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As you may know, I have always disliked the word “party” as it relates to an organized, in-home selling event.  I feel as though it is a commonplace word that is overused to describe a selling situation at your typical direct sales company.  And, LikeWear is anything but your typical direct sales company!! We are still the only ones to sell merchandise featuring licensed brands and images and we are one of only a few companies to sell clothing – let alone clothes targeted to kids.  Add to that our higher than average commission rates and higher than average garment quality and we felt we needed a better term to more accurately describe our selling events and position us more appropriately within the fashion marketplace.

As such, we’ve made what I think is a critical change – not only in nomenclature, but also in approach.  Going forward, all LikeWear home-based/direct-to-customer selling events will be referred to as Trunk Shows.  By definition, a trunk show is a special event within the fashion world in which a designer puts on a special display of his or her work for review by a select group.  Sound like a familiar format?  We thought so!

Attached is a newly revised Trunk Show Hostess flyer which promotes a “private showing shopping experience” where a host and her select guests have an opportunity to not only shop our entire current Collection, but also work with a LikeWear rep to custom design unique pieces.  And by having a Trunk Show, hosts can earn free/discounted merchandise in the process!  It also reminds customers that access to our complete line, and custom designing individual pieces, is only available through a LikeWear rep and NOT available in stores.  We’ve also changed the look of the flyer and simplified the host benefits a bit so they’re easier to tally.

We think this new wording, updated flyer and simplified rewards program will much better communicate the benefits of hosting a Trunk Show and result in getting you more appointments!  We hope you agree!!!

http://www.likewear.net/rep-docs/Hostess_Program.pdf

April is a great time for house parties. The month is the official start to the new season. It’s when people do spring cleaning – especially in their kids’ closets. It’s the time to retire the stained, ripped and outgrown clothes from the winter to make way for new ones. There are end of the year teacher gifts to purchase, mothers to shop for in preparation for their upcoming day of honor and camp trunks to start packing. In other words, it’s shopping season!

We like to think of LikeWear as not your typical direct sales company as we differ in many ways from most of the companies in the industry. However, there is one very important concept that all direct sales companies share: house parties. The more sales events that a rep has/attends, the bigger their network becomes and the greater the potential for more sales events, more parties and more sales, etc., etc, etc.

In fact, so many LikeWear independent sales reps are hosting or organizing house parties this month that I thought it was important to reiterate our Hostess Rewards Program and guidelines in this week’s Monday Morning Message, excerpted below:

LikeWear funds the Hostess Program for Catalog reps. We do not provide hostess benefits for Cash & Carry sales events (due to their higher discounted “wholesale” price), however, we strongly recommend that C&C reps follow these same guidelines.

House parties are a primary way to grow your business and you want to encourage people (friends, relatives, neighbors, customers, etc.) to want to host them for you. When people host sales events for you, they are doing you a huge favor and helping you to promote your business and generate sales. As such, they deserve something special for their efforts! Everyone likes to get discounts and credits on their purchases – even if they are your sister or your best friend!! In fact, you should explain what a hostess earns to any interested customers (or even with a flyer or table display card) in an effort to line up additional home sales events. The more sales events you have/attend, the bigger your network becomes and the greater your potential for more sales events, more parties and more sales, etc., etc.

The LikeWear Hostess Rewards Program is :

• One half-priced item – party hostesses are entitled to one half-priced item as a “thank you” gift (this should be the most expensive item that the hostess is purchasing that day)
o This discount is applied to full price items only
• Hostess Credit - $5 credit for every $100 spent at the party
o This is calculated once the party is over and all sales for the event have been totaled (i.e., a sales event that generates $1,238.00 will earn the host/hostess a $60 credit)
o Purchases made by the hostess do not count toward total party sales
o This credit is to be used towards the hostess’ purchases that day (this credit is not transferrable nor can it be held over and used towards a future purchase)
o This credit cannot be applied to their half-priced item
• Free Shipping on all hostess orders (we waive the $3 flat rate house party shipping fee)
• Exclusive Access to Sales, Specials and Discounts – although we have not implemented this part yet, we fully intend to in the near future!

As mentioned, the hostess credit and half-priced item are funded by LikeWear if you are a Catalog rep. It is very important to properly note the house party identifier on all orders originating from the same party so that we can calculate total party sales (and the accompanying hostess credit) properly. Similarly, please make sure to indicate which order from the party is that of your hostess so that we can also apply the half-priced item discount as well as the earned hostess credit.

As a Cash & Carry rep, the hostess credit and half-priced item are funded by you and should be treated as a cost of doing business – a very important and worthwhile cost. Keep in mind that as a Cash & Carry rep, these hostess rewards are just guidelines. You are permitted to alter them as you wish but know that the above is what we recommend.

In concluding this Monday Morning Message, remember: the more hostesses you have, the more rewarding your business will be! Don’t forget to mention the Hostess Rewards Program during any sales events you have – your best potential host is a happy current customer!!!

Okay I admit it.  I hate Monday mornings.  It’s when “my list” is longest and sometimes I just don’t know where to begin.  That said, I usually try to wake up a little earlier on Mondays so that I can have a half hour of quiet time (while even Ken is sleeping!) to organize my thoughts, make a game plan for the week and try to get motivated!

During this morning’s solitude I was thinking about the fact that I speak to 5-10 of our independent sales reps each day to discuss various topics – table set up techniques, sales tax rules, hostess benefits, boutique store sales tactics and strategies, vendor event sales and website ordering, just to name a few.  Over the past week or so, each time I hung up the phone from one of these conversations (or completed an email exchange) I thought how much all of our sales reps could benefit from what had been discussed.  So with that in mind, I’ve decided to start a Monday Morning Message.  Each Monday morning I plan to offer a brief tip, suggestion or helpful comment that will hopefully help our reps to organize, promote and advance their business.

The first Monday Morning Message:

Consider inviting another vendor (or a few) with non-competitive products to attend/help coordinate a party.  There are entrepreneurial moms in every community.  Whether they are selling jewelry, stationery, handbags, cosmetics or women’s apparel (just to name a few) they will likely have a customer base that differs from yours.  In that way, you’ll all benefit from a more varied and (numerous!) invitee list which will hopefully translate to a better attended event – and more sales!  You should give a brief description in your invitation as to what each of the vendors will be selling.  Just think, someone who comes to the party looking for a handbag may just not be able to resist your LikeWear clothes!!  You’ll likely find too that these vendors will in turn invite you to some of their future events as well.

I hope (and will encourage) our reps to reply to the Monday Morning Messages with any comments, feedback or personal suggestions they may have on that day’s topic or anything else they would like to add.  I’m hopeful that this will help to foster a greater sense of unity.  Most of our reps don’t know one another but we are all part of the same team – if we all succeed on an individual basis, it makes the company stronger as a whole.  To that end:

“The greater the loyalty of a group toward the group, the greater is the motivation among the members to achieve the goals of the group, and the greater the probability that the group will achieve its goals.” –Rensis Likert