I want to introduce the 2 questions you need to ask before you place an item on the live auction.
Hopefully you have gone through my posts from last week featuring how many Live Auction Items you should have, the 5 live auction items you should look for and mission-centered live auction items. Now, once you have identified items that would be great options for the live auction, there are 2 questions I want you to ask yourself:
1. Is this item exclusive?
Meaning could your guests get this item anywhere else?
This is honestly one of the biggest issues I see with selling vacations on the Live Auction. Most vacation packages offered are nothing special. With the internet, most people can easily curate their own dream vacations for way less money than the "estimated value" of the trips on the auction.
Make sure the items on your live auction have a sense of exlusivity because that will encourage quick and competative bidding. They need to know that they have to raise their hand to bid or they will actually miss out on this item. This is why meal experiences tend to be some of the highest selling items.
If you are worrying about having the right connections to obtain "exlusive" live auction items, refer to my post on mission-centered Live Auction items to find some inspiration. I passionately believe that most "exlusive" items are the ones that will cost you nothing to obtain. I'll get into my beef with consignment live auction items another day, but just know that I'm not a huge supporter.
2. Does this item have a broad appeal?
Does this item interest many people in your audience?
Technically, you only need 2 people in your audience interested in your items to make it an auction, but the more you have the faster and higher those bids go up.
This is important for a couple reasons
It creates competitive bidding
The more people that the item appeals to, the more people will bid. It's as easy as that. Supply and demand.
It keeps more people engaged
If you have been following me for a while, you know how I love to use the live auction to build momentum up to the Fund-A-Need, and if you can curate a live auction lineup that appeals to as many people as possible in your audience, the more effective you will be at engaging your guests and building that momentum.
When the answer is "yes"
If you create a live auction lineup that is both exclusive and has a broad appeal, you will see record breaking numbers in your live auction. This is a simple but effective tool that will increase revenue at your fundraising event.
