How do home sales work?

Home sales: our tips for success

Are you a VDI? We'll show you how to sell from home successfully !

1st stage: preparation

The day of the sale meeting, you need to arrive early to prepare everything at your hostess's house if you have one, or prepare your reception room at home beforehand. Don't forget to bring or take out the collection you want to present.

Don't forget your catalogues if you have any, pens, order forms and envelopes for orders and payments. Providing small gifts can build customer loyalty, so don't hesitate to offer them !

Presentation is a key selling point. Just as shops use their windows to attract customers, highlight certain pieces from your collection and create a cosy space that will put your customers in the right frame of mind.

You can also provide pastries and cakes to eat, as well as tea and coffee. However, reserve the breakfast or snack break for the end of the sale so as not to distract your customers.

Stage 2: Welcoming guests

Everything must be ready when your first customer or customers arrive! First impressions always count.

Find out about your customers beforehand if you can. It's always more pleasant for guests to feel that you're involved in their well-being. If you're staying with a hostess, don't let her down, quite the opposite. Welcome all the guests, but don't hesitate to thank your hostess in front of them to put her in the spotlight.

What's more, we recommend that you give her a small gift to say thank you, different from that given to the guests if you're giving them one too.

Step 3: Running home sales

For a successful door-to-door sale, customers need to be attentive and have a good time. So keep your presentation short, warm and to the point. To do this, keep smiling throughout the presentation, make your guests laugh and highlight the advantages of your products.

We recommend that you quickly introduce the brand you work for and its commitments, explaining why you wanted to join it. If your guests are novices or you're seeing them for the first time, explain what home selling is and what its advantages are.

If you're working with a hostess, explain her role and the benefits she derives from it to encourage your customers to become hostesses themselves.

After introducing your sale at a meeting, you can present the clothing collection and show a few highlights. Don't hesitate to ask your customers what they're looking for and what type of clothes they'd like to see.

Afterwards, the best way to convince them is to try them on for size !Your hostess is your best asset and the person you need to get involved: so ask her to step in and be your model during the presentation. She'll be delighted and feel privileged.

4th stage: advising and concluding

After showing part of your collection and answering the questions, pass on your catalogues. Each guest will be able to see all the clothes in your fashion collection. That's when you'll be able to give advice.

Listen to your potential customers, offer to do a quick study of their body shape to help them choose the right clothes, advise them on choosing the right colours... in short, be there for them !

Don't forget that you're here to help your customers with their purchases. After the advice, it's time to move on to the conclusion. Explain to them spontaneously that they can place an order today, whether for one garment or several, and that you will take care of their requests personally. Following your advert, spend time with your customers to collect order forms.

Also take the opportunity to explain that you're always recruiting new hostesses and that you'd be delighted to organise a sale at their home, at the date and time they prefer. Remind them that hostesses enjoy significant benefits...

Step 5: Thanking customers and completing the home sale

After collecting the order forms and responding to all the guests' requests, it's time to finish your home sale. If you've planned pastries and cakes, invite your customers to help themselves.

If you're at your hostess's house, thank her publicly in front of all the guests. Once again, she should feel privileged. You can decide with her beforehand on a future date, in which case you can announce it to the guests present.

Also thank the guests and leave a personal note for those who want to attend the next meeting or who are interested in becoming hostesses.

How do you succeed in home sales?

In addition to the challenges of starting up as a VDI (independent door-to-door salesperson), there are also those of being a successful door-to-door salesperson.

How can you find new customers and maintain a quality relationship? How can I develop my network to achieve my sales targets? How can I earn enough to work full-time in doorstep selling?

Elora gives you the keys to success in home selling.

• The advantages of door-to-door sales and VDI status

Are you hesitating to leave the security of a salaried job to become a home-based sales entrepreneur?

The home shopping sector is doing well. Figures from the FVD (Fédération de la Vente Directe) show that the sector is going from strength to strength: home shopping accounts for 30 million purchases a year in France. In 2021, the sector recorded growth of 2%, representing sales of over €4.5 billion.

VDI status also allows you to hold multiple jobs. With a few exceptions, it is perfectly possible to have a salaried job and sign an employment contract to work as a VDI.

What's more, the process of becoming a VDI is extremely straightforward. Initially, you are treated as an employee and are covered by the Social Security system.
If your earnings reach a certain threshold, then registration with a professional register becomes compulsory. You will then be covered by the self-employed workers' scheme (TNS).

What is door-to-door selling?If not the opportunity to become an entrepreneur who takes pleasure in his work?

• Become a successful VDI

Why home selling? Becoming self-employed, making a living from your passion, increasing your income... there are many advantages to becoming a VDI.

To succeed, you need to stack the odds in your favour.

o Set an objective for each meeting

How to boost home sales ? Most salespeople are looking to increase their sales. To do this, define a desired turnover and income, a number of monthly meetings to organise, a customer file to develop..

Be methodical and think ahead: at sales meetings, record every customer present and select the host or hostess for your next door-to-door sales meeting. Do the same at all your meetings.

Whatever your objective, it will help you stay on course to achieve it.

o Don't neglect VDI training

Depending on the company you represent, you will be offered training to launch your business as an independent door-to-door salesperson.

The training aims to give you all the information you need about the company and its products/services. You will also learn how to organise your first sales meeting. Finally, marketing strategy and door-to-door sales techniques are generally part of the VDI training programme.

o Work on your customer network

A door-to-door salesperson who has followed the training provided by the company has the keys to developing his or her customer network: from acquiring new customers to building customer loyalty, including recruiting a hostess to host sales meetings. Digital marketing tools (email, social networks, website) are great ways of maintaining the special relationship between a VDI and each of its customers.