Are you in need of a good booking blitz?

You ever just stare at your empty calendar and think “Wow. I'm so glad I don't have any parties coming up.”

Well, unless you're feeling a little under the weather – then maybe. But for the most part, once you join a direct sales company, your calendar becomes your life-support system.

Literally – it supports your entire business.

And with no bookings, your mind fills your calendar with doubts:

• Are you really cut out for this?
• Is the market saturated?
• Can you really make money doing this?
• Was this all a waste of money? Or time?
• Is it time to bail?
• How would you even know?

In many ways, having a full calendar helps alleviate these fears, giving you peace of mind and a larger sense of confidence both in your abilities and in your decisions.

What is a Booking Blitz?

A booking blitz is a short period of time, usually a week or less, in which nearly all concentrated efforts focus on booking parties.

And while the concept of a booking blitz might seem simple enough, the truth is, that to hold a successful booking blitz (one that will leave your calendar looking full), you'll need to put together a strategy and a system.

Building Your Booking Blitz System

Gather the Right Tools

In the very least, you will need a good notebook, some good quality pens, and a variety of highlighters that won't smudge up the pens when you try to use them. If you prefer to work with pencils instead of pens, you can do that, too.

Then, set up a legend, assigning each color highlighter to a particular meaning:

• Contacted
• Followed Up
• Showed Interest
• Said Yes
• Said No
• Moved to Future Booking Blitz

These will be for the most common, but you can add any other quick status notes that you think you might need.

You can also use an electronic system, such as Evernote. Just be sure to create your legend in the same way.

The most important thing to know about your booking blitz system is that it needs to be built using tools you are comfortable with and that will work for you.

Start Creating your Lists

You're going to be creating multiple lists, starting with your main list: people you know.

In this list, include every lead you have:

• Lead slips and forms from your vendor events
• Anyone on your mailing list
• People on your friends list you think may be interested

Don't worry, you're not going to be contacting all these people. You just want to get this list as complete as possible. So put down everyone, even if you're not sure what their answer might be.

Separate Warm Leads from Cold Leads

Now that you have your master list of leads, start moving people, one by one, onto the next three lists: hot leads, warm leads, and cold leads.

Hot leads include people you have a strong relationship with and you know already have an interest in booking a party with you: your best friends, previous party hosts, and people who have asked or rescheduled a party.

Warm leads include people you already have a relationship with: friends and family, members of your group, and previous party guests.

Cold leads include people you may have been introduced to, but don't have a real relationship with just yet: new friends, people who filled out your sample form, and people you met at a vendor event.

Set up your Calendar

Although the actual booking blitz is only going to last for a couple of days, you'll need a few days or weeks to get prepared for it. More importantly, you'll need some time to get your audience prepared for it.

Your booking blitz schedule will look something like this:

• Week 1: Start warming up your warm leads and your cold leads.
• Week 2: Talk to your hot leads. Move warm leads to hot leads, move cold leads to warm leads.
• Week 3: Schedule the blitz: calling all hot leads.
• Week 4: Follow up as necessary with hot leads.

Your Booking Blitz Calendar

Week One: Start warming up your warm leads and your cold leads.

News flash: no one likes it when they haven't heard from you in just about forever and then you suddenly call up or message them and ask them if they'd like to host a party.

Not even people who have told you in the past that they want to host a party.

So, the entire point of this week is not to talk about your business — but to be their friend. Remember who you put into your hot leads list? Best friends. Therefore, you want to go through your warm leads and be their friend.

Go like their photos and their posts on social media. Comment on the jokes and memes they shared. Tell them how sweet their kids are.

Be. Their. Friend.

If they happen to ask you about your business, then by all means go ahead and answer their question. But that isn't your focus. Your goal here should be to strengthen those relationships so you can get ready for week two.

Week Two: Talk to your hot leads. Move warm leads to hot leads, move cold leads to warm leads.

Now, people from your cold leads list who have been warmed up should be moved to your warm leads list. And people from your warm leads list who have been warmed up more should be moved up to your hot leads list.

Then, you want to talk to your hot leads – your best friends.

But, just as before, you're not trying to talk to them about your business.

This week is about being their best friend. So, once again, start liking and commenting on their stuff. If they ask a question, give them some answers. Share their memes.

Start some inside jokes.

You'll notice, too, that you moved people from your warm leads onto your hot leads right before you started reaching out and chatting with your hot leads. That's on purpose.

It's an upgrade to your relationship. But also, it means you're talking to them at least twice as a friend about their interests before you even try contacting them about your business.

Your entire goal here is to make sure your hot leads — the people who are the most likely to say yes to you — don't feel like you're contacting them out of the blue or that you've had ulterior motives when you call them during your blitz in week three.

Week Three: Schedule the blitz: calling all hot leads.

Start this week by reviewing your hot leads and removing anyone you know without a doubt would not want to be contacted during your blitz. That includes anyone who:

• Has outright complained, either in private or in public, about someone else trying to ask them for a party.
• Has just started their own direct sales business.
• Has mentioned that money is tight or that they are in immediate financial trouble.

Move anyone who fits this description into a new hot leads list for a future blitz.

Once you've done that, review your planner or calendar and start scheduling when you're going to contact each hot lead and which method you're going to use (messenger, email, phone call, text).

Then, get to work.

Start calling or messaging whoever is still on your hot leads list and invite them to host a party for you.

Don't forget to implement better question techniques to help maximize your chances of getting a yes.

And while, yes, your goal here is to fill up your calendar, the bigger goal here is to not upset your friends. You've just spent two weeks helping them warm up to you, getting to know them, and strengthening your relationship. Don't throw it all away by getting pushy or spammy.

It's equally important during this week to continue engaging with your hot leads: keep commenting and like their content. Prove that you're really their friend by being their friend.

Week Four: Follow up as necessary with hot leads.

If I've said it once, I've said it a squillion times: the fortune is in the follow up. This is just as true for party booking as it is for sales.

• Go back and message or call anyone who didn't answer you when you asked during week three. Life happens, and it's possible they got called away from their messenger or phone before being able to get back to you, and then simply forgot to answer.
• Go back and message or call anyone who told you they needed to think about it or needed to consult with their spouses or partners about it.
• Go back and message or call anyone who said yes but didn't nail down a date yet.

Then, and this is the important one: go back and message or call anyone who said no and thank them again for their time and consideration.

After all, you still want them on your hot leads list. You don't want them to think you won't be their friend anymore after they've said no. So make sure that air is clear and that they know how grateful you are that they heard you out.

How Many Parties can you Book from a Booking Blitz?

Obviously, this answer is going to vary depending on a few things. How warm was your warm market already? How many hot leads were on your list when you started calling?

How many warm leads were you able to heat up? How strong was your script?

There's no telling how many parties you will get out of this blitz – but I do know one thing. You'll get more parties — more yeses — running a booking blitz with this formula than you would if you were to start calling people out of the blue.

And that's nothing to sneeze at.

#EmpowerSocial