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You are here: Home / Blog Post / How to write your silent auction descriptions to make more money – Part 2
Mar 08

How to write your silent auction descriptions to make more money – Part 2

Sherry Truhlar 2 Comments

silent auction descriptions missing information

What day is the game? (We found out and wrote the date on the display to the left.)

This is Part 2 of a 2-part series examining how missing information on silent auction descriptions costs you donations. Read Part 1 here.

My floor team are outstanding sales support in any auction. They find an item and work it until it has bids or they’ve sold it outright to a guest.

But if a silent auction description is lacking key information, my sales reps must leave their post to find someone in the marketing department who knows about this item and can provide the missing details.

Here are some additional common omissions on descriptions.

4.  Guests want to know if the gift cards for chain restaurants are good for ANY of the restaurants in the chain, or only ONE of the restaurants in the chain.

If a guest sees that Morton’s Georgetown has donated a $100 gift card, the first question they ask is,

“Excuse me, but could you tell me if this $100 gift card will work at the Morton’s in Tyson’s Corner or is it only good for Georgetown? What about in Boca Raton … I’ve got a sister in Boca who loves Morton’s. Personally I wouldn’t drive into Georgetown to use this, but I’ll bid on it if it works at any location. Do you know?”

Argh!

If it was in the description, we would have immediately got her to bid on or buy the item. Instead, we’re chasing down information. N

ow she might walk off elsewhere, we’ll never find her, and she’ll never come back to bid.

5.  Guests want to know the day of the event, as well as the date.

Tickets to sporting events and theater performances often list the date, but they don’t always mention the day. Yet many of us schedule our lives around days more than dates.

  • “I take the kids to dance class on Monday afternoons,” remembers Mom.
  • “I have my computer class on Thursday nights,” remembers Dad.

If you provide a day as well as a date, it helps guests decide on whether they are interested in bidding.

If they have any doubt about it, they won’t bid, so it’s important to provide the information upfront.

6.  Guests want to know what is included.

At one auction, my team was scrambling to uncover information on a salon donation. It was being sold in a school’s silent auction and the description was a vague,  “A $150 gift card for salon services.”

Two guests were inquiring as to whether the salon focused on cutting hair or esthetician services. What kind of a salon was it?

There was no “menu of services” on display and we had no idea.

So during the course of the silent auction, we are researching this item, instead of focusing on the more important task of sales.

On the positive side, at least these guests were asking questions.  Often guests won’t even bother to ask … they just won’t bid. Writing complete descriptions is important because you may just have one chance to get a guest to bid before they are distracted by something else.

Now of course, as useful as this blog post sounds, writing descriptions isn’t the only thing that gets guests to spend money in the silent auction.

It’s one element, but it’s hardly the silver bullet.

Silent Auction Marketing SavvySo to get my clients to run more profitable silent auctions, I pulled together a nearly 3-hour course that teaches volunteers how to re-vamp their silent auction to raise more money.

When my clients are getting higher ROIs than any other nonprofit around, this product is why.

They know the tricks that help an auction perform while having fun mastering the psychology of auctions, too. 

(Read loads of testimonials about this very training on this page.)

Case in point … women bid more than men in silent auctions, but men are more likely to overpay, thereby raising more cash.  So the key is to start attracting men.  And ladies, since we know that men don’t like to read (cough, cough), do you think that this blog post on writing good descriptions gets them involved?

No, not really.

Enter this brilliant little training gem … Silent Auction Savvy.

Silent Auction Savvy workbook, DVD, and online downloadable tools give you the bid sheets, display templates, checklists and other tools you’ll need to ensure you raise more money than that gal who ran the silent auction last year.  It means more money for your cause, be that a school, church, PTO, or some other type of nonprofit.

Sure, you can read this blog and see what information you can gather.

But really, I don’t put the real deal meat on the blog.  The real deal meat is in the product.

To amp up your silent, check it out here.

 

 

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Copyright © 2010 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. Guy VanderLek says

    March 12, 2010 at 12:45 PM

    The picture on this page is a broken link.

    Reply
    • admin says

      March 15, 2010 at 1:00 PM

      Thanks for the heads up, Guy. We fixed it.

      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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St. Henry District High School (Erlanger, KY)
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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!

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The Academy of the Holy Cross (Kensington, MD)
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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)
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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.

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2016 NYUMBANI Board member
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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
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Sherry, 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! Some of the tidbits: You added EXCITEMENT and ENTERTAINMENT… You added EXPERTISE and FUN… You helped the evening FLOW, in a wonderful and positive direction… You were FUN,… Read The Rest “Anne Livaudais Knudsen, 5th year gala co-chair”

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You have NO idea of how many people came up to me (I know Julie as well) and said, ‘That auctioneer was incredible … she engaged the crowd, … she got the bidders to bid without being rude/pushing, … I loved observing her, I just watched her, … she did a great job.’ It was… Read The Rest “Staci Meruvia”

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Geri said: “Great job of getting potential donors in the room to step up to the plate and not feel guilty or bad about it. They actually wanted to give more … and that’s not something I’ve seen in many other auctioneers.” The following year, she herself ‘stepped up’ and became one of the gala… Read The Rest “Geri”

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Irene attended one of my New Hampshire auctions and assumed I must be a radio personality — until I started to chant that fast talk. “I’ve been to this event before with a couple of other auctioneers,” she said, “Your ability to get personal with people in a way that isn’t intimidating — men, women,… Read The Rest “Irene”

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Most product & consulting remarks are found on their respective webpages, but I’ve listed two below so you’re assured my products are as spot-on as my auctioneering.   Not only was our 2013 auction a blast, but our Washington, D.C. public school raised $67,000 — that’s $25,000 more than last year! The evening went off… Read The Rest “Carolyn Kahn-Hall and Andrea Del Vecchio”

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As a former Fox News Anchorwoman, I am often called on to perform at auctions. So, I know first-hand that auctioneering can be a difficult job. Sherry Truhlar is one of the best in the business. She is skillful at managing an audience and keeping them focused on the task at hand – which is… Read The Rest “Cynthia Steele Vance”

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Guest at The Potomac School 2014 auction (McLean, VA)
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