by Sr. Director Cindy Hurst

Make July count!!!! July is the first month of the new Seminar year and is the month that you want to get your new Seminar year off to a great start. Mary Kay always said, "Many a race was won at the starting gate." Now is the time to get on track for success.

Step One: Determine what your new Seminar goals are. Break down your goals into yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily increments. If you are so new in Mary Kay that you do not even know what you are working for, then select a retail $ amount that you want to shoot for on a daily or weekly basis. It will not take you long to get some tangible goals as you learn your skills, marketing plan and all that is available to you. You need to focus on goals and activities in the following categories: Wholesale, retail, interviews, recruiting, classes, faces, basics. Everything comes from daily discipline in these categories. Once you determine what you want to accomplish by this time next year and break down the goals, make your new goal poster with visuals to track you activities.

Step Two: Schedule your Mary Kay working time on your calendar using a weekly plan sheet. Select the dates and times you have available to work. Post your unit meeting and functions calendar on your plan sheets so you have those times reserved for meetings and can utilize unit functions as selling and recruiting events, working your business full circle according to what is going on in your unit this month.

Step Three: Make your sales plan. Once you have decided how much product you want to sell or how many selling activities you want, then you can develop a plan of action to realize this goal. Use all avenues of sales including:

On the Face - Facials, Skin Care Classes, Velocity Teen Classes, Advanced Color Classes or Brush Clinics, Fragrance & Gift Shows, Ready for Bed Classes, Hairy Leg Parties, Lips to Hips (Anti-Aging), etc. Don't forget to overbook and don't forget to Dovetail.

On Paper - Preferred Customer Program

On Line - Customer Specials for Email Customers, promote Mary Kay website shopping

On the Go - Set 15 minute appointments with clients to show them 1-4 product lines that do not have to be explained, can be bought on sight, smell, touch, such as Satin Hands, Spa, Colognes, etc. Select 1 or two focus products to have as 'Featured Products' for the week or month. Prepare detailed product information and positioning statements romancing the features and benefits of the product. Write or type this information out so that you can simply read the information to your client using key selling phrases. By the time you present this one single product to 25-50 customers you will have the product features and benefits committed to memory.

On Shares - Select 3-5 customers to be silent show hostesses to help you sell product on shares (hostess credit). The week of July 1 is a great time to do this so that your silent show hostesses can help you sell product during a short week with the Fourth of July holiday and also the week you are at Seminar, (like unemployment) to increase sales volume. Many people have family and friends over during the Fourth visiting and these can be new potential clients when silent show hostesses complete sales tickets. As this silent show hostesses sells product for you for a portion of the sales in free product, she is getting a feel for showing product, seeing money change hands, and is in the developing stages of building a customer base, the next natural step is to interview her and sign her as a personal recruit.

Week One: Customer Service Week. Week one of the month should always be your week for scheduled customer service. Many people get paid at the beginning of the month and that is when they have dispensable income. If you will do all your customer service during one week you accomplish many things:

Time management - you contact your clients at opportune times for purchases; you can invite them to upcoming unit functions for selling and recruiting purposes; use the first week when you are calling clients to book the remainder of the month solid, don't forget to ask for referrals; use the remaining three weeks to selling appointments and interviews; the sales generated from your customer service week guarantees your wholesale order and cash flow for the month. If you mail your reorders to clients it will take about two week turn around to get your money. If you mail products instead of delivering them time and energy is freed up for selling appointments and interviews. Always include a self address and stamped return envelope, also samples of products they have not seen. I believe you should hand deliver products only under the following four conditions: 1) customer is out and desperate, 2) Really big orders to collect money to order 3) Opportunity to increase sell with on the go appt. showing new products, or 4) Opportunity to conduct interview. Leadership - your recruits will do what you do. If you take care of your customers by systematically calling them then you are not only making sales, but creating a business for the future. Your recruits will follow your leadership and this repeat business becomes your guaranteed income and guaranteed production. If you have recruits that function like you do then your order as well as their orders will go in by the 15th of the month, making qualification for cars, diq, etc., easier because you will not be stressed with it all going in at the end of the month.

Accountability - you must take the initiative and develop a system of calling your customers on a routine basis. It is your job to contact them, not their job to hunt you down to buy product. If you do not call your clients almost 100% of them will change to a product more convenient to buy, or buy from any consultant they can run into never feeling any loyalty to you, which you have not earned any. If you tell your clients about the four points of your customer service during your initial facial presentation, they will look forward to and expect these calls. If you do not know what the four points of customer service is, contact me.

Appreciation - I suggest having a Phone-a-thon during the first week of July. Contact all your clients and tell them how much you appreciate their business, their customer loyalty, for helping you have another successful year in Mary Kay, and for helping you complete your Seminar goal of __________________ (consistency club, all four quarters as a Star Consultant, being in the top 10 of your unit, Queens Court of Sales, whatever). People like to feel appreciated, like to be associated with success, like to know they make a difference. Conducting a phone-a-thon is a great way to accomplish all of these objectives and kick off the New Year with a bang. You can give discounts if you choose, but do not necessarily have to. The point is to contact every client. If you give discounts, I would not make it over 10% for orders over $30 retail less tax, 15% for orders over $50, 20% for orders over $100, not over 20% on any order. You can easily have a $1000 day or $1000 week.

Step Four: Order Inventory Accordingly. If you did not do a large order at the end of June you may need to do an order immediately to meet customer demand. If you have plenty of inventory then you may be able to wait until later in the month to order after you have generated your July sales. If you are going to have 'Featured Products' then you need to order multiples of those selected products. Once you determine what your 'Featured Products' are, set a goal to sell 10, 20, 50, 100 of those individual items. You probably will have to order extras above what is on your shelf to meet that goal. For example: If you decide your featured product is matching lipstick and lip gloss you could prepackage the lip and gloss in cellophane, Mylar or clear Chinese boxes, close with curly ribbon or tulle. Carry these beautifully wrapped packages in a basket everywhere you go so that the colors are eye-catching. Lipstick, $13; Lip Gloss, $13 = $26 retail x 10 = $260;  x 20 = $520;  x 50 = $1300;  x 100 = $2600. Carry related products to cross sell, such as lip liners, lip primer, satin lips.

July can be a great month for you and the launching pad for a great year. Stretch your imagination, stretch your dreams, stretch you physical body, stretch outside your comfort zone. People are everywhere. Many people are displaced because of holidays, vacations, visiting. If you are out in the field working you have an opportunity to meet these people and develop them into customers, but you will not meet them if you do not get out of your house or office, circulate, and stir the pot. July is prime time to meet and develop in town and out of town customers, which you can turn into in town and out of town recruits. July is the time for you to either get ahead or get behind on your goals. You get to choose and you are in control. The slate is fresh and clean, everybody is equal on July 1. Where do YOU want to be this time next year? A jump start out the starting gate can help put you in VICTORY LANE!!!!