In planning a Silent Auction there are lots of details to consider. The first and most important thing to consider is  building awareness for a Silent Auction. Here are ten steps to guarantee your items sell for top dollar.

1. Pre-sell: Get in front of your audience before the event, whether it be highlights of the auction in the invitation or a booklet sent to attendees within a week of the event.

2. Post online: Use the web to your advantage to get the word out beyond just those people who will be in attendance. This not only provides good exposure to your donors, but you may actually start the bidding before the event.

3. Create an experience: DO bring in props to communicate visually what a bidder can expect. If it’s a trip to Hawaii, bring in a poster of the hotel, lei,  and maybe even a cocktail glass with an umbrella. If it’s a spa treatment, have a robe (can even be your own!) and terry cloth slippers. DON’T put clipboards side by side, so close together that only one person can be viewing a group of them at a time. Spread them out.

4. Analyze past results: Check out what sold at what price in the past, and if there’s an auction item that sold well in the past, try to get it.

5. Don’t include services on a stand-alone basis: It’ll cheapen the event. Consultations on their own are usually not viewed as exciting. For example, an hour consultation with an interior designer or stylist doesn’t garner a lot of bidders.

6. Bundle small things into like-minded groups: Offering a consultation, such as a stylist as highlighted above, in conjunction with some sort of goods, like a gift certificate at a boutique, may be more compelling than either on their own.

7. Don’t start a minimum bids at more than 50% of the value: Let’s face it, people are looking for bargains. And if a Silent Auction item is marked too high in comparison to its value, it very well may sit there. If the goal is to start a bidding frenzy, and it is, then getting a few competitive attendees wanting to make the auction prize their own will boost the final price far higher.

8. Make the Silent Auction the only place to get cocktails at your event: Unlike buzz saws and alcohol, Silent Auctions and alcohol are a perfect marriage.

9. Stay on top of the logistics: If no one is bidding, don’t be afraid of discounting an item even further: Designate someone to go through the auction with a big red Sharpie at periodic times, such as half way through and then shortly before closing, to mark down anything that has no bidders. You don’t want to give anything back (too embarrassing for the donor) and your guests, in their love of a bargain, will start following those markdowns. Also, when items are closed, make sure the sheets are pulled immediately. There’s nothing so frustrating as when someone thinks they won an item and someone else walks up after the close and writes their name down. It’s not fair.

10. Stage the closings: It’s more exciting to have a certain portion of items close at different times. It creates a frenzy for attendees to see what’s available at the next grouping once the previous is closed.