# 1 Way to Get the Most $$ Out of Your Live Auction

You probably know that I like to study (and give!) parties – especially if they are fundraisers.

I’m presenting a webinar tomorrow (5/25) with my friends at Nonprofit Marketing Guide – and it’s all about auctions.

Join us to find out how you can make lots more money at your next auction!

Just imagine, here you are – working hard and planning your auction down to every detail. You’ve lined up cool items for the auction, a terrific auctioneer, lovely flowers and great food.

But these things are no good without one special ingredient.

This missing ingredient can make or break every auction. And it’s something that’s surprisingly often overlooked by auction planners. Somehow this important factor doesn’t even enter the conversation at auction planning meetings.

And it’s this : Make sure you have buyers in the seats!

The right buyers in the seats will make ALL THE DIFFERENCE to any auction.

Spend your time worrying about who and how many people you are going to get to attend. That’s a lot more important than worrying about whether your event looks pretty.

All the smart planning work in the world will go down the drain if half the seats are empty.  Then there would be no one to bid and no one to buy. The crowd will be so small that you won’t be able to generate the excitement and competition that a live auction needs to be successful.

It may be a lot easier to work on decorations and all the fun aspects of a party. But it’s a lot harder to call people up and ask them to attend. And, for many events, you really do have to personally call guests and encourage them to attend.

Here’s a plan that works for many nonprofits:

• Create a 10-10 phone tree.
• Ask 10 people to call 10 other people to sell 10 tickets each.
• Then you’ll have 100 people out there selling tickets, right?

THAT”S the way to make it happen. And make the ticket-selling committee one of the most important committees of all.

Praise them, encourage them, give them awards when they reach milestones, even encourage a little competition among them – all these volunteer motivation tactics really work.

Here’s a case in point when someone invited the RIGHT couple:

I recently attended the charity auction for my favorite independent school. The usual alumni and trustees were there, but I did notice one special couple who had never attended the auction before.

They had no connection to the school or the cause, but had been invited by some of their friends to come with them that night. I also knew that he was a mega-wealthy retired executive who could have easily purchased everything there.

And guess who bought the most expensive thing at the live auction – a week in a fabulous vacation home in bermuda for $14,000? It was this gentleman who raised his hand for the winning bid.

Weren’t we all glad that his friends extended a welcome to this couple and that they could come! That one mega-wealthy donor helped kick the auction proceeds for this event to a new high dollar level!

When you plan your next auction, why don’t you spend some time speculating about the major, major donors in your community and how you could actually get them to your event.  Create a little Task Force to go to work on these VIP attendees and see what they can do. Bet they just might be able to pull the rabbit out of the hat for you!