Simple Auction Checkout

Description

How to run a manual auction checkout. No software (or drama) required.

If your auction checkout has long lines, leaves your volunteers overwhelmed, and makes your donors angry, here’s your training to fix it.

Are you excited about your auction sales, only to be MORTIFIED by the long lines and lack of organization at checkout? “It was horrible,” Auction Chairs tell me.  “Checkout was a MESS!”

When lines form and disorganization erupts at checkout, frustrated bidders may leave without paying. It forces you to spend time following-up with them, and often takes weeks to figure out what went wrong. This is NOT how you want your event to end.

Auction checkout procedures are a process. Like any process, you have to follow the steps. It’s a bit like baking a cake. It’s not hard to do, if you follow the recipe.  You beat the butter and sugar … add the eggs … and then slowly add dry ingredients.

The recipe for a smooth checkout begins in the weeks PRIOR to the auction when you PACKAGE ITEMS and PRINT BID SHEETS. Then you set-up your registration area. Then you file bid sheets and organize items for winning bidders to pick up.

In this webinar, you’ll learn the steps — the recipe, if you will — for a no-fail auction checkout.

Once you get key pieces in place, auction checkout is painless and fast. Just follow the steps. Soon you’ll enjoy a streamlined event … collecting all the money, watching buyers leave with their merchandise (so you don’t haul items back), and leaving the venue early enough to enjoy a celebratory cocktail with your co-chairs.

Through photos taken at EVERY STEP of an auction checkout, you’ll watch the process unfold. You’ll learn:

• How to select the best person to oversee auction checkout (Auction checkout CANNOT be managed by the Auction Chair.)
• The checklist of tasks to oversee in the weeks leading up to the auction.
• How to design your bid sheets. (I go one step further. You’ll be receiving my bid sheet that auto-tabulates the increments and numbers for you. You’ll insert the value of the item, and the bid sheet is auto-created! Print it out and you’re ready to make money.)
• How to set up and staff registration and checkout areas
• The number of volunteers you’ll need for each checkout task.
• Suggestions on where to get forms printed
• Streamlining the process for efficiency at night’s end.
• Optional equipment you may want to rent to make the process easier
• Best practices I’ve collected from working hundreds of benefit auctions, Florida-to-California.

In a nutshell, you’ll learn how to collect all your money — smoothly.

Whether you’re offering silent auction items, overseeing a Fund a Need, or selling raffle tickets, you’ll have a practical no-fail checkout process to follow.

Think about it: No more headaches! No more angry bidders! No more 100s of phone calls to follow up with payment!

What you receive:

1. A DVD of the live webinar (92 minutes)
2. A transcript of the call (Your checkout team should review either the DVD and/or transcript a few times before your auction every year.)
3. A paper copy of the slide presentation
4. Written volunteer job descriptions, responsibilities, and estimated time commitment for each member of the checkout team
5. 4 Excel-based silent auction bid forms that automatically tally increments (and Guaranteed Purchase, if used) for you. Two of these are “half-sheet” size and two are “full sheet” size.  Starting bids and increments are set and tweaked.
6. Live auction clerking sheet
7. An Excel-based procurement tracking database (with all my tricks “built in”) to help you manage incoming donations like a pro.
8. An Excel-based guest list spreadsheet to use during registration to alleviate problems in checkout.

This training is for you if ….

• You and/or your committee need a refresher on how to run checkout
• You’ve got a new team of people running checkout and need to get them trained.
• You’re a “newbie.” Maybe this is your first nonprofit auction, or the first auction you’ve helped plan.
• You have auction software … or not. Over the years, a number of auction planners WITH software use this webinar. When I’ve asked them why, they share that their software vendor is good at training them in the software, but fails to help them understand how checkout runs with onsite activities.  (“When we saw your photos of the volunteers arranging secure checkout,” one said, “we were like, ‘Ah ha!””)

About your presenter

Last year alone, benefit auctioneer Sherry Truhlar worked at over 50 benefit auctions in 11 different states.  Her clients include charities that use software to manage their auctions, and charities that get by using Excel and Word documents. She’s taught a number of her clients how to run a simple, manual checkout process that serves them for many years. As an expert teacher and national educator on all-things benefit auction oriented, Sherry will give you all the tools necessary to lay a solid foundation for your checkout process.