Home Shows: What to Take, What to Say..............

Chantel LeMaster wants to know: "Maybe you could share with us what you take to shows and what you talk about. And/or how you tailor your show to the crowd?"


The Home Show is the best way for us to do business. It's at the Home Show where we get the opportunity to meet people and show our products in person. People get so worked up about Home Shows though because they feel they have to do it a certain way for it to be right. Guess what - EVERYONE has their own way of doing it and you should do Home Shows the way it works best for you.

What do I take? Let me first start out by saying that I take WAY too much. I just feel that people really have to see everything in person. Let me talk out both sides of my mouth though because you don't HAVE to take a ton to a show for it to be successful. I know that because know matter what I take it seems that I sell mainly things I didn't take to the show anyway. So I try to guess what I think WILL sell when I should just be taking things to show the full range of products that we offer.

Here is what I will be taking to most shows in November. I repack what I take to shows at the beginning of the month and I don't change it much through the month unless a Hostess requests something that I don't have.

For November I will be taking: Holiday Helper Treats basket, Jumbo Mugs, Mug Rack, John Deere Basket, Oval Muffin Basket, all 3 Little Gifts Basket, candles, a sampling of the rest of the holiday items, and I will take the Sweetheart Basket as a teaser for December. That's what I will take for the November Specials and highlights. I will also take items from the Wish List that are my staples. They include the Soap and Lotion Dispensers and Salt and pepper caddy as well as the Utensil Caddy. I will also take the Batter Bowl and the Muffin Pan - although they were on sale in October - people in November won't know that and they are easy items to sell. I will also take a few other items from the Wish List that are good sellers for me or new items that I don't have much history with yet. ANY of the Sort and Store Storage baskets sell well for me and so I will take a version of one of those.

Ok - so you can see - that is way too much and most people don't have that many products. So let's cut it back. What do you have to take? If you went to the Bee and got the Bee kit - use that as a base for what you take and then fill in from there. Take at least 1 basket in each stain so people can see the difference in the stains. I like to make sure I have protectors in both versions - they regular ones and the sturdier ones so people can see the difference. I also like to have at least 2 different pottery samples with me. I ALWAYS have a tomato pottery piece with me - it really stands out and it's really popular for me. I also have at least one wrought iron piece with me. The salt and pepper caddy is a great one and having the soap and lotion dispensers with me are a good sample of the pottery.

So don't worry so much about what you take. Worry more about showing the full range of the products that we offer. People don't need to see 10 warm brown baskets. They don't need to see each and every pottery piece. Our Wish List is the BEST in the industry. Customers can really get a good idea of what our products are like from it. They just need to see some things in person to get a better idea of the colors, weight, and feel of things.

If you can't get each monthly feature to show don't worry about it. Take what you have! BUT - if you continue doing Home Shows you will soon be able to afford the monthly feature as a sample and then you will have them to show in person. If you don't have the Sweetheart Basket - Hershey Kiss Basket - CRAWL OVER BROKEN GLASS TO GET IT! I can't even believe the reaction I am getting from it. The first day it came I couldn't put it down. It is just about the cutest basket we have ever had. Get it - Sell it! I challenge EVERYONE to set a goal for how many you can sell. EVERY single consultant in this company should sell that basket. Ok - don't let me get ahead of myself. Let's sell November first!

I have gone on long enough about what to take and got off track a little. If you have any individual questions please ask. I'm going to start a new post to answer the rest of the question.