Catalog 1 Social Media Images for the New Year!
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December Rep Only Webinar
Repeat Customers – The Heart of our Business
You’ve worked hard and got that customer to place their first order! Great job! Now to get them to order again and again, month after month. That is the heart of where our orders come from – our repeat customers. We are in a great industry that does not have to continually find new customers because the market is saturated and everyone has what we are selling. We sell a consumable product that needs to be replenished constantly so our largest sales volume is from repeat customers. What should we be doing to get our customers to order what they need from us month after month?
CATALOGS – We have a beautiful 48-page full-color catalog each month that has taken a lot of time and effort to produce. The catalog is an essential part of getting those orders each month so it is most important to get one to every customer EVERY month. Because the company feels so strongly about this, they do not charge us for the catalogs we give to our ordering customers each month. **If you run out of catalogs, make sure they know where to look at the catalog online.
Mailing Catalogs – If you want your catalogs mailed to your customers, make sure to get them in the mail so the customer gets them approximately 2 weeks before your order deadline. The office has a bulk mailing permit so we have the option to have our catalogs mailed out directly to our customers for only $.50 each. If you choose this option, please make sure you have placed a check mark next to each customer’s name in the Mailing Catalog section of your Rep Portal. This is a great service as the cost for a rep to mail a catalog to their customer flat (not folded) at first class rate costs an average of $1.40 each. **Please be aware that there have been issues with bulk mailings being delivered until after the order closes because they do not get the same priority as first class mail. We are very sorry this has happened but it is something that is out of our control.
Hand Deliver Catalogs – If you choose this option, you can hand each customer a catalog who has an order to pickup that month and then get the rest out to those who did not have an order to pick up. Make sure you do get those non-ordering customers a catalog! Not everyone orders every month so don’t run the risk of losing them as a customer just because they didn’t order one month. Get them a catalog by dropping one off to them or mailing it to them.
***We don’t suggest leaving a whole stack of catalogs at one spot, like the post office, and expect that your customers will get their catalog that way. You need to know who is getting a catalog so you can check back with them as order deadline draws near to see if they have an order. If someone new grabs a catalog from the stack, there is no way of knowing and no way to follow up. DO NOT expect them to contact you if they have an order. Reminders are ESSENTIAL to getting those orders in.
REMINDERS – This is a critical part of a sales rep’s job – reminding your customers that it is time to get their order in. It is important to plan a series of reminders during the week prior to order deadline. One reminder is not going to cut it with how busy most people are these days. Utilize every way possible to reach and contact your customers to see if they have an order. No answer is not a NO. It just means they haven’t seen your reminder or haven’t had a chance to respond. You are not bothering them but providing a needed service in our very busy world.
Send an email, a text message, a Facebook post on your group page or business page, a private Facebook message, a phone call, and/or a reminder in person if you see them while you are out and about. Use every means possible to make contact with your customers. You may have to do all of these ways to reach all your customers. It is important to keep track of who to contact and how you contacted them so you do not continue sending reminders to a customer who has responded with an order or let you know they don’t need anything this time. The Ordering vs Non-Ordering Report is great for this.
ORDER DELIVERY – Another critical part to getting repeat customers is to get their order to them in a timely manner. The worse thing to do is sit on a customer’s orders for a week before letting them know it is here and ready for them to pick up. BUT I’m also not talking about practically killing yourself every month when that order comes in to get it back out within a couple of hours or stopping your entire life until every order is out of your house. I’m talking timely which can be different for every sales rep. Make sure you have done a complete inventory BEFORE any orders leave your home so you know you get everything you were supposed to. Set days and times for customers to come pick up their order from you OR let customers know when you will be in their area to deliver their order. These times should work around your schedule and your family’s schedule and not interfere with important family events.
ATTITUDE – During this whole process, your attitude will go a long way to bringing those customers back month after month. Have a smile on your face and a happy demeanor, even if it has been the worst day for you. We don’t want to have our customers feel bad that they contacted us to place an order or came to pick up their order. They are a disruption in your life but a welcome call or welcome visitor. We need and appreciate their business and they need to feel that every time we are in contact with them.
Without our customers, we wouldn’t have a business and it is essential that they know how much we appreciate them and their business!
Becky Price, RSM
Meet Marie Moore!
My name is Marie Moore. I live in Coalville, Utah. I have 3 children. My daughter is 11, and I have two boys a 7-year-old and a 3-year-old. I have been a rep for Alison’s Pantry for almost 8 years. I started just as a trial, and then ended up loving every minute of it. My family and I live on a ranch. We raise pure bred shorthorn cattle, horses, and sheep. My kids play basketball and wrestle. We enjoy being together as a family and helping grandparents. My family is a huge fan of everything that we had tried so far. My kids will go through the book and circle everything that they want. They also go through and pick out stuff for friends and teachers for Christmas. We love all the products. One of our favorites is the Farmland Shredded Smoked Pork #5586 and the Smuckers Uncrustables #3119. There are so many other items that we love.
I am still getting used to the new program and the possibility of some items being sold out or out of stock, it makes ordering early a priority. I like the addition of the restock date on the website though, so when an item is out of stock I can order it on the date that it comes back in. I only have two to three customers that put their own orders in by themselves, which made it hard at first, but I have adjusted and use a credit card for my customer’s that don’t feel comfortable with using or placing their own orders. This is part of the customer service that I like to provide. I have also had larger orders since we started so that’s different but great, even with me ordering for my customers. I love the mailing of the catalogs it has been a tremendous help with my customers as well. Alison’s Pantry is a wonderful company to work with and is extremely rewarding.
Great job on your business Marie, you are always so consistent in your sales and we enjoy having you represent us. Thank you!
Stacee Izatt RSM
Managing Sales During the Busy Holiday Season
The holidays are just around the corner which means we will all be crazy busy with shopping, holiday parties, and family celebrations. Here are some great tips to keep your Alison’s Pantry business running smoothly in the middle of it all.
Plan ahead – It’s important to schedule time ahead to work your business. Decide in advance when you will be sending out reminders, making phone calls, getting catalogs out, and anything else that needs to be done. When the time is already set aside to accomplish those important tasks, you won’t be scrambling at the last second with no time left to do what is important. Schedule time to work your business.
Share great Christmas ideas with your customers through email, Facebook, and text. One of the best things about Alison’s Pantry is CHRISTMAS! We have so many fun gifts to give, yummy treats to eat, and fixings for Holiday meals. Share all of the great ideas we have with your customers! Give them ideas of what to buy for those hard to buy people. Show them how easy holiday meals are to prepare with Alison’s Pantry products, and let them know that our chocolates and candies are must haves! Alison’s Pantry has recipes to share from our webinars, and beautifully made professional images for you to share. You can find both here on this blog.
Customer appreciation- Christmas is a great time to let your customers know how grateful you are for their business. Start planning right now what you will be giving your customers to say thank you. Appreciation makes your customers feel important and needed.
Extra reminders are important because customers are extra busy – and start early! Everyone is so slammed during the holiday season, so start early with reminders and don’t stop until they order or tell you they don’t need anything. Your customers will appreciate you going the extra mile to remind them since they have so much on their minds and it’s easy to forget.
Hopefully these tips will help your holiday season with Alison’s Pantry go more smoothly. A little bit of pre-planning and going the extra mile will really make a huge difference for your business!
Julie Hawkes, RSM
Troi Williams – Shoshoni, WY
Hello, my name is Troi Williams. I am an Alison’s Pantry Representative in Shoshoni, Wyoming. The name of my Alison’s Pantry business is Grandma’s Pantry. I have a wonderful son and daughter, son-in-law and daugher-in-law and they have blessed me with six amazing grand babies ages 11, 11, 10, 10, 6 and 3 (no twins). In addition to Alison’s Pantry, I work as a substitute teacher at Shoshoni Elementary School, and I am the publisher and editor of our town’s small weekly newspaper.
I first became acquainted with Alison’s Pantry several years ago when the opportunity to become a rep came to my attention. It was just a year after my family had been in a nearly fatal car accident. My injuries were pretty serious, and our medical bills were through the roof. My husband Dana and I were looking for ways to try to supplement our income when I found Alison’s Pantry. Due to his work schedule, he helped occasionally when he had time, but that wasn’t often.
During that time, I served customers only in the Shoshoni area and east end of Fremont County. It was during that time I fell in love with the products Alison’s offered. I hadn’t been a rep long when our life circumstances changed again, and it was very hard to put in the time required to do a good job, so I stepped down.
We both loved the AP products, so I continued to buy them from other reps over the years until the summer of 2014, when an opportunity for our area opened again. This time, Dana and I discussed this opportunity at length and decided to dive in and commit to seriously working and growing our AP business as a team. We were amazed at how the company had grown through the years and were very excited to become reps again.
When we started in July, we took our customer list and went to each home on the list, introducing ourselves and handing out catalogs. We were so excited to attend the 2014 Food Show the following September and learn as much as we could about all the products we carry. The food shows are always an excellent tool for reps. We came back equipped to tell our customers anything they needed or wanted to know about our products, because we were blessed with the opportunity to sample them and learn about them early on in our AP adventure. We had big plans for growth.
Then, in December of 2015, the love of my life, best friend and team partner passed away. Needless to say, it was a hard blow and left me reeling, not knowing what to do next or how to do it. After some thought and overwhelming support from my own family and from my Alison’s Pantry family and customers, I decided Dana and I had started this adventure together, and I wasn’t about to quit. Even though I wasn’t exactly sure how to move forward, I was determined to do it. And, I’m so happy I did.
I think the most important aspect of my AP business is knowing that even more than just offering high quality products to our customers, we are in the people business. Without first caring for our customers, it doesn’t matter what we offer. I believe it’s essential to have a genuine empathy for my customers. As a result, they have become my friends. I listen carefully to what each of them share with me. This isn’t limited to things related to AP. It includes the things that are going on in their daily lives, their families, special events, celebrations and adversities. I always follow up with them to let them know I am truly interested in and concerned with how they are doing. In my view, this is what friends do and it plays a critical part in my relationships with each of them. When what they tell me relates to AP products or ordering/delivery, I pay close attention to those things as well, seeking the best possible ways to better serve them. It’s crucial to always have a positive attitude, because even if you aren’t aware of it, they can tell when you don’t.
Webinars are also an extremely useful tool for reps and customers alike. I always invite all of my customers to join me for our webinars each month (when not for reps only), occasionally doing a drawing for those who choose to attend.
I deliver to all my customers, currently free of charge. With customers throughout Fremont County, I deliver to customers as far as 50 miles away each month.
I do three drawings and one contest monthly and every four to six months have a contest for my existing customers to encourage them to refer new customers. I also offer a 5% discount for each customer who refers an ordering friend. I don’t put any limits on this. I also do a drawing for a larger prize each quarter or six months to encourage my customers to refer family and friends to Grandma’s Pantry. One of my customers always wins a great prize they can talk about with their co-workers, friends and neighbors, leading to potential customers.
I have a set schedule each month for reminding my customers that it is time to order. I have set times for emailing, texting and calling my customers the week prior to order week as well as throughout order week. I’m certainly not a Facebook guru, as yet, but I am working to incorporate my Grandma’s Pantry page into that schedule, as well. It is a great tool for connecting with customers about ordering, how to use some of our products and to announce prize winners. I send a “Pre-order Week” letter the week before order week. Then, a “Monday Letter” goes out the morning of the first day of order week. Reminder texts and emails are sent Tuesday through Saturday for those I haven’t yet heard from or who haven’t yet placed an order. Calls are made Thursday through Saturday for those who don’t text or email. I keep sending texts until I hear back from them or they have placed an order. No answer IS NOT A NO. Many of them get back with me fairly quickly. Several of them tell me thank you for reminding them throughout the week because they’ve been so busy with their jobs and family.
During delivery times, I try to take a few minutes to visit with each customer and when they try something new to ask how they like it. My family has been amazing at helping me with deliveries. My mom and dad especially love to visit with the customers, too.
Alison’s Pantry offers so many great products, and I have so many favorites its hard to name just one, my list is really long. I will say I do love our Daily’s Bacon, as do the grand kids! I also love most of our Soup Supreme soups, Janey Lou Cinnamon Rolls, anything Lehi Roller Mills and all of our wonderful spices and mixes.
Alison’s Pantry has been and continues to be an amazing journey that I hope to continue for years to come. Thank you to everyone who works so hard to make Alison’s Pantry run smoothly and to be such a great company to work with. I am very thankful for my RSM, Becky. She is an amazing lady and has helped me so much!
I am thankful to be a part of the wonderful Alison’s Pantry family.
#11 Update Email
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Please use one of these Vistaprint links to access our AP branded templates for business cards, postcards, etc.
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Webinar #12: Holiday Tips & Recipes
Introducing the professional chef Alex, who is Stacee’s son! This webinar he covers two dishes using our great Alison’s Pantry products. There is a bonus video of the third dish below that we couldn’t add to the webinar because of time constraints. So if you want to view that, please click below. The 2nd part […]
This month’s webinars are some more great cooking ideas with our RSMs. We have three videos today. The first is from Stacee, where she shows us how to make Sauces, Spreads and Gravies to Dress up any Holiday Dinner. The second video is from Julie: Quick & Easy Holiday Meals. Third is from Becky and she shows us some great ideas for Holiday Baking and Candy Making. Enjoy the movie!
Here is the featured video for the Sweet Tooth Fairy and Sweet Sugarbelle products
Magic Sweet stand holiday bundle
Shape Shift Cookie Decorating holiday bundle
Below are the handouts from the webinar. I hope you enjoyed them!
#12 Webinar handout
From my point of view…
After three months of our new system of ordering, we should be more familiar with the simplicity of our new website. Yes, it has come with a few challenges, but along with a new way of doing things, it has made ordering so much easier, faster and more efficient. Are you using it to its full potential?
We’ve heard many comments and suggestions, some of them plausible, some not so much. We welcome your input and are working to implement some of the suggestions you have given. As reps we have been given a new way of servicing our customers, a more efficient and up-to-date system. We all remember how slow and limited our old portals system was, how refreshing it is to have the ability to see in-stock items and to give our customers the quick return orders and products that they want. With these changes, have you made changes in the way you operate your business to keep up?
In my own personal rep business, these changes have required me to change some of the ways that I run my business. One thing that has not changed is the need to contact each one of my customers. I use texting, messaging and email to accomplish this. No response does not mean “NO”, it just means that they didn’t see my message. I don’t stop until I reach them. I have found that when I speak to them in person or on the phone, the orders are bigger. Maybe saying “NO” to me is harder than it is to the text. Give it a try. Set a goal and personally contact your customers this month. Say something like, “With the holiday season, I know that you are as busy as I am, but I didn’t want you to miss out on anything you need for your dinner, like the ham or sweet potato casserole or of course our beehive rolls. Did you need anything?” See if your orders are a bit higher and if you get more of them. I also plan and watch the calendar so that I know of the holidays and vacations of my customers. I must be up to date so that I don’t miss out on the important personal contact. I have taken advantage of the mailing program that the company offers to mail out my catalogs each month to all my customers. Even though this has saved me hours of drive time, gas, and wear and tear on my car, this doesn’t replace that personal contact. It does however, relieve the stress of seeing the catalogs sit on my table begging for me to find the time to deliver them. My customers love it and are so happy to receive them. I love it too! It is well worth the investment in my business. We all know that our customers like to hold and see the catalogs. What are you waiting for? Get on the mailings!! Your time is worth it!
When it comes to getting my customers to order online themselves. Patience is the key Each month the customers ordering has increased. As they get comfortable with the process, it will get easier. I have offered contests and gifts as incentive to place the orders themselves. The first month I had 5 customers place their own order, 2nd month 10 customers, and this last month I had 14 that did it. The name of my game is customer service and I am happy to offer the best to my customer. In my eyes, the customer is always right (even when they aren’t). I want them to be happy and I am willing to do what is best and easiest for them. If this means that they aren’t comfortable with online ordering, then I will continue to offer my services as in the past. This has required me to have the means to pay for the orders for them with a credit card. I know that operating a business at times requires risk but this is something that I am willing to do. You must do what is best for you. With time it is my hope that my customers will warm up to the idea of online ordering. My suggestion to you is to maintain the relationship, be flexible and work at making ordering a pleasurable thing. People don’t like hard things. Make working with you the easy and rewarding.
Advertising is key to your business. What do you do to advertise? We are a quiet company; our advertising lies in our reps. If you don’t talk about it, then no one else is either. You must put yourself out there. Find boutiques or craft fairs to attend for the visibility. You may not sell much product there; in fact, I choose to not sell. I find it takes some of the fear out of approaching customers; they are more likely to feel less pressure. I explain that I am there to spread the news of AP in that area. Would they like to learn more? Do you have advertising on your biggest advertising ability- your car? Why not? It’s easy and we have all the clip art that you need to accomplish this. A nice window banner is about $30 dollars. Once again, all tax deductible. I also like to advertise at auctions, car shows, etc. I offer a giveaway basket in exchange for an advertising plug about my business. You can also donate to your high school booster club in exchange for a banner at the high school and receive advertising on a Friday night football game. These are just a few ideas that I have embraced to help me in establishing my business in my area.
Just like we like to hear “thank you”, so do our customers. I freely give my appreciation for their support. I wouldn’t be in business without them and I know this. I thank them regularly with words and gifts and returning the support to them in their endeavors. During Christmas I offer gifts for all, just a small token of my appreciation for them. I also reward the most dedicated customers with a nice gift. These gifts are tax deductible as a business expense. They go a long way in securing my connection with the customer. I also like to offer samples regularly. Along with building sales and trying new things, they are a feel good for them customer.
Alison’s Pantry is a simple business. Simple yes, but it will still take determination, thought and action to build a successful and lasting business. I hope that I have given you a few ideas to help you establish growth. For more ideas contact your RSM. She is always willing to listen and help you. Good Luck.
Stacee Izatt RSM
New Social Media Images for the HOLIDAYS
