Love It!

Gina-
Love the laundry room! It reminds me of my old one :( Can you snapfish the pix to me so that I can add them to my album? Love the way that you got Tigger to pose...I may see dots in my laundry room's future.

Erika

New Expressions in my Home

My daughter took some of these pictures, so they are a little blurry, but I thought I would share my funky laundry room with you. It's not for everyone, but I do love it! I also put up a custom expression in my Paris-themed bedroom and bathroom. Gina

Updated Color Sample Sheet

Hi All,
I've updated the color sample sheet with the two new colors and have published it on the web if you want to use it. Here is the link:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pusH-8yl4Aey5XBfWedhGWg&output=html

When you print it, you have to play with the margins a bit to get it to fit on one page. I just removed the top and bottom margins and it worked out fine.

If you would like me to email you a clean excel copy to use instead, I'd be happy to. Just let me know.

Thanks - Gina

Hostess Packets

Hi All,
I'm very excited for all of us!

With regard to hostess packets, I try to get them to the hostesses 2-3 weeks in advance of their show. I include 2 catalogs, a hostess letter (found in the document library), 20-25 invitations (I ask for any unused ones back), a color sample sheet with all the colors on it and a copy of the specials for the month. I usually jot a personal note on the hostess letter since it seems so impersonal. I usually just say that I'm looking forward to doing their show and that the new catalog is great. I've also started including one of the new customer brochures. It's nice if you haven't seen it yet.

I will attach the updated color sample sheet hopefully tomorrow. I've added the two new colors, but it's saved on my computer at work.

I also have some cool new pics to upload. I went crazy in my laundry room this weekend. For those of you that haven't seen it, it's painted a light blue. I have the 'The Laundry Room - loads of fun" expression up on the bulkhead in navy blue. I ordered a sheet of 12 3 inch circles and 12 6 inch circles in navy blue and put them up all over the walls in there. It's so much fun. I wanted the impression of bubbles, and I think it works. A laundry room is definitely a room that you can try something fun like that. I may get them uploaded later this evening. They are still on my camera.

Keep up the great work!
Gina

Hey Ladies!!

Hey Ladies,

Nancy and Lisa F are kicking butt. I know Nancy's Order was in the $900.00 range and Lisa's was in the $700 - $800 range! Way to go!n I had a $500.00 order but I'm still picking up stray orders. I wanted to get the main order in without holding up the customers that placed orders in a timely fashion. I had a call from one gal who had shown a friend the catalog and she is placing an order as well. I thought I'd just enter these as individual orders.

I've had 2 people contact me about doing this just due to leaving catalogs with various people!

Gina, How far in advance do you get your hostesses their invitations etc??? What do you put in a hostess packet besides invitations?? Do you give them several catalogs??? Just want to be prepared!

Keep up the good work everyone!

Lisa Hall

Pics of Samples that Erika made for her shows

Here are some pictures of ideas Erika came up with to display at her shows to show the various uses for the expressions. Enjoy! If you have any ideas to share, please do!
Gina

Congrats to Nancy V.

Congratulations Nancy V on turning in an amazing Open House order! You ladies rock! I think we have a real kick-butt team on the rise.

Just to give you an idea of how much opportunity and potential there is in this company - I just got a lead for someone who wants to have a show. She lives 2 hours away in Ohio. I called the company because I thought it was a mistake that she was given my name as her closest demonstrator. The company imformed me that I'm the closest Senior Demonstrator to her. Unbelievable! We are definitely in wide open territory here in Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and points east. We could be the next Heidi, Heather or Nicolle. Read the latest newsletter if you aren't sure who I'm referring to. Their names come up frequently in them.

Also - the mother of one of my daughter's friends stopped by the house last night to place an order. She had seen the expressions on my living room walls when she's been by dropping off or picking up her daughter. A month ago she asked if she could see a catalog. I gladly gave her one. The order she placed was over $200! One of the items is being ordered in the new Sage color and I'm excited to see it.

Have a great day.
Gina

Thanks Lisa H! I ended up using a paw print and a name for the dog treat jar. THe smallest dog head embellishment was too big. I will email Gina pictures of what I have so far to use for ideas. I also have a "sisters" phrase to put on a picture frame. You could put just about anything on a picture frame.

Erika

Congrats for great shows Lisa H. and Lisa F.

Both Lisa's have turned in awesome shows this week!!!

Congratulations to you both. Keep up the great work!

Good luck to Erika on her upcoming first Open House.

Gina

Suggestion for Follow-Up Emails

Lisa,
In your initial reminder email, perhaps you could request a response either way. Let them know that your intention is not to keep bothering them. If they are not interested in placing an order at this time, they just need to respond that way. No hard feelings.

I think if you phrase your initial email that way, you could send one final reminder email to those you still haven't heard from a few days later. Some people really do procrastinate and will appreciate that one final push to make a decision.

Gina

Welcome Aboard Erika

Hi Erika,

Welcome aboard!! I loved the idea for the dog treat jar. I think the more we can show how this can be used the better. I know it helps me to see what others have done!

Hope to meet you someday!

Lisa Hall

HI All

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the response Gina, it was nice to hear about your open house and the success you had with that.

I have 1 party booked from my open house and 2 others that want to book we just haven't set the date, so I'm excited about that. One of the parties came from leaving a catalog in an office and they want to do a party after work on a Friday!

One challenge I've had and I know Gina and I have discussed this is getting the orders turned in on time. I sent out a reminder email after the party and still haven't heard from several people that I felt sure would order. Does anyone have any suggestions?? Nancy and I talked about it and she felt that one reminder was enough she didn't want to bug people. I sort of feel the same but not sure how to address this.

If anyone has had success with something please feel free to share.

Love the new catalog and the colors!!! I think we should all plan to go to next year's meeting!

Well take care and happy selling!

Lisa

Response to Lisa's question

Lisa,
I think it's a very good practice to educate your hostesses in advance of the party so that they can start explaining the products to their friends and get them to log in to the site and play around with the custom tool. If you can get your hands on an email list of attendees or provide an email to the hostess that she can send out, I think it would help set the stage for your shows. I would include a lot of the info that the customer corner instructions provides along with your demonstrator id and token for them to log in. People may then come better prepared to order.
Gina

New idea I got from Erika

Welcome to the blog Erika! Your open house will turn out fabulous. I know you very well and you will do a great job.

To All - Erika had a great idea for an item that she can make for a sample at her shows. I'm sure she won't mind me sharing it with you. I'm thinking about making one myself. She bought a nice large glass jar with a lid. She purchased a dog face embellishment to apply to the jar and she is going to fill it with dog treats. You could add a customized dog name as well. I also thought you could buy several 2 inch 'paw' embellishments to put randomly around the jar as well. Great idea, Erika. Thanks!

She also noticed the fine print on the customer incentive forms that says we, as demonstrators, are able to purchase one of each of the hostess incentive expressions at half off during the month they are being offered. That's a great way to stock up on some nice inexpensive expressions that you could give away as door prize drawings or a hostess gift.

I did an open house this week that was a lot of fun. The hostess had 3 vendors in her home, myself, Tastefully Simple and PURSEnally Yours. We were each set up in various parts of her home and she had quite a turn-out. Everyone was very excited about our products and most had not heard of it before. I can't wait until next week as I close it out and find out how well it did. One lady ordered over $100 worth right then and there. The down side to having a party like this is that you don't really get to do your 'spiel'. I brought 3 demo samples with me and ended up giving 3 demonstrations whenever I had several people that were showing interest. The up side to a show like this is that I got to spend one on one time with a lot of different people explaining the product. The photo album was a hit. It's one thing to look at a catalog, but yet another to see how it is actually used in real homes. I added the pictures I took from Lisa Hall's home and they went over really well.

One more piece of info for you. Once you've started submitting orders for open houses, the company will respond to that by referring people to you. As people go online and look at the website and express interest to the company in finding a demonstrator or learning more about becoming a demonstrator, you will receive an email from the company with all the contact information on that person. Be sure to check your email almost daily. You only have 2 business days to make contact and let the company know that you've made contact or the information will be passed along to another demonstrator. Once you've made contact, you will click the link in the website near the document library called 'Referral Tracking' and fill out the 'Action' tab that you've contacted the customer.

I'm out of town (going to the beach!!!!) beginning at noon today, but always feel free to call my cell if you have ANY concerns or questions. It's just a weekend with girlfriends, so don't feel bad about calling if you need to.

Good luck in your open houses and happy selling!

By the way, I looked at the new catalog online and it looks fabulous!!! I should be getting my catalogs today or tomorrow. Also, note that there are 2 new colors. A wine color (Bordeaux) and a Sage color. I was really hoping for a Turquoise, but these are very nice colors.

Hey Miss Gina!

This is great! Although I feel so out of the loop being all the way up here and everyone else is "home"! I think that the bookmark idea is great. I will keep you posted on my first open house. It is hard when you only know a handful of peope...hopefully they will all think that it is as cool as I do. I did get an email from one of Linda Luken's friends that lives in Ft. Lauderdale. She was at Linda's and now wants a catalog. This could work out well!

Talk to you soon.

Erika

Very Helpful

Thanks for the tips Gina, yes I can see where those suggestions will work well. I'm already finding that people have let others look at the catalog as I've had people I don't know log onto customer corner. I do think it helps to let the catalogs "go where they may!"

I may have some other questions as I work through the order process but it seems pretty simple. Thanks for the over $50.00 freebie reminder. I had forgotten that!!

I followed up with little email to the people that attended by party thanking them and reminding them of the closing date. I wonder now if I should have sent an email after they received the invitation to let them know a little about what to expect. I know the postcard has my ID # and token but I still don't think people got how to use that. I may mention this to my hostess as an idea, any thoughts?

Have a great weekend!

Lisa

Reply to question on handling customer receipts

Lisa,
Your party was wonderful! It's definitely more challenging to have it at your own home though because you are playing hostess and demonstrator at the same time and you know everyone who is there.

When you are hosting an open house in someone else's home, you won't necessarily be giving them a house tour, but hopefully the hostess will already have an expression up in their home that people could see. It's best to get everyone in the same room with all of your tools and samples and capture their attention for 15 or 20 minutes to do the "spiel". The spiel should consist of describing the product and it's various uses (it can be used on so much more than just walls although that's the most common use obviously), showing them how the catalog is organized into environments paying special attention to the embellishments and how they are sized and priced, showing them any samples you have brought with you and doing an application demo on your demo board. I would spend a few minutes on the "double up rewards" benefit for hosting a show and talk about the free and half priced product they would earn. I think it's also important to work into the spiel how you got your start and how much you enjoy selling this product and how the company is still in it's infancy and it's a great time to sign up!

After you've gotten all that out of the way, my parties usually turn into a format similar to what was going on in your home. People form groups and look at the catalog or the photo albums and ask each other's opinion about what they should buy to put on "that one wall in my living room". If you have access to a computer, it's very useful to show people how to use the design tool online (make sure you give them each a customer corner instruction sheet and a sample to take home). I also offer to help anyone with a custom order right then and there.

As far as the order forms go, I rarely use them. I have them sitting out and if someone is placing their order that night, I will have them fill it out and I'll total it for them, but if they are planning to go home and think about what they want to order, I just tell them to either email the order to me or to the hostess. Make sure that you educate your hostesses on the monthly incentives before you leave that night. Each month they offer a free expression (usually a welcome sign) if you spend more than $50. The hostess will need to ask the customer what color they want that expression in. You don't want to end up sitting down at your computer at 11pm on the last day of the month to submit the open house order and find that you have these unanswered questions. The specials will change at midnight and they won't allow you to go back and order a July special item on August 1st. Also keep in mind that those free items are NOT automatically added to the order. The system will prompt you that they qualified for it, but it's up to you to enter the item number into the system for it. Otherwise, they won't get it.

I was talking to Monica about this a little bit last night, and I'll share this with the rest of you. I try to get my hostess packet out to the hostess 3 weeks in advance of the open house. I use a large clasp envelope and put in it a catalog, a hostess letter that you've filled out with the show date, time and location (available in document library), a copy of the specials for that month (also available in the document library), invitations, a business card and I also include one of my color sample sheets where I've taken the time to put a sample of all the colors on it. It's a better representation than the catalog (I usually assign this job to my 10 year old daughter!). I either drop that off or mail it to them. I find that they end up using that same envelope to keep themselves organized with any outside orders they may collect and money throughout the week leading up to closing the show. I also make an envelope for each show for myself where I write the hostess name on the outside of it and keep any order slips, scraps of paper that people have written their orders on, design tool printouts, email correspondence, checks, etc. in. It's especially helpful when you have multiple shows open at once. In my email box, I also create personal folders for my shows and keep any communication or emailed orders filed in them. I will usually call it 'Jones Show in Process' and once the order has been submitted to the company, I'll rename it 'Jones Show Submitted' and once the hostess has received the product and there are no open action items for the show, I'll rename the folder yet again to 'Jones Show Closed'. I'm a little bit OCD, okay well maybe a lot! You certainly don't have to do things my way, but as I mentioned to you before, I didn't have any guidance and these are things I did that seem to be working for me. I adjust things as I go and you will too! I welcome everyone's ideas. If you are doing something that works well, share it with the whole team.

As far as catalogs being "borrowed" for the week, I found that many came back by the time the show closed. Some were kept. I definitely do get calls from people who have seen my catalog at someone's home, so I'm no longer stingy with my catalogs like I was at first.

Wow! I didn't mean to ramble on. I hope some of my suggestions help.

Reply to stucco walls question

Lisa,
As far as stucco walls go, the company describes the product as being used on smooth surfaces. If the texture is quite rough, it will not adhere. However, a lot of builders these days are using textured walls. Erika Short's (team member of mine in Wisconsin) walls are this way in her new home. The texture is very minimal and her expressions have gone on easily and adhered well to it.

As far as rounded corners, I think it's going to depend on the font that you choose and the size of it as to whether it creases at the rounded part. I've not tried it personally, but I've been trying to figure out what to do with my chocolate brown dining room walls. I'm thinking about ordering random words in different fonts and sizes and placing them on those walls. I'm even planning to place some of them at the corners where they will be partially on one wall and the remainder of the expression on the next. My corners aren't rounded though, but it will be a nice experiment.

Gina

Queston for Gina

Hi Gina,

Thank you so much for attending my party. I really wish I would have just had you do your spiel but things get so out of hand when you know everyone at the party. It's very distracting when you have that many people and you are trying to hostess!

I can see how easy this will be to do though when you are the demonstrator! Once you have your "spiel" you have it for good! Monica and I were discussing how easy that is because even new product is just a new design, you don't need to learn features of a new product!

My question is do you have the hostess send the customer order forms home with the customer??? I didn't do that as I know all of the people at the party so I just told them to email or call me and I would figure it for them. I didn't want the hassle of having them try to return all these papers to me.

Also, from now on I am using your color chip template! I was afraid it wouldn't stick to the walls if you peeled it from the paper, but it does!! I left it on overnight and then stuck it to my wall this morning and it worked like a charm!

I did find most people wanted to take a catalog and show it to someone else. I will be curious to see how many come back with additional orders. Gina, have you found you have received additional orders that way?

I can see how the bigger the party the more difficult it is to "handle". I think the bookmark make and take idea that Nancy has might help keep everyone focused for a while. I always think the hands-0n really helps with that.

I did get a party booked so I'm excited about that. Nancy's party is next week so that should be fun!

Thanks again !

Hi Monica

HI Monica,

Looking forward to seeing you Wednesday! By the way, Gina do you know if this works on Stucco walls?? I have a friend that has that type of wall and I'm not sure. Also what about curved walls?? Has anyone tried that?

More later,

Lisa

Hi Everyone!
I'm new to this blog-talking and to the "empire" as Lisa calls it, but I am so excited! I am coming to Lisa's open house on Wednesday on my way to a teaching conference downtown Indy. I have to tell you that I am more excited about the business than I am about my teaching strategies at this point...just don't let my parents know. You better believe I will be telling all of my teacher friends about this product. I think it will be great for classrooms and schools. I love the idea of labels and decorating from classroom to seasonal!! Thanks for setting this blog up. See you all Wednesday evening!! FUN!

Hi Gina,

Thanks for the locker information!! Looking forward to the party Wednesday, I'll see you then!

Lisa

Hi Team,

Lisa - I'm glad you liked the blog. I agree that it could be a great communication tool for us.

I'm excited about getting more info on the plastic pieces that customers could use to adhere their own sample during the party. What a great idea.

As for the locker decorating, I'm guessing that the policies would vary from school to school. I think most schools would frown upon anything stuck to the outside even if it is easily removable. It might start a precedent for people to stick any kind of sticker on their locker and the poor janitors would get stuck with scraping regular stickers off. What my daughter's school does allow, as I'm guessing most do, are locker signs which are posters that are cut to locker sized dimensions that are decorated to show support for the team on which they play. My daughter plays the Mellophone in the marching band and the spirit moms for each instrument's section design a locker sign to be hung on the outside of their lockers to wish them luck throughout the marching season. I'm one of the Mellophone spirit mom's and we tend to get somewhat competitive to make sure that our child's section has the coolest locker sign!!! Of course, I'm planning to use some of our embellishments and the custom tool to give me an edge this year! :) I'm hoping that the winter catalog will include more musical embellishments. I was very disappointed in how little of that was in the spring catalog.

Lastly, this past weekend I went to visit another member of my team, Erika Short, who recently moved to Madison, Wisconsin. Her new home is decorated beautifully and she has some great expressions up on her walls. I took some pictures while I was there that I will share with you as soon as I'm home for 5 straight minutes! I took Nancy's suggestion, from a graphic designers perspective, and tried to capture entire wall spaces rather than just the expression itself. I agree that it's important to showcase how and where it was used.

Gina Cook

Hi Gina,

Thanks so much for setting this up!! This is going to be a wonderful resource for all of us.It's great to have a computer expert on our team as I think the rest of us aren't all that computer-savvy, or maybe I should just speak for myself.

We recently had two people join our team. Lisa Fitzwater (fabredwater@aol.com) is a great friend of mine and a professional interior designer. Lisa is an ASID interior designer and will help us immensly if we have questions about placement, color etc. Don't be afraid to email or blog her and ask advice! I know I won't. Lisa is the designer I worked with on my home and , if I do say so myself, it looks great! I can't say enough about how wonderful it will be for all of us to have access to her wealth of knowledge and understanding of color and great design.

Monica Smith is another wonderful friend of ours from Warsaw Indiana and we are excited to have Monica on the team!! Moncia currently teaches kindergarten and has a beautiful home on Chapman Lake. I think Monica's moniker is Dialogue Decor, but I'm not sure if that's correct. I love that name. Monica let us know if that's official. She will bring great enthusiam and ideas to our venture! I am especially looking forward to hearing from the teacher's perpective! You can give me ideas on how to present this to teachers as you know that's one of my target markets.


Nancy also had an great idea we might want to try. Nancy , as you all know, is a graphic designer and has access to some great tools for us. Nancy is going to try having some plastic-like material cut to book-mark size with a hole punched in one end. She will then give one to each attendee at a party and let them try adhering the "free" small expression they receive to the bookmark. This lets them feel comfortable with the product. If, however, they want to take their expression home and use it someplace that's fine. She thinks right now she can do this at no cost. We'll see how it goes. Nancy, keep us posted.

Thanks again Gina for setting this up. This will be a great site for us to post photos, ideas , ask questions or just vent if we need to. Having been in sales for a looooooong time I know it's great to have someone to celebrate or commisserate with!

I'll have to read the fine print regarding websites from the company. Don't want to violate any rules! I guess we should all check that.

My first party is Wednesday and I think Monica is coming so Gina will be able to meet her. My address is 10482 Tremont Drive, Fishers, IN. Gina you can take 146th to Cumberland Road. Turn right on Cumberland and take that to 106th St. Turn left on 106th and go about 1/2 mile to Tremont. You can only turn right into the subdivision and then take the first right. Follow that to 10482. We are a reddish brick house next to 2 white brick houses. The party starts at 7:00 and I should have about 8-10 people. I'm looking forward to seeing how people react.

Happy Selling and let the empire building begin ( HA HA) !!

Lisa

PS I showed the catalog to my 16-year old neice, Abby and she loved it as I thought most 16 year olds would. Is it possible for kids to decorate their lockers in schools?? Wouldn't this be a great non-permanent way to personalize those and then just take it off at the end of the year! Just think how satisfying it would be to rip off the boyfriends name if he dumped you!

My best sales tool.

My best sales tool has been my photo album. Some people just need to visualize the expressions being used in various ways. I purchased an inexpensive photo album and even ordered my company name "Talking Walls" to adhere to the front of it. I ask my hostesses to email me photos of their expressions once they have them up or if it's someone I know, I'll go over and take the photo myself. Be sure that when you are taking photos, you get more than the expression itself. It's more helpful to be able to see the entire space that the expression is being used in.

Gina Cook
#770325
talkingwalls@sbcglobal.net

New Blog

Hello Team! I've created this blog so that we can share photos and ideas with each other. I have added all team members as of today to be able to post to this blog, but if you are unsure of how to do that, feel free to email me your ideas and photos and I will post them for you. I'm open to suggestions.

I will work on posting some pictures over the next few days.

Gina Cook
#770325
talkingwalls@sbcglobal.net

P.S. Remember to read the company's Internet Usage Policy. Be sure not to use the company name in your posts.