Home party consultant: FINDING NEW CUSTOMERS
At the beginning of your business, you utilised your hot list of contacts to organise your first home sales for intimate toys and lingerie. As a market leading social selling company, Soft Paris offers some top tips on finding ways to expand your customer base.
The art of communication
You are your best advertisement, and the best thing is, it's free to publicise your business throughout your day to day activities.
At the gym, yoga, among colleagues, even whilst shopping, every day you interact with people. By introducing what you do you can increase your customer base. Remember A.A.A.A - any time, any place, always ask. Introduce yourself as a Soft Paris Advisor and briefly describe a Soft Paris party.
First impressions count for everything and you have about 30 seconds to convince them. We call this 30 second introduction the elevator pitch, as it's a very short introduction aimed at: developing interest, arousing curiosity, generating questions and opportunities for taking bookings. Tip: Try practicing your elevator pitch in the mirror until you're comfortable with it.
Example: "I'm so excited to have started my own business in partnership with a French Lingerie and intimate toy brand (Really?) Yes, I share the secrets to a happy intimate life with women and couples (Mmm, how?) I present home parties during which I show our fun and unique products, the atmosphere is great, everyone has a good evening and I can't believe how much I have learnt about sensuality and sexuality with Soft Paris. I'd love you to be one of my first hostesses... "
Make sure you leave your contact details as well as taking theirs.
Make it a habit, set a goal for the number of people you will speak to every day. Top Tip: Try placing 5 bands on your right wrist and move them to your left wrist every time you talk to someone new about becoming a hostess.
Social networks have changed the way many of us communicate and are becoming more integrated into our lives every day, they can be a fantastic tool to introduce Soft Paris to your existing friends and family. There are lots of tutorials online that can help you out if you're unsure on how to utilise social networks to get your message out there.
A Facebook profile and a Twitter account gives you the opportunity to promote your business and allows your contacts to stay in touch very easily. Remember to keep up the message by regularly announcing any offers, new products etc. Remember to stay professional, as someone representing the Soft Paris brand, in the same way you would offline.
Fancy trying something new? Why not create an Instagram account, if you don't already have one, and regularly post pictures of your business?
Top Tip: Think about promoting a 'product of the week', where you introduce a new product every week and describe what makes that product special.
Your customers are bound to have lots of questions on the products, don't worry nobody expects you to know everything, if you're unsure it's much better to say 'I'm not sure but I can easily find out' than to make it up.
Over time you'll increase your knowledge of each of the products and become more practiced in making additional sales. Soft Paris offer many training opportunities both online and offline, attend as many as possible to make the most of your business.
Working from home requires organisation, by maintaining a good system of customer records you will be in a better position to gain follow up sales. Think about investing in a good calendar and spend some time making sure it is kept up to date. Top Tip: You could open up a folder with wallets for each of your customers, this will allow you to better serve them. Organisation ensures you can give an exceptional service and create a much better experience than retail ever could.
Your customer files will allow you to re-contact your customers: when their products arrive, when you host a seasonal event or special occasions (birthday, Valentine's Day, Christmas, etc.) or the release of a new Soft Paris theme.
Top Tip: A phone call will always be more effective than email. Spend some time making a few calls to those customers who you think may make a good hostess. Remember people can hear a smile in your voice, be prepared and professional with a shortlist of dates you want to book parties into in the next month, don't book too far ahead.
Soft Paris are passionate about offering the best support and training to advisors new and established. Together we can spread the secrets to a fulfilling intimate life to homes throughout the country.
