[RePLAY]: Work Smarter NOT Harder in your direct sales or WAHM business - Mailing Party Postcard Invitations & Reminders

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My mantra (all the time, every day!) is “Smarter not Harder”. I pretty much just try to pay very close attention to what I avoid doing and why, and then I try to solve that barrier. I worked for a time management consulting company for many years as an administrative assistant, I learned a lot from all that stuff I typed!

That means that if it can be automated, streamlined or eliminated, I do it. If it is not a “business building activity” I try to avoid it. If it is something that has to be repeated (consistency and follow through are my arch nemesis) then I find a way to make technology my slave!

Most Direct Sales companies offer postcard invitations or reminders for in-home parties. If you've gotten a hostess packet from your consultant, you probably had a stack of pretty postcard invitations and the instruction to fill them out and mail them to your friends. If you actually did this - you deserve a gold star for sure! I never did it. Which is one reason I didn't have very good turn out at my home parties!

As a consultant, I know that my hostesses probably won't do it either.

We know that "real mail" makes a huge difference in party attendance - so how do we make that happen?

The first thing that I did is offer to mail them for her! There are many people who will debate that the hostess should invest more personal time and effort into her party and that she should be the one to do it. I completely agree. And I also know that even with the best of intentions, people just don't take the time to do this. If it is so important to attendance (it is) and it increases the party sales (it does) which increases the consultant's paycheck (not to mention the number of people at the party also increases future bookings and recruiting prospects) then why not do it yourself?

The postcard itself costs me the same either way. The return on the investment is ZERO if she doesn't mail them. I probably won't even get them back, because she won't want to admit that she didn't do it. That means that my investment goes in the trash, and also creates a negative feeling for my hostess {guilt is so ugly!}

If these stamps look like they were applied by a 4 year old... that's because they were!
Smarter NOT Harder CHILD LABOR Edition!

It only costs 33 cents to mail a postcard right now. Ask yourself "How much is a new customer worth?" If the answer is more than 33 cents, then mail them for her. If not, ask yourself "How much is a new hostess worth?" If the answer is more than 33 cents, then mail them for her. You know where I'm going with this... right? Just do it!

This brings us to my second tip: Order stamps from the post office. If you remember from my Mailing Packages Edition, I don't like going to the post office! I always seem to be there at 11:48, right when everyone is standing in line for passports because that has to be done before noon! Plus, my post office was out of the postcard stamps for the updated amount. I had to buy 32 cent stamps, and a 1 cent stamp to add to it. This was twice the work and it covered the logo on my company postcard. It looked ugly! You also usually are not able to get postcard stamps at the pack and mail places or grocery store customer service counters.

The third tip is: Print the party information on labels or on the postcard itself. The reason that most of us don't send postcard invitation is that it takes soooooo long to hand write all that information! And if your hostess sends you a list of 40 people (like all good hostesses do!) then you will have a serious hand cramp by the time you are done! You may have to play with your printer a bit to see what works. I found that printing the information on clear labels was the best option. I use Avery Shipping Labels 2 x 4 Inches, Clear and modified the template a bit (link below) so that I could print both the address AND the party info on the same label!

See how the "Valued Hostess" printed off the top of the label a little? That's what I mean about playing with your printer a little bit. My printer does NOT play well with others. It's almost time for an upgrade! No matter what I tried, the printer countered with a new issue. Rather than waste my labels (they aren't cheap, but no hand-cramps and cards that actually get mailed are worth it!) I cut the name off and hand wrote it in:

Which reminds me of another favorite saying: "Done is better than perfect."

And finally... Don't ever send anything out without YOUR information! I ordered mine from Current Catalog. These are "Mailing Labels" (instead of address, use your ordering info, get them on Clear and use to label everything!): http://www.currentcatalog.com/30370.html

Links to templates:
Labels http://www.mediafire.com/view/?ixcdxzms26b2c4g
Postcard http://www.mediafire.com/view/?r2tkzfznlenftlc

Smarter. Not. Harder.

Managing Time Online & Avoiding Information Overload Edition
Electronic File Storage Edition
Hostess Coaching Edition
Mailing Packages Edition