Hosting a Mega Sale: Tips and Tricks from an Independent Future Director

[mcanavan]

I went to my cluster meeting and we were discussing a mega sale. For those of you who don't know what it is, I too would like some clarification. All I was told is that you rent a room (i.e. banquet hall, church hall, community centre room) and you ask 5 hosts (or as many as you'd like) and they ask ten people to attend. The host will tally all the orders at the end and she brings her own calculator. So in turn you are actually having five shows in one night. I think this is an excellent idea. Has anyone tried having a mega sale? Do you make a recipe? If yes, what would you suggest? Also, how do you get your hosts to commit and not cancel? Do you entice them in some way to have ten guests? Sorry for all the questions but I'd really like to try this in the Spring and I think that it would take a couple of months to prepare. Thanks a lot.

mcanavan
Independent Future Director

 

[pamperedbecky]

I've never done this. It sounds intriguing, but my first thought is you would definitely want to over-invite how many hosts you're counting on. Then they would need to overinvite their guests. Maybe you could do some small raffles for the hosts, like the one who has the most sales or something. Obviously you could have the potential for LOTS of guests, so the question about doing a demo is a good one. I'd definitely do one and try to make the show really fun with lots of food tips and stuff like that, but you'd need extra food too. Maybe each host would be willing to bring something. I'd love to hear some other feedback on how this would work. I'd be leery about renting a big room somewhere because you just never know what the turn out would be and unless you could find something for free, you could be putting all of your commission toward that.

 

[pchefmomof2]

I met someone at National Conference 2 years ago that did this at a Chi Chi's Restaurant. She had GREAT success with it and I have always wanted to try it but have not! She got permission from the Manager to do it on a Saturday afternoon (dead time) and they she had brought in a couple of recipes and then then they served appetizers (all paid for by the Host's and the Consultant evenly of course) I guess the guest were able to buy drinks and other food from the menu if they wanted too so the restaurant wasn't really hurting or out anything. The Consultant did do a small demo and then they placed orders. It was like she had 6 shows in one day. If I remember correctly the highest show ended up around $800 and the lowest ended around $400. Not bad for one afternoon huh? I think I would have my 5-6 Hosts give me their lists of 40 guests plus postage and then I would make sure all the invitations were mailed out!!! Thank for reminding me of that idea. I had not thought of that for ages but I really liked the idea and really wanted to implement it but with baby #2 coming along at the time I just couldn't do it. Then of all things to forget about it!!! I will have to do more research on this again!