Business Debut Coaching

Tips for Maxing Out Guest Attendance

The most important thing is that the people come. It’s great that the house is clean and you have fun food to share, but the most important thing is that we have people.

So, there are 3 critical steps to follow that will make or break your success. I’ll share them with you now, and then each of them will be detailed individually below.

1. Build your contact list to 100+ people and hand/mail out physical invitations.

2. Personally place a follow-up call to every single invitee.

3. Send your yes and maybe list to me to place the final confirmation calls.

1. Build Your List

· Everyone you know with skin / wedding list / research shows that we all know 700 people / $100 per head / Christmas card list, cell phone, facebook, church directory, PTA, kid’s organizations, work, neighborhood. Aim for 100 – 400 people.

· Mail or hand out physical invitations – they’ll pay more attention because they only ever get junk mail. This is the only time I’ll recommend written invite, all other times e-cards or texts will suffice. Send these out 10-14 days prior to the event.

2. Follow-up Phone Calls

You really want to spend the few days before your event contacting EVERYONE you invited. Of course, you’re going to get about 60-70% voicemail.

Now the conversation you want to have with people is obviously to confirm they are coming, and that they received your invite, but if they say maybe you have to assume that it is a no.

Assume maybes are no because you don’t want to have to call them back. Then you go ahead and share your 30-Day challenge to hold your first 10 Mary Kay experiences.

If they can’t attend your debut, go ahead and get a date for their own Mary Kay experience. Then suggest some other people that they know that would want to join them and help you with the 30-day challenge. So, again…if the say yes that’s great, and if they say maybe assume that’s a no and go ahead and book them for their own Mary Kay experience.

If you get voicemail, then leave the attached message. Again, remember…if they say no or maybe, book them for their own Mary Kay experience…you don’t want to have to call all these people back.

Let’s talk about the power of the message you leave on the voicemail:

You’re probably going to reach about 60-70% on answering machines so I want you to really practice what you’re going to say before you get on the phone.

Some things to consider:

· Have energy & pick up the tone but don’t sound hyper or high pitched.

· Anytime you raise your voice an octave you’ll sound phony and fake

· Have a smooth and calm, but energized voice

· Be excited and let people feel your positive expectancy in your words

· Use the following script as a general GUIDE of what to say, but you want to sound natural…NOT like you’re reading a script.

ACTUAL VOICEMAIL MESSAGE IF YOU KNOW THE PERSON:

Hey (their name) this is (your name) I just wanted to give you another quick reminder about my business debut coming up on (Date/Time). I know we chatted earlier this week and I’m super excited about this! And yessss…. I know it sounds crazy, but this is really important to me and it would just mean the world to me (insert name) if you came for moral suport. I know Sunday (or whatever the day is) is a busy day but if you could spare a couple hours for supportive friend duty, I would be soooo grateful! Of course we’ll be having some yummy snacks. So it would mean the world to me (insert name), but will you call me back and let me know either way? I need to have an accurate headcount for food and supplies. See you soon & thanks for being such a great friend!!

3. Confirmation calls

NO LATER THAN 24 HOURS BEFORE YOUR EVENT,

Please make sure you have your “yes and maybe” list to me, including both names AND phone numbers. I will use this list to place confirmation/thank you calls on your behalf.

TRUST ME: this is a critical component to your guest count. I cannot tell you the number of times guests have told me that they almost didn’t come to an event, but when they got home and heard my thank you message, they got in the car & came. This has literally happened HUNDREDS of times!

Here’s an example of what I’ll say on their Voicemail:

Hi ________, this is Kassondra Kantz with Mary Kay and I am so excited! __________ tells me that you’re planning to join us at her business debut celebration tonight, and I just wanted to leave a quick message to thank you in advance, you have no idea how much you are helping her – it means the world that you’ve carved time out of your busy schedule to come support her tonight in her new adventure! One quick reminder – she’s working to have 15 guests, so if you bring a friend to help her out, she’s going to treat YOU to a free gift! Also, we’re planning to start tonight at 6:30 sharp – I look forward to meeting you in person!

A few more tips

Food

Food is important as well. How much food you want to prepare or purchase is totally up to you. It does serve as a little bit of leverage if you have someone’s favorite food or you know that they like something or a special dessert, because you can mention that in your call with them.

Think about it: people are certainly not going to come for me and they are not necessarily going to come because they’re terribly thrilled about your new business, but they are going to come for you, for the food, and for fun!

We will save the food for the end for your guests to eat while we take orders, so you can keep it in the kitchen area and only serve drinks during the presentation portion.

Demos & Supplies

We will be working from your products and supplies during the event, so make sure to print out all the Consultant Tools and Resources that we use at Mary Kay experiences.

If there is anything you do not have, I will have extras that I'll bring.

Your Home or Location of the Debut

If you are holding your debut at your home, we will be working out of the living room area. We just need a coffee table or something of a similar size to work from. This is where we will have the sets from your starter kit and other materials.

Then we will need a station to take orders where we'll have your money bag, sales tickets, and catalogs.

You'll also need pens for everybody to fill out a Customer Profile as soon as they arrive.

What to Wear

Professional/Business fashionable. I will most likely wear my Beauty Coat!

THE LAST AND MOST IMPORTANT THING

POSTER BOARD

Now, the last and most important thing to prepare before the event is a huge poster board, and you can make it as professional or creative as you want. From this, we are going to schedule your next 10 events. Number the poster board from 1-10. Everybody who books their own future Mary Kay experience with you at your debut will get to write their name in one of the blanks.

That’s what I’ll be most focused on at the event...slamming your calendar with future appointments.

So, you'll absolutely need to have your calendar or datebook prepared in advance. Clearly mark out your 30-day window in your datebook of what 30 days you are going to complete the challenge.

Then…and this is VERY important…we are not going to let them choose their own dates. You’re actually going to choose the dates in advance, highlight them in your calendar and work that around your family schedule. Your family gets to come first so you decide what days and nights of the week that you’ll be holding appointments…when you’re going to have morning appointments or if you want to have afternoon or evening appointments. You can totally schedule as many daytime appointments as you'd like (it's not just evening appointments). You can totally build your business on daytime appointments if you choose to do so.