Things I've Learned as a New Consultant

Well, my open house didn't go too badly, money wise. In fact, I had twice as many people there as I did my JumpStart. As far as function-wise, I consider my JumpStarts and Open Houses both disasters.

But the thing is I have learned a ton about holding Gatherings from only having two. A few pointers I've learned:

1) When doing your Idea Book walk-through, don't try to introduce the entire book. It will bore people. They are anxious to look through it themselves. Instead, go through and pick out things that interest you. I used my consultant wish-list as a guide. I pointed out Cherish, the Lvl 1 kits some of my favorite stamp sets, and emphasized the Stamp Of The Month.

2) On your first Gathering keep things simple! Don't try to do an entire page unless you really feel confident about creating an entire one, and have the resources to pay for all the materials. Do a touch-n-take instead, a simple tag using the products you got with your consultant kit. Search the Artwork boards for ideas, or look through the CTMH website, they have ideas for artwork for new consultants. I have even gone on the web and looked for ideas there too and envisioning them with CTMH products. I've gotten some fabulous ideas using both these methods.

3) Provide excellent customer service even when you make a mistake. This was a big one on my Jumpstart. My bank did not deposit the money for my order properly and so instead of the promised 10 days to get the order back to my customers it took over two weeks. What I found helped was always keeping my customers informed when new information was available. I'm sure they were a little upset because they had hoped to have their products sooner but at least they were trying to knock down my door enraged.

I have another gathering on Feb. 9th and I hope to take all that I've learned so far and improve on my delivery.