Tweet

Business Opportunity Expo - Expo Fairs, Vendor Fair Planning

Guest post by: Deb Bixler

Article Overview: Trade shows are a wonderful place to find new people.

Business Opportunity Expo - Expo Fairs, Vendor Fair Planning

Do you struggle when planning your monthly direct sales trainings?

Are your direct sales training meetings poorly attended?

Is training meeting time stressful?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, then this direct sales team meeting planning template will change your life. There is a simple system for putting together interesting, fun, keep-'em-coming-back sales trainings.

Network Marketing-Direct Sales-Party Plan meetings

It does not matter whether you are a party plan, network marketing, or direct sales company, this template for planning trainings will work for you. Most companies have three services which vary from company to company. In any of those business models they are:

• Bookings, prospecting, finding business
• Sharing the opportunity, recruiting
• Showings or presentations and/or product knowledge

After you figure out what your three main training topics are, then you can apply them to this three-part template. For the purpose of this article we will talk about a home party plan company. If you are a network marketing company or a direct sales company that does not rely on the party plan for leads do not judge yourself out. This still applies to you. Just divide the meeting up into your appropriate parts as they relate to your business.

Every meeting has the same 5 parts. In our example, the training will be divided into its 5 segments.

• Networking time
• Part 1 Presentations: discuss presentation skills, sales skills, product knowledge
• Part 2 Opportunity: work on recruiting skills, interview questions, recognizing red flags, etc.
• Part 3 Bookings: dedicated discussion of finding business, leads or bookings and becoming better at it
• Wrap-up

Plan Your Meeting

Plug one of your three meeting parts into the template each month. Then further define your training by selecting one of the following presenters to apply to each segment.

• An outside speaker
• A newbie
• A seasoned rep
• A consultant who is not that good but did something well
• Another leader in your organization
• You
• A video
• Home office representative
  
  Now pick a format for each section of the training meeting:
• roundtable
• divide into groups
• lecture
• networking
• game
• theme
• combination of two of the above

By applying different presenter, different formats, and different material on the same topics that focus on the key skills necessary to be successful in your direct selling business, you will train everyone on what they need and not alienate the seasoned reps with boredom.

The beginning of the meeting is always networking. The end is a thank you and wrap-up and more networking. Delegate parts of these sections out at each training for the next meeting. Utilize the skills of your organization to assist with the meetings. If you have a very social person, then they should be the greeter. If there is an awesome recruiter, then that person may be the one in charge of taking the visitors and new consultants under her or his wing so that they do not feel left out. A sign up sheet for duties is always helpful. Have a routine of passing it around for sign up for the next training meeting. Examples of what should be on it are: clean up, set up, paper products, snacks, beverages, carry stuff to car, and the like.

The networking portion at the beginning is very important. Incorporate networking games or activities into the arrival time so that everyone is forced to chat. Do not have chairs set out during set up. Force the mingling. (Everyone can grab a chair when it is time to sit down.)

Direct Sales Sales team Meeting Games

There are many networking games that are fun and encourage developing relationships.

"On colorful note cards jot down something about each person that you know that everyone else may not. As the consultants arrive, they pick a card and try to find their match. The cards may say things like:

• Going to nursing school
• Husband installs carpet
• Has triplets
  
  Etc.

"Another direct sales training meeting game that is good for networking is what I call the peanut butter and jelly game. On colorful note cards write matching or complimentary items and people have to find the compliment that goes with their card. For example:

• Peanut butter and Jelly
• Turkey and Stuffing
• Ham and eggs

Keep The Comng To Meetings

These types of games are fun and will help people develop friendships. When you have friends at the training meeting, you keep coming back.

Six Sales Meeting Tips

1. Do not be the presenter every time and do not "add on" when the other presenters are done.
2. The networking segment is very important. Put time into making it different each training meeting.
3. Use themes to generate interest.
4. Keep them guessing by using the different formats and presenters.
5. Delegate and be specific. Tell your presenter exactly what point you want covered, but not what format or how to say it.
6. Chat with the presenters before the meeting about their topic and what they are going to do.

Related Articles
  Fairs And Expos Will Fill Your Calendar
  Direct Sale Marketing At Trade Shows
  Let’s hope that the Macworld Expo lives on
  Macworld Expo should change venues, dates in the future
  Times Franchise Expo Review

Article Tags: business, business conventions, business exhibitions, business fairs, home business expo, small business expo, small business fair, trade show, trade show exhibit booth



Related Forum Posts
Re: Trade Shows - Are They Worth It? - HI, I have used trade shows (not participated) to collect potential clients. For example, the Home & Garden Industry is extremely behind the time in regards to their websites. I attended an Home & Garden Expo in Denver and collected all the companies contact information. I plan on cold calling & mailing information to each business. It also gave me time to research the industry more, talk directly to the owners in many cases, and learn more about what they need. Jeff
Home Care Business Opportunity - You should not buy a franchise until you review our Senior Care Business Opportunity... Michael Gultz
Fed rate cuts . . . - So just what do the newest Fed rate cuts mean to Franchise and Business Opportunity investing? Is it immediately felt? What timeframe do you think, or rather, where are we in terms of new vs. existing business investment? A similar question can be composed for the economic stimulus checks - will they a have any effect if consumers spend a little $$
Re: Info for would be franchisers... - [quote="Sebastien":1d29sdv1]Like Franchise Times, Franchise Update is a very practical magazine. There is no blah blah, just straight facts that anyone in the franchise community can relate to. I just want to mention that all these magazines are NOT franchisee oriented. I mean these magazines are for franchise professionals. If you're looking to buy a franchise, you won't find much information in there. To answer your question, getting published in Franchise Times was fairly easy. I don't want to brag too much but I think I am known in the franchise industry. I was the marketing guy at Franchise.com for a few years before joining my new company, the World Franchising Network. So people know me and I have a very good relationship with Nancy Weingartner, the Managing Editor at Franchise Times. I was talking with her at the last Franchise Expo South in Miami and she mentioned she'd like me to be profiled. I was like "ok, sure!". I like this franchise executive profile thing in Franchise Times as it is rarely BS. People are usually really natural in there.[/quote:1d29sdv1] Thanks for the follow up Sebastien! And I can't say that I'm surprised that networking with the right people and managing your relationships with them properly are the keys to being published. I guess the old adage holds true of "it's not who you know, but who knows you" that's important.
Re: Trade Shows - Are They Worth It? - Every year my wife and I attend the Womens Expo here in Amarillo. We usually invite one or two of out MLM team members to go with us. We have only one focus and that is to gain interested leads for our travel business. We get names, email addresses, and phone numbers in three ways. First we have a drawing for a dream vacation that is all expense paid. The winner does have to pay for transportation. We usually get around 600 names for the drawing and pick a winner the day after the event. The drawing doesn't really provide leads, it is used to get the ladies to our tables. There we have ongoing videos displaying both the vacation package (our retail product) and the business DVD. Each video station also has a signup for more information sheet. This way we get people that are interested in the vacation package and people interested in the business side. That is just the start. As we are talking over the packages we are looking for those people who are truly interested in the business. Because so much stuff is being given away at this event a lot of the ladies sign almost anything. But there is always one or two who stop and read the brochures and watch the videos. We migrate towards them and engage them in conversation. By working it this way we have been able to enroll 7 people the last two events. It does cost us more than we initially make but the payout has been coming back over time. It has worked for us so far but I doubt we would do many other events. This one hits our target market.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The new marketing question. Will they follow?

The Value of Small Businesses

Winning Market Share in a Tough Economy

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.