Ever wonder what the number one key to success as a direct seller is?
A full calendar, friends. When you’re in a party-based business like direct sales, the amount of white space on your calendar directly correlates with how much money is in your pocket.
For many direct sellers, trying to maintain that calendar is something super difficult. But, in my experience, it’s not that tricky. You just need the right habits and mindset, and I promise you will never run out of bookings again.
All you need are some solid strategies and the right mindset. Let’s dig into how you can adapt to make sure your calendar is full and you never run out of party bookings again.
Want a proven plan for growing your direct sales business without feeling like you're chasing your tail? The Direct Sellers Business Blueprint explains the 4 key areas you must master to build a simplified, systematic business. It will even tell you which area to tackle first, so you can stop feeling overwhelmed or confused about what to do next. The best part? It's completely FREE!
KNOW YOUR MONTHLY BOOKING GOAL
I’m going to talk about this one every chance I get because it is so dang important if you want to see success in your direct sales business.
Because honestly, without goals, how do you even know what success looks like for you?
If you don’t have a goal, you have no idea when you actually hit “it”—that thing you’re searching for, the reason you got into direct sales.
It is easy for us to set personal goals like walking a mile a day, losing five pounds, cutting out fried foods, and reading one book a month. Those don’t seem as “daunting,” but we struggle to do the same for our business for some reason. Don’t fear goals; embrace them!
The key is basing your monthly goals on facts and information. Not lofty pie in the sky-type goals that will be hard to reach will put you in a funk or a rut if you don’t reach them because they’re a little bit too big for where you are now.
Remember, you always have to have something to work towards! Don’t set a goal to book 60 parties in a month during your first year in business, and it won’t do you any favors. Be realistic and smart!
The best way to set monthly goals is to determine your annual income goal, break that down into a monthly income goal, and then figure out how many parties you must book to reach that income goal.
There is no right or wrong number. It could be two, or it could be 25. You are the CEO of your business, and you are the only one who can determine what is right for you.
When I was pushing for growth, my goal was 16-20 parties a month. But when I wanted to take a step back to start coaching and developing leaders, my max was 12-15 parties. With that, I was still hitting goals but not running around like a crazy person.
Figure out what you want, break it down into bite-sized pieces, and get after it each and every month!
DO WEEKLY BOOKING PROSPECTING AND FOLLOW-UP
This one is key, and it’s one that I see a lot of direct sellers skimp on, which is precisely what leads to binge bookings. When we get into a consistent habit of prospecting and follow-up, that is where success starts to blossom.
You can’t expect to book parties without prospecting, and you can’t expect to magically book 20 parties in a week if you suddenly realize your calendar is empty and you haven’t followed up or prospected after your last five parties.
When you schedule time each week for prospecting, it starts to run like clockwork. I ran multi-day parties, and they wrapped up on Thursday and Friday. For that reason, I scheduled Thursday as my booking day each week.
I physically blocked off my calendar for prospecting and following up every Thursday–it didn’t matter what was happening in my world. Thursday was my booking day, and I knew that my activities the other days of the week weren’t booking.
So you may be asking why I scheduled it that way.
Always schedule your prospecting days, aka booking days, at the tail end of the party or the day after a party ends.
You’ve just spent time getting to know newbies, you’ve shared exciting new products, you don’t want to lose interest, and you want to keep everything fresh and top of mind. You just took time and energy to build that relationship with them. Keep that momentum going!
But life happens, too. We go on vacation or take days off for family things. If I knew I would do this, I would bump up the week before or after, so I wasn’t skipping anything, so my calendar didn’t suffer.
So, block off that calendar and get to work, friends!
FOCUS ON 2-3 BOOKINGS FROM EVERY PARTY
Next up, I want you to go further than those monthly goals. I want you to make a goal to book “X” number of parties from each party you host, ideally 2-3 bookings from each. This will keep your calendar full for months to come.
Some people tell me that it’s hard to get these bookings from a party. My response? If it’s hard to book a party after someone has attended another party, you need to take a look at what you’re doing.
- Check your Ask.
- Check your party content.
- Check your host coaching.
I guarantee you if you’re not taking bookings from your parties, one of the above three things is probably a lil’ outta whack and needs some fine-tuning.
If your Ask is friendly, personable, speaking to the benefits of hosting, and not super salesy — you’ll get a booking.
If your party content is super fun and engaging — you’ll book a party.
If your host is singing your praises because you made it easy and enjoyable for them — you’re going to get a dang booking!
REBOOK YOUR HOST
If you’ve done a solid host coaching job, why wouldn’t your hostess want to do another party and get more free stuff?
You’ve spent so much time building that relationship. Do not let them book one party and walk away, never to return!
Think about it this way. When you go to the dentist, as you leave, you let them book you for your next six-month appointment with zero ideas of what you’ll have going on that day. But because it’s on your calendar, and they put it there so far in advance, you’ll stick to it! Right?
Do this with your parties! After you wrap up one, in your hostess follow-up, mention that you’d love to get a party on the calendar in a few months so you can share what’s new that season.
If they object, say something like, “Well, let’s pencil it in, and we can confirm the date when it gets closer. Sound good?” Nine times out of ten, they’ll stick with the date, and you’ll have a party booked with them quarterly.
TRACK YOUR RESULTS
How do you know what’s been successful if you don’t track it?
- Who did you ask?
- Who said yes, who said no?
- Who do you get a “not right now” from that requires a follow-up in a few months?
If you’re tracking these things and not getting the number of bookings you want, you can look at your tracking to determine why.
I found that when you had a friendly group, you could usually gain a booking from every 1 out of 6 asks. For a cold party with many new faces, maybe 1 out of 12.
Once you start tracking, you’ll be able to see what’s working, what’s not and realize when you need to take a quick pause to look at your Ask or strategy.
SCHEDULE A BI-WEEKLY CALENDAR CHECK
Last but certainly not least, the bi-weekly calendar check. I know we get busy, and sometimes our habits may fall off. Stuff happens when you’re an entrepreneur, mama, spouse—all the things.
But one surefire way to stay on top of your bookings and be in tune with what is happening in your business is checking your calendar every two weeks.
I would always set a calendar alert every other Monday to ensure I did this. And, it does NOT take a lot of time. A quick 15-minute check-in to do a lil’ pulse check on your business. If you see a little more white space than you’d like, you know it’s time to light a little fire and get going.
So, every other Monday, I would look at the next month on my calendar. So if you’re checking your calendar on March 15th, you would check to see what you have booked from March 15th to April 15th to see if you’re on track to reach your goals in those months.
Do you have the bookings on your calendar that you want for the next 30 days? If you don’t, you have time to fix it! Easy peasy.
NO MORE EXCUSES, GO GET THOSE BOOKINGS!
As a direct seller, when your calendar is in shape, the whole world makes sense and feels good. One of our Savvy Selling friends shared, “My confidence level is high when my calendar is full,” and I couldn’t have said it better myself. You can work through almost anything if you have people constantly coming into your business. You are so much more bold, confident, and brave when your calendar is full!
Are you ready to put in the time to build the habits? Are you prepared to take a look at your business critically to spark growth? It’s time to velcro yourself to a chair and commit to making those changes in your business. I have faith in you, friends!
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Want a proven plan for growing your direct sales business without feeling like you're chasing your tail? The Direct Sellers Business Blueprint explains the 4 key areas you must master to build a simplified, systematic business. It will even tell you which area to tackle first, so you can stop feeling overwhelmed or confused about what to do next. The best part? It's completely FREE!
Mary Haynes is a highly successful direct sales leader turned strategist and coach. Her passion is helping party plan people streamline and scale their businesses using simple, proven strategies. Her goal is to eliminate business overwhelm so direct sellers know exactly what to do and when to do it. Mary is also a homeschooling mama that lives in sunny Florida with her husband, 4 kiddos, 2 dogs, and various other backyard animals.
