Framework?
- Empower your hostess by giving her clear, defined steps for a successful party SO THAT you can have a party of engaged, excited guests.
- Incentivize your hostess by giving her tangible motivation to encourage her friends to make a purchase at her party SO THAT you can achieve better results and more profit.
- Give her tools to work with to collect outside orders SO THAT you can maximize how many people you reach with each individual party
- Plant the seed about the business opportunity SO THAT your hostess is warmed up to the idea of joining your team and more likely to say yes when you ask.
Take a peek at the Happy Hostess Framework in action: Enter your email below to download these beautiful samples for FREE! (What were we just saying about free things?)
