How to Sign Up Businesses for your Discount Card

Getting businesses to agree to be on your discount card is not that difficult. There are basically 3 easy steps that you can use to help ensure that you end up with the vendors that you want.

Put together your business target list:

• Before you start, put together a target list of businesses. Keep in mind that in order to reach your goal of 15-20 businesses, your initial list may need to have at least 40 businesses. The reason is that not everyone will say ‘yes’. We recommend that about 80% of your list include restaurants. The other 20% can be miscellaneous businesses and can be anything from hair salons to car wash establishments. It is also a good idea to sit down with other people who are involved with the fundraiser and brainstorm together. Remember, you will want your businesses to appeal to as wide a customer base as possible so the more people that you are able to collaborate with the better.

Plan how you will approach the businesses:

Before you approach any businesses it is important to first understand why they may want to consider being on your card. Here are a few good reasons:

• They will receive FREE advertising
• They will receive increased customer traffic
• They will receive repeat customer traffic over an extended period of time
• They will be seen in a positive light in their community for helping out a local organization

Once you are ready to approach businesses you can either call them on the phone or pay them a visit. Once you get a business to agree to be on your card you can simply fax them the Discount Card Business Agreement Form (Make sure you fill out the bottom section where it says ‘For Organization Use Only’ prior to faxing). One advantage to visiting businesses in person is often times if you are able to meet with the decision maker they can fill the form out on the spot. Call or visit each location and ask to speak with the owner or manager. Here is a script that you can use:

“_____________________________ is raising money for __________________________ by selling discount cards and we have selected your business to be on our discount card. You will receive free advertising and all we need is an offer from your business, such as “10% off of x”. We will place this offer on the back of our discount card which will be sold to the community at no charge to you. Can we go ahead and add your business to our card?”

Tip #1: Let the merchant know that other businesses will also be on the card and mention them by name. Tip #2: If you sponsor older students consider having a few of your strong sellers approach businesses. Tip #3: Set a timeline goal for the completion of your card (For non-bulk orders, once we receive your vendor contracts we need 2 weeks to pack and ship your fundraising packets once we have designed your discount card brochure)

Have them complete the Discount Card Business Agreement Form and submit:

• If you choose to contact businesses by phone they can scan and email the completed forms directly to us at sales@BigEventFundraising.com. Or, you can scan and email the forms yourself if you visit the businesses in person and can get them to fill them out on the spot (or choose to personally pick up the forms once they are ready). Once we receive your forms and all other necessary paperwork we will design and build your card.

Tip: We will email you a confirmation once we receive your order.