A Booth Flop: Our Apartment Complex Experience

[pamperedcheermom]

The booth we did at the apartment complex yesterday was a flop. It was their second year doing this; they have 1000 residents in the complex; but I think only 10 came to the clubhouse for the booths. We had plenty of Pecan Tassies left over and what was eaten was eaten by ourselves and the other vendors. They were a big hit!
BUT, it was fun, we took one order and sold one SBC. All the other vendors were great to talk to and they were disappointed that we didn't have anybody come through.
They were renting out apartments and they had to come through the clubhouse where we were but none of them stopped. I guess they just couldn't see all of us sitting there!
Oh well, it was fun and we met some other vendors and shared ideas with them. We ate tons of food because they had snacks there for us so we left full..........but still disappointed.

Maybe our next booth will go better!
Just thought I'd share in case others have had the same thing happen.

 

[chefkristin]

Oh, I am sorry-What a bummer! So much work.

 

[laylaleigh]

I have had my fair share of disappointing booths!! At least you got your name out there, even if it wasn't too many people.

I hope you have a better day!

 

[vwpamperedchef]

I did a holiday fair yesterday with another consultant. Sold a few seasons bests, and some old bamboo spoons, but that was it. NO BOOKINGS. I have two potenital bookings for January and a lot of leads from a raffle. So that's the bright side. Had fun with some of the other vendors nearby.

I hear ya! Its disappointing!

 

[elizabethfox]

Yeah I have done 2 vendor/craft shows since starting PC in Oct, and both have not been very productive. The first I had no orders at all, and one booking, and at the second show I only sold 2 season's best cookbooks. NO BOOKINGS! So dissapointing! Felt like such a waste of my time and money.

 

[Intrepid_Chef]

I feel your pain ....

A few tips I bring from my previous DS company that really helped me ...

A lot of PC consultants have a "win a free show" drawing. I don't think that's a great idea ... just because you won't enter if you're not interested in having a show, or don't know if you want a show.

Instead ... find a product in your kit that you have more than one of. Do a drawing for that, or for $10 in free product. Offer the non-winners a discount if you want to increase sales.

OR .... just take the advice I got at my first booth (which was also a flop.)

"Whenever I have a zero booth, which happens, I just wait. Within 3 months, I have made what it cost me to be there, plus a profit."

The contacts you make at these things tend to make it worth your while.

 

[MaddyandOwensMom]

I just had the same thing happen to me. It was a fundraiser for a local charity no one heard of. It was held at several locations of a daycare chain. 160 families plus staff, 7 vendors, 10 people came by plus I left catalogues for a week. $180 in sales. I think I did better than most, though I ended up losing money. I did get one booking, possibly two. I'm glad others are in the same boat!
Jessica

 

[KellyTheChef]

I hear ya!

So dissappointing when that happens! Sorry to hear that, hopefully someone you spoke with will call you down the line!

 

[baychef]

I am sorry to hear about your disappointing results. I have also been there. Since I have been doing PC for over 7 years and I do it on my days off, I have directed my new consultants toward booths. My name is out there so they need exposure. And, I decided if I was going to put as much or more work into a booth as I was a show, then the best bang for my buck was doing a party and passing on the booths.

In case you belong to Belinda Ellsworth's Step Into Success, her September audio was about having a successful booth experience. I found that was the best I had heard. You just didn't have the numbers coming to the booths, which stinks. If you do another booth with them next year, is there a way that the residents can be better notified? Usually free food attracts everyone!! (Works for me!! I would have stopped at your booth, ordered something and eaten a dozen Pecan Tassies!!)

 

[ChefBeckyD]

I have had some disappointing booth experiences - and like Ann stated - for the time and effort, I have found that it's more beneficial for me to do a show instead. I rarely do them anymore.
I did just do one - because I had been given some incredible stats from the previous year for this Fundraiser Booth Event. I went against my own better judgement, even after I found out where it was located (hidden way back on a dirt road) because of those stats. It wasn't a complete flop, but it also wasn't a huge success. I got just $150 in sales, and 4 bookings from the event - and half of my sales and bookings were from other vendors who were there and wandering around because there was nothing to do. ( I avg. 2-3 bookings a show, and much more in sales, and could have done it with 1/4 of the time invested, and less money and WAY less work!)

If I ever do another booth - I will make sure it meets the following criteria:

1. Well Established Event - and know the traffic #'s from previous years
2. Well Layed Out - knowing that my booth won't be hidden around a corner way down a hall from where others are (this happened to me a couple years ago!)
3. Plenty of Local Advertising - (this last one, I had been told would be in the local paper - but it never made it there)
4. Low Cost for Booth - I'm not paying $40+ to stand at a booth, and have 10 people wander by over a 5-6 hour period. My time and money is too precious for that.

 

[baychef]

One of the points that Belinda stressed was make sure you are going for one thing only. Either sales, bookings or recruits. She said that the chances you will have success with just sales is poor. If you are doing the booth with another person, you may be able to each concentrate on one area. That doesn't mean don't have information for all of those areas, but it is too hard to jump from subject to subject.

 

[scottcooks]

Not enough traffic is the killer of many multivendor events. All you can do is ask the organizer what traffic has been in the past. If you are going to a "first time" event, know ahead that it will be a slow day. In the 4 or 5 of these first time events I have done, I did the best when actually making a very simple recipe. My best results were with the 3 onion goat cheese tart at a church bazaar - cooking that bacon with onions brought everyone, and I mean everyone to my table. Here's my sob story: Bad apartment experience - no accountability.I had what I thought was a great lead on doing an open house type show at the clubhouse for an apartment in a community. The show went fine, except the host (one of the apt. managers) Never Showed Up. [now what??] 10 days later I finally catch up with her, and she orders But Doesn't Pay Me. Finally 3 1/2 weeks after her show, I pickup her check. I had to leave this phone message for the absent host...Hi Dilly, this is Scott - I am sending your show in tomorrow morning at 10am either with or without your order. If you want your free product and your host special, I need your payment tonight or tomorrow morning. Your residents and colleagues are mad at me because their product hasn't arrived, and you haven't even closed the show yet so I can place everyone's order." She had it for me at 11am! The lady handing her check to me is one of 5 people who ordered, 3 of them are other apt. managers. As she hands it to me, she says "where is the product?" I explain I can't order until I have everyone's payment and that the check in her hand is my ticket to actually place everyone's order. She says she wants to cancel her order. I put the show order in that night and the 3rd manager calls me the next day saying she wants to cancel her order too, that it has been almost 30 days and I cashed her check (deposited into my a/c so PC can debit against it) and she has no product. I arrange with her to bring it by the next day at 11am, call PC HO and ask to remove her order. Then in a classic threatening move, she says 'my husband is a banker and if you don't bring me cash for my dollar amount, we will file fraud charges against you.' So I printed up 2 copies of her receipt, paid her cash, made her sign one saying she had received her payment, and thanked her. While she was signing, I explained the lack of host and that all payment for the show needed to be in advance. It dawned on me that we were below $150 now, so I still had the host's check in my car. I went back out and got it, put it in an envelope and had grumpy manager #3 hand it to Dilly with a note from me explaining she had not ever been a host, there had now not been enough sales to constitute a show, and thanking her for the exposure to folks in that area. I also wrote that an apology would be appropriate.I'm glad it was show # 107 and not show #7! I then had HO convert all the orders into individual orders and got the folks their stuff - one of the residents had just ordered a bottle of Jerk seasoning and it took her 5 weeks to get her silly spice...Bless and release! -praying for Paige and her family-

 

[Jules711]

Booths...I love them. I get a lot of great customers that are excited to meet a PC consultant in the area. This means I really do them only in my town b/c that means little driving and I am now known in the area. Just got another $40 order out of the blue from someone I met last month at a booth (yes, she ordered then too). Yes, if you think about the time involved and the immediate return, they are not typically worth it. It is ALL about the leads. My personal best booths are the ones on the street when we have crazy days or some fest thing going on! No prep, no advertising (on my part) and it's busy!The best piece of advice I've had is have some cash n carry and don't EVER sit down. People don't want to come up to someone that looks bored (they are afraid you'll pounce or that you are unfriendly). If I'm not busy, I play with my display so I'm "busy". That means they can look without being jumped on. Also, gift certificates are always good prizes b/c it brings them back to you and if they are out of town, they can have it directly shipped to them.

 

[PCSarahjm]

The booth we did at the apartment complex yesterday was a flop. It was their second year doing this; they have 1000 residents in the complex; but I think only 10 came to the clubhouse for the booths. We had plenty of Pecan Tassies left over and what was eaten was eaten by ourselves and the other vendors. They were a big hit!
BUT, it was fun, we took one order and sold one SBC. All the other vendors were great to talk to and they were disappointed that we didn't have anybody come through.
They were renting out apartments and they had to come through the clubhouse where we were but none of them stopped. I guess they just couldn't see all of us sitting there!
Oh well, it was fun and we met some other vendors and shared ideas with them. We ate tons of food because they had snacks there for us so we left full..........but still disappointed.

Maybe our next booth will go better!
Just thought I'd share in case others have had the same thing happen.

I did a booth early this fall at the local fall festival....it was real successful. But a month later a women called me and placed a $50 order and has
been a good customer since. So even the booth was a flop your name is out there and people will remember you!