If you have a sneaky suspicion your silent auction is under-performing, you’re probably right.
Guests love silent auctions, but it’s less about “supporting your cause” and more about “shopping the sale rack.” Some guests hope to score a 75%-off deal.
They can be a HUGE waste of your time, bleeding cash as precious donations wash away. But we can close the doors on your sale barn.
Sherry, all I can say is WOW! That was very informative. We still have a lot of work to do, but the seeds have definitely been planted. It was very helpful to me as the chairman of the committee to know the direction we need to be headed. You really struck a nerve with some of your advice. Some of it I had privately thought, but hadn’t verbalized. Stay tuned, and I’ll keep you informed what we do. If it looks appropriate, I may get another hour from you. Thanks again. That was very well-spent money.
Henry Koether, Gala Chairman
Baltimore Clayworks (Baltimore, MD)
Let’s work through my process to ensure your silent auction is set up to attract big spenders and make all bidders better buyers. Our process covers these items.
- A fool-proof way to ELIMINATE COMPLAINING BIDDERS who say: “I didn’t have enough time to bid!”
- Save precious time by REDUCING THE NUMBER OF ITEMS for set-up (but still ACCELERATING SALES)
- Make more money selling the SAME STUFF
- STOP WASTING YOUR BUDGET and get the RIGHT things to attract buyers
- Simple TEMPLATES and TRICKS OF THE TRADE to determine spacing and make the SET-UP PROCESS EASY
- Enjoy the COMPLIMENTS FROM GUESTS who will notice the difference
Click here to view my consultation packages.
We were committed to using a volunteer auctioneer for our school auction, but we recognized the need to have some professional guidance. In four hours, Red Apple Auctions provided us with many ideas which improved our logistics, boosted our yields, and really impacted our bottom line. And, our guests loved the changes!
Blair Critch, 2008 Auction Chair
Westminster Academy (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
This is not about changing your guests or items. This is about changing your structure to be more compelling. National averages for silent auctions hover in the 50% to 60% range, yet I’ve had clients earn over 100% return in their silent auction.
One of my clients with 84 items in their silent auction sold each package for $44 more than the previous year — that’s an over $3000 GAIN!
Let’s work on YOUR revenue.
Click here to view my consultation packages.
Our non-profit gave Sherry Truhlar the challenge of a lifetime when we asked her for a consultation last spring.
Our event is designed to raise money for our OB-GYN practice that sees any patient regardless of income or insurance. Forty percent of their patients are crisis pregnancy patients that have nowhere to turn. Over $500,000 is given away in “free” care every year but our gala is raising only about $250,000. Our gala is run fully by volunteers, many of whom are pregnant or have little ones filling their days. We know that every dollar we raise goes to these poor women so we are very stingy about our costs.
Someone told us that meeting would Sherry would be worth the money and bring us great ideas for making more money so we finally agreed to try a consultation with her. As the Gala Chairwoman, I was especially nervous about this meeting – would people be upset that we spent this money just to “talk” to someone?
The Challenge! We asked Sherry to meet with 10 of us and cover two pages of questions in her minimal consultation timeframe. We also had 15 kids and babies running, yelling and pulling us away from the table as she talked. At times, it was so loud in the room that we had to lean in to hear her. Our biggest concern was to find a software program that would fit our auction needs. Another was how to make our auction fun without it feeling corny. Imagine two pages of questions of this depth!
Sherry won the challenge. She popped through the questions with the ease and speed of – well – an auctioneer! She was able to stay on focus despite the kiddie chaos and gave us many good ideas without pressuring us into any one direction. She was friendly, likeable and able to pull lingering topics back on task with professional ease. We especially liked that she didn’t try to upsell us or make us feel bad for not having her as our auctioneer. When the meeting time came to the end – our two pages of questions were checked off. We were fully out of questions. Wow.
After she left, we all felt like we had certainly gotten our money’s worth. We were full of information, enthused with ideas to try and happy that Sherry was able to meet our challenge. We all agreed that, if she could handle a meeting like this in a room of screaming kids, she would be a great auctioneer for us someday. Meanwhile, we knew that we had a friend and a valuable source on our side who could pass our test. Thanks, Sherry!
Patty Whelpley, 2012 Gala Chairwoman
Divine Mercy Care (Fairfax, VA)
