Multi Vendor Holiday Shopping Event... Door Prizes

[dwyerkim]

Hi--I am strongly considering (in fact have already invited 2 other vendors) hosting an event at my house in mid November to help people get ready for their holiday shopping. RIght now it would be me with PC, a former host of mine who sells Silpadda, and another future host who sells S. Living at Home. I would consider adding something more child oriented (like discovery toys) if I meet the right person but haven't so far. I need to solidify my date and get invites soon, so I'm wondering how to handle all of it. I am going to let the other vendors know that I fully expect to receive all the host benefits from their sales, but will offer to send invites to their friends/contacts if they provide names to me. I am also going to ask each of them to provide a couple of door prizes, in the $5 to $10 range, more if they want, and actual product, not a discount or something that they have to spend money to get anything from. I want to pull a prize every 20 minutes, but I'm not sure how to handle that. I will have the guests fill out a contact sheet when they arrive, but I want to give them bonus entries for various things ( such as being on time, bringing a friend, bringing their original invite, booking a show, purchasing $50+ from me or another vendor, etc). Therefore I would have to use tickets, not just draw from the lead slips. I also don't want them to HAVE to stay the entire time to win (holding on to ticket stubs), so how would you do tickets for the prizes... would they have to write name/number on every single one, or am I missing a simpler solution?

Would it be cheesy of me to ask the other vendors to each bring an appetizer or dessert? I know I will need to put out the bulk of the food but I wouldn't turn away help. Just don't want to tick them off if I am getting the host benefits. (and as an aside, both of these ladies sold their stuff along with mine at their shows or plan to, and they got/will get all of my host benefits so I don't think it is unfair for me to keep them when I host).

Tell me, those of you who have done this or plan to, what other suggestions do you have? I would invite everyone who has ordered from me who is local, and I would probably also offer past hosts their 10% phd plus an additional 10% off as a special hostess thank you. Any other ideas, tips, suggestions... I'm all ears!

 

[mrssyvo]

I have a multi-vendor show planned for mid November also, and here is what we are doing. I have coming Avon, Tastefully Simple and Lia Sophia, and we each will invite at least 100 of our customers/hostesses, and we each will have a raffle box at our display, Each vendor doing a seperate raffle, with seperate lead box. I think it will be easier this way. I will be giving tickets for different things (bringing order, booking show, etc) so they have more of a chance to win. I will make food ahead of time, but do mini-demo's throughout the day. If anyone has an invitation I can look at, I would appreciate it.

 

[lacychef]

I do this every year with a friend that does Home Interiors & a lady that does Silpada. We also include a couple more; last year we had a Uppercase Living lady. It's nice to offer 'one stop shopping', & we all invite our customers & everyone else gets new ones from it. We all chip in with refreshments & paper goods. We all do our own prize drawings for leads & our own prizes. It usually works out pretty well.

 

[ChefJWarren]

I did this in the spring with the other DS company I sell for.

I had myself, Mary Kay, PC (this is what convinced me to sign up!), a jewelry person, handmade baby dresses, The Traveling Chocolatier. I had each vendor bring an appetizer or dessert and donate a small gift for the raffle ($5). I had one drawing slip for the customers to fill out where they could check which vendors they were interested in receiving more info on. I forwarded each vendor the leads after the show. Some of the vendors donated prizes that were really nice and already wrapped so I ended up doing 3 drawings. I delivered the prizes myself after the show. People just came and went the whole afternoon. I live way out in the suburbs so the turnout was OK. It could have been better. Each vendor had decent sales, though and a couple of bookings. I would call it a semi success. I want to do it again this holiday season, but probably in a different location.

 

[dwyerkim]

I did this in the spring with the other DS company I sell for.

I had myself, Mary Kay, PC (this is what convinced me to sign up!), a jewelry person, handmade baby dresses, The Traveling Chocolatier. I had each vendor bring an appetizer or dessert and donate a small gift for the raffle ($5). I had one drawing slip for the customers to fill out where they could check which vendors they were interested in receiving more info on. I forwarded each vendor the leads after the show. Some of the vendors donated prizes that were really nice and already wrapped so I ended up doing 3 drawings. I delivered the prizes myself after the show. People just came and went the whole afternoon. I live way out in the suburbs so the turnout was OK. It could have been better. Each vendor had decent sales, though and a couple of bookings. I would call it a semi success. I want to do it again this holiday season, but probably in a different location.

Did you get host benefits from all of the vendors? I'm guessing if you do this before the holidays you'll have even more success... spring is less of a buying season than fall.

 

[ChefJWarren]

Each vendor did give me a small gift for hosting this event in my home. I didn't get host benefits. I didn't mind. Yes, I am definitely hoping greater sales this holiday season. Plus, now I am the PC person, so I expect to do well!

 

[lisaterwilliger]

I have done 2 of these events before and already have another one in the works for November. I usually get about 15-20 vendors and each one provides a small door prize for a 20 min. doorprize drawing (must be present to win BTW) and then everyone donates a bigger item for a grand prize. I make a card similar to a bingo card that has everyone's name on it and the guests sign up at the door and get their card and have to have it signed by every vendor. That makes them eligible for the grand prize. I also have every vendor bring an appetizer or dessert. I've always done it so that I just keep the host rewards for myself for just PC. I assume that everyone does it that way too. I was going to suggest to them this time around that we trade host rewards but some vendors do much better then the others so I don't know how fair that would be either. My 1st time doing this I had a $1300 night and the 2nd time I only had a $300.

 

[dwyerkim]

I am going to contact a couple of other reps this week about doing this... the one woman I was sure I would partner with just told me she is putting her business on hold due to some family issues. I think I will probably just have myself and 2, at most 3 other reps. I am going to tell them that I want the host benefits from their sales, as I've done combo shows at other reps' homes and they have gotten my benefits, plus it is my contact list I'll be inviting anyway. I do like the idea to do one small door prize and one larger one.

 

[smilesarepriceless]

i like this idea....do you all do these in your homes in looks like?

Is it ever too crowded?

 

[lockhartkitchen]

I'm renting a local grange and inviting other vendors (Mary Kay, Gold Canyon Candles, etc.) to join me in a holiday bazaar in November. Not only will the vendors invite their clients but I will get the community as well.

 

[mrssyvo]

I am having 3 other vendors in my home. I will keep my hostess benefits, and as will the other vendors, and each are doing their own drawings.

 

[chefheidi2003]

i like this idea....do you all do these in your homes in looks like?

Is it ever too crowded?

We do ours in our church social hall, it is large. But we have about 15-20 diffenent sales people. A few will be craft type stuff but we also have, tupperware, jewelry, creative memories, Premier, of course PC, and there are a few others.

 

[lacychef]

I found a place that's free to use here:thumbup: It's a community room in a apartment building for older people. It's a nice room.
2 years ago, we teamed up with a local realty office. They set us up in several listed homes; so it was a shopping extravaganza plus tour of homes. Kinda fun.