Having a Vendor Show What to Do???

[heat123]

I was wondering if you all had suggestions for any sales boosters for that night? It's going to be the 1st weekend of December with Mary K, purses & jewlery and scrapbook stuff. I'm making the food (with all the pc recipes) and we are all splitting the costs.

Should I do 10% off Stoneware or gift sets? Have anything on hand for them to be able to buy and take home?
How do I entice bookings when I dont' know alot of the people??
Do I do demos or have stations set out for them to try the product themselves?

thanks for any tip, suggestions, advice etc

 

[pamperedbecky]

Oh boy....here's another long one

Hi Heather!
What I've been doing for the past year or so (and I wish I did it sooner) was having a drawing for a small prize or group of prizes when I have any kind of booth anywhere. Usually I group together a bunch of the door prize-type products (mini serving spatula, i-slice, a sample of the dill mix and maybe the bamboo tongs) to create a prize pack to raffle off. I also say the prize includes a free kitchen show where I supply the ingredients. I draw a winner who wins all of that, but then I also call all of the entrants to offer them the runner up prize of a free kitchen show. I explain that all she has to do is get her friends there and I'll do the rest, including buying/bringing recipe ingredients and bringing plates, cups, napkins and that kind of thing. The past few times I've offered this (probably since about May), I had a kitchen show where that host turned into one of my recruits and another booking came out of her show, a few more kitchen shows and two more next month who were "winners" of the free kitchen show. The funny thing about the two next month is that they were from a booth I did back in MARCH!! It was never a good time for one of them to do a show (she was in the Mrs. AMerica paegant!!) and I could never get a hold of the other one. Well, persistence pays off because I did finally connect with them this week and they both booked shows for November. Yay! So, I'd definitely offer that as part of a raffle prize. Now, if someone checks "YES" they want to do a Kitchen Show on the drawing slip, I wouldn't offer the free one to them since they seem pretty motivated to have one anyway. As for the "MAYBES" you have to kind of play it by ear. If their excitement level is pretty high, you may not need to offer the free kitchen show to entice them.

Hopefully all of the vendors will invite everyone they know and all past customers. Advertising is key too. WIthout those two components, I know I've had some pretty lame open houses. If you get enough orders, promote it as a mystery host thing too. That seems to help generate interest sometime. Only give people an entry into the drawing if they place a $25 order or something like that.

Good luck!!!!