Home Party and Direct Sales Consultant Training

Remember when you had a regular job and you got a training manual? Did you sit there and read the whole thing? Probably not. It’s more likely that someone who had done that job trained you how to do it. I have learned a few jobs in my life time and have had some great trainers and some not so great trainers.

When you are building a team in your business, consultant training is a critical part of your teams success. Not only are YOU training your new consultants but it’s likely that the way you train, is how they will train their team members. The most important thing that you need to do is WRITE IT DOWN!

Develop your own training manual. Then update it as things in your company change.

I know that some of you have been consultants for 5+ years. You might think that you have got it all down, you have trained so many consultants that you could do it in your sleep. You probably know a LOT about the company but will you remember it all when you set up a new consultant? Do you have it all written down? Do you have them take notes? Your new consultant will have lots of questions but only you will know some of the things that she would never think of.

It’s not critical for a new consultant to know everything about the products and of course there is some on the job training during the first couple of shows. What IS important to know before the show starts is a lot of the back office stuff.. making sure they have all the items for demo, forms for the guests to fill in, getting them set up on credit card payment, basic product knowledge, making sure any paperwork is submitted to the company in order to place orders.

So much of this may seem old hat to you but it can be a real mystery to a new consultant. No one expects the new consultant to know everything and there is a lot of leeway when presenting the first couple of shows. When you have your training written down, you will not leave out important information about getting set up. They will also have something to refer to for information. There may even be features or systems that your company offers that you don’t utilize but it’s still good to present that option to your new consultant because they may find it handy. Let’s say that your company has a credit card processing option but you have always just taken checks or cash only, you might not think to train your new consultant on that feature but it’s still a good idea to let her know that she has that option because she may want to take advantage of that and go ahead and set that up for use at the party.

Every home party business has a training system online or in a binder that is sent to the new consultant but it doesn’t have everything in it that they need to know, you need to have your own system of training and show them some of the nuances of having a successful show.

You can’t teach a consultant everything they need to know before they have their first party. It’s good for you to be there to demonstrate how to do a party and how to field questions and show how some of the products work together.  What you can do is set them up for success at their show by assisting them to have the right things in place before their first show starts. They will feel more empowered as a consultant and will more likely feel ready for their next show when you have a solid training plan. Training your consultants will show them how to train their own team members. Having them host their own first show will also teach them how to train their hostesses as well … but hey.. that’s another blog post.

Think back to when you first became a consultant, remember your training? What was it like? Was it good? Was there something you would have done differently? Are you training your consultants effectively? Are you empowering them to take control of their business and run with it? How do you do your consultant training?

We would love to hear from you and find out how many of you have created your own training manuals. If you have not created a training manual and you need some great ideas on what should be covered check out our new system under ‘memberships’.  Make it an awesome day and we can’t wait to see what everyone has to share!

Charlotte Salafia and Jody Maley

www.homepartyplanningbusiness.com

“Where it’s not just about the destination, but the journey to get there.”