Maximizing Success at Multiple Vendor Parties: Tips and Insights

[melissa70]

Has anybody had succes being part of these shows with multiple vendors? I'm doing a show next weekend with Tastefully Simple, Home Interiors, some wine company and a purse/jewelry lady. I've heard that these are not very good for sales because people are dividing their budget among so many vendors. But this is the third one I've been asked to participate in--do you think this is a trend?

 

[DizziePixie]

Make sure that it is advertised widely for the most traffic or you'll waste your time, and then go for the leads- not the sales. Have a drawing with Survey Slips, maybe even an incentive to book that day. Good luck!

 

[melissa70]

That's what I was thinking--use it more as a booking/recruiting opportunity. She says she has 22 confirmed for sure--which sounds like a good turn out. We'll see. She's also asked me to do two recipes and I'm thinking of doing one ahead of time to have out for people to nibble on and then do my presentation with the second one, what do you think?

 

[heather9892]

when i was selling HI i particpated in one of these shows
myself, partylite, discovery toys, avon and pc
i sold $25
avon & discovery toys $0
not sure about partylite
but pc lady, who is director i know sold around $600

im sure you will do fine and you will never know until you try
good luck

 

[chefjill]

Since you don't know how many people will actually show or how long they will stay, I wouldn't do anything time consuming. Maybe a quick microwave cake in the stoneware. I've done these events before - 2 were duds & the 3rd got me 2 bookings (only 8 people actually showed.) I've never done a demo - it's just too unpredictable.
I agree that you need to be sure there is lots of advertising, that will definitely help...

 

[scottcooks]

If you do a demo, make it something that releases LOTS of aroma. I did the 3 onion goat cheese tarte, and had everyone in the place at my booth. You could cook bacon and have everything pre-washed and cut to do a Jamaican Jerk Chicken Salad. I DO recommend food becasue it sets us apart. It also gives you the opportunity to do mini show snippets with folks who come up for a taste.

MultiVendor events are all about Traffic. If you have good consultants who will beat the bushes and get their clients out, then you get a good event. If not, you end up wasting time. At worst - no one comes and the vendors buy from each other. At best - everyone does pretty well.

The most successful ones are ones that are done Again and Again and Again.

Good Luck! God Bless You!

-praying for Paige and her family-

 

[heat123]

Has anybody had succes being part of these shows with multiple vendors? I'm doing a show next weekend with Tastefully Simple, Home Interiors, some wine company and a purse/jewelry lady. I've heard that these are not very good for sales because people are dividing their budget among so many vendors. But this is the third one I've been asked to participate in--do you think this is a trend?

I've done two, my first was a $350 show and the 2nd was a $500! It depends on the time (season) and how many are invited! I have my 3rd next weekend but I'm not holding my breath it will be as successful since the first two was a combined effort among all vendors inviting their whole contact list. Vs. this next show is soley upon 1 host inviting her freinds. So hopefully she does well enough to qualify? Will see. They are very hit and miss!

 

[melissa70]

Thanks everybody! I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[Paula R. Lewis]

Also, if you are doing a demo, see if you can go first! My director did this once, and, when it was "time" for the next Consultant's demo, she said that several of the guests remained with HER, asking questions, placing orders, etc.

Good luck!
Be sure to share any great tips you glean from the experience!!
Paula

 

[dwyerkim]

I did one, it was a fundraiser and there was a silpadda rep and an usborne books rep (both reps are now doing shows for me!). The thing that was hard is that most of the people there were friends of mine, and people had been snacking, talking, and drinking a lot of wine by the time we pulled everyone into the kitchen. So I basically had to bark at everyone to be quiet, throw out two or three sentences (while one of my friends good-naturedly would ask a really stupid question to make me laugh) and then let them talk more. It wasn't how I would have wanted a show to go, but I still had decent sales (around 600 I think). I am supposed to do one now for the silpadda rep this week, she wants to combine a PC show with her end of season clearance sale, but I haven't heard back from her and I am weary that it isn't going to happen. I've also got a southern living rep who wants me to come and join her fall product launch show at her house--that one I am a little more leary of b/c the products do overlap some. But PC's have a larger price range and I can focus on the cooking tools aspect rather than the entertaining pieces.

I would love to hear your reactions b/c I'm thinking of doing my own multi-vendor thing as a holiday shopping open house, in part to repay these other reps for hosting shows for me.

 

[bethsbiz]

I had a very light August schedule so I am the one who set out to make a multiple vendor night with some friends of mine in other party systems (or their own biz such as purse creations). There are 5 of us and we are each to invite as many people as we can AND we've asked that each vendor contact those establishments that might have more women at them. For example, I have contact with at least 6 banks and 3 real estate agents. I am hand delivering flyers to those places.

We are each asking that guests bring a guest AND that they forward our emailed flyer to others they know.

I am not doing a demo. Each of the vendors is bringing one appetizer tray to share AND either pop or wine.

I was able to find a place that doesn't charge us to use their large meeting room so the way I look at this is it is an evening of networking. I hope to secure some fall bookings and perhaps get some recruit leads but I'm thinking sales will not be the priority. If I get a good show out of it, great, but it is the exposure that I'm looking for.

It is likely, as noted in an above post, that folks only have so much money to split when they are attending a multiple event like this. But...folks who attend these types of events are, IMO, more likley to book a show or indicate an interest in teh biz. Since it isn't costing me anything other than the food for appetizer and a door prize, I'm cool with whatever happens.

-(Oh, we are mostly emailing the flyer and faxing it. I plan to snail mail only about 30 copies and call those folks a few days before. If each of us gets 20 people there, that is 100 folks to deal with and the leads should flow from that.)

Good luck!

b

 

[Jules711]

I participate in a lot of these in different varieties. Yes, people do split money, but Pampered Chef never really suffers from that. Hopefully, everyone is getting a lot of there customers to come and you can advertise to more than just your customers depending on where it is going to be. I don't ever do demos or provide food. I don't do them in homes either since they don't tend to do well. I reserve that for host appreciation shows.Definitely try. Last one I did BOMBED! I'm guessing they didn't really advertise and it was just bad timing. However, I got a booking from another consultant so that was worth it!

 

[JaimeQ]

anyone have a flyer for this type of event?? One they mail out?

 

[JaimeQ]

** bump **

 

[Teresa Lynn]

I did one in April
the DS companies were
PC
Discovery Toys
Partylite
TW
Premier Jewelry
Homemade Gourmet

we were each asked to send 50 invites so 300 people were invited I got bookings, & Sold nearly $400.

The HG lady sold some mixes no one else had any luck.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

After reading this thread, I have to wonder - if the only one who ever makes any $$ at these shows is the PC consultant - then why do the other DS consultants keep doing them w/ the PC consultant?

 

[heat123]

After reading this thread, I have to wonder - if the only one who ever makes any $$ at these shows is the PC consultant - then why do the other DS consultants keep doing them w/ the PC consultant?

My 1st one everyone sold about the same amount I think. But this last one it was only me and this Knock off purse Diva who went home with $500+ in sales that night! Out of the 7 that were there! I think Partylight did a couple of orders and Cookie went home with $200 but we were by far the higher sales of the night.

 

[JaimeQ]

I'm hoping the upcoming vendor show i'm doing will render me a good turn out... I think its gonna be more like a mulitple vendor party.

 

[Chef Bobby]

One of the Directors in our cluster has one yearly. She said it's good for getting new customers because she requires each vendor to invite a certain number of guest.

 

[abrahamlaur]

i would definately promote the cookware and show it off and remember ot tell them the host benefit for sept .. tha tis how i got most of my sept shows .. everyone wanted the cookware for cheap!

 

[melindag]

I do this at least twice a year, and have shared some of that on Chef success before. Our event has been called "creative pampering" the past 2 years. We're kind of steerign away from that name this time for our October event as we think some people are confused and don't understand what its all about (no matter how much explanation we've provided). Our event has been built around a 12 hour scrapbooking crop, with approx 12 of the favorite home party companies participating - PC, Tastefully Simple, Longaberger, Mary Kay, Tupperware, Home and Garden Party, Boyds Bear, etc...... Each consultant was given a time segment to promote their business however they wanted, and then stayed present and available, manning their table throughout the day. We give out tickets for all kinds of reasons, and do prize drawings every half hour or so. Each consultant donates 3 prizes....two of those prizes go into the hourly drawings, and one prize goes into a BIG grand prize drawing given at the end of the night. We have a lot of drop in people who just shop the tables, hang out, etc. And we have given tickets for attending a demo, placing an order, booking a show, joining a team, bringing a friend, bonus tickets for each past event you've attended, etc.

Our event was created around a group of my closest friends, several of whom have DS businesses, a few who are crafty and have started selling their wares (not DS) - and we started by sharing the day with each of our own individual customer bases.

Its a great way to get your name out there, and reach other people that you might not necessarily have access to. Look at it as a networking opportunity. Because I am one of the handful of people whom we consider to be the "planning committee" for lack of a better term - as we hold our planning meetings with the other DS consultants who participate - (we ask that consultants participating attend 3 meetings (1 meeting a month) during the 3 months leading up to the event), I/we emphasize to the other consultants about the networking opportunity they have with this event. I even go so far as to tell them, that when my PC customers are looking for a Mary Kay consultant, or a Longaberger consultant, etc....it is THIS group of consultants that I make referrals to. We all do a business card exchange. Some of the other consultants and I have talked about and plan to do joint parties together outside of this event.

As far as sales.....my first event I had about $350 in sales and 3 bookings with 12 other consultants participating that day. Our 2nd event was about the same. Our 3rd event, my sales were slightly lower, but still qualified for a show and had a few bookings. The last time we did this in the spring, I decided to do a Kids Cooking Class with it (we also offer a kids room with the youth group of the church manning activities all day). The kids class was a huge success - 18 little ones and we made 3 different things. It was a success in one respect, as the kids had a blast, I had fun and I've had requests to do it again. The down side to it, was that I lost time at my table so my sales were significantly lower, I think I only got 1 booking, and I wasn't available to take care of any of my drop in shoppers. I'm mulling over ways to do it differently in the future....but do not plan to do a kids class when we do this event in October.

The church is VERY supportive of this event. The pastor and church congregation view this as a community outreach and congregation fellowship opportunity. We have congregation members who bake or make food items for us to sell with our concessions - and the church kitchen people even work the kitchen all day for us, making everything from egg/bacon/bagel sandwiches in the morning to BBQ, soup, sandwiches, fruit, etc in the afternoon. We're in a small town...so we get a lot of people who simply drop in to shop the tables, grab lunch and visit....some of them have been enticed to come back and actually reserve a spot to scrapbook at future event, or even spread the word to other people.

I would be glad to share some of our working documents if anybody thinks they might be useful.

I view this event as a way to network, get my name out there, and be with my closest friends for a day - this is a "personal event" for me, as I helped to create it and also have childhood ties to the church where its held. That being said, that means that high sales aren't something I personally need to view this day as a success for me. If you are participating in a multiple vendor event that you are not a part of the planning process, or even have to pay a fee to participate, you will most certainly have a different viewpoint and that's ok! I should mentioned too that we do not charge a fee to the consultants....all we ask is that they donate 3 gifts and we even ask that they keep the dollar value to approx $5 each....however, many consultants including myself donate gifts that are higher in value. I browse my storage shelves that are always overflowing and take whatever I want......the grand prize is a huge deal containing something from every consultant - its always exciting! We ask each consultant to advertise to their own customer base, through emails, mailings of the flyer, etc. I personally email it to my newsletter group, add a tag line to my email messages starting a month or two before, and hang flyers everywhere I go in my community, work, etc. The CHURCH advertises through their church bulletins for several weeks before, pays for advertising in local cable message channels (two different cable companies) has had signs professionally made to place in strategic areas around town, and also pays to advertise in some local newspapers.....to say the least - the church is extremely supportive and picks up a signficant cost for us.

Hope some of this information helps.
Melinda

 

[pampered_rae]

I have one that I am doing here pretty soon but thwey are allowing there to be two consultants from each company. Do you think this will be a good idea to do this with another PC person? won't we basically competeing for the "vote"?

 

[melindag]

I personally wouldn't be comfortable with that...unless it was a clustermate, or a consultant on my direct team that I've sponsored.

We've tried to be careful of conflicts between consultants and companies.

But again, our event is slightly different than your traditional multiple vendor event.
Melinda

 

[heat123]

Um, I don't think I would participate if another PC rep were going, that would be total competition amongst eachother. Why did they decide to do that?

 

[pampered_rae]

I don't know why they are doing that but I thought I might give it a try but I am REALLY nervous about it. Mainly because I don't want to fel like I am in COMPETION with anyone. I don't want to make an enemy.

 

[heat123]

The only way I would do it, is like how we do it at a fair with more than 1 rep. you each take turns helping out guests then you won't be feeling like you are taking away from her or her you. And state that before you get started so you both agree on this method.

 

[PamperChefCarol]

I have been involved in this sort of thing, as well as combo shows with one other DS company.

I always do well. My thought is that unless I have people beating down my door to have a real show that day/night, I wouldn't be making any money by sitting home. Some money and some leads beats 0 any day in my book.

 

[JaimeQ]

anyone have a flyer for this type of event?? One they mail out?

anyone have a flyer?

 

[heat123]

For out multi vendor event, I just copy and pasted each DS companies logos onto a sheet then put down, address, time, host etc.

 

[melindag]

Here are the documents that we use.....I will also include last years flyer - since it was different. Last year the flyer listed all the different consultants who were participating....in are post-event meetings we all agreed that because the core of our event is a scrapbooking crop, we need to really emphasize and build up the scrapbooking promotion end of things, and have the other companies be "less" promoted - at least on the flyer - but still actively participating throughout the day. That might not make sense - but it was our feeling that this is what would increase our attendance, and the more people through the door, the more opportunities for all of us in general.

Every consultant can place at each seat any kind of promotional items they wish. I've been putting a special edition newsletter that I like to use for fairs (tweaked from one I got on the loops somewhere), a recipe card, a business card, and a coupon for the day. I've also given samples of the tea in the past.

Melinda

 

[JaimeQ]

Thank you very much