Silent Hostess: Worth It or Lost Cause
- August 6th, 2008
- View Comments (20)
I’m very curious to know what everyone’s opinion is of silent hostesses. Are they worth it or a waste of time and resources? In the past, they have never really worked well for me. I don’t know if it is the integrity of the people I’m asking or if I need to coach it more effectively. This week I tried one and it didn’t go over so well. I thought it would work wonderfully because I used this one “program” that some ladies in my unit were trying. I thought it was filled with incentives for all and would promote sales.
Here is what I offered:
- Hostess needs to get me at least 10 orders that are $30 or more.
- Hostess will get a $10 credit for each order over $30.
- Guests ordering will get their name in a drawing for every $10 spent.
- Winner of the drawing gets her order at 50% off!
I thought this gave the hostess incentive to look for orders and the guests incentive to order. Well, here’s what happened. She got one order from a relative. The order was around $70. That’s great! But the person wanted 50% off because she was the only one in the drawing. *raising eyebrows*
Here is what I said to them. I said I can’t have a drawing with one person. I could offer her $10 off and offer the hostess a $15 credit (generous, IMO) and they can call me and let me know what they would like to do. 
Did I react well? I was perfectly pleasant. This is my business, after all.
So, that is my vent, but I wonder if it has to do with the personality of the people or if it’s just a dead method of selling. My theory was that by giving the hostess $10 per order, she would strive to get more orders. By offering guests a chance in the drawing for every $10 spent, they would have incentive to order a little more. Thus, providing sales to support someone receiving 50% off. Seems simple enough. Where did this go wrong? I’m open to suggestion — even if the suggestion is silent hostesses are for the birds! 
Stumble It!
Tags: Help Needed, Sales Techniques, Silent Hostess, Venting
Shades of Pink
Pink Biz
warzmondu
Vanessa
Stumble It!
I find that you REALLY have to coach the silent hostess, and call her A LOT. Sometimes more than I’m comfortable with because I feel like I’m badgering her.
Also, have a definite deadline. And let her know that if the minimums are not met (10 people ordering) then you can’t offer the drawing for one 50% off order.
I am currently running a hostess contest and for silent hostesses to count, they have to have a min of $100 in sales, and all orders must have a name and phone # so that I can follow up. If anyone balks at that, I just let them know that the company is really stressing good customer service and I need the phone # of everyone I sell to.
Hi Heather! Thank you so much for your information. I was wondering if I needed to coach vigorously lol!
I think I did all that you suggested except the constant coaching.
Oh and I didn’t say it was required to have at least X number of orders for the drawing point blank, but I’m not honoring that for one order.
I really like what you said about stressing good customer service. What an excellent message to communicate to customers!
I currently have a hostess doing a silent party. I offered her the $75 for $35 incentive–the same as a party. I also have a hostess who is having a web party this weekend. I am so interested to see how that works.
I am thinking now that I didn’t stress what needed to be sold in order to get the hostess incentive. So I think each time we do it, we should get better at knowing what to do to coach the hostess.
I really hope I have something encouraging to report from these 2 parties. Because I have had no luck lately with getting people to have parties–no time, too busy, etc. And even if I get someone to host the party–she can’t get anyone to come. So I’m wondering–is it just the people I know–I mean obviously there are some people out there having parties!
Shades…I tried the silent hostess and made up packetts and nothing. So I didn’t do it again. I might try it. About getting people to host a party you just have to be persistant I think you just have to keep asking different people about it. So I am going to try and do the Breakfast at the highschool. I think that the chamber does it and I am going to call them today to see if they do and if so I will ask about a table and then I will take my MK and see what happens. I will get leads and that will be good. So I will report back and tell ya’ll what happens. Have a good day.
I have never done this and frankly im afraid to. I dont like someone having to be a burden..LOL I think if I were to do the silent hostess tthing I would want her to get at least 200.00 worth of orders so I can give her a GOOD prize. It might be me but I think I would rather do this with someone who raved about the product to no end so her enthusiasm would show or do it with gift baskets. MK has never been a catalog business in my opinion its one of those things that has to be felt to be believed. Gift baskets are the only thing I could see a hostess doing for me. Dont get me wrong everything doesnt work for everyone and some people do well with silent hostesses but dont expect thousands of dollars expect 50-200.00
I thought the silent hostess would be good for out of town customers who want hostess credit. I agree, $200 in sales warrants reward. Mine was designed to do this (10 $20+ orders). The hostess would have potentially gotten $100 free.
I was thinking about contacting some of my relatives out of state to be silent or web hostesses and give them $10 for each order over $30. And give them a goal to get 10 orders $30+. I would still do the drawing, but ONLY when 10 orders have been received. I don’t expect thouasands from one silent hostess, but what about 10 silent hostesses?
Hey Shades, thanks for visiting my blog!
The lipstick challenge was just for seven days to get us out of our rut/comfort zone. It’s been great fun! I think the reason I didn’t like the Sunburst was that I didn’t have lip liner on. I’ll have to try it again with liner. That’s just a personal quirk.
Another thought I had about the silent hostesses. Something NSD Linda Toupin teaches…. give the same hostess credit you would for a class with bookings. If she is bringing you all the contact info, then it is totally worth it. (ex: if you’re using 10, 15, 20%, give 20%).
Hey Heather, no problem! I try to make the rounds when I can.
Perhaps I’m a glutton for punishment or maybe I’m a trial and error kind of girl. I have two more silent hostesses out. One is a coworker. The other is a friend out of state.
Heather, I took your suggestion and offered what I offer regular hostesses. Maybe this will work better. I told them to get me 10 orders that are at least $30 each. When they bring me 10 orders they can have 50% off.
My one friend at work said she doesn’t really need anything she just wants to help me. Isn’t that sweet?
I like things simple with silent hostess, and have had three successful parties ($200-$400), and one flop. Seventy-five percent success rate. I have a feeling that my neighbor didn’t try to get orders on the one that flopped, and she didn’t order anything personally either. The timing for her probably wasn’t right or she really didn’t want to do it to begin with. She seemed preoccupied. I just thanked her and moved on.
HOSTESS receives:
-One time 50% shopping discount.
-Look Book for each shopper.
-1/4″ binder with duplicate form
of each form placed in look books (for reference purposes, doesn’t get lost as easily as a look book).
-Envelope labeled in back of binder for checks.
HOSTESS objective:
-Make it simple for her.
-Get her excited to share with her friends.
-Be a vehicle to other women for me.
-Reward with a one time discount.
-Have fun earning 50% off.
SHOPPER receives tucked inside each Look Book:
-Easy to read instruction sheet.
-Outside order sheet.
-Tax rate sheet.
-$5.00 off postcard towards next order.
SHOPPER objective:
-Fall in love with Mary Kay (again and again).
-Help her hostess earn her shopping reward.
-Become my customer.
-Be a silent hostess for me.
WITH the tax rate sheet, guest shoppers don’t even have to look for a calculator to find the correct amount of tax. It’s already available at their fingertips.
OH, I do attach a couple of eye shadow and cheek color samples in a baggie to each book. With 18 eye/cheek color samples costing $1.25 each page, it’s worth it to me as are the costs of the books.
LASTLY, I tell my hostess that the best gift she can give her Mary Kay consultant (me) is to share me with her friends! I leave VM as a reminder on the start date, mid-week, and end date. My phone no, email is on every piece of paper. All shoppers direct questions to me (coach hostess).
Pink Biz….That is an awesome idea. Thank you so much for sharing.
That sounds like the loaded Look Book idea. I try to keep it a simple as possible. I don’t have tons of samples. We’ll see how it goes.
It could certainly become a loaded look book with varied samples. I did one of those parties too and had $500.00 in sales and gained two Miracle Set customers as a result. By the time I placed a number of samples in 20 catalogs, I had an overall upfront invested cost of around $42.00 going into the “party”, including photocopying costs. I didn’t know if I would even break even, but fortunately I did and have two great reordering customers as a result from one party. So, whether the books or loaded or not, it is worth doing catalog parties. I just think that it’s easier to minimize the restraints of the party on both the hostess and the consultant. Then it becomes real fun and I love seeing where it will take me. Each of the three successful parties has ended up with at least one good reordering customer. That was my objective too. I find asking for “x” no. of orders at “x” dollar amt or over….well, it just causes the hostess to lose interest because of the time it takes to keep up with meeting the criteria to earn the reward. I read one time about just offering the one time 1/2 off to the hostess and I implemented it for myself. It was just what I had hoped for and worked great for me.
Thanks for that info, PinkBiz. I may try that next if my 10 orders of $30 doesn’t pan out.
Shades, I wish you the very best! Work it girlfriend! Make it a great day!
MKHeart, thank you for your kind words. I’ve got to revisit your site again and pay attention how to sign on/post. I wasn’t successful on a previous try as I was tired and gave up. Will try again soon.
Thank you! I’m working on referrals!
Pink Biz…I am so glad that you visited my blog. Please keep coming back. I am confused as to what you mean by “pay attention how to sign on/post”. Did the blog not let you post?
Please let me know so that I can be sure to fix it.
EVERYONE….Has anyone else had problems posting on my blog?? I just want to make sure because I LOVE to hear from you all.
MKheart, I did experience a problem posting. Although I can’t remember why exactly. I’ll try it right now, and if I do….then I’ll post a ISO (in search of) MKheart for you over at my place.
Ooh Shades, referrals are SOO much easier than warm chat! Your customers do give you the best gift ever. I just love that! I know you must too!!
Pink Biz does it pretty much like I have. I don’t do the samples as much anymore. I used to have notebooks filled with the samples that were covered with sheet protectors..(Beauty Bash Books)that were for sight only and if they really wanted a sample she could call me..usually the sight was enough. What can I say? I am just lazy now. LOL!:)
I now just use various flyers that stipulate what I want. I don’t do 30$ a line. I just tell the ghost or silent hostess that if she gets all 10 lines filled with at least 10 dollars per line..You risk it may be as little as 100 dollars total. That’s new clients possibly, and very little effort from me.
(I have another sheet for their information to be filled out) She will get as much as she sells at 1/2 price. That may sound like a lot, but think about it. If I give her a gift, it costs me something. At cost works better for me than spending 2-4 dollars for something that looks like 2-4 dollars.:)All lines have to be filled. If something happens that say, only 5 lines are filled you could give 25 % off. Totally up to you.
It is rare that she only gets $100 but the minimal amount takes a lot of pressure off 0f her and the others see it as simple to buy a 10 dollar item.
I like to do it for referrals. These are women that may become good clients. I feel I make 50 percent from the buyers and break even with the hostess. After all, I did not have to really do much work other than tell her how to do it, what to say and give her a deadline. I do ask the hostess what she would like to receive 1/2 off, then write it down while talking to her.
There are some that won’t do any kind of work even if you offered it free. The ones that do and get excited about it are good prospects for your team.
I agree with Angie, some won’t do any amt of work even if offered (50% off) or for free. Guess that’s what happened to my party that flopped-no orders-zip. I like the part Angie where you said that she gets as much as she sells at 1/2 price. Got my thinking going here. I’m going to ask my next hostess to think about how much she would like at 1/2 off, and list the products she desires like you do. Then I’m going to tally up the retail amount and incorporate Shades idea of working backwards from a retail sales goal. I’ll give the hostess a tally worksheet for a visual to write down each sale and do a one line subtraction per sale to see where she is and how much she has to go. I think this will work beautifully to stimulate reaching “her goal”. Worth a try to see what happens. I LOVE your ideas ladies!!!