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Invitations
Prior to a personal invitation, there should be many “attended” announcements and pre-invitations, as described more comprehensively below and in the Training Package you receive. Personal invitations are how you make your Virtual Auction successful.
Eventually, a personal invitation comes down to a face to face conversation or a telephone call. You can probably make slightly more than ten calls in an hour or one call every 4-6 minutes. With people you know well who have the potential to give $200 or more, you might make longer calls. A 50% success ratio suggests five commitments/hr.
Face to face conversations take more time and probably should be reserved for people the inviter knows well who have the potential to make a $200 or higher commitment. Longer calls are similar to face to face conversations when there is a group setting. In a group setting you can approach several people in a short time, for example, at church, after prayers, at work for your nonprofit, at a group meeting.
An individual conversation, perhaps while you and your potential guest are doing something else can be most effective, but could easily take thirty minutes or more. How many people do you know well that can make and will follow through with a $500 to $5000+ commitment? These are the people you want to schedule individual conversations with. When you don’t yet have these kinds of contacts, there are many other volunteer opportunities where your time is very valuable.
It is important to realize that a personal invitation is a request for a commitment to spend a specific amount, ranging from $50 to $5000 or more, depending on a variety of circumstances. Perhaps you are asking someone to buy a used car, take a vacation or agree to spend a specific amount at the Virtual Auction after they have responded to a previous pre-invitation. You take them on-line where they register, give their credit card and make a commitment for the ticket they intend to buy.
Your invitation should never feel pushy. It is an opportunity to help a cause the person believes in and feels a strong desire to support, while simultaneously getting things each person probably already wants. Behind this invitation is always the possibility of helping each prospective guest solve a significant problem or achieve a major goal in their lives.
When your potential guest is not yet strongly committed, your invitation is simply another attended announcement with a pre-invitation online form to fill out and more opportunities to follow. Teaching people how register, how to use our pre-auction Buy it Now and Alternative options, as well as, to be open to more opportunities to learn about the cause is the appropriate response for those who are not easily ready to make a serious commitment at the time of your call. Frequently, this will involve several short calls with suggestions to go on line to learn more.
Attended Announcements & Pre-Invitations
As mentioned previously, before the actual personal invitation, there should be a series of attended announcements and pre-invitations. A rough rule of thumb is it takes 3-7 attended announcements followed by a personal invitation to make one meaningful sale. A meaningful sale raises $200 or more.
An attended announcement is an “advertisement,” bulletin, Facebook appeal, Tweet, brochure, email, save the date invitation, pulpit announcement or other contact which has 1) an emotional appeal or a familiarity to it that gets attention, as well as, 2) an actual response.
Not every announcement will be an attended announcement. It may take 3-10+ announcements before you actually get someone’s attention with enough familiarity to engender a meaningful response. After getting a prospective guest’s attention, additional announcements within several days to two weeks may be needed for that person to actually respond. Attention spans are limited, which is why planning 2, 3, 6, 8 or more months in advance is important. Who or what is doing the announcements can significantly reduce the number of announcements needed before these announcements are attended.
What this invitation process is saying is that you should plan at least three and possibly as many as 21 or more pre-invitations or announcements before making the actual personal invitation. If the pre-invitation is coming from a highly respected person or source the number of announcements needed and the planning time can be reduced. A regularly scheduled, well attended event that becomes part of our Virtual Auction is an example of a respected source.
Tickets
You ask a potential event Guest to buy one or more tickets, which will range from $50 to $5000+. The intention is to receive a commitment in advance. Before asking someone to “buy a ticket,” they should have an opportunity to explore potential Buy it Now and Auction items and to decide approximately how much they anticipate spending.
Investing in advance gives your Guest an instant return on their investment, noted by Ret %. Spend shows the extra amount your Guest can spend on donated items at the Auction. Committing to $50 means your Guest can spend another $2.
Committing $1000 means your Guest can spend another $165 and gets a Scrip PrestoPay membership, normally $100 for $35, equivalent to a 20% return. Using PrestoPay means your Guest can allocate on average an additional $300-$600/yr to a Special Project (theirs or another).
The extra amount shown by Spend is like “free money” we call Chimorel Bucks. You can spend Chimorel Bucks on any donated item because of your advance commitment. We encourage you to patronize sponsors who have donated items you can buy with your Chimorel Bucks. You can also earn Chimorel Bucks as a volunteer and in certain Chimorel programs. Items that are not donated have a cost, which suggests they will not be “free money” items and not available for purchase with Chimorel Bucks.
