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You are here: Home / Administration / A Simple Trick to Improve Raffle Ticket Sales & the Guest Experience
Aug 19

A Simple Trick to Improve Raffle Ticket Sales & the Guest Experience

Sherry Truhlar 4 Comments

raffle ticket sales

Give each guest who purchases a ticket a visual identifier, like one of these.

Raffle ticket sales become a lot easier when you use this simple trick. 

Each guest who buys a raffle ticket should be given a visual identifier to alert others that he’s purchased.

This avoids the common annoyance to guests: multiple people approaching to sell raffle tickets.

Assume you have three teams of volunteers roaming the crowd to sell raffle tickets for a diamond bracelet.

Team #1 approaches Mr. Smith and sells him two tickets.

Within minutes, Team #2 talks to him. “I just bought tickets,” he says. Is he fibbing? Team #2 isn’t sure, but they move on through the silent auction.

Team #3 catches Mr. Smith at the bar.  They ask him if he wants to buy raffle tickets. “I’ve already bought two tickets,” he sputters.

Team #3 is surprised at how grouchy he is. After all, this is a gala, right?

How many times do you think Mr. Smith will be asked to buy raffle tickets?  And how much time is wasted by Team #2 and Team #3 who keep approaching guests who have already bought tickets?

Visual identifiers serve three purposes:

  1. Your guest will not become annoyed from being asked multiple times if he will buy a ticket.
  2. Your volunteers know who has purchased a raffle ticket and who hasn’t. They can focus on making new sales.
  3. The visual identifier serves as a simple marketing tool to alert other guests about the presence of a raffle.

There are many inexpensive visual tools you can use:

  • Blink-y lights in necklace, pin, or ring form
  • Paper bracelets, similar to those used at large outdoor festivals or bars
  • Cloth bracelets
  • Metal pins
  • Hawaiian leis
  • Flower boutonnieres
  • Plastic necklaces
  • Stickers (They come in a multitude of shapes and colors to fit many themes.)

This is a low-cost, simple trick which will work wonders through greater productivity from your raffle volunteers, better sales from your raffle, and guests in a better mood.

This blog post shares a great tip for getting your raffle off on the right foot.  And now to leap ahead, here’s your resource.

Rockin Raffles productIn this 90-minute training, you’ll learn how and why some raffles are top-performing.

You’ll even get some bonuses … like one of the templates in this training is an entire page of “one liners.”

These are phrases shared by my staff that they use to open the conversation with guests during the reception.

(Volunteers often feel awkward when they are asked to interrupt your guests, trying to get them to buy a raffle ticket. These phrases make it easy for volunteers to become raffle sales pros.)

Check out Rockin’ Raffles: How to select, structure, and sell the most profitable raffles for your gala for the least amount of work.

Enjoy it!

=========================

Prefer video? Watch the video of this blog post below.

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Copyright © 2009 Red Apple Auctions Co. All Rights Reserved

About Sherry Truhlar

Fundraising auctioneer and educator, helping schools and nonprofits plan more profitable benefit auctions. A prolific writer for her own blog and other fundraising sites, she’s been covered in The Beacon-News, Town & Country Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Northern Virginia Magazine, Wiley's Special Events Galore!, AUCTIONEER, and other publications.

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Comments

  1. Laura says

    September 21, 2009 at 2:29 PM

    I think the best visual identifier to use would be the paper bracelets. It’s less likely that someone will take off an item you give to them if it sticks on their wrist and isn’t too silly. Doing an Online Raffle or a raffle at an event is a great idea. If it is a raffle that benefits a charity or some organization, maybe an identifier can be a sticker or a pin with the charity or organization’s name on it. It gives anyone who bought a ticket something to walk away with even if they don’t win.

    Reply
    • Sherry says

      September 21, 2009 at 4:15 PM

      Laura, Yes, that’s true. And another great thing is the flash-y necklaces or blink-y magnet pins. It’s hard to miss those, and guests take them home to their kids.

      Thanks for the comment!

      Reply
  2. jonsihay says

    September 13, 2009 at 10:24 PM

    I don’t know how i come by here. But I believed there’s something great, i should be thankful fo dropping by at your site.

    Hope, we could be friends!

    Thanks, for your site!

    jonsihay@yahoo.com

    Reply
    • Sherry says

      September 13, 2009 at 10:47 PM

      Hi Jon .. or Jonsi .. or Jonsihay …
      I’m glad you are finding the site useful. Referrals to your friends are always appreciated, so feel free to refer us to whomever you know involved in a fundraising auction.

      Two things you might find useful:

      1. I encourage you to sign-up on the right side of the page in the sign-up box. When you do, I’ll automatically email you a free report on the best items to sell in a benefit auction. You’ll also get our twice-a-month Ezine. I include ideas in the Ezine which is not necessarily on the blog. (Or, if it’s on the blog, it’s posted a lot later.)

      2. Another way you can have ideas easily “pushed” to you instead of you having to go “find” it on our blog is to subscribe to our RSS feed. This requires that you have a “feedreader.” Not everyone is that high tech, but if you *do* have a feedreader and regularly subscribe to other blogs for content, you can also subscribe to ours. To subscribe, you would click on the square orange button, also in the right column of this page.

      Reply

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Sherry, oh, Sherry! You were an invaluable asset to this year’s gala. With your assistance we were able to add so many new elements that truly made a difference in taking our event to another level. This year was the most successful yet! Everyone loved you and the amazing energy that you brought to the event. We look forward to having you again in 2018!

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Thank you so much for the outstanding job you did for us on April 1! I have received so much positive feedback from so many who attended. You even earned Sister Suzan’s (our Vice-Principal) seal of approval! Safe travels to all your many events and thank you for making our biggest fundraiser of the year our best ever!

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Sherry is flexible and easy to work with. She gives honest feedback and advice throughout the planning and implementation process. Without a doubt, Sherry and Red Apple Auctions has helped take our annual fundraising event to the next level.

Beckie Middendorf, Development Director and Janet Gulla, Development Coordinator
St. Henry District High School (Erlanger, KY)

Sherry is “on board” from day one of auction planning, works closely with our steering committee and is only just a phone call away. The night of the auction, we toss her the keys and let her drive the event! We are never disappointed!

Charly Ryan, Director of Institutional Advancement
The Academy of the Holy Cross (Kensington, MD)

I was very fortunate to have Red Apple on board for my first auction. Working with Sherry was invaluable. She provided guidance at every phase of planning, from procurement on forward – and she challenged us to make our event more ambitious and more successful at every stage. Thank you, Sherry!

Pete Goldlust, Director of Development
Oak Hill School (Eugene, OR)

If your auction needs to upgrade, call any auctioneer you find on Google. But if you want your auction to be impressive, meaningful, and profitable, you need to call Sherry.

Erin Banda
2016 NYUMBANI Board member

The auction was entertaining .. proactive … the crowd was involved and felt a part of it,” he said, emphasizing, “The entertainment value was huge.

Darrell, a long-time attendee

We plan on booking Red Apple Auctions much earlier for our next event so we can take advantage of more of the pre-event offerings.

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2012 Oakcrest Anne and CarolinaSherry, personally, I can’t even begin to tell you the immense amount of positive feedback that I received having YOU (and Darby) there with is this year!… Read The Rest “Anne Livaudais Knudsen, 5th year gala co-chair”

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