You’ve done a fabulous party presentation, and everybody is engaged and having fun. You’ve planted some booking and recruiting seeds and are ready to start the closing process. Remain engaged during the closing. It’s important to be present and in the room while your guests are looking at your table of products and through the catalog.
You say something like this: “Okay everyone, why don’t you come up to the table. You can try out some of the products I talked about this evening, as well as some others I didn’t. Don’t be afraid to mess the table up!”
Stay by the table to answer questions. This gives you the opportunity to cover more products than what was in your presentation. Once the guests start to head back to their seats to check out the catalog, say something like this:
“Okay, ladies, here is your catalog, and before you begin shopping, I’ll let you know this month’s specials.” (Name them and place flyers around, if you haven’t already). “I will be walking around to assist with your purchases today so feel free to ask any questions.”
When people are ready, you are ready to begin a full‐service checkout.
If they don’t have their order form filled in, begin by helping them do so. Also figure out the best pricing for them if your company offers a customer savings plan.
If they already have the order form filled out, go through their products with them to make sure they have everything they need. Don’t focus on the total. Look at the products they ordered. Are they missing any products that would make their experience better? For example, if they have everything to make a pizza, but not a pizza cutter, ask if they would like to add one to their order.
Often, it’s easy to get excited about the total. But it is your responsibility to service your customers to make sure they have everything they need. The more you service your customers and create positive experiences for them, the more they will continue to do business with you and refer you to others.
A few years ago I was invited to a candle party a friend of mine was hosting. My son, who had just recently moved into his own apartment, asked me to pick up some candles for his new place. I ended up ordering three candleholders for my son, as well as one for my kitchen. My order total came to approximately $168. The representative was very happy and thanked me excitedly. When my son came over to pick up his order, he opened the bag and said, “These are nice — but where are the candles?” I was so focused on choosing candleholders that I’d forgotten about candles. The rep had missed this detail, because she was too excited about the large order total. If she had made sure I had everything I needed, she would have noticed — and that would have tacked on an additional $40 to my order.
Up‐selling enhances your relationships with your customers by offering them additional products.
Here are two ways to up‐sell:
✓ Benefit selling versus descriptive selling: Descriptive selling explains what the product is without focusing on the benefits. Always share with your customers the benefits of your products. How will it make them feel? How will it make their life easier? Show your customers the value they will receive from your products.
✓ Always showing in groupings: If you show one product, you will sell one product, so always show your products in groupings. That way, when people look at buying one item, they associate it with buying three others. Learning to put groupings together and having a price ready for them is crucial to helping increase your party averages. Some people buy what’s on the mannequin because they don’t have the creativity to put things together. Show items in groupings to provide some creativity.
You also always want to compliment people on their product choices. People want to feel like they made good choices and received good value for their money spent. This will put people in a more positive frame of mind to consider booking a party of their own with you.
Once you’ve totaled the order, thank her and ask whether she had fun at the party. This is also where you will want to ask if she would consider having her own party with her friends. (I talk about this in detail in Chapter 7 of Direct Selling For Dummies.) Then, as a full‐service checkout, ask if she’s interested in taking home some information about the business opportunity and what the company has to offer.