January Host and Customer Appreciation Ideas

Valentine’s Day Theme: You are at the Heart of Our Business

*Present a Certificate of Appreciation to each Host (on red paper)
*Give one red carnation to each guest
*Present the benefits of why guests would want to book by asking them what they enjoyed most about the Parties they held or attended
*Have guests pick a scent from the samples that has a special memory for them. Have them share the scent and their memory
*Hand out a Valentine Gift Wish List to each guest to mark and give back to the Demonstrator for Valentine’s Day. Guests should include contact # of spouse/significant other for follow-up. (I have an Adobe file to email with a prepared list from Gold Canyon)
*Have a list of questions on paper regarding Gold Canyon. It can be anything from benefits to booking, cost of kits, names of Co-Founders, when the company began, etc . . . Guests fill in their answers and the most correct answers wins a prize (make sure to prepare a tie-breaking question or two).
*Make your January parties "New Product Release" Parties. Introduce the new catalog and new lineup.

Please share any fun ideas that are working for you to be published to the rest of the demonstrators!

7 Steps to Getting and Keeping Customers and Hostesses

By Karen Phelps, Direct Sales Expert

Have you ever lost a customer or hostess because you didn't follow through? I'm sure you have. I know I lost many over the years because I just got too busy to follow up. I believe it happens to everyone and if you are honest with yourself you will admit that it probably has happened to you.

Today, someone almost lost me as a customer for their services. In fact, they don't have me yet and now they will have to prove to me why I should do business with them. The story began about 2 weeks ago when I decided it was time to review all of our insurance policies and make sure we are adequately insured at the best price. My brother-in-law just switched all of his policies over to a new agency and he saved $1,800 per year. I thought, WOW, I'm going to check them out so I got the name and number of the agent and made a call the same day. The agent was not in but did return my call the next day. I was traveling and the call went to the home answering machine and 3 days later, when I returned I listened to the message late on a Sunday evening. Ten days came and went after I listened to the message and I was so busy I never remembered to return the call. During this ten days the agent never tried calling me again which was not smart as I had made the initial contact in the first place so she knew I was looking to compare.

I just had to pay my auto-insurance and I realized I had not heard from the agent so I called her back. I said, "Hi, this is Karen Phelps." She replied, "Karen, I never heard back from you so I figured we wouldn't be doing business." YIKES!! I replied, "I'm very busy and I travel a lot, you should have called me back again." I think she was taken aback for a few minutes but I hope she took time to realize the importance of my statement. When someone tells you they are interested, ASSUME they are interested until they tell you differently.

Are you thinking, but isn't that being pushy? Absolutely not! When someone gives you permission to call them to order or book a party later, assume they are interested until they tell you NO! The insurance deal this agent could pull off is worth thousands of dollars of which she will receive a commission. Why would she even think of not calling me back in a day or two if she didn't hear back from me? So what can you do to get and keep more customers and hostesses of your own? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Find out what your customer is interested in. I love working with a salesperson who takes time to ask me questions before they try to make the sale. Have you ever gone to purchase an appliance and the salesperson tries to push their favorite item on you and it may not be what you are looking for? It's hard to have one style, one brand, or one product be a perfect fit for everyone. The main reason people don't make another sale or get a booking is because they have not discovered why the prospect might be interested. You can't sell someone something they don't want or feel they don't need. You must discover the reason they need or want your product. Then you will be able to recommend products or services to fill the customers needs.

2. Remind the customer you are always looking out for their best interest and that you will keep them informed of sales, special offers and information that may be of interest to them. You can say something like, "I'll send you emails when there are specials and call when something exciting is going on. There's no obligation and you can remove yourself from my preferred customer list at any time." People are more likely to allow you to stay in touch if there is no obligation. That's one of the reasons I love the "Maybe Later List" which is in the "It's a Party Out There Workbook." It's easy to make calls to people who have given you permission to contact them.

3. Always ask for permission to contact them and keep them informed. You may be reading this right now because on this website I asked if you would like to receive direct selling success newsletters and you entered your name and email address to receive the subscription. Are you doing the same with everyone you meet? Are you asking for permission to share information of interest once a month? Do you have a system in place to keep track of your leads so you can email a monthly newsletter with suggestions on how to use your product to improve their looks, health, home, life, etc?

4. BE PROMPT! If you set an appointment or a time to call, make sure you arrive or call at the appropriate time. Your professionalism will shine through when you are prompt. Most people (me included) prefer to do business with professionals and professionals are not late!

5. Ask yourself, "how would I want to be treated?" then do the same thing for your customers. I love good customer service but I don't want someone who is too pushy. I've walked out of car dealers when I went looking for a new vehicle and the salesman refused to address me. I've left a furniture store when the salesman huffed under his breath because I didn't make a decision right away. I love someone who is assertive and attentive to my needs but not someone who is aggressive.

6. Know your stuff! I love working with someone who has done their homework and knows their products and services. So, whether you are a new consultant or you've been in the business for awhile you need to know, understand and be able to explain why your product or services are different or better than the rest. Why should someone buy your product? Why should someone book a party with you? What is the benefit to them for being a hostess? How can someone benefit by becoming a consultant? You must know the answer to the questions before they are asked. So, if you are new and you haven't taken time to read through the materials your company has available for you it's time to do so.

7. Under promise and over deliver. Make sure you can deliver what you promise. If you tell a customer something will arrive in 2 weeks and it comes a few days late it doesn't look good. If you tell a customer her order will arrive in 3 weeks and it arrives a week early you and your company will shine! Don't make promises you can't keep and always keep the promises you make. People love to do business with competent, able and willing consultants. Your Hostesses love it when their order arrives on time (or better yet, earlier than anticipated.)

As a rule of thumb if you always put the customer first you really can't go wrong. Sure, every now and again you'll get someone you can't please no matter how hard you try. Hey, that's life and you'll have to learn to roll with the punches. Being a great sales person is easy. Having a large database of loyal customers and hostesses is easy too! Become the type of person you want to do business with and you will always have people who will do business with you.

Candle Confections

Well, I have another party tomorrow night and I was sitting here wondering what I should do for customer appreciation gifts and door prizes. I had the idea to make some little tealight treats and they turned out very cute!

Woops, I didn't notice one of those is upside down and you can see my ugly tape job. Oh well, nobody's perfect!!!

I used a package of Caramel Ginger Strudel tealights that have been sitting on my shelf a while. I love the brown color - it's just like real caramels or toffee. I used some clear cellophane and curly ribbon to trim them, wrapping like candies and tying both ends. They are so cute, if I do say so myself. I'm going to put them in a candy tin and they're perfect for a Christmas party - not to mention inexpensive, gotta love that.

One of the demos (Megan, was this you? I can't remember) shared that she brought treat bags to give out because she didn't want anyone to leave empty-handed. I loved the idea so I picked up some Santa bags, bite-sized snickers, Andes mints, mini-candy canes and marshmallow reindeer. One of each per bag and voila! I'm sure everyone will feel like kids again. I made 12 and I hope there's one left over for me :o)

Here's some miscellaneous pictures I had on my camera, this is from a show I did on Saturday, see how I put the red bows on each package of Auto Golds in the basket? Those things come in packages of 12 at the dollar store and you can tuck the wire in the fold of the envelope and they just stay on there. My price tags were ugly this day because I ran out of my usual stickers. Not sure if you can see in the upper left hand corner, there are a set of the ceramic songbirds from our Spring catalog. I tied red & green ribbon around and they sold quickly! Also, each of the 5oz candles has a small satin ribbon and jingle bell tied around the neck. I sold a dozen in the first hour. Not sure if you can see the baking line candle there, I had a new wooden spoon I tied on there with wired ribbon, I've also used cinnamon sticks in there and it looks good.

Below I have a pyramid of boxes, usually I would drape some fabric over but I was using it for different things, so I took extra wire ribbon and just laid it around. It helped things look a little more festive. I also sat out my scent pods on a holiday goody tray. You can see the little polar bear holders in a cello-bag with a vanilla mint votive and peppermint taffies. I also put bows on the Emerge products & Homeology. I notice the things with bows on them always sell quickly, maybe there's something subliminal about that... I also try to use holiday table cloths to put everyone in the mood.

And lastly, I love this sweater basket and it fits my winter catalogs perfectly. I sat them in a window sill with a box of pine cones. Don't you love the green light wire draped by it..... oh well.

Any and all of these ideas can be adapted for future parties if you Christmas parties are already wrapping up. Just use other seasonal decor. Please share some of your pictures, too!!!

Build Your Business with 4 Simple Sentences

Gold Canyon's U.K. Country Manager, Denise Calveley, offers some advice on building your business.

"If I was to give any one of our Gold Canyon Demonstrators any advice, it is this; Learn four sentences in your own words that you are comfortable with that will get you Parties. Without Parties you have no business and without a business you have no income."

These are the four sentences Denise learned and used each and every day to build a direct sales business in the UK, France, Spain and Belgium. Practice putting them in your own words, and USE THEM when you interact with people at your parties...


1. “Who do you know who might be interested in seeing 'The World's Finest'™ fragrance candles and home décor?”

2. “Thank you for your order…I really could do with holding more Gold Canyon Parties in your area. Would you be able to host a Party for me?”

3. “I wonder if you can help me. Who do you know that will host a Gold Canyon Party for me.”

4. “I appreciate you are not able to hold a Party for me now, but who do you know that will host a Gold Canyon Party?”

As you have success using this phraseology, please email or comment and share your excitement with the rest of us! Happy Selling!

New Spring Catalog

Many of you have noticed that Gold Canyon released their spring -09 catalog, but I've received several emails asking "where" to find it. You can view it online by going to Action/Marketing Tools/Marketing Materials & Forms/Inspired Spring 2009.

Look how handy this is. I think you can click on this link at view it yourself... (they separated it into four parts so it's not such a huge download.) ENJOY!!
First section
https://essentials.goldcanyoncandle.com/GOLDCANYON/CMS/Portals/0/09Spring.US.FINAL.1sm.pdf
Second section
https://essentials.goldcanyoncandle.com/GOLDCANYON/CMS/Portals/0/09Spring.US.FINAL.2sm.pdf
Third section
https://essentials.goldcanyoncandle.com/GOLDCANYON/CMS/Portals/0/09Spring.US.FINAL.3sm.pdf
Final section
https://essentials.goldcanyoncandle.com/GOLDCANYON/CMS/Portals/0/09Spring.US.FINAL.4sm.pdf

November Recognition

I just want to scream "WOO-HOO" for all of you this month!!! Our team sales were $12,372!!! That is fantastic! I do consider myself as part of this team, so with mine included it makes it $17,269. All of your Y-T-D sales are $108,471 collectively. Our team goal for this year is $125K - so that leaves $16,529. Actually, if I include my personal sales in the yearly goal we are going to have it made in the shade!

First recognition category is for the highest order this month.... drum roll please... KATHY ASHTON in Washington submitted a $651 party. Great job! You'll see Kathy's name throughout this post - she has really been on the ball.

Next is our fall incentive from Gold Canyon, "Simply 2". Remember this is the last month to qualify for the different categories, so take inventory and set your goals now. The monthly reward of 75 Gold Dollars for submitting 4 parties of $350 OR 1 fundraiser of $2500 goes to.... RONDA STRAUSS in New York for 4 parties over $350 and also to Mary Fulk, upline for SHAUNDA JACOBS in Arizona!!!! You gals are AWESOME!

Speaking of Fundraisers, put your hands together for SHAUNDA. Submitting fundraisers requires a leadership title, but that doesn't stop her! She got her school to do the fundraiser through her upline and they submitted a fundraiser order over $6,000! The demonstrator commission was $600. The organization made out like a bandit as well, with Gold Canyon's 2% increase fundraising promotion this month, they kept about $2,500 of that. Not a bad deal!!!

Back to Simply 2, For the Monthly Bonus, KATHY ASHTON and ANGIE PALMER sponsored new demos this month and will receive an extra $50 CASH from Gold Canyon. The demonstrators who qualified for part of the cumulative reward are... KATHY ASHTON, TRACI RHODES (AZ), JOSIE MCCOLLUM (WA), RONDA STRAUSS, and MARY FULK.

I've been doing shout outs for the gals who market their websites and this month, Gold Canyon did us all a favor by offering that incredible internet sale! Our personal web orders increased, hopefully your customer awareness did as well, and they will continue to place orders that way. Let's put our hands together for all the gals who subscribe to GC's website service that got orders this month... KATHY ASHTON, MELANIE DAVIS (24), MARY FULK (4), MEGAN MORENO (5), TRACI RHODES (10), LYNN HAYES (5), SHAUNDA JACOBS (4), and RONDA STRAUSS (3).

Welcome to our brand-new demonstrators SUZANNE MORTENSEN (IA), JOSIE MCCOLLUM (WA) and TASHA JACQUEZ (NM)! Josie is off to an amazing start - did you all catch her name up there in the Simply 2 Recognition? She has submitted 2 party orders totalling $871. Josie, just one more $150 party order and you'll receive $100 in preselected products FREE from Gold Canyon for their Quick Start Program!!!

And also let's give a round of applause to our business builders - all the wonderful women who put in orders this month (only 29 out of 63 demos sold this month - so you are the cream of the crop!) My frontline: KELLY ASHLIMAN (MA), KATHY ASHTON, MELANIE DAVIS, MARY FULK, SANDRA HESSERT (AZ), ANGELA INGRAM (AZ), KATIE MAAKESTAD (AZ), HEATHER MENDOZA, MEGAN MORENO, ANGIE PALMER (AZ), DEBRA PETERSON (AZ), TRACI RHODES (AZ). Level 2 (Frontline recruits): CHRISTINE DUNLAP (AZ), LYNN HAYES, JESSICA HERNANDEZ, JANET IGLESIAS, SHAUNDA JACOBS, BONNIE LUCAS, JOSIE MCCOLLUM, KATHY MENDONCA (CA), ZOE MITCHELL (AZ), MADALENE NIEBLAS, SANDY SELLERS, RONDA STRAUSS, KAREN THOMAS (AZ), LISA THORPE. Level 3 (2nd line recruits): KATHY BULL (NY), ELIZABETH CAMPBELL (AZ), TINA KNIGHT (NY). I hope those colors don't make you dizzy :o)

Lastly I'll leave you all with the Quote of the Month:
"Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or do something more."
Brother David Steindl-Rast

Thank you all for being a perfect part of our team. We wouldn't be complete without YOU!!!