Paperly's Field Trip to Personalization Mall

This past week, I had the good fortune of being invited to visit Personalization Mall (www.personalizationmall.com) in Burr Ridge, IL. I've always held PMall in the highest esteem. Their line of personalized products is enviably large, their online preview technology is best-in-class and their belief that "nothing says 'you're special' like a personalized gift" mimics Paperly's.

I learned so much from my visit; I wish I could share everything.  However, I would never wish to betray their confidences. So instead of delving into specifics, I wanted to share a few general, but important, observations:

1. Personalization is HUGE. PMall personalizes everything from picture frames to doormats... and everything in-between. They have proved that it's big business putting names on things.  Paperly's personalization model is built similarly, but using a completely different distribution model.  Theirs is online; Paperly's is via at-home parties.

2. Personalization is SCALABLE.  Just a few years ago, it would have been impossible to successfully conduct "mass personalization".  Today's technology has made it incredibly do-able.  PMall has proven you can do millions of personalized orders.  Paperly aims to do the same.

3. Personalization is SPECIAL.  Paperly is built on the belief that the handwritten note - and for that matter, a personalized gift - will be forever treasured. Turns out, PMall is built on the same principle.  In today's electronic world, both companies appreciate the power of making connections via personalized products.

I'm honored to share the same competitive space as Personalization Mall (even though we compete using vastly different distribution models). I thank them for the office visit.  It meant a lot to me.  I aspire to be as successful as PMall.  Given Paperly's unfaltering path towards personalization, I'm confident we'll be their equal sooner than later.

- Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly
The leading direct seller of personalized stationery & gifts

Paperly's Leap Day Promotion

On February 29th, Paperly launched its first-ever Leap Day Promotion: For 24 hours, Paperly's Starter Kit was marked down to only $29. (The regular price is $99).  Paperly's Kit has never been priced so low and may never be again... until Leap Day 2016.

Wow! What a response we received! In those 24 hours, Paperly enrolled 25 new Consultants. I was utterly speechless!

Now that I've had a bit to digest the impact of the promotion, I thought I'd share a few of my thoughts:

1. Demand is high. It's exciting to know there are so many who want to be Paperly Consultants. And why wouldn't they?  It's fun and energizing to be part of a fast-growing, direct selling company that sells one-of-a-kind, personalized paper and gift products.

2. Sometimes time is your friend.  Was $29 ridiculously inexpensive, and therefore, hard to pass up?  Absolutely. But personally, I think the 24-hour time limit was even more potent. Knowing that the deal was fleeting caused the on-rush. That's a good lesson for all of us to remember for future promotions.

3.  The Field trumps Home Office.  I purposely decided not to promote this limited-time offer through corporate. Instead, I asked Paperly's Consultants to use their marketing prowess to communicate the promotion to their potential teammates. Their efforts far exceeded my expectations (and abilities)! Facebook, blogs, email campaigns... you name it, the Field tried it and they were wildly successful! I believe 80-90% of the new Consultants enrolled because of a personal connection with an existing Consultant. I was so excited to see this number, because these new Consultants now have a friend and mentor to help kick-start their Paperly business.

Now that the promotion is over, our job is to train, educate, mentor and lead these new Consultants towards a wildly successful Paperly business.  And of course, I've got to put on my thinking cap as to what Paperly's next great promotion will be.  Any suggestions?

- Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

The leading direct seller of personalized stationery and gifts

Paperly Consultant Map

It's been a bit since I last shared a map of where Paperly's active Consultants reside, so I thought I'd provide this quick update:

As you can see, there remains plenty of untapped areas.  Who wants to be the first Paperly Consultant in Utah? New Mexico? Arizona?

Hope you find this helpful!

Regards,
Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

Key Learnings from Conference 2012

Hard to believe a week has already passed since the conclusion of Paperly's first-ever Consultant Conference. I'm not sure about the attendees, but I'm still on a post-event high. The Conference was so much fun. I met an amazing team of Consultants. I certainly ate way too much. And oh yeah - I learned a ton! Below is a brief summary of a few topics we discussed at Conference.

Best Practices: What has Worked for You?
I asked the Consultants to form small groups and share what has worked for them - i.e. best practices - across 3 topics: (1) marketing their Paperly business, (2) getting more bookings and (3) improving the Paperly party experience.  Here are a few of the ideas they shared.

1. Marketing Your Paperly Business:  Facebook, email signatures, referral programs, mini look-books and in-package thank you notes.
2. Getting Bookings:  Teacher’s lounges, lead sheets, open houses, “party on the go”, bring my store to you and delivering products.
3. Party Experience: Prices on everything, image bank, samples of everything, thematic displays and taking pictures of your displays.

As you might imagine, it's impossible to capture all the ideas the Consultants shared, especially given the detail in which each was discussed, but I'm happy to provide additional details to anyone that is interested.  Simply contact me at your convenience.

Solving Paperly’s Heftiest Challenges
After sharing best practices, I then asked each group to tackle a couple of Paperly's most vexing corporate challenges: (1) enhancing Paperly's brand and (2) Paperly's technology. Here are a few of their solutions.

1. Enhancing Paperly’s brand: How best to describe Paperly, who’s Paperly’s typical buyer, brand Paperly’s “P”, standardization and templating of materials, ensuring Paperly’s brand is on all its products and including Paperly in all email signatures.
2. Paperly’s technology: Easy sharing of Paperly’s products/sales on all social media websites, focus on imagery in e-newsletters, emailed receipts rather than paper receipts and make MyPaperly a shopping focused website.

Again, I'm happy to elaborate if you'd like additional details. 

You may ask why I'm sharing these learnings. Well, I'm a big believer in sharing.  Sharing how smart Paperly's Consultants are; sharing how Paperly is listening to (and soon-to-be acting upon) Consultant feedback; sharing how Paperly is a continuously learning and adapting organization. I believe it's important for everyone - existing Consultants, potential Consultants, customers and hostesses - to know that Paperly is working very hard at becoming a world-class organization.  Nothing short of that will be accepted.

So thank you to everyone who contributed to the amazing learnings that occurred at Conference.  I'm already scheduling my next trip to visit Paperly's Consultants in their hometowns. My commitment to learning, and making Paperly the "right" organization, is tireless.

Regards,

Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

Paperly Conference: Day 2

It will be hard to beat the 2nd day of Paperly's Conference. The day started off with the objectives of Conference and goal setting by each of the attendees.  A common theme from the Consultants was "expanding their Paperly business beyond their immediate circle of friends & family".  I then spent some time on Paperly's past, present and future.  I feel it's incredibly important to understand Paperly's beginnings and its everlasting principles so we can collectively build the "right" business. Then, we were honored to dialogue with Joe Mariano, the Direct Selling Association's President.  Everyone loved hearing his perspective on the industry and Paperly's unique and compelling position within it.  After an amazing lunch (of way too much food!) we broke into small teams to discuss best practices across (1) marketing your Paperly business, (2) increasing bookings and (3) enhancing the party experience. We will soon publish the notes from these discussions.  Finally, we concluded the day with a page-by-page preview of Paperly's new Spring 2012 catalog. Now that it's "out", I can finally start sharing all of its amazing designs and products - yea.

Now it's off to a fun-filled dinner of pizza, pasta, salads and wine ;)  I hope tomorrow is as productive - and fun! - as today!

I'll write more soon.

- Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly
The leading direct seller of personalized stationery & gifts

Paperly's Conference 2012

Paperly Conference Prologue

Well... it's finally here!  Paperly's first-ever Consultant Conference. I'm currently in Atlanta staring at all that I brought: goodie bags, treats, giveaways, samples from Paperly's new catalog, and so much more. The agenda is literally packed!  (I'm keeping my fingers crossed we can fit it all in ;)  I think I'm most excited about meeting all the Consultants.  They truly are a VERY special group. I also cannot wait to get their thoughts on (1) Consultant best practices, (2) solutions to Paperly's most vexing challenges, and (3) Paperly's new Spring 2012 catalog.  I've come to learn that Consultants want to learn some about Paperly, but more importantly, they want to listen and learn from each other. So it's my job to create the right learning environment and then get out of the way as fast as possible!

I promise to blog a lot more about Conference, hopefully throughout the event, but at the very least when I return to Chicago.  And yes - we will take lots and lots and lots of pictures and videos.

Remember - Think Big!

- Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly
The leading direct seller of personalized stationery & gifts

Paperly's 2012 Initiatives

As promised in my last blog piece, "Looking Forward to 2012", I'd like to elaborate on Paperly's 5 key initiatives for 2012: team building, Starter Kit, Fast Start program, marketing & promotion, and training & development.

Team Building

Someone once told me, "Paperly will only go as far as its leaders take it." I completely agree, so I have made it a top priority in 2012 to support the growth of Paperly’s leaders’ by helping them build their team. How? By allocating inbound leads to existing and future leaders who have met pre-established monthly criteria including personal sales, attending training sessions, and subscribing to Paperly's website & e-newsletter services. I am confident Paperly's current leaders will cultivate these leads into the next generation of leaders. 

Starter Kit

On January 1, Paperly launched a new and improved Starter Kit. The new Kit contains everything a new Consultant needs to successfully start and grow her Paperly business, including catalogs, order forms, loose samples and training guides. But of equal importance, the new Kit is less expensive ($99), will arrive faster (it'll ship in 1-2 business days) and will provide the opportunity to receive more personalized products. To that latter point, take a look at Paperly's new program titled, "40% Off for 40 Days".

Fast Start Program

On a personal note, I'm aghast at how many new Consultants never attend a Paperly training session. Of course, I cannot force them, but I can reward them when they participate. Thus, in 2012 I will post a list of activities I expect all new Consultants to complete, and as they're completed, Consultants will earn Paperly Dollars.  These Paperly Dollars can then be used to purchase additional samples, personalized products or business supplies... all of which will help the Consultant grow her business bigger and faster.

Marketing & Promotion

I appreciate that not all sales will occur at a party. Therefore, I have decided to extend Paperly's Free Shipping promotion for the foreseeable future, thereby enabling easier one-to-one sales. I'm also excited to announce that Paperly will launch an e-newsletter service that'll make it significantly easier for Consultants to stay connected with their Customers. Lastly, Paperly is committed to continuously expanding its offerings - such as personalized and branded signs, car clings, banners, etc. - within its Marketing Portal.

Training & Development

Last, but certainly not of least importance, is Paperly's commitment towards training and development in 2012. We have already established our yearlong training calendar, making it even easier for our Consultants to stay abreast of Paperly's latest programs and announcements. We also will begin in February our 3rd Future Leaders Program. And finally, we're holding our first ever National Conference, plus we're hoping to hold our 2nd President's Council in the summertime.

Of course, these 5 initiatives are only the beginning.  We already have so many other amazing things planned for 2012 including a free cruise for those who earn it, new products, a completely redesigned single-catalog approach, and so much more.  I hope you decide to ride the wave, because I'm confident 2012 will be a year like none other at Paperly.

Regards,

Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly