Two Weeks Condensed

It's hard to believe that after writing almost daily in this blog that I haven't written anything since Oct. 31st. Looking back on the last two weekends of parties, I see a pattern - my Friday night parties usually suck, my Saturday afternoon parties are pretty good, and my Saturday night parties have been above average. Is this just a coincidence? Unfortunately, this has meant not as much money coming in as I had planned. I'm dealing with that, hopeful that I will have a bunch of really good parties in the next few weeks to make up for it.

There are a lot of new consultants on my team, and at our team meeting last Sunday, it was only new consultants. For one reason of another, the more seasoned consultants could not be there. This was one meeting for which I was fully prepared, but we did wander from the agenda and it did not seem as cohesive as I had planned it to be. In the week before the meeting, I printed out the Online Consultant's Guide and made ten copies, which I put in ring binders, for my downline. The first two or three years I was a consultant, we were given the guide in printed form along with our planners, and I referred to it a lot. It is not as easy to use the online guide, and I wanted my downline to have easy access to all this information. In addition, I made up ten copies of documents about booking parties and hostess coaching, examples of holiday specials, and three large documents from Leslie Zay. Hopefully they will read them and use the information to grow their business. We also decided that we will discuss the consultant's guide at meetings. When I send the Evite for the meeting, I will designate the topics that will be discussed so that everyone can read them ahead of time and note any questions or comments they have.

I have been getting quite a few outside orders and referrals for parties. This is the second stream of income that Tonya Grimes describes. I've had about one order per week for the last several weeks. I am looking forward to when these will be more forthcoming.

Along those lines, I have a friend helping me catch up on entering email addresses so when I send my monthly sale flyer more women will get it. I got two orders from the last sale flyer and would have probably gotten more had it not been a 24-hr. sale. Or maybe not. I will do another one with gift packages next week, this time giving them a little longer to place their order. The reason the other one was for only 24 hours was that it coincided with a half-price, 24-hr. sale that Pure Romance was having.

I'd better stop now - I have hostess packets to compile and send out and hostess coaching calls to make. I have three parties again this weekend - I hope they're good one!

And the weekend begins....

It is late Thursday night (actually, early Friday morning - but I've yet to get to bed) and I am procrastinating from cleaning all my toy demos for this weekend. I think I carry too many demos. I only show 12-14 at each party, and some of those vary from party to party, but there are still some toys I never demo. I think I am up to about 60-65 toys, and I have at least one in stock for every demo that I have. The demos take up two rifle cases, and I am trying to cut down on how much stuff I am dragging into the hostesses' homes. All my stock is now in four pink compact rolling carts (17" x 15" x 16") and my lotion demos fit into two small pink & black duffle/tool bags (16" x 6"). If I can get my toy demos into one gun case, then all I have left is my miscellaneous stuff, which I have yet to find the exact right container for. Plus my Las Vegas bag from convention in 2007, in which I carry my ordering room things, including hostess and recruit packets, clipboard case with calculator, calendar/planner, money bag and my purse. This bag stays with me in the front seat in case anything happens (like an accident) and I can only grab one thing. My business could probably survive the loss of stock and demos, but my calendar and my customers' order sheets are the lifeblood of my business, so they stay close at hand.

Tomorrow I am having lunch with my "oldest" daughter. I have had recruits come and go, but she is the first one who really stuck with it. She only does PR part-time as she has a full-time job and is going to school (how does she do it?), but she is often top in sales of my downline. I think she is an inspiration to her PR daughter, who seems to be following in Dawn's footsteps - attending more trainings, going to convention in March, recruiting.

Tonight was the debut party of one of my new recruits. There were about 15 women present to support her, and she did very well for her first party. She was nervous, but I could tell she had done a lot of prep work prior to the show. She knew what she was going to say every step along the way. She did not just learn her products; she planned her whole show. So even if words failed her at times, or she stumbled through an explanation, I knew she had the "right stuff" to become a good Pure Romance Consultant.

Tomorrow I am going to a PR Halloween party, and still need to come up with a costume. It has to be comfortable enough to wear to do my demo, and I want it to be fun. OMG! I have my Pink Ladies of Pure Romance hot pink and black 50's retro bowling shirt! Perfect! Maybe I can find a cheap pair of shoes that look like bowling shoes, and I'll be all set. Whew! That's one less thing to worry about.

I guess the toy cleaning will have to wait until after lunch tomorrow - I'm off to bed.

Kudos to Me

Last week I received the following email. This, along with the great money, is what makes being a Pure Romance Consultant worthwhile:

Hi Marcey,
I don't know if you remember me but my wife had attended one of your parties last January and purchased some products. Then I ordered some from you in February for her for Valentine’s Day. I ordered the Humbelievable for her. I have to tell you she has thoroughly enjoyed it. Your recommendation was great. We use it together and she also enjoys it herself often. She never wanted to masturbate before and now I think she looks forward to the opportunities to pleasure herself. She had never experienced an orgasm until getting your products.
Anyway, I would like to order some more Pure Pleasure lubricant for her as our anniversary is coming up. Also, I was looking at possibly ordering a male stimulator for myself. Wonder if you have any recommendations. In looking at the products it looks to me like the Vajayjay would be the most comfortable in the form of softness and firmness around my penis. If I do order the stimulator I would also need to order some Whipped Cream lubricant.
If you could let me know your suggestions and then when a good time to call you would be and I will get my order into you.

Thank you very much.

Catching Up

I hate being sick! I don't mind the occasional sniffle or sore throat, but being down for a week puts everything but the most essential parts of our lives on hold, and it takes forever to catch up again.

I had three parties booked for last week. One of my downline was able to take the Thursday party (thanks, Michelle) and I thought I would be able to do Friday's party, but come Friday morning, I realized that even though the symptoms were gone, I was wiped out and did not have the energy to drive 1 1/2 hours to do the party. I called everyone in my downline except the newest who were not ready to do a solo party, with all of them already booked (yea for them!). I then posted the party on the Forums as well as calling a sister consultant who lives closer to the party to see if she or any of her downline could take the party. She gave me the names of five of her daughters and I called each of them. Still no luck. I was not about to cancel a party three hours before it was due to begin, so I began to call my three newbies, one of whom was available. She drove to my house, and then drove my car to the party, where she helped me unload, setup, fill orders, etc. She was a godsend (thanks, Lisa)! I could not have done the party by myself.

Saturday I rested all day in preparation for my Saturday night party. Even though I was still tired, I did not want to disappoint my hostess. The party went well, with average sales. Sunday I took the entire day off - no phone calls, no paperwork, none of the things I was behind on. My husband and I reconnected (we had not slept together for over a week to make sure he did not catch what I had) and it was absolute heaven to touch and hold him again [explicit scenes left out].

Monday I started to plow through all that had accumulated on my desk - nearly a week's worth of mail, packets of guests' order sheets that needed sorting through, bank deposits to be made, emails to answer. I placed my PR order, then packaged up the few backorders that had come in the order I received last week and got them to the post office. I'm glad I always tell my guests 7-10 business days for backorders, so that if something like this happens I still have some leeway to get them their products within that timeframe (they usually get them sooner).

Last night I finally did it - I sent out a sale flyer using Constant Contact to advertise a one-day sale. I was putting off sending out anything until I was caught up on entering emails into the system, but as another consultant advised me, I can always add more people later. So the notice of the 50% off sale went out to 470 women, one of whom called me this morning to place her order and she booked a party! Even though a bunch of the emails bounced (the list was started two years ago and I'm sure people have changed their email addresses since then) and four people opted out, it is still worth my time to send out a sale flyer. My goal is to send out something once a month, but now that I saw how easy it was, I need to be careful not to do it more often than that.

Goals Update 10.21.08

These are my goals for the year ending 12/31/08:

Board of Directors:
Retail Sales Goal = $60,000 Still Need = $11,674
Recruiting Goal = 12 Still Need = 3

Sr. Director:
Active 1st Downline Goal = 12 Still Need = 1
Active 2nd downline Goal = 6 Still Need = 1

4th Quarter Incentive Contest - Cove Atlantis:
Retail Sales Goal = $21,000 Still Need = $17,930.50
Recruiting Goal = 6 Still Need = 4

Good party in Bloomington!

Yea! I had a good party in Bloomingotn IL today (Sunday). The guests were polite and the sales were over $500. No one booked a party, but the hostess is considering signing up.

I ran out of recruit packets, so the last two people I talked to about signing up were only given instructions as to how to find the info on my website. When I get my order in, I will make up 20 new packets and mail one to each of those two people.

After the party I had dinner with Dana, who I have not seen for over a year. She brought along her pictures from the European vacation she and Becky took last summer. It was great to see her and hear about their vacation. When I got home, hubby Tom was already there (he was gone for the weekend). I chose to talk with him and get caught up rather than place my PR order. After all, romance begins at home! My relationship with him is more important than the few dollars I would ahve saved. I am hoping the weekend sale will continue on Monday as they usually do. Got a call about 11:30 pm from Christy that the website went down. I checked and, sure enough, it is down. Hopefully we will all be able to place our orders tomorrow and still get the discount offered this weekend.

The Weekend So Far

Friday night I went to the debut party for one of my new daughters. As so often happens at one's first party, not too many people showed up. The sales were under $100, but two parties were booked. I assured the consultant that the main reason for debut parties is to get some experience under their belts and to book parties, and both of these were accomplished. She was able to see the areas on which she needs to concentrate her training and, with the bonus Pure Romance is giving us this weekend, she will be able to place her activating order and go from "recruit" to "consultant".

I had two parties on Saturday, neither of which amounted to much. The first had a lot of last-minute cancellations so there were only two guests, one of whom did not have any money. The other was a former consultant. I called her ahead of time and told her to bring any leftover stock she could not use, and we traded product so that she could get products she could use personally and I got some products I can sell. She also put in a small order. Hostess only had enough money for one small product but had two on her wish list, so I offered her a BOGO (but one get one free) as her hostess credit. She is going to contact the guest who could not buy anything (she just got laid off) to see if she will have a party. I had also asked her if she wanted to use her unemployment check (when it begins) to buy a kit and have Pure Romance be her new job. She seemed interested and is going to check it out online.

Saturday night there were three hostesses and I gave them 20% hostess credit. One of my new recruits went with me to shadow the party. There were about 18 guests present, the demo went smoothly, but as soon as the ordering began, over half of the people disappeared. Those that did order each purchased only one small item. The total before the hostesses' orders was $78, so they each got $5.20 hostess credit. The entire party total was $143. I told them that since the party total was under $150 that technically I did not have to give them a hostess gift beyond their hostess credit, but I knew they tried so I gave each of them a PR can cozie. One of them remarked that if at least one other guest had ordered, they probably could have hit the $150 mark. At that point I told them as nicely as I could that my average party sales were $600, so the extra $7 would not have made much difference. They finally got it that their party sales sucked.

We played Pop Your Cherry and the guest who popped her cherry wanted her free gift that night, but I reminded her what was written on the sheet - she gets her gift the night of her party, providing it holds on the original date and has a minimum of $350 in sales. She looked at me like I was crazy, expecting that high a sales total, so I repeated what I told the hostesses - my average party sales were $600 so $350 was usually not too difficult to achieve. I smiled the whole time and did my best not to give off negative vibes. The recruit who was with me saw that no matter how bad a party is, we remain professional about it.

When I got home I went out with two of my family members for a couple of drinks to unwind, then came home and chilled for a few hours. This afternoon I have a party in Bloomington. Hopefully it will bring my totals for the weekend up to a reasonable amount.

Market Training on 10/15/08

Once again, I found the Pure Romance Market Training very useful and informative. I went with four of my downline, one of whom brought a prospective recruit. There were only 11 of us at the training, so my downline was the majority of those there. This is amazing to me because for the past four years, I have always gone by myself (except this past May, when several of us went). I am grateful that Pure Romance decided to hold this training even though so few had registered, so my downline (as well as myself) can reap the benefits. Amy Frost is so much fun, and even a seasoned consultant such as myself learned from her.

Sexual Health Peers Open House

Last night was the Sexual Health Peers Open House, and it was a great success! There were at least 40 people there, half of whom bought products. The total was $591, which only makes it average in terms of sales, but the organizer went online after the open house and signed up to be a consultant. She knows so much about sex toys and sexual health and loves the topic, it was a natural fit. Two other guests want to sign up and another wants to do a party. I am going to have one of them sign up under the new recruit since they are really good friends and I'll sign up the other one. I plan to call all the female guests to let them know how successful the open house was, how much was raised for their group, and see if they want to "pop their cherries" and book a party. It was too wild last night to even get the cherries out, but I want to give everyone the opportunity to book a party and pop a cherry.

I am so grateful to Michelle Tesman and Savannah Tewell for helping me last night. Michelle is my "daughter" and Savannah is "adopted" by me. Neither has done many parties and they said the experience was extremely beneficial to them. We started out with me behind the lotions and potions table, talking about the products and letting everyone try Sensations, etc. while they were at the toy display, popping in batteries so the guests could check them out. After a bit, I went to the ordering room and filled orders the rest of the night, while Savannah took my place at the lotions table. They both said they got to experience handling and getting to know all the products and feel much more confident in their product knowledge and in talking to people about the products, which they feel will improve their presentations at their parties. They felt that the free product I gave them for helping was just a bonus.

I got a call from the corporate office today that a hostess called because one of my daughters seems to be MIA. I was also concerned about her since she did not show at my team meeting nor respond to my email. I was planning on calling her today anyway. I hope she is ok, because this is not her normal behavior.

Tuesday

Not every day is all about Pure Romance. I needed to get a hostess packet in the mail today, but had none on hand, so I printed out everything I would need for 10, except the outside order envelopes and order blanks. I only put together the one I needed right away, but will get the other nine done tomorrow. I put together my last recruit packet (since I need more Incentive & Rewards booklets) to take with me when I went to interview a potential recruit. Every time my business takes a jump, it seems there is something I run out of earlier than expected, and this time it was the booklets. I also went to my newest recruit's house to show her the way around the website, since she just got Internet. I was planning on doing it over the phone, but since I needed to be in the area anyway for the recruit, I stopped by her house. It really is much easier when you are both in front of the same computer.

In between all this, I made time to go out to lunch with my husband and cook supper for our friends who come over for Game Night. And hang out on the Web.

Yesterday Joann and I started the interview process for Week 2 of Pure Romance Hands Across America, and finished it today. I posted it to our Yahoo group, and also added a post with a link to this blog. Joann gave me some good advice about hostess calls: I need to schedule specific times that I am willing to make those calls and STICK TO THOSE TIMES. Also, she suggested I put a bright sticky note on each hostess packet, reminding the hostess of when we agreed we would talk. I know if I do not write down when I am supposed to do something, I usually forget about it. Therefore, it does not surprise me that if I only verbally say when I am going to call that the hostess would forget and not be there when I call.

Tonight was Game Night, but instead of playing a game we watched Cassablanca - one of the best movies EVER! I also got some ideas for a Halloween costume to wear to the Pure Romance party I am doing on October 31st, where all the guests will be in costume. My good friend Heather suggested I dress the part of the name of this blog - Romance Party Queen - with a tiara, hearts all over me, etc. There were a lot of jokes about my carrying a sceptor, and whether it should be a vibrating "sceptor".

I am getting excited about the Open House I am doing this Thursday as a benefit for the Sexual Health Peers. The invitation is on Facebook and we already have over 30 confirmed guests!! I will spend part of tomorrow and Thursday planning the event - what my display will look like, what I will do for a raffle, etc. Another consultant has agreed to help me with it, for which I will give her some free product. I also hope to book some regular parties off the open house, as well as getting some recruits.

Late Sunday night

After going to sleep quite late last night, I slept in until 11am. Got the last of my things ready for the party and headed off to it.There were only two guests besides the hostess, but I still put on a full show. As I was starting the toys, the roommate came home from out of town, stayed for the rest of my demo, and bought a few things. The party total was $225, bringing my weekend total to $1275. I only have three items on backorder, so I am going to wait until next week to place my order. Pure Romance has been having these terrific case sales, but I am fully stocked and see no need to spend money I don't have just to stock up even more. It is tempting to use this money to buy cases, but I need to see what my regular bills look like and see how much of this money is needed for personal expenses.

I got a call from one of the guests from Friday's party to book a party. She had never been to a party, thought she could not get anything, called her boyfriend who gave her his cc card # so she could buy products, and now she wants to book a party. She is definitely consultant material.

Tomorrow is really busy. I made a list of what I need to do, including times to do them. It seemed like it would not all fit in, but it looks like it might. Some of the things I am doing is meeting with a potential recruit, making hostess calls, delivering product, making and sending a hostess packet, and talking with my "buddy" from PR Hands Across America. Each week we will interview each other and post our answers on the Yahoo Group. I am thinking of either copying these posts to it, or somehow setting up a link to this blog. I'll have to check out the Yahoo groups to see how all this works. I am glad I am again getting adventurous about using programs that are new to me - I was stagnant for many years, but I am trying to catch up.

Saturday

It was a Pure Romance day. After preparing for my weekend parties, I drove to Westville to do the initial training of my newest recruit, Christy. We spent a couple of hours going over the things she needs to know to get her business started, and booked her debut party for October 30th. I am happy to report that she wants to take advantage of every training opportunity.

I then drove to Lafayette IN to do an evening party. I stopped en route to have dinner at Benjamin's, a family restaurant I discovered when I did a few parties in Covington IN. Good food, reasonably priced. The Lafayette party was about $650 in sales, with one party booked. I also talked to one of the guests about becoming a Pure Romance consultant. She already has a zillion toys, but is working a second job to make ends meet. I explained how she could make more money in less time as a PR consultant, and she agreed to take home some information and give me a call to talk it over.

On my way home, I got a call from Tom that he was at Guido's and to join him there. Had a nice chat with Brandon and invited him and his girlfriend to the Pure Romance Open House to benefit the Sexual Health Peers at the U of Illinois on Thursday night.

I'm home now, winding down.

Friday Night

I just got back from my party in Veedersburg IN. Retail sales = $465.50 with one party booked. My party average is $600, so it is a bit low. I still had a good time, and was able to give some relationship-enhancing advice to two of the guests.

I also got a call from one of my new recruits. She got her kit the other day and already she has friends and family wanting to buy products from her. She was not sure she could sell anything before her first party, so I let her know that she definitely can! We are getting together tomorrow for her initial training and the first thing I will teach her is how to write up a sales order. Way to go, Christy!

After her training, I am travelling to Lafayette IN for an evening party. This is a bit farther than I usually go, but this hostess was at a previous party and I really wanted to do her party. I am going to see if I think any of her guests would make a good consultant and propose they sign up so that any parties I book off this one can be given to her (or them). Being a consultant is such a great job that I love to share it with others, and this will be an opportunity to spread to that area without my having to travel there to do parties.

Pure Romance Goals

These are my goals for the year ending 12/31/08:

Board of Directors:
Retail Sales Goal = $60,000 Still Need = $13,337
Recruiting Goal = 12 Still Need = 4

Sr. Director:
Active 1st Downline Goal = 12 Still Need = 2
Active 2nd downline Goal = 6 Still Need = 1

My First Post

I've decided to start this blog to keep notes about what my life as a Pure Romance consultant is like. I plan to talk about my experiences, both good and bad, so other consultants (and my family and friends) can see how Pure Romance affects my life.

I also hope it will give me perspective as the months and years go by. Webster's defines perspective - the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance <urge you to maintain your perspective and to view your own task in a larger framework> - and that is what I intend to do. Sometimes we are unable to see things from a long-range perspective unless we can track the ups and downs over a period of time.

Lets see how this goes...