2020 was a lot of things, but to network marketers, it was the year of the online party. With lockdowns and people being stuck at home, it was easier than ever to find people wanting to host. But now those parties, which were once jam-packed with attendees and full of life, are feeling kind of… dead.
Or are they?
Kristen certainly doesn’t think so. That’s why this week she is addressing the myth that online parties are yesterday’s news because they most definitely are not.
Here are a few highlights:
- The importance of being transparent on what to expect when hosting an online party
- Why the thoughts surrounding parties can affect the level of success your hosts might achieve
- What hesitations your hosts might be having and how to address them
- How to gauge how successful your party is (spoiler alert! It’s not $$)
Selling others on hosting an online party isn’t much different than selling your product. It all comes down to serving. When you come to your potential hosts with thoughts of how best to serve them instead of thinking of your bottom line you end up selling them on the value of a party they will enjoy.
And speaking of parties – If you’d like to join the launch party for Kristen’s new book Pivot to Purpose: Leaving the Toxic Hustle Culture Behind, you can click here to join the list and pre-order your copy today.
Thanks for listening! Do you have a question about network marketing? Kristen can help! Drop your question here, and she just might answer it live on the podcast: https://kristenboss.com/question
Connect with Kristen:
If you’re ready to learn the simple process of running your social selling business online, you have to check out Kristen’s live group coaching program! The Social Selling Academy: www.thesocialsellingacademy.com
Do you have a business full of customers and almost no builders? You’re in need of a reboot! Learn the three skills you can learn that will completely change your recruitment game. Check it out here.
Transcript for Episode #98 Online Party Myths:
Kristen Boss (00:05): Welcome to Purposeful Social Selling with Kristen Boss. I’m your host, Kristen Boss. I’m a mindset and business coach with more than 15 years experience in both the product and service based industries. I believe that social selling is the best business model for people wanting to make an impact while they make serious income. This is the podcast for the social seller, who is tired of feeling inauthentic in their business and desires to find a more purposeful and profitable way of growing their business in today’s social media landscape. In this podcast, you will learn what it takes to grow a sustainable business through impactful and social marketing. It’s time to ditch the hustle and lead from the heart. Let me show you the new way.
Kristen Boss (00:48): Hey bosses. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. We’re getting closer and closer to a hundred episodes. And let me just say this. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here every week. Thank you for leaving reviews and tagging me on your Instagram accounts, sharing this podcast with your friends. I’m so thankful for you and this podcast would not be a top podcast if it were not for you and your faithful listenership, is that even a word we’re going to make it a word today for your faithful downloads and just sharing with your friends. Thank you so much for getting this message out and partnering with me in the vision to truly elevate the online business experience, the online business place, particularly in the direct sales and network marketing industry. So thank you. Thank you for that. If you haven’t already left a review, I would love for you to leave a review today, but let’s get right to the topic at hand.
Kristen Boss (01:40): And this is one that comes up a lot and I don’t care you know, what your company business model is, but most direct sales network marketing companies do online events and parties at some capacity. And there is a lot of chatter around going around, out there about the effectiveness of online parties. And I hear people say like, people don’t want to host parties. The, you know, the online parties don’t work or, you know, it’s best to do in person. I’ve heard a lot of people that, that pre-pandemic, they really felt that, you know, their business was reliant on it needing to be a belly-to-belly business, particularly with health of wellness or, you know, maybe in other niches of this industry. And so I think there is a lot of thoughts that people have about online parties and if they work and what’s so interesting is what I started to hear is I started to hear people say, people are just tired of online parties or people don’t want to do online parties anymore, or they don’t work anymore.
Kristen Boss (02:52): Or the Facebook algorithm doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t work anymore or all those other things that I hear. And we’re going to address all of that today because I’m here to tell you online parties are still extremely profitable. And I know that because I have thrown them myself. Now they might look different. I still sell a service, but I do it through an online event structure and online events, getting people together is relevant. It does work. People do want it, and I’m going to sell you on how that’s true and where you might be going wrong with your online parties, and why they may not be as profitable as you would hope. Because what happens is I do see some people posting parties, they grab templates from their upline. They put the party up and then they’re disappointed or frustrated when they don’t see the sales that they think they could be seeing or should be seeing from their, from their party.
Kristen Boss (03:50): So we’re going to talk about that. We’re going to talk about what creates a profitable online party. And let’s just say, can you believe that this is a free podcast episode I’m giving to you for free? Why? Because I want to see you have success because I care about you. And I really believe that if you apply these tools, you will see your online sales turn around. All right. So let’s get to it. Okay. Let’s talk about this concept of people don’t want to host online parties and I’m going to give it to you. And the sense of, I think that’s partly true and I’m going to actually give nuance to that. People don’t want to host parties that feel boring. No one wants to host a party that feels like work, that they were not sold on. So let me give you an example. If you’re saying, Hey, you know, I just want you to host this event.
Kristen Boss (04:42): You get a bunch of free stuff, but you’re not fully transparent that there might be work on the host’s part to have a profitable experience, to guarantee that she, you know, gets free or they get free product, or they get free, you know, bonus cash incentives or whatever it is. You have to be very clear on the front end of your offer on what it entails in order to ensure that they have a profitable experience and they get as much cash as possible or rewards as possible from hosting it. So you have to be really clear. You either are going to do the majority of the legwork for them or they, or stand their legwork. You sell them on the legwork. You say, Hey, here’s the legwork that a really profitable, awesome party will require of you. Are you willing to do that? But I think some people aren’t willing to ask the question because they’re afraid of losing the lead.
Kristen Boss (05:36): They’re afraid of losing the sale. And it becomes a awkward conversation where they’re like, well, I don’t want to push the host too much, or maybe they’re doing it as a favor to me, maybe the, and they might even be thinking, as they’re talking with the hostess, like, oh, they really don’t want to work. People don’t want this party model, but she’s, she’s open to it. So I don’t want to push her too far instead of really coming to the conversation, assuming that that hostess desires to make a lot of money or to have a lot of cash incentives or to, you know, make out like a bandit with a CA you know, with a TRO full of your company products that they enjoy. So what’s important is I would encourage you to assume. And I think this is true because this is my thought in the world.
Kristen Boss (06:24): People love free things. People love a bargain. People love a deal. But the thing is, is if the bargain requires work, you need to sell them on the work. Don’t just say, Hey, you just host a party. It’s super easy. And you just show up and I do all the work. You have to make sure that’s true, because if they have to, you know, message 30 friends and invite a bunch of people make a couple posts on Facebook. You need to say that on the front end, you need to say, here’s what it looks like to have, you know, $500 in hostess rewards. It would look like creating this many sales, but also be there to position yourself as the ultimate guide saying, I’m going to make this easy for you. Like, yes, you’re still going to have to do these steps to create, you know, all this profit and to get the most out of your awards, but I’m here to make it easy for you.
Kristen Boss (07:21): I’m here to make it fun. And I’m just curious how you’re coming to your conversations with your hostesses. Do you feel like you’re bugging them? Do you feel like you’re inconveniencing them? Are you coming to them assuming they don’t want to do it? Because here’s what happens when you’re coming to the conversation, assuming that they don’t like it and they want to do it, you become less bold. You don’t talk about all the exciting and valuable things in hosting a profitable party. You, you will end up downplaying the party because you’re coming to them in the energy of believing. They don’t want it. You think you’re inconveniencing them. So what you might end up doing is downplaying what they could, you know, much profit they could make from the party. And you might say, well, I mean like you can get a hundred dollars of stuff and I don’t want to inconvenience you.
Kristen Boss (08:05): And when you, when you’re up for it, when you feel like it. And just notice, like, of course, you’re not going to have a profitable party when you’re using language. Like whenever you get to it, when you feel like it, if you want to, it’s totally up to you. I selling them on the value of an online party. People want to be sold on the value of a great experience. But my question for you is have you put the effort into making your online parties a great experience? Is it a party you would want to attend? Man, that’s the million-dollar question you have to ask yourself. Is this a party I want to be at? And if not, why not? If I still chose to believe that online parties work, but it’s just a matter of how I show up in the party and not necessarily.
Kristen Boss (08:52): And I think some of you get really caught up in the format of the party, thinking the format is what creates the sales. And that’s not a hundred percent true. It is how you show up. You are the other half of that formula. There’s the format. And then there’s you. And if you have an amazing format, but you’re holding the format with thoughts of people who don’t want this. I’m inconveniencing them. No one wants to do this. I probably, you know, if online parties are boring and the algorithm isn’t going to work and people probably don’t want this, then I don’t care what format you have. You’re not going to have a profitable party because the energy you are coming to the party with, right? Can you see that? Can you see how the format is only a party, the equation, but I see so many people rely solely on the format to create the sales.
Kristen Boss (09:40): They grab the template, they grab the, you know, the prompts and the pre-made posts, and the copy and paste templates. And they kind of act like a robot in their parties. Like I’m going to post this at the hour. I post this at the hour. I post this at the hour. They’re not engaging with the guests. They’re not making, I want you to picture an online party. Like literally people coming to your house and you hosting them, are you really just, are you going to be the hostess that like disappears and only comes out to say, Hey, this is the part of the party where Y y’all are going to have, you know, dessert, everyone make your way to the dessert table. And then you leave. Instead of being in there, engaging, making sure people are having a great time, putting energy into your party, taking ownership of your party.
Kristen Boss (10:22): Really. I really want you to think of what does it look like to bring hospitality into an online party, man, that should blow your mind. Are you bringing hospitality into your parties? I heard this really great analogy that someone said, like hosting, when you’re hosting or I know what it is. It was entertaining. Are you entertaining? Like when you’re bringing people over and you’re hosting and entertaining from a place of like, look at me versus like, hospitality is like, how can I make this an amazing experience for you? How can I serve you? How can I, this experience all about you? I’m just so curious. What does it look like for you to bring hospitality? The heart of hospitality into an online party where people feel seen, they feel like their time is valuable and listen, people give time to things that they think are valuable.
Kristen Boss (11:18): But if you aren’t telling them the value of an online party, then they’re not going to make time for it. You have to sell them on. Here’s why it’s worth your time. Here’s why it’s worth your energy. And here’s how I’m going to help you. I promise you, if you say that to every single hostess you have, and you treat them as someone who is valuable to you, instead of someone who is like a lead, where you’re like, well, let’s just see how this goes. I promise you, you’re going to see your sales skyrocket because what you’re doing is you’re creating buy-in with your hostess, your hostess. If they buy into what you were selling them like here’s the value. Here’s what you get. Here’s why we’re going to enjoy it. Here’s why we’re going to make it a great experience for both you and your friends.
Kristen Boss (12:01): Because here’s the thing. The reason why people have reservations hosting a party is not because of your product. It is not because of your business. And it’s not because they don’t like you. They want to make sure, Hey, if, if I invite, invite my friends and my family to this, am I going to look bad? Am I going to look like I’m inviting them to something that’s not fun? Or it’s looking like I’m asking them to buy for me instead of inviting them to a party that they’re going to enjoy. Like they’re thinking of their own reputation with their friends and family, with the people they’re inviting. They’re thinking, wait, hold on. If I’m going to host this, I don’t want to look bad. I don’t want it. I don’t want to look like I’m just here to profit off of my friends. That is the filter that they have in place when you’re talking to them about a party.
Kristen Boss (12:55): So if you’re just saying, Hey, do you want to host so that you can get your free rewards? I mean, that’s great, but here you also have to say the other half of like, here’s how it’s a benefit to your friends and to your family. And here’s the experience that your friends and family are going to experience, and they’re going to enjoy it. Whether they buy something or not, it’s going to be a great experience. And here’s how, but if you are being a post robot and you’re just auto posting in the group, and you’re not engaging, you’re not connecting with people. You’re not going live. You’re not making it a great experience for people. Then don’t expect the sales to reflect that the sales always reflect the belief and the energy with the host and the person who is helping the host, the host’s sponsor. That’s the word I’m looking for.
Kristen Boss (13:41): And here’s what I’m going to offer you. Profitable parties is the best lead generation and network builder in this business model. And if you really believed that, I hope you would view parties as like ultimate income-producing activity of like, I’m going to make an amazing party because even if sales aren’t great, or this hostess doesn’t want to start a business, if I give everyone, she brings to this party, a really amazing experience that reflects well on my leadership and my company and the product I’m building trust. And now I have network. Now I have leads that people feel comfortable with me. I want you to think of that. Are you thinking about only the cash on hand that’s immediately available to you in the party, or are you looking at future leads and future business partners coming to you through this party? Very few people do this.
Kristen Boss (14:43): They’re just like, let me just, you know, hit my, hit my sales volume goal and move on. Instead of hold on. This is where my next builder is. This is where, you know, I can add to my network. This is where I can add value to others and just be a valuable person to this group. Because you don’t know who in that room might reach out to you and say, Hey, I know my friend, you know, doesn’t want to work this, but I really love this party experience. You did. I want to host a party. I know that because that’s how I have. I have been a happy hostess or I’ve been a happy attendee to a party that I really liked. I was like, this is a great party. I want to host one, no one had to ask me. I literally went to my friend and said, Hey, I want to host a party.
Kristen Boss (15:28): This is great. I think my friends would love this because the hostess just did such a good job. Making everyone feel seen. She didn’t feel like, I didn’t feel like I had to be in there buying everything. And I found myself wanting to buy things. The less pressure there was in, in the environment, the more it was about the experience and less about the sales, the more I wanted to buy. And this is how it is for your audience too. So I really want you to think about how can I create an experience that feels like service and hospitality to everyone I invite, how do I need to sell my hostesses better on hosting a party? How can I make it a benefit to them instead of a benefit to me, how can I make it something that they want to tell their friends and family about?
Kristen Boss (16:14): Cause remember that’s their filter. They’re thinking, is this something I want to tell my friends and family about and listen, this, and this is kind of on the heels of the news of, you know, Kendra Scott, the billion-dollar jewelry company. Who’s going to a direct sales business model because she understands the profitability that happens when a bunch of women get together in a room and they have a little mimosa, have some charcuterie and there’s some pretty jewelry in the room or there’s some great products. Women can’t help but buy when it’s a great experience. So why not put a quality product in a room full of women when they’re having a quality experience, you will see sales skyrocket every single time. It’s so funny because this happens in the academy. People will say to me like, well, I’m thinking about switching up. You know, something else, parties don’t work.
Kristen Boss (17:03): And I’m like, whoa, whoa, whoa. And I start asking a lot of questions and this is almost always what comes up. They didn’t sell their hostess. They’re not engaged in the group, not being hospitable. They’re not thinking about how is this a party. I want to be a part of, they’ve become a post robot in there. It’s just copy posting scheduled posts. It feels very stale in the group. Well, if it’s stale in the group, you have to ask yourself, am I being stale? Am I being a stale host? Is my hostess stale? And is my host is being stale because I, I didn’t sell them on the value of hosting an online party that they would enjoy? And by the way, it’s not just when women get in a room, it’s just when people get in a room and have a great quality experience and you put a quality product in the room, people are going to pick it up, touch it, buy it, talk about it.
Kristen Boss (17:52): Word of mouth marketing is always more effective than paid advertising. This is why the network marketing business model isn’t going anywhere. And it’s also why it grows in a recession. Always look at the history of network marketing. What happens in our economy always grows in a recession. I’m going to sell this business model till the day I die, unless something, unless something was to radically change and alter that. But this is an amazing experience. Running a great party, being hospitable. And listen, I want you to hear this. If you are being hospitable, if you are being servant-oriented, if you are caring about the experience of the consumer it is impossible for you to act predatory, nothing about that is predatory or wrong or salesy. And also, can we just stop being afraid of saying sales? Like you’re in sales, you’re you sell stuff. That’s not a problem, but some of you are so afraid of selling.
Kristen Boss (18:48): You make selling wrong, selling isn’t wrong. It’s like, and I think we’ve done a real disservice in this industry by saying like, oh no, no, no, we don’t sell. We share. I’m like, no you’re in sales and selling is serving and serving is selling, but let’s stop giving the name sales or selling a bad rep. It’s not bad because you’re serving people. You’re, you’re offering a solution to their problems. You’re giving them something they want. So I just want you to notice if you’re like shying away from sales and you don’t want to say sales and I get that. You are like coming to your people, maybe in your audience. And maybe someone comes to you and says, well, I’m not a salesperson. And your response to that is like, well, you’re not selling you’re sharing. And I’d be curious if you could shift that conversation and maybe just ask, oh, well what’s wrong with selling?
Kristen Boss (19:43):
I love selling. You don’t have to be great at it. Or, or what makes you think you’d have to be good at this? What comes up for you with sales? And they might say, well, you know, I don’t want to be salesy. Ask more questions. Well, what does being salesy mean? Well, I don’t want to be pushy. Oh, well, what if you’re not pushy? Would it still be like, is it possible to sell something without being pushy and see what comes up for them? It’s only pushy when they feel a need, a desperate need to get the sale. That is the only time we’re salesy is when we need the sale wanting a sale and needing the sale are two completely different things. It’s not salesy. We let’s like remove that stigma from the language of selling. Sales is a great thing. And it happens in our everyday life.
Kristen Boss (20:34): You sell all the time. If you are, are a parent and you have a child, you are selling them on eating vegetables instead of sugar every day. I’m like constantly having to sell my kids, man. They keep me humble in my sales game. But I just want you to work on how you view parties, how you view those things. Because if you view parties as inconvenient, salesy, spammy, predatory, and all those things, then you’re going to be shying away from creating a great sales experience that people love. People love a good sales experience. I want you to think about a time you had a great sales experience and why you liked it and how you can recreate that for yourself and for your host. So if you’re thinking Kristen, you know, online parties don’t work wrong. My friend, they absolutely work. When you come with the right beliefs in the right energy and you bring a spirit of host fatality. If you do this, you’re going to watch your sales explode. And actually what might be crazy is you’re going to find yourself loving online parties. Because like I said, that is where your next leader, your next lead and your, and growing your network. It all happens there. All right, friends, we’ll catch you in the next episode.
Kristen Boss (21:53): That wraps up today’s episode. Hey, if you loved today’s show, I would love for you to take a minute and give a rating with a review. If you desire to elevate the social selling industry, that means we need more people listening to this message so that they can know it can be done a different way. And if you are ready to join me, it’s time for you to step into the Social Selling Academy, where I give you all the tools, training, and support to help you realize your goals. In the Academy, you get weekly live coaching so that you are never lost or stuck in confusion. Whether you are new in the business or been in the industry for a while, this is the premier coaching program for the modern network marketer. Go to www.thesocialsellingacademy.com to learn more.
