How Can I Motivate My Host for a Successful Holiday Open House?

[Yakmama]

I have a host who is having a "holiday open house" at her home on Thursday. She told me she didn't' want it to be high pressure, so I was just going to put out a couple of things and have some food samples. I was also going to have a "hot cocoa making station" and have the ingredients out so the guests can make little packets of hot cocoa mix and hopefully get some sales of "coffee and more" mugs.

Anyways- I've been coaching her for a month now, and every time I talk to her she says, "I don't want to pressure my friends. No one has money right now. I don't know how many people are going to come," etc. etc. I come back with the "now more than ever" speech, but she's not buying it.

It's my ONLY cooking show on the books for December- so I REALLY need it. Any ideas on what I can do to put a fire under her? Her show is this Thurs and I don't' think she's really putting any effort into inviting people. This is also over an hour's drive away from me.

I also know for a fact that she lives in a HUGE gorgeous house, but she is always telling me how tiny it is, and that she can't fit many people into it, etc. etc.

Ugh - this is so frustrating.

 

[Yakmama]

Oh- I also thought I'd add that she is very very very nice and I could tell from the beginning that she didn't really want to do this, but she is doing it as a "favor" to me.

 

[vwpamperedchef]

Since the drive is so far, and many of my shows are an hours drive.

I would ask the guest to give me a "confirmed" headcount (and normally for an hours drive I require 10 guests and since its too late, I would have said 3-5 outside orders) If it is less then 10 people coming, I would say to the host, would you like to turn it into a catalog show?

Personally if you have a gut feeling about it not going well, you are probably right. I don't have any Dec. bookings, and I am not stressing. Its a bad time of year for people and regardless of the speech, I wouldn't buy that speech if I was a host either.

Don't give up, but learn from this.
Good Luck

 

[susanr613]

I had a variation of this on Friday, and it was also my only December show. The host seemed enthusiastic but didn't want to put any effort into it. About a week before the show, he directed me to his community website and I sent 82 evites. He did not follow up with any of these neighbors; and didn't reach out to friends until I told him that none of his neighbors were attending. So we wound up with his mom, his wife's mom, a couple, and a single guy as guests. The host wound up ordering more than everyone else put together, so it wound up being almost $400.00.

Fortunately, the host, his wife, and the guests were genuinely nice people who treated me as more of a new friend than a worker bee, so it was a pleasant experience. Plus, I may have gotten a booking out of it.

What is my point? Don't go in with any expectations, and clearly explain to her that sales need to be at least $150 for her to have free shipping, her friends to have $4.25 shipping etc. That seemed to wake up my host. Enjoy meeting new people, and focus on bookings instead of sales.

Good luck!

 

[doughmama]

Susan, sounds like my show on Friday. When I spoke to my host, she did not have a lot of people coming. But I really wanted to get the new spring product being offered in Dec and since I only have one other party, figured I did not want to postpone Friday's party. And what a perfect time for me to finally try the 30 minute chicken recipe. Not so many witnesses if I screw up. Got to the house and she only had 3 guests!! Not very promising but we made the 30 minute chicken and used it for the jerk chicken nachos. The host and one guest bought the dcb. The 2nd guest is thinking about getting one. The other guest booked a party for Feb and is considering becoming a consultant. Yes, at this point the party is at $350 which is one of my worst on record but sometimes, it is not about the commission. We spent time talking about the business, and how much fun I am having. I tried out a new recipe and got great feedback. And I was able to really connect with the women and we had fun.

 

[susanr613]

wow doughmama - 2 dcbs, a booking and a recruit lead! you made the most of that show!

sometimes the smaller shows allow you to relax and focus more on the host and guests, which can improve your chances of bookings and recruit leads.

 

[jbdowd0798]

WOW I thought I was the only one on Friday with a low show. Okay so my show is at $116 thanks to two orders I put from others, there were two guests plus the host even after the host told me 6 the day before. But the host wants to join, one guest wants to do a show but I told the host that if she joins that show could be her's and both the guest and host got excited (thats a good sign), and so I guess it wasn't too bad.

The house was a mess but I brought my 6ft table and I ended up putting the hot cocoa mix together for the people instead of them doing it but I was fine with that since we talked so much about the business and products.

Oh well, we live, we learn, and move on!!

 

[pcsharon1]

Well, my show on Friday was at just a few dollars over $400 when I left the house.....that would be great if there had only been 5 or 6 people there.....but there was about 15! But it was the area. I know if I do shows closer to my home the totals are lower....more people pay with cash and order less than $20.....whereas if I go about 45 miles away down toward Atlantic City 15 people would easily mean $750.

 

[ChefPaulaB]

I agree about not going in with certain expectations... I had a host that had a DIL in the hospital a couple weeks before her show, and every time that I talked to her she was just very ho-hum about the whole show thing, and I was driving about an hour away. I figured it was going to be such a waste of my time, gas and babysitting money. When I got there, she had made a ton of food, had the house looking really nice, a ton of people came, and her show total was over $800, and I got one booking. That showed me never to judge by the hosts attitude (completely), then sometimes you the opposite, someone telling you they always have huge totals in guests and sales and end up with 3 guests and had to purchase stuff herself to get to $150... but that's another show....... Win some Lose some!

 

[Yakmama]

Here's the update. Her house looked beautiful- but I only had $151.50 in sales ($50 of it was from outside orders that I got myself). It kind of flopped- but oh well. At least it goes towards my SAT product.

 

[BettieC]

Sorry for the outcome. I didn't read the original post date, and was like you're doing a party on Christmas??? LOL