Life & Events >
The Best Job I Ever Had
The Best Job I Ever Had
It all started by attending my best friend's fund-raising party for her hockey club. They were raising funds for a hockey tournament which was to be held in a country town several hundred miles away.
The best way to get everyone there all together was to hire a coach or two for the long drive there and back. (Plus after the game...these ladies loved nothing better than to go to the nearest pub to celebrate..whether they won the game or not) So two buses needed, a few hundred dollars to raise and one of the most successful fund-raising parties is a Tupperware party.
These days, Tupperware provide the most incredible gift incentives for holding really successful parties. The more you sell, and the more parties booked from your party, the bigger the value of the gifts.
There's a thank you gift for holding the party, and then, based on the sales and party bookings, you get the really good top of the range stuff.
The fund-raising idea is to earn as many gifts as you can, and these gifts are either auctioned off or a raffle is held (after selling a few hundred or so tickets) and voila...there's your money for the buses.
I had never been to a Tupperware party in my life....for some reason many people try to avoid them almost like the plague. The only Tupperware I ever saw was in my mother's kitchen cupboards...and I dont really know where she got them from, as I cant ever remember her going to any parties herself.
But I loved her Tupperware, they were really old but they just kept on surviving every considerable amount of abuse you can dish out at them. I loved the colors of the plastic cups, I loved the bowls...so handy for just about anything you can think of...and I especially loved their toys which would outlast anything and every other thing you could buy from a department store.
I digressed??....okay, back to my story.....
Being the good BFF that I am, I couldnt say no...and I got some of the catering duties discretely passed my way. So, off I went.
(This is a long story, but bear with me...I might even split it up into two or three separate posts if it gets too long.)
I thought Tupperware was just pretty plastic cups and plastic bowls and toys. Well my goodness....when the Tupperware lady set up her display, I was just gob-smacked!!!
I never saw so many new stuff...not just plastic...they had incredible microwave measuring jugs, (made of something like melamine, but it wasnt..I just cant remember what it was called) cookware, cutlery, other microwave friendly ware and everything else you could think of. I was so impressed....I fell in love with the microwave jug with a clear lid...soooo cute...and as expensive as it was, I thought it would be a good investment.
Another line of products they had were baby's bottles. And this is where my story begins.
One of the ladies brought her new baby and her husband along to the party (dont you hate that???)....the fellas stayed out in the balcony drinking a few beers and minding the kids so that the ladies could enjoy their party in peace.
When the demonstration was over, we were invited to "play with her Tupperware" and one of these gentlemen..obviously had had a few beers too many and was getting a little bit obnoxious.
He picked up the baby bottle from the display and started playing with it....he poured some beer into it and starting drinking from the teat.
The Tupperware lady (who was very timid) was upset and asked him if he was going to buy the bottle...to which he replied..... NOPE...."you said we could play with your Tupperware, that's what I did...but I'm not buying it...its too expensive!!!
I could see the lady was really upset, because she had to pay for this bottle herself....to put on her display and now she would not be able to sell it.
I felt sorry for her, so I called a few of the other ladies around and told them I was about to sell my first piece of Tupperware.....to this wonderful gentleman over here, who has fallen in love with the bottle so much, that he decided it will be his beer drinking vessel from now on.
I went over to him and asked him for $29.95 (the price of the bottle back then) while I asked everyone to applaud his great taste in good products.
Of course, he pulled out his wallet...gave me three $10.00 notes and told me to keep the change....all of 5 cents...to go towards the fund-raising....and there was my very first sale!!!
The Tupperware lady (Sharon) was so grateful, and we became friends very quickly after that.
I'm usually a shy person (Martin, dont you dare laugh!!!!) and the adrenaline it took for me to do what I now realize I had just done, made my head spin....lol.
The fund-raising was a success...the buses were booked, the hockey game was WON!!!....and a some of those ladies were grateful for a bus to drive them home after a few hours of celebrating at the local pub.
A few weeks later, I received a phone call from Sharon (the Tupperware lady) asking if she could come over and chat to me about something. I had pretty much forgotten about the party and had no idea what she had in mind. But I invited her over one evening after work and that's when she told me that I would make a great Tupperware Lady.
I just about fell off my chair, I was laughing so much. But she was serious....she said I could make some really good money on the side...and "party for a living" is the spiel they use to recruit new demonstrators.
I told her I was happy with my current job, I worked 9am - 5pm five days a week and I liked having evenings and weekends to myself and my husband. But she asked me to accompany her to one of their sales meetings anyway, just to see for myself how much fun Tupperware ladies have.
Allan (my husband) persuaded me to go, he thought it would be good to have Tupperware ladies as friends and get lots of Tupperware (which I had since become addicted to....especially their pantry sets) at HUGE discounts.
So, off I went with Sharon on Thursday night (rally nights) to her distributorship and I was introduced to her Manager before the sales meeting started.
The meeting was incredible....new Tupperware was being demonstrated for the first time, demonstators were being called up and recognized for their sales achievements with gifts, there were incentives for being the best....and by incentives I mean TV sets, washing machines, fridges, fax machines, mobile phones, beddings...you name it, they had it. You want a brand new fridge, you sell this much Tupperware, and recruit these many new dealers...and it was yours. You get out of it what you put into it...it can be as easy or as difficult as you yourself make it.
The whole night was just so exciting and the ladies were not the 50+ age group that I had imagined...there were girls there in their early 20's doing very well as a part-time job....there were moms of all ages and guess what...there were also guys who had no qualms about being called Tupperware ladies....(no Martin...they were not gay....lol). They were very good salesmen...a couple were very good looking, and show me a lady who would say no to having a Tupperware party with those two....lol....their wives did not succeed in the same capacity either...lol.
Sharon's Manager was a yank...yep...from Los Angeles....she used to work at Disneyland....she met an Aussie guy there...fell in love, married him and moved to Perth and worked all sorts of jobs but was never happy in them...until she decided to join Tupperware.
She was super confident as only yanks can be (no offense) and clearly this was the perfect job for her. Within a very short period of time, she held the record every month for sales, party bookings and recruits. She became a Manager within a few months and when I met her she had risen to the ranks of Executive Manager. (That's someone whose team sold $60,000 worth of Tupperware a month for three consecutive months..and if you've been a good recruiter and had heaps of demonstrators in your team, that's an easy figure to reach.)
We didnt hit it off....lol....no surprise there.....I found her to be too extroverted, too cocky and too sure of herself (and with good reason of course) and I guess I was jealous or something because she irritated me to death.
But she sat me down, talked to me about all the opportunities awaiting me in the world of having my own Tupperware business, be my own boss, work my own hours, and earn as much or as little as I needed or wanted to. And the best part......you get to "party for a living"....and how cool was that??
And, when you get promoted to Manager, you get a brand new Toyota Corolla stationwagon to drive around in....yours to keep for as long as you stayed a Manager. It was a beautiful car...white with pink ribbon decal and the Tupperware logo. I thought I could see myself driving one of those around....my car was long due for the scrap yard...and I had never actually owned a BRAND new car in all my life... second hand ones were always all I could afford.
She invited me to accompany her to a couple of her own parties...and show me how to demonstrate the products and which ones would sell and which ones wouldnt.
I was beginning to really enjoy this, and with much encouragement from Allan, who could see how much I enjoyed going to parties with Caroline (the Tupperware Manager) he said I should at least give it a try for a little while and see how I go.
And Sharon would get a nice gift for recruiting me...I was her first recruit and she was really pleased that I decided to give it a try.
At first I booked parties with my friends..who didnt really like going to Tupperware parties, but I talked a few of them into it...by telling them I would demonstrate a cocktail party.
I would use one of the really big beautiful bowls....poured a whole can or two (1 liter) of pineapple juice and half a bottle of Malibu (coconut liqueur) and then scoop some into the Tupperware shaker and a dollop of cream, shake away like a seasoned bar-tender...and pour the drink into one of the clear long stemmed party "glasses" and everyone would drink while I did my demonstration.
The more they drank, the more Tupperware I got them to buy....lol.
I enticed some to book their own parties by doing cooking demonstrations using Tupperware....or show them neat little tricks like how to make 50 meringues from ONE egg-white....how to make an impossible quiche by throwing all the ingredients into a bowl..cover it and "burp" the seal...then shake the heck out of it...pour the stuff into a quiche dish...pop in the oven for 15 minutes while I demonstrated the rest of the products...and then we would eat the yummy quiche while I helped them fill out their order forms.
It was working so well, I was booking parties left right and center. I was selling so much Tupperware, I was up on stage just about every week, being recognized for outstanding weekly sales and party bookings. I was making around $250.00 a week with just two parties....and this money was going straight into the bank and it kept growing and growing. But most of all, I was having so much fun....being the demonstrator, you get to be the center of attention...which was something I never realized before....how much fun it could be.
Then I started recruiting....I included a recruiting spiel into my demonstrations...and showed how ladies can make $100 to $200 a week just by holding one or two parties on the weekends. If you did that every week, there's at least half your monthly mortgage or perhaps aim towards a cruise around some tropical island somewhere....lol...I even used to bring props like Hawaiian garlands...grass skirts made from that straw stuff...coconuts...a nicely decorated straw hat....you name it, I did it. It made the parties fun and the ladies loved it.
I needed 6 recuits to become Manager...I started in March and by May I had my recruits and Caroline (who was now my manager) promoted me out with my own team of six demonstrators. I called my team Serendipity.
I was still under her wing for six months so I had all the help I needed and she would receive a percentage of my team's sales.
The "promote-out" ceremony is in itself a very gratifying experience...they make such a fuss of new managers achieving what it takes to be promoted out....and you get the gifts and the accolades and a party after the meeting. It was a wonderful night, and Allan was there...I could see how proud he was of me....and that's what made it even more special.
I found my normal day job too too much to handle now.....with a team to take care of, my own parties to do...and the sales meetings and training of new recruits...I decided to resign and devote full time to my new Tupperware business.
I held my own team sales meetings once a month at my house....Allan would offer to baby-sit kids if their moms couldnt find a sitter to mind them while they were at the meeting.....he had a box of toys (Tupperware of course) and cartoon videos in the family room....drinks and treats for the kids....and was Dad for two hours...which he seemed to enjoy. We didnt have kids of our own....and this was his once a month contribution to my flourishing business. He was probably the most important reason why my business survived. If you do this without your husband's support, it can be pretty tough.
So now I am a (baby)Tupperware Manager...and I had 3 months to maintain my team's monthly sales of $10,000 worth of Tupperware (per month) and if I did that, I would get my brand new car.
It was easy!!! Every month my little team and I always made it and then some. The average for those three months was around $12,000 so I qualified for the car much quicker than I thought I would.
How I received my car was an awesome experience in itself. Once a year Tupperware Australia Management would hold a special sales meeting for all the Managers and Dealers at a different city every year. It was a big event and always held at a five star hotel Convention room or ball room.
This year, it was Perth's turn to have the special sales meeting and it was going to be held at the Sheraton Hotel Golden Ballroom. It was so exciting...but I had no idea I had qualified for my car by then...my months total sales figures hadnt been tallied and I didnt know whether I had made the required sales or not....my Manager kept those figures as I was still under her wing.
The Distributor (unbeknown to me) contacted my husband and asked him to find a way for me to get to the Special Sales Meeting other than driving there myself. He usually attended those special sales meetings himself...he was very supportive that way....and so he arranged for us to be picked up by another Manager and her husband on their way and I thought nothing of it.
When we got the the Sherator Hotel....right in the center of the lobby was this beautiful brand new brilliant white Toyota Corolla...filled with pink balloons, and a huge red ribbon on top...and it had a white banner with pink letters on the windscreen.....Congratulations Maria Day (my married name then), Tupperware's newest Manager. It had 23 kms on the odometer.!!!!
I stood there like an absolute idiot!!!....I couldnt believe I was getting this car this particular night and it was going to be presented to little ole me..by none other than the Managing Director of Tupperware Australia herself!!!
Sure enough, part of the whole event was presenting me with the car and when they called me up on stage, Rose..the Managing Director handed me the keys attached to a string of about 6 pink helium filled balloons so that the keys would kinda float across to me...it was hilarious but it felt so great at the same time.
And the best part of my first three months as a Manager....a trip to Bali...the Tupperware Manager's Convention. It was the most exciting trip I had ever done to date.....we stayed at a really grand hotel and had our convention at an exquisite hotel ballroom....lots of gifts and recognitions for achievements and I got just about all the gifts for being a new Manager.
I received a whole heap of brand new Tupperware Products to add to my demonstration set, and everybody loves something that has never been seen before...so I used that to book my parties.
There were Tupperware Managers there from all over Australia, New Zealand and all of Asia....it was HUGE!!!!
I never had so much fun with a huge bunch of ladies in all my life. I met best friends for life, I met amazing sales people, I met incredibly talented women with so much confidence and so much drive....it was truly an awesome experience.
At the convention in Bali, it was annouced that Tupperware Australia was going to launch their very first Incentive Trip for Managers... to Disneyland. An all expenses paid trip with lots of activities besides the main event...DISNEYLAND... and it included a trip to San Francisco and bus trips to all the tourist places in and around San Francisco.
We had 9 months to qualify and because it was such an awesome trip, the qualification criteria was really difficult. But I decided that I would never get the chance to go to Disneyland by myself and this was the once in a lifetime opportunity and I was going to work my butt off to get there, come hell or high water.
I dont have all the figures with me to include in this article, but the criteria was, you had to have a certain amount of recruits...you had to have a certain amount of executive dealers (those in your team who have recruited at least two new dealers), your team had to sell a certain amount of Tupperware....I think mine was $75,000 worth in those 9 months because I was a baby Manager. The full-fledged Managers (with their team) had to sell $100,000 worth of Tupperware to achieve part of the criteria. But bear in mind, for you to retain your car, you and your team must sell a minimum of $10,000 per month...that is the minimum requirement to be a team....so instead of the usual 10,000...because you only have 9 months...you just do a little bit more every month...it wasnt impossible to achieve at all.
The other criteria was personal sales...I had to do something like $35,000 worth of my own party sales (without my team's figures included) in those 9 months.
What I did was, I broke it down to how many parties I had to do a month, then broke it down to how many parties I had to do a week and how much Tupperware I had to sell each week. When you break it down like that...it makes it look so easy....so you dont lose your motivation.
I cant remember what the rest of the criteria was..(this was in 1998)....and all my paperwork is down in Perth. I know there were step-ups for those who achieved it easily...for extra sales and/or recruits, you get to bring your husband with you. I wanted so much to bring Allan with me, that was my ultimate goal..but at that time I couldnt see it happening.
There were many times in those 9 months were I nearly gave up, some months were good, but other months were really bad. My dealers would hit a slump in parties....my own parties were being cancelled or postponed..and everything that could go wrong, did.
The final month to achieve the goal was February 1999...the trip to Disneyland was booked for the first week in April....one week after the Academy Awards....and I was running out of time.
Christmas season was really tough. Although Tupperware provided huge incentives for people to have parties during the holiday season, hardly anyone ever did.
I did parties promoting buying all your Christmas gifts in one hit....not going to department stores and battling with the crowds, but attending a Tupperware party where you can shop for all the gifts in the comfort of someone's living room, while I demonstrated how to make special Christmas goodies...like Mars Bar Slice, or 5 layer Mexican Dip, a no-bake Black Forrest cake in the jel-ring...and as usual the cocktail parties were still a hit.
By the end of January, I was well on target with my personal sales...almost there with my team sales...but I was short on recruits. I tried so hard to get new dealers into my team, I think that's why I didnt do so well.
When I stopped trying too hard, they just seemed to fall into my lap. But by the second week of February, I was still one recuit short...and no time left.
This last recruit was going to have to do at least 6 parties herself before she would qualify as a recruit for me to achieve the trip. So even if I managed to recuit the last one...if she doesnt hold 6 parties by the third week in March, she does not get counted, and I miss out on the trip. I was ready to give up.
I had only one party left in my diary....and to top it all off the party was booked on a night when I had a migraine, I was depressed about not achieving my goal after working so hard...and I felt sick to my stomach.
I tried to get one of my dealers to do the party for me, but after calling every one of my girls, I had to do it myself as nobody was available at short notice.
To Be Continued.....DID I MAKE IT????
posted on Dec 15, 2009 2:34 AM ()
Comment on this article
200 articles found [
Previous Article ] [
Next Article ] [
First ] [
Last ]
Profile
Photos
