A Lesson Learned!

I had an interesting experience this week- ran into a customer I had not seen in years at a crop that I was a vendor at. She looked great... we spent a few minutes catching up and then I let her get started with her work and went to work my booth. I noticed as the day wore on that she was still using lots of CTMH product... just not product from me! At first this made me a little angry and sad. I had tried to contact her numerous times and she never got back to me (that had been years ago and then I had given up and relied on my monthly newsletter to reach her). After those initial feelings I did some self-reflection and came up with a few insights that I think are important to us all:

• be sure to keep up contact with your customers- even if it is only a monthly newsletter.
• be consistent with the dates that you send it on... they need to know that they can rely on you to get the information to them at the same time every month
• make sure you are offering the services that your customers need for their lives... no, this does not mean giving away things for free- you should offer a variety of workshops (cards and pages) at a variety of prices to catch all your customers... this will keep them coming back to you!
• recognize that you have competition- not just from other companies or the local scrapbook store BUT from other CTMH consultants- guaranteed if someone likes to scrapbook then they will meet up with another consultant and end up on their mailing list. The worst thing that could happen is that then they realize that they can get better service somewhere else- because they will GO where the service is! You want that to be you!
• Don't just rely on email- every few months call the customers that you have not seen or heard from in a while. Let them know you are just calling to see how they are and how they are enjoying their product. Ask if they had any questions about how something works and finish by letting them know that if they need something to give you a call. That is is!! No pressure to buy or book-they will appreciate you more for this approach.

Beat Your Best

If you are a member of the Brae-er's or the Bod Squad then you are going to love our Beat your Best Incentive (I know I have already started)!

During the period of February until the end of July you will be required to beat your best in two of the three areas that we have outlined on the chart- the chart is available for download at

http://www.4shared.com/file/216389598/47573a47/Beat_Your_Best_and_Win_a_Bod_S.html

Some of the things that are important to keep in mind:

1. This is about personal growth for your business and you will reap TONNES of rewards from this- so give it your all!!

2. You have to beat your best in two of the three overall categories but each of the 3 areas underneath the category must be better AND you still must try your best in the third category- we want to see effort!!

3. At the end of each month please send a copy of your monthly chart to your first upline- this will let them know if you are on track.

4. Sarah and I will keep you updated on who is on their way to cruisin' with us!!

Where will we be crusin'?

Sadly the Carribbean was a little out of our budget but our incentive earners will be treated to a dinner cruise on the Serendipity which leaves from the port in Barrie!!

Don't Miss the Boat and start NOW!

Business Classes from Jan Stamp Camp

Yesterday I taught two business classes- One on Studio J and one about Marketing the Stamp of the Month. If you are interested in the material then please click on the links below to access my notes!!

Click Here for the Stamp of the Month link!

Click Here for the Studio J link!

January Stamp Camp

Hello team members and fellow Bod-Squaders!! As promised here is some of the stuff from stamp camp!

This post is mostly just a few teaser pics as I get the other posts ready for this afternoon- check back soon!

The above card was created by Kim Harper using the Caboodle paper and the April SOM. Below is a card that Sarah Boddington created with Topstitch paper and the February SOM.

Part of the gang as we created the day away!!


Kim Harper (on the left) who received the Spirit of CTMH award for the unit that I belong to - the Bod Squad! Giving her the award is our unit leader Sarah Boddington!

New Use for an Old Cattie!!

We had a great discussion about Catalogue's at the unit meeting last week and one of the focus topics was on how to use your old catalogue's as a great marketing tool. The idea is to affix a sticker that explains the company and you so that the person who picks it up knows what to do to get a new catalogue. Then you just leave that treasure somewhere someone will find it!!

Here is the sticker that I use:

This catalogue is not current but many of our beautiful products are still available- as well as some new ones. If you are interested in obtaining our newest catalogue please email Brae Montgomery at braemontgomery@myctmh.com or check out the product online at braemontgomery.myctmh.com!

Feel free to use this same language!

Remember- your cattie is better off in someone's hands then on your bookshelf so take the risk and get it out there!

Eyelets by Katerina!!

Katerina is one of the very fab and talented ladies in my downline- what this girl can do with embellishments and techniques just astounds me! For those of you who attended stamp camp you got to play with and see a demonstration on our new Soft Set Eyelets and Eyelet Setter- everyone was in LOVE with the ease of this product!!

Since we expect that eyelets will now be used a lot more we had Katerina create a mini class on all the fun uses- she gave me permission to take pictures and post here for everyone to enjoy- please give her credit if you use her ideas!! I hope you enjoy!!

Getting Ready for the NEW WOTG program!!

With the changes to the workshop program that Close to my Heart offers its consultants, there has been some trepidation- in order to make yourself and your customers feel a little better about it I suggest that you create a display board and showcase what they get in the new program and how they will be able to use it!!

I created the above display board for my first workshop- Twitterpatted!! I have shown the four layouts that my ladies can make and some of the featured cards that they can also make (I could not fit all of them on the board). In included the flyer and I will be sure to have the stamp set and accessories available that also come in the basic kit PLUS those that they can add on!



In the written areas I explained that they have a lot of choice in the new program. They can chose to only scrapbook, only create cards or mix it up depending on what their needs are for that month- this I think they will love as most of them have not been able to use up all the pages we created in the old program. I am also going to encourage them to create the cards/layout that they do not have the directions for FIRST so that if they run out of time they can complete the rest at home with no problems!

The last thing I wanted to highlight for them is the BIG benefit to the changed problem- I allow three hours for our workshops and sometimes we were rushed to fit it all in so in order to do it I cut out some techniques on some of our layouts. Now I am pleased to have the time to showcase MANY different techniques during each class!! So, I placed bubbles around the cards and layouts where ever a technique was shown!!

I am so pleased at how much they will be getting from their kit and from me at the NEW workshop night!!