I know that a lot of stores and businesses are having all kinds of promotions and events right now so I want to talk about evaluating your events and how you could make them even better. Bob and Susan Negen of Whizbang! Training covered this topic splendidly recently so I’ll have them tell you about it. Take it way, Bob and Susan!

After EVERY promotion or event, big or small, have a Recap Meeting. This meeting is a chance to celebrate a job well done or talk about why something didn’t work as planned.It also gives you a chance to get everyone’s ideas on how to make the event better the next time around.These meetings are best when you have them right after you close, but you can wait until the next day if it works better. Don’t wait any longer than the following day. Wait too long and you’ll lose all the little impressions and fun, interesting ideas that are so important to continually improving your event.Here’s a quick list of things to things to make notes about in your meeting:

• Sales: Planned vs. Actual
• Cost of Event: Budgeted vs. Actual
• Pre Event Planning: What worked, what didn’t, and what can we do better/differently next time?
• The Event Itself: What worked, what didn’t, and what can we do differently/better next time?
• After the Event: What worked, what didn’t, and what can we do better/differently next time?
• Promoting/Marketing the Event: What worked, what didn’t, and what can we do better next time?
• Other Thoughts/Comments/Ideas

Write everything down, put your notes in a file and you’ve got the beginnings of a bigger, better and more profitable event the next time around!