Home Sales Question (Not Trying to Sell You Anything Lol)

I would never do home sales, just not my thing but I love a lot of the home party products like Pampered Chef. When one of my fiends post they are having a party there is usually a couple things I need replaced or just want. I would much rather go online, not deal with pushy salepeople trying to convince me I need a party, and just get what I want and my friends get the credit. So I am saying some sales are better than none and most of my friends have done pretty well with the online parties.

I just don't do any of those things anymore.
Not Mary Kay, nor Pampered Chef, or lingerie, or candles or jewelry or anything else.
What ever it is - I don't need any - and these days I only buy something if something breaks and I need to replace it.
I know you want to grow your business - but I find I've lost my drive to 'buy buy buy' like I use to - and I suspect many others are feeling the same.
The 90's, when I was young, before I had a family - it was different.
Now we're watching every penny and trying to help pay for our sons college and retire in a few years.
My 'consumerism' days are over and I don't miss them.

Additional:
My friends do NOT have access to my wallet - and if they think they are friends for the purpose of accessing my wallet - they aren't my friends.
I socialize at parties - I don't buy things.
When I shop - it's not social.
I'm looking for a good deal for ME, not making small talk while trying to run calculations in my head over how much this thing is really costing me.
Buying online - it's not a party, so I get that - but it's cutting out some middle men and overhead of leasing store space - if I can get free shipping and not spend time fighting for a parking space and it's delivered to my door - I'm happy.

In my area, (very nice northern burb of Dallas) home sales is a turn off. When you receive an invitation, it's like an invoice because if your friend if hosting the party, you feel obligated to help her out then get the big spill on trying to sign you up in the program.

As for online sales, I don't see many and when I do I keep scrolling because I don't need pampered chef, candles, gift wrap, candies, essential
Oils, don't use Mark Kay and the list goes on and on....

People get tired of home parties, recruiting, junk email, etc and I've lost friends over the recruiting aspect. It bugs me to no end.

Whatever you are selling.... it needs to be something that people buy on a routine basis and not a one time shop like junky jewelry, etc things that clutter our homes.

Best wishes to you, just don't expect too much.

S.,

If you are in sales, you need to know your client and sales-base and you MUST know your product(s) inside and out.

If you don't know what makes your client "tick" and what they are looking for? It doesn't matter if you could talk a great game, the fact is you can't REACH your client.

How do you keep people engaged? You KNOW your product. You KNOW what they are looking for. You keep in contact and ask the questions and most importantly - LISTEN to the answers!!

I love Pampered Chef - I personally don't like going to the parties anymore - but I love the on-line sales. With Christmas coming up - I talk with my girlfriends about what they are baking and doing and check out the catalog to see if they have something they were talking about.

I have friends who do this.

The one who is most successful - she posts facebook pictures of new products. She includes everyone who has been to one of her parties in a group, and you get all these testimonials about the products, new product launches, etc. She then will advertise that a party is coming up, and then she does the home party. She does not do an online ordering aspect.

I have some friends who do - and I get invited to them through Facebook. I've never bought anything that way - because I have not seen the product myself.

I'm your average consumer. If it's something I'd like to buy, or a repeat purchase, I'd probably like an online ordering system (similar to Julie).

But for new sales, I think most people would want to see it - unless it's something like a cheese grater. But cosmetics, or bags, or that kind of thing - where they want to take a look at it before committing to buy - I'd stick to the home parties.

My very social friend tried an online ordering system - and no one bought anything. Quite frankly, the product seemed overpriced. And most of us - her target audience - are on budgets.

The term 'online party' is offensive to me. I have gone to many home parties and was served wine and food and laughed with friends. I did not bring a hostess gift because I planned to purchase an item.

Why call it a party if the person is clicking online to buy something? How is this a party? There is no socializing.

I do not appreciate someone using me in this way. If you first entertain and then include customers (not friends or fb friends) to buy online that is fine. Just don't call it a party. Super misleading. I am thinking of the eyelash thing. I got 3 different 'friends' sending me online party invites for fake lashes; oh and fake finger nails. They are not even going to explain the way to use them in person, yet plan to charge as if I was being trained on using the product. The difference between in person and online is like going to a personal trainer to a workout and watching a video of it. I do not plan to spend the same about of money on both even if I like working out at home with a video more. I expect a huge discount for zero personal service.

par·ty1
ˈpärdē/
noun
1.
a social gathering of invited guests, typically involving eating, drinking, and entertainment.
"an engagement party"
synonyms: (social) gathering, (social) function, get-together, affair, celebration, after-party, festivity, reception, at-home; More

The most successful become experts in the product and consult. Depending on the product the sales person can answer questions and give you real advice/solutions. They act like they truly believe in the product and feel it is their duty to help others with it. It is almost a religion. These women also have many working under them and get a cut of their profits. Growing their team is a huge part of the business. I know 2 highly successful women (making over $8k a month), yet these 2 are extremely pushing. All others do it for a few months/years and burn out since they do not have the high pressure pushy personality.

I am not a huge fan of home sales, but I really do like Epicure and Pampered Chef products. I personally don't like to buy these items online, but prefer to go to a party. At least I get an evening out with the ladies and some refreshments for paying the high prices.

I would like to help with your question but I do not do online sales and don't have many friends who sell things (luckily), so I am not sure what an "online party" really means.

For selling online in general, I would say give as much product info as possible and if at all possible give people some way to see a product offline - I actually have one friend who sent me a link to a "cosmetics online party" a few days ago for a cosmetics company I had never heard of...I clicked the link and ordered a lipstick, just to support her, but I would have probably bought more if I could have seen things in person - I had to do a fair amount of internet "research" to get a real sense of the lipstick color and texture for the one I decided to order (I would never just order a cosmetics product randomly with no real sense of what it looked like).

Beyond that, for getting more people to buy in, maybe offer discounts? If my friend offered me a discount for sharing her link with other people, I would have probably sent the link to a few other friends.

There are some products that I like, such as Pampered Chef (not all their stuff, but some of their more practical items). I don't need to see their products demonstrated at another party, so in that case, I have participated in an online party. It was organized well. It was set up as a group that I was asked to join, so it didn't show up on my regular Facebook news feed. I could check the group if I wanted to. In that case, an online party was convenient. The sales consultant posted daily promotions (order one thing before noon today and get 10% off, or post a short review of your favorite product and get a bonus). I didn't feel that it was offensive or intrusive because it was a separate group. The consultant ran the party, not the hostess. She referenced the hostess' name, but the consultant did all the managing of the online party on the hostess' behalf.

And I guess I might purchase a candle or something, but I wouldn't purchase personal products like makeup or fake nails or clothing through an online party.

I think the most important thing is to be genuine and to not just spout the sales pitches verbatim. I have a friend who tries to sell Amway (unsuccessfully). She asked if she could use me as a practice "potential customer" and I listened to her spiel. She said some nonsense about "I offer an internet asset, where you can sell products to yourself" and I asked "what does that mean?" and she said "I'm not sure. That's what they told us to say." Um, yeah, that's the problem. She didn't understand the sales pitch or the training.

So some people can do it successfully, non-intrusively, non-offensively, when they use honest words and really understand the products. Good luck with your business.

Well first off don't listen to the negative Nancy's. They will always be there. For every one person that hates direct sales there are 2 that love it. You have gotten to the point that you have used up your warm market and you need to expand. It is very doeable but does take work. I belong to a great group the socialite suite on Facebook. Join today. They offer great trainings and a group of women who support each other tremendously. The tag team also offers great tips. Do you have a supportive upline? That helps too. If you love your product find what works for you. Be positive and have fun! Feel free to message me if you have more questions!

I don't sell through home sales, but I thought I'd chime in. I have a lot of friends who sell Rodan & Fields and it's getting to be a real turn off for me. I get invited to home sales parties. But I do not spend that much on face products so it is over my budget. I feel bad turning people down. I also would like to hang out with them and other ladies...just not in a setting where I feel like I have to buy something. I cannot justify spending so much on these kinds of things.

Hi S.,

Google Business Network International. When in a sales role it's all in the networking. When I ran my business this was a huge piece of my referral income. Good Luck. :-)

my sister did an online party and there were "prizes" given out throughout the time period for things like posting about your favorite thing that related to the product or checking in with a silly word or something like that