Should we go with a Grand Prize Drawing or a Top Seller Prize?

You only have so much in your fundraising budget to attempt to entice your sellers to bring in more money. You need to spend whatever money you have wisely. As a result, you are careful with your big prize purchase having done your homework by asking for people’s opinions on what to buy. After careful consideration you have determined that the prize that you have finally selected is really going to motivate your group to sell more. After all, you’ve discovered that it’s what everyone’s talking about anyway.

However, now that you have your carefully selected prize, you may be wondering what method should you use to give it away? Which way will create the greatest suspense and interest? What will create the most competition and thus yield the greatest amount of money for your fundraiser? Should you give it away in a grand prize drawing or give it to the overall top seller? How you choose to give the prize away is as important as the prize itself.

To answer this question it may be a good idea to take a look at the pros and cons of each method: 

Grand Prize Drawing

PROS:

• Everyone who reaches the minimum amount required to be entered into the drawing has a chance to win
• Since more people will feel like they have a chance to win simply by reaching this minimum requirement this may increase seller participation
• You can still entice the bigger sellers by allowing for their names to go into the drawing additional times for more items sold

CONS:

• The people who sell the most aren’t guaranteed to win even though they may have the greatest chance by having their name in more times
• Some people may not sell as much because they know they have a chance to win by only reaching the minimum requirement necessary to be entered into the drawing

Top Seller Prize

PROS:

• Everyone knows that the person who sells the most will win the prize no matter what
• More people may sell more items because they know that only the person who sells the most will win

CONS:

• This may turn off some people who may not think they can sell a lot of items for whatever reason and thus they may not try as hard

As you can see deciding on whether to have a grand prize drawing or top seller prize may not be as easy as it seems. Before deciding on which approach to use to give away your prize you may want to consult with several people first. Every situation is different and you may end up choosing the opposite way that you did the previous year just to keep it interesting for your sellers. Of course you can always get two less expensive prizes and use both methods. Food for thought.