February Webinar: Drive Party Sales

Need to boost your birthday party business or group sales program? During this month’s IAAPA webinar, Sheryl Bindelglass, president and founder of marketing firm SherylGolf, will share tips you can put to use right away to increase revenue.

“Extreme Birthday Party Makeover: The Party Examples Continue,” takes place Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 2 p.m. EST. As part of the discussion, she asks participants to send examples of their party marketing materials, which she will review during the webinar. In the Queue caught up with Bindelglass this week to find out more about this session.

Birthday parties are a core part of the FEC business. Why is it important to keep things fresh?
When you’re dealing with repeat customers you may get people who come back to your facility year after year and have the same child have two or three birthday parties with you. They’re looking to see what you’ve changed, to see what’s new and what’s different—whether you’ve added a new attraction or you’ve added a new value to the package.

In these budget-conscious days, what are some examples of small affordable changes that can boost revenue?
The first thing I’d recommend is to go back and look at your packages and see how you can repackage or rebrand them. Can you put a package together that used to be $9.99 a child and add value to it—whether it’s an extra ride or a couple dollars in the video arcade area? What can you do to have a greater perceived value and make that $9.99 package a $12.99 so you’re getting a greater per cap per person? You always want to create upsells. If you attend the webinar, you will learn some key tricks on how to be successful with upsells.

Who do you recommend participate in this webinar?
Anyone and everyone who would like to host a birthday party or celebration at their facility, whether it’s an amusement park, a family fun center, a farm, a museum, or an aquarium. Even if you’re in the party business, you will still learn new and improved ways to make more money with party packages.
We’ve heard from family fun centers, a children’s museum, a haunted attraction, a farm, a waterpark, a very diverse group of locations, ranging from small facilities to large operations. The same core principles apply whether it’s a small change of looking at your flier and noticing you don’t even have your web site on it, or looking on your web site and finding you’re missing key information that could help you sell more packages. You should learn at least one or two golden nuggets you can implement within an hour after the webinar. Quick, easy, inexpensive, even free things you will be able to do immediately after the session. You will not have to wait months to make some of these quick-fix recommendations.

Though FECs do a lot of birthday party business, are there general group sales concepts other facilities can learn from this session?
Do you know what your sales numbers are? What your goals are? Does your whole company understand how important it is to reach your goals? I’ll talk about obtainable goals and what can you do to motivate your staff to sell.

You’ve welcomed attendees to submit samples for this webinar. What types of materials are you looking for, and what can participants expect to learn from your evaluations?
We’re looking for your flier, web site, or anything that ties into your birthday party. We’re going to pick several examples and show you how little changes can have a big impact.

To register or learn more on IAAPA’s e-learning programs, click here.