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Re: It's that time of year again... fundraisers!
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Greetings Sandra, This is right up my alley. I do fundraisers for the local schools. The biggest mistake I see, from parents and teachers, is thinking they have to reduce prices just to get people to support the different teams or clubs. So to combat that mindset, I point my clients in the direction of being different and having better products to sell. This is how you can get more dollars, from those who don't mind showing their support. When an alumni member sees a high quality product, that the clubs or teams are selling, they will always opt to buy it. A great product from a club member or team member is always a worthy cause to support. For example, last year the high school swim team wanted to generate $1000 and thought a Swim-A-Thon could help. But when they sat down and crunched the numbers, they concluded that they couldn't reach the goal. So I was contacted by the coach and asked for some ideas. I immediately pointed him to selling hugh umbrellas, that could be sold at home swim meets AND home games of the Varsity Football team. My reasoning behind that is that at either sporting event, the crowd could get rained on, because none of the games or swim meets are indoors. So he commissioned me to design the school's cat paw logo and have it imprinted on 100 umbrellas. I had the umbrella order put on a rush status, so they could arrive before the first football game of the year. In the mean time I got on the phone and started calling business owners, that were alumni and supported the children's fundraisers. I informed them what was coming and began taking their orders. I had two payment options:
I also contacted the local newspaper, which gives school fundraisers a free ad placement, but you have to provide a letter from the coach, to place an ad and whom to contact at the high school. I had Linda, one of the high school office workers, in place and she would take orders for the swim team, when people called. Linda was able to pre-sell 20 umbrellas before they arrived also. The umbrella's arrived on a thursday, which just happened to be one of our home swim meets and the day before the first home football game. With 45 umbrellas already bought and paid for, all that was left to sell were 55. That night 11 sold at our home swim meet. So with only 34 left, I had to make sure that I was at the football game the next day, set up and ready to promote. Well that night came, and it was hot, humid, not a cloud in the sky and our stadium was packed and overflowing. I was positioned across from the concession stand and standing next to me was the chorus group selling personalized license plates for $5 and next to them was a small table set up to paint cat paws on peoples faces for a $1. The man who ran the concession, Mr. Winter, mocked me from across the breezeway and taunted me by saying, "It's not raining out and there's not a cloud in the sky, how do you think you are going to sell umbrellas on a day like this? You won't sell a single one!" That was the worst thing he should have said. Now with 34 umbrellas left I had to take some drastic steps to get the crowds attention. So while standing and looking at my umbrella display, I even had one opended up to show how large they were, people still did not stop to buy. Well as the crowd grew, I noticed that my umbrella display couldn't be seen very well. That's when I picked up my open umbrella and held it above the crowd and started twirling it around and tossing it up in the air. Within a few moments people started making their way over to me. When asked how much, I gave them the same two options.
When the game was over and the crowd left, I checked my inventory and I only had 4 umbrellas left, which sold later as I was walking out to my vehicle. But the best part was when Mr. Winters came over, with cigarette in hand, and asked, "So did ya sell any?" Looking at him, I came back with, "I didn't do very good. I started off with 34 umbrellas 2 hours ago. I still have 4 left." With is mouth on the ground and fumbling with his cancer stick, he wanted to know how I did it. My only comment was this, "It's not what you sell that gets people to spend, it's how you present it!" His only come back to that was, "I wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. I guess it is possible to sell ice to eskimos." When all the monies were counted, the swim team netted around $1600 after expenses. That is just one of my success stories. Woody Quiñones Want Forget Proof Customers? |
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