Make every hostess your newest best friend, and you’ll find people clamoring to be on your calendar.
Do you remember your VERY FIRST party that you did on your own? Not your launch party, the VERY FIRST party where you flew solo and had tons of butterflies in your stomach, and kept asking yourself, can I really do this?
My very first Hostess was with one of my good friends. I was so thankful for her stepping up to help me get my new business kicked off. I had practiced my demonstration and was eager to share my wardrobe solution about mixing and matching garments and helping women have the right amount of outfits to save money in their closet. I was so excited and thought once I showed women how to use this concept, they would definitely buy my clothes and of course want to book their own party.
My sponsor who lived in Minnesota (I lived in Hawaii) had advised me to learn about hostess coaching and read the training available. I’d only been in business for a month, but I felt my good friend and I knew all the guests attending “very well.” So I thought, I know how to handle this. (Little did I know.)
My first clue to things going wrong was when I asked the hostess, what time she’d like to get started? (Of course, I should have set that up ahead of time, right?) Her answer to me was,
“Oh, everyone is just dropping by when they have time!”
I realized my first mistake. Even the hostess wasn’t expecting a demonstration! She thought everyone would just look at the clothes and buy if they wanted. It was at that moment I understood I’d better re-adjust my thinking and be ready to help each guest when they “dropped in.”
After an hour, only two guests dropped by who “looked at the clothes,” and weren’t interested in buying, then left. Then three people came in at one time, and I had an opportunity to do some of my “demonstration” and got ONE sale.
By this time, my energy level was waning. Then the final straw came. A friend dashed in at the last moment. She ran her hands through the clothes very quickly, looked me in the eye and said, “Gale I don’t think I’d ever wear these clothes, they are just not my style!”
As you can imagine I left that party—after being there 5 hours (!!!) with ONE sale, feeling very low, I actually considered quitting. I called my sponsor and she shared with me the ADVANTAGES of coaching my hostess.
What an “AHA” moment for me. An important lesson learned right from the beginning. Here’s what I learned from holding my first “solo” party.
- I would have coached my hostess about the importance of the demonstration so the guests would arrive on time!
- I didn’t even THINK to share with the hostess about her hostess credits! In those days we didn’t have a wish list. Consequently she received hardly any credits!
- I didn’t make any calls to connect with the hostess ahead of the party, so she had no clue what to expect!
- I thought I knew ALL the guests because they were friends, but I really didn’t know “who” was coming.
- No-one had any fun, because as soon as they arrived, they raced in, looked at the clothes and didn’t want to hang around.
- Not one guest booked because they were probably thinking, if this was what happened at a party, they didn’t want to hold one.
After that first PARTY EXPERIENCE, I made a commitment to myself that my hostesses were going to be treated like absolute Queens and I was going to master this thing called “Hostess Coaching!”
Making the commitment to connect with my hostess was a key learning experience for me as a new consultant. Needless to say, within SIX months, I had a FULL calendar OF BOOKINGS! I become the #1 seller on my team and hit the first rung of the leadership ladder! I went on to grow a fabulous large million dollar team and become the #1 Leader in my company and grow a fabulous six figure income!
Connecting with hostesses is a huge area of our business model that we sometimes tend to overlook, or we think we’ve read our hostesses mind and they’ll know what to expect. Sometimes we just get too busy and forget to connect before the party.
I tell you this story to impress upon you the importance of taking the time to CONNECT with your hostess. We use the term hostess coaching, but 
really, it’s all about connecting and building what I call a BFF (Best friend forever) relationship.
Making your hostess connecting count is the ONE thing that will make
a difference in having a $100 party and $1000 party. If you want to learn how to treat YOUR hostess like a queen, and discover how to have cash flow every week in your business with successful parties, then learn how in “Your HOSTESS COACHING Tool Kit.” A valuable guideline to boost sales, bookings and recruit leads at every party! Get it here.
Then, move ahead to learning more innovative techniques to keep your 
hostess engaged in having high attendance, and getting the right people to every party in the “Advanced Hostess Coaching” CD. Get it here. This is a great CD to train your team at a team meeting.
What I taught myself most of all on this journey was after EVERY PARTY, I came home and did a little assessment of my connection with my HOSTESS! I learned SO MUCH over the years, developing a team and teaching others.
Have a Hostess story to share? Leave your comment below. Your story, like mine, may help someone have a $1000 party next week!
