AMERICAN SERENADE
All About In-Home Tastings
In-Home Tasting Party Options
In-Home Tasting ideas
•Couples parties
•Girls night
•Family in town
•Early evening bonfire
•Brunch
•Bridal, baby, showers
•Outdoors on the hosts patio or deck
•Always ask them to invite; friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, church members etc
How to get Invites?
•Don’t ask ‘”Want to Host?” …listen to your prospective hosts and ask the following instead:
– “Tell me about that deck you just added onto your house…wow would I love to sample coffee, tea and wine with your
friends out there!”
– “I saw your post about going to the winery last night …How about next time, we do this at home …why don’t you let
me bring the winery to you? ”
– I saw your post on Starbucks …or being out of coffee, what evening this month can I bring coffees and teas to try to
your house with your friends and family, lets have some fun! “
– “My favorite way to decompress after a bad week is a coffee and tea tasting …how about it?” FREE products for the
Host.
WINE restrictions:
•You must live in a ‘green’ state to sell wine.
•Event must be invite only and at someone’s home.
•You may only sample wine at an Hostess event where the guests receive invitations.
– Those invitations may be Facebook event invitations, email, post cards etc but each guest is invited
– Wine may NOT be sampled at an event that is open to the public, such as a vendor show or combined vendor event
where things are posted and open to anyone that would like to stop by and shop.
•You MAY sell wine via catalog at a vendor show or open event.
Tips to Getting a Tasting Booked
During the Gathering!
•Pay attention during the Tasting, did anyone say how much fun this was, ask about host gifts, mention hosting
etc.?.
– IF so follow up and ask them at check out one on one
– Try to get it scheduled during check out
– If not, then follow back up with them after they receive and taste their products.
•Remind at the end of the Gathering all the Free gifts Hostess gets and what they receive if parties are booked
•Ask the current host to explain why she booked? Mention to the guests how easy it is to prepare for a tasting.
Outside of a Gathering!
•Mention on Facebook all the free gifts the hostess received from her tasting to entice others that attended to
book.
•When following up with a potential Hostess to book a tasting don’t ask open-ended questions. Instead ask:
– What days of the week work best for you?
– Then, take those days of the week and check against your calendar. Respond back with: Here are
the dates I have open, which one works best for you!
– We have a promo going on X month, everyone is loving it, I wouldn’t want you to miss out! Here are
the dates I have left, which one would you like.
Business Kit vs Tasting Kit
Business Kits
• A business kit is a registration with American Serenade to conduct in-home tastings and
includes key items to manage your on-going business.
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Your business kit comes with your first 2 tasting certificates.
Tasting Kits
• A tasting kit is a one time use kit and is for the sole purpose of having samples during a Hosts
In-home tasting in order to acquire sales orders.
Samples for incentives
• If you would like to order samples to give to prospects you may order your consultant only
samples to give away (wine not available).
• You may also order additional coffee/tea samples or wines if you expect a larger Gathering or
as an incentive to the Host, these will be charged to the consultant at the time of shipment.
Gathering IDs/Tasting Kits
What is a Gathering ID?
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A Gathering ID is a unique # provided by A.S. HQ when a consultant submits a formal request to conduct
an In-home tasting.
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The purpose of a Gathering ID is two fold:
– To link a host to a particular event or future events for the purpose of Host Rewards.
– Is required for a Tasting kit to be ordered and also tracks the success or failure of that tasting kit.
What is a Tasting Kit?
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A Tasting Kit consists of samples to be used during a Gathering (In-Home Tasting) for the Host and her
guests to sample a segment of our products during the formal presentation to entice sales orders.
– It is NOT for personal consumption, gift giving or resale.
– A tasting kit may ONLY be ordered if a In-Home Gathering/Tasting is scheduled.
– (See Consultant Policy document for rules around required $ amount of sales and # of orders
required/kit in order for consultant to not have to pay for kit).
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In order for a Gathering ID to be provided by HQ and a Tasting Kit to be ordered a valid Tasting must be
scheduled and Host Name and Date be provided to HQ.
*When to Submit Booking to HQ
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Was the booking tied to a Host?
– If the booking occurred during a tasting and a Host will receive future rewards off the tasting, the
Gathering ID request MUST be submitted WITH the current Host Gathering order.
– If the Gathering IS NOT submitted at the time the current tasting closes, the current host will NOT
receive rewards for attending the future booking.
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Submit the Gathering Host details at the time of close but request the Tasting Kit
when you are ready for the kit to be ordered
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No later than 7 business days prior to the tasting.
Details of the Kits
Shipping
Coffee Shelf life
•Consultant is always charged the shipping on the kit at the time of order
4-6 weeks
– $4.99 (coffee/ tea) =1 or 2 kits
– $13.99 (combo kit) =1 kit & $15.99 =2 kits
•You may order multiple kits at the same time if you have multiple tastings scheduled.
– Keep in mind, if they get postponed the shelf life for coffee.
– You are only hurting yourself and your potential customers if you keep your coffee for too long
before the tasting.
Kit cost
•The coffee and tea kit cost is $8
•The combo kit w/wine is $40
•Your Business kit starts you off with 2 certificates for In-Home Tasting Kits
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If you hit $150 and 4 unique orders that certificate rolls over, if you do NOT then it expires
If you have NO certificates in your bucket then you must purchase the kit upfront.
If after you buy the tasting kit your party meets the minimum and new certificate will show up in your bucket.
•Read our consultant policy document to find out more about how kits work.
**Kits are only to be used for a tasting, if we find someone abusing the system we will shut down their ability to
order kits.
What products are included in your kit?
•Coffee & Tea only Gatherings?
– 1 sample non flavor coffee, 1 sample flavor coffee, 2 tea samples
•Combo Gathering – Coffee, tea and wine
– 1 sample of non flavor coffee, 1 sample of flavor coffee, 1 tea sample & 3 bottles of wine (1 sweet, 1
dry white and 1 dry red) **
Requesting a Tasting Kit
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Each consultant receives 2 tasting certificates with an in-home tasting business kit purchase.
What is required to exchange those certificates for actual tasting kits?
– A scheduled date with a Host
– Submitting a formal request for the tasting kit via www.americanserenade.com
How do I know what products to select for my tasting kit?
– The purpose of the tasting is not to get the exact products that every customer will love in the kit.
– If this is a booking off another host, choose different products.
What you want to get across with our coffees and teas is two things:
– No bitter taste to our coffees or teas
– You actually taste the flavors as described
From there you recommend
– Most of the Single Origins buyers bought what was sampled or what I recommended at check out
based upon what they or their spouse drinks today.
– Most of the flavors are bought based upon what flavors sound good to them, especially after they
find out you actually taste the flavors as described in the coffees.
– Most of the teas are purchased either from what was sampled or tea type or health benefits (always
review health benefits during tasting)
There are many parties where I sell a bag or 2 of what was sampled and end up selling a variety of the rest
of our inventory.
– Make sure you know our inventory. Even if you have not tasted all of it yet know some of the basics
• What are the flavors, what do we recommend based upon what they drink today, what are the
health benefits of the teas. Which teas do we recommend iced as well as hot?
Scheduling & Invites
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What invites do we offer??
• Facebook
– Encourage them to use a Facebook event as one of their invites so you may post teasers about
American Serenade
– It also allows you to interact with the hosts guest and find out what they like to drink to help in
selecting your tasting kit.
– Not everyone checks Facebook daily and if they miss the event invite or forget to check the day
of, they may miss the event.
– Email or Flyers
– Post cards (you may purchase under the “consultant only” portion of American Serenade’s website.
Templates of existing invites are available on the training library
Send your Host his/her hostess packet via mail, hand delivery or email and ask them to review ahead of
time.
– If Wine party, the Host will need to have the form signed ahead of time and the consultant needs to
bring that back and keep a copy for future reference.
Remind your Host to gather any outside orders, customers can view website and email you or the host
their orders and you can get them a total.
– Encourage the Host to do this by sending them ahead of their party (at same time as you provide
invites) their Rewards.
*Number of Attendees
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How many guests can you accommodate with our kits?
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Up to 30 guests can be accommodated with our coffees and wines.
If your host is expecting more than 20 guests you should brew extra tea (remember you can infuse your tea sample
more than once) *Give the guests the first infusion..
How to pour your tea to provide enough for your guest count?
– If you are infusing the tea at the tasting (which I highly recommend) then you will only want to set
the infuser on top of each tasting cup for 1 second.
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8-20 guests : It sounds strange, but if you have more than 8 guests and you do it for longer than 1 second, you
will run out of tea.
>20 guests: You will need to infuse a larger amount of tea or prepare the first infusion earlier and do the 2 nd
infusion during your tasting.
My host doesn’t want more than 8 people at her home
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Coach your host on the invite to attendee ratios.
Typically 50% of the people you invite will not RSVP or show.
10-15% of those that RSVP’d ‘yes’ will just not show on the day off …
Always, always invite more guests than what you would like to show …
Lisa’s Most Important Tasting Tips
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Difficulties getting your Host to keep her booking?
– Watch the presentation/video on Day 6
– Follow those steps to keep your host invested and stop the cancellations.
What to say at your Gatherings
– Watch the videos on Day 9
What to give in place of catalogs?
– See the page in your Business Kit
• Invest in folders & sheet protectors and print off all the pages in Day 12 Product/Price Sheets for Folder
• You get them back, save money for reuse and if a customer wants something to take with them with the
website on it, give them a brochure or your business card.
Why are prices not in our brochures?
– Our products are commodities and they can change without notice …we had a price change in May.
Keep the box your tasting glasses came in, great for transport
Don’t leave something at home!
– Print out the check list from the training library and go through it while you are preparing for your tasting
– Use the Scripts!!
Don’t prepare coffees/ teas at home more than 30 min before leaving. Everyone is late to the party!
Open your dry wines as soon as you walk in the hosts door..gives them ample time to breathe.
Use a pourer or paper towel when pouring reds at a hosts home! The red always drips, don’t want to leave a stain!
Lisa’s top accessories to bring /demo at a tasting
– Tea Infuser (even if you are not brewing tea, put water in and explain how to use it)
– Kcup Filter
• If you own a keurig, brew one of your coffees for demo through keurig and after they sample and tell you how
much they love it, ask the question “How many of you brew with a keurig?” Then I respond with ‘That coffee
was brewed with my keurig using this ….”.
– Tea Bag filters
• During tea presentation and after they sampled the tea, I always ask who drinks iced tea? Then I discuss how
easy it is to brew with loose leaf tea and show them the bags.
Lisa’s Most Important Tasting Tips
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Ask each guest at check out to ‘round up’ for Alzheimer’s.
Do you know what is taxed and what the shipping charges are if Ship to Host vs Ship to Guest
– Non wine vs wine in ‘Ship to Guest’ shipping charges are different
If customer is not willing to give you an email, still grab their phone #.
– What if there are payment processing questions?
– What if we have questions on their order?
Club members must provide an email to receive updates and notifications on shipments and charges
Even if it is not a coffee, tea or wine you think you would like, sample it.
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This educates you for customer questions
*Host Rewards
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Must hit $200 for host to receive any of dollar host rewards off her purchase.
The Gathering sales must still be above $200 after the rewards.
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If the Hosts Gathering sales are $215.42, then the Host Rewards off of her order are $15.42, even if she has earned
$20.
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Of course if the Hosts Gatherings sales are $300 they would earn the full $25 …
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Host still pays shipping
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The host only receives ½ priced item from their booking reward if:
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That booking sales hits $200
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The host attends booked party.
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The host will fill out requested bag on their order form at the new party and receive it with the Gathering order.
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Any bookings MUST be scheduled and submitted when party closes or they will not count for future host rewards.
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The booked host must attend the future tasting in order to receive the Booking rewards.
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The booked tasting must also hit the minimum $200 in sales.
**All of these rules prevent fraud and gaming as well as they are incentives to grow parties and sales and require those sales to
cover cost. There's a reason we offer great benefits but keep our prices low.
**See the taxes/discount guide for how to apply discounts. Host Sales (exclude shipping, taxes, charity items, discounted items)
*When to Submit your Tasting
Orders?
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Wait until your Host says the words “Ready to close” before you submit any credit card payments or orders
via the Gathering Order Form.
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Coach your host on how long to keep a tasting open.
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Why? Avoid cancellation of products or orders and having to credit back or change the rewards offered to your Hosts.
Mail any checks made to American Serenade right away. There is a 10 day clearing period from the time checks are
received by American Serenade. The Host Gathering Orders will not ship until the checks clear.
I always charge my host last…just in case a guests card declines and when you attempt to gain a new form of payment
their order changes or is canceled. This way if you have to adjust hosts rewards and total, you have not charged them
yet.
People naturally procrastinate.
There are legitimate reasons to prolong the close date of a tasting …Waiting to go back to the office, someone is ill or
out of town etc
I typically take the Host cc information when I leave the tasting and let them know once we receive the
final order I will calculate her total and her rewards. This is the last order for the tasting.
*Follow up
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Whether you are a virtual rep or an in-home tasting rep, say what you are going to do and do what you are
going to say!
Follow up, people get busy and forget
Be passionate, gain credibility and own your business!
You have to work to get your first tastings and begin to build up your business
Hard work reaps rewards and passion fuels the fire!
Watch the
Tasting example
video!