Shop For A Cure, Mt. Cobb, PA

An introduction to Anita's visit to Shannon Nelson's Shop For A Cure Expo held in Mt. Cobb, Pennsylvania to benefit The American Cancer Society in Northeast Pennsylvania.

On April 29th 2006 I had the absolute pleasure of driving about three hours away to meet one of my good friends and very active message board members, Shannon Nelson. I don't normally travel this far for an event but, having the chance to meet Shannon was the icing on the cake.

I talked with many talented women in the direct sales industry who were more than willing to share a little about themselves to help us in our mission of helping others in the same industry achieve the success within in themselves.


The companies represented at this expo were Country Bunny Bath & Body, Discovery Toys, Avon, Tastefully Simple, Princess House, The Pampered Chef, Lia Sophia, Arbonne, Creative Memories, Mary Kay, Cookie Lee, BeautiControl, Tupperware, Premier Designs Jewelry, Stuff a Friend, Usborne Books, Mia Bella Candles, Stampin Up and Home Interiors.

Shoppers were charged a small fee of $3 each which was donated to The American Cancer Society. Each shopper was issued a card listing each of the companies represented there. The shoppers would then take their cards with them as they visited each vendor. The vendors would then stamp or sign each card acknowledging their visit. Before the shoppers left they would drop their cards into a drawing box for a chance to win over $500 worth of prizes. The door prizes were donated by a majority of the vendors.

This is the second event that Shannon has coordinated to benefit The American Cancer Society and plans to hold the next this fall to benefit childhood cancer. You can find out more about this event, future events and information on breast and ovarian cancer at Shannon's blog Shop For A Cure

Looking from the point of view of a shopper, this event was very well planned out and well executed. Each vendor had a beautiful display and did a very good job representing their respective companies.

I personally think charging shoppers a small fee and holding a door prize contest to benefit the ACS was a brilliant idea and very unique. As we've said time and time again ... creativity can be your very best friend.

Having so much to choose from reminded me quickly of how important it is to make sure you (as a vendor) have a plan in place for you to be able to reach the customer and in turn to have the customer be able to easily contact you. As we've mentioned before, holding your own contest to collect warm leads and having a newsletter are two of the more popular and more effective ways of doing this. Having business cards, flyers, brochures and other materials of this nature is also a great way for your customer's to keep your information. I know I couldn't have possibly purchased everything I wanted to right then and there so, I had to make the decision of picking a few items now and collect information from the rest for future purchases. (Point taken?)

As a continuation of Shannon's Shop for a Cure event, anyone who books a show with her in the month of May, be it an online show, catalog show or in home spa show, Shannon will donate $10 per booking to the American Cancer Society for breast and ovarian cancer. Your show does not have to take place in May, but has to be booked with her before the end of this month. This is a great way to earn some products for free, while helping contribute to a worthy charity.


For more information:

Shannon Nelson
Country Bunny Bath and Body
http://www.cbunnyrep.com/7227 OR
http://gottaspa.blogspot.com

Follow along for the next couple of weeks as we share the interviews from this event.