The Smart Training Company offers top tips for event organisers and venues over the Christmas festivities. To get us in the mood here’s some fun facts about Christmas:
• According to tradition, you should eat one mince pie on each of the 12 days of Christmas to bring good luck.
• US scientists calculated that Santa would have to visit 822 homes a second to deliver all the world’s presents on Christmas Eve, travelling at 650 miles a second.
• 6 million – The number of rolls of Sellotape that will be sold in the UK in the run up to Christmas (5.99 million is the number of rolls that you can’t find where the tape ends)
• According to a survey conducted in 2016, 57% of adults in the UK would gladly sacrifice seeing relatives on Christmas Day if it meant they could spend more time on Facebook.
• Nearly 60 million Christmas Trees are grown each year in Europe
• In a recent Yahoo poll, users voted the most popular Christmas film of all time as Home Alone, with The Muppet Christmas Carol second, and It’s a Wonderful Life third.
Assuming you’re reading this today, in November, start by reviewing your ‘Business on the Books,’ compare to previous years’ budgets and identify your gap. Do you need more bookings? Or does the focus need to be on Food and Beverage sales?
Include the right team members to help you. Involve them in generating ideas, help understand the logistics and ensure you stay within budget. Involving others will motivate and build team relationships that will benefit the smooth running of events through December.
Plan how you are going to achieve wine and beverage sales for each Service, Party Night or Private event to exceed beverage budget. Do your team have excellent knowledge of your Christmas food and drink menus? Why not organise some training sessions in Food and Wine matching? Increased Knowledge = Increased Sales.
Does your team know how to recognise sales opportunities? Are they motivated to achieve targets? What incentives do you have in place to encourage your team to sell? Engage your team from the beginning and you’ll deliver a successful event every time.
You should put a date in your diary in January to review how well your Christmas events performed from both a sales and an operational perspective. Identify what made the event or night successful, and what would you do differently next time? Plan your marketing effort across the year and promote events on your website as early as possible.
It’s a good idea to use an annual planner- style chart to plan all activities across the year and to keep the team on track. Ensure this is updated regularly for each event.
Agree all the activity needed within the whole team so everyone is involved, has contributed and is motivated to ensure success for 2019 and beyond!
The Smart Training Company is running a Christmas Sales and Spend Review Workshop in January and February 2019 to help venues review 2018 and plan and maximise sales and marketing opportunities in the run up to, and over the Christmas period in 2019. For readers of the Edge Venues please enter promotional code SMARTVIP19 to book delegate places at £165 instead of £199. For more information click here
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