This committee recruits and manages the 20+ Shoe Guys ™®.The Chair of this should be outgoing, a little flirty, and unafraid to chat up cute men to bring them on board. Shoe Guys ™® (a.k.a. Sole Men) serve several purposes during the event. They may:
• flirt with guests and explain the charity mission; • persuade guests to purchase items, such as shoes that they carry on trays; • greet and assist guests; and/or • sell auction items, including their services as tableside waiters during the show.
Want to know more about how Shoe Guys ™® benefit these events? Check out this: The Benefits of Shoe Guys™®
• Shoe Guys ™®are typically men in the community somehow connected to women supporting the event.Whether they’re someone’s son, brother, boyfriend, nephew, grandson or dad, if they have an outgoing personality, chances are, they’d be great! Good looks are a plus. DO NOT bring in shy guys, who won't flirt or engage guests.
•No Shoe Guys under 21 -- No matter how adorable. You do not want a lawsuit.
• WHY BE A SHOE GUY?
1. They can promote their business & make new contacts. 2. They can learn more about wine. 3. It's a lot of fun! They get to drink wine and hang out with pretty ladies!
Download & our "Why Be a Shoe Guy?" video for your potential guys, or just send them to this link to watch:
•Providing Shoe Guys ™® could benefit yoursponsors. See if your sponsors want to provide Shoe Guys, or your guys have companies that want to sponsor. It's a great networking opportunity! For instance, if a real estate company is a sponsor, they could send 2 charming agents as Shoe Guys and scoop up new clients. Same for doctors,et al.
In the following event program, note the business associations next to the Shoe Guys: How Many Guys? 20 Shoe Guys is the perfect amount for a 350-person event.Anticipate a 10% no show.
• Hold a fun pre-event Shoe Guy gathering, like a BBQ, three weeks before the event. Benefits:
1) Creates camaraderie among Shoe Guys 2) Builds awareness of the charity 3) Gives sponsors another opportunity to interact with potential customers
View & download this cute BBQ e-blast e-vite:
Step 2: What Shoe Guys™®Wear
Shirts
• Standard uniform is a short-sleeve fitted cotton black shirt and black pants, which tends to accentuate their physique better than a long sleeve button-down or other.
• Shoe Guy Shirts can be a huge revenue asset for the event.
Examples: In Oklahoma City, the Shoe Guys contributed $100 to the charity and received a black t-shirt with a WW&S logo on the breast that they got to keep. Since the t-shirt only costs $25 each, the remaining $75 went towards the bottom line.
YWCA Central Orange County told a potential sponsor that some of the best exposure in the room was on the Shoe Guys' shirts. Where all of the women looking at the event? The Shoe Guys! They sold a logo on the breast of the Shoe Guy shirts for $5,000. This is a super way to bring value to the sponsors and raise some more money. The shirts were $20 a piece and the rest was pure profit.
Name Tags:
• The Shoe Guy at left is wearing a tag with his name & his company's name. Clever way to ID your guys, and possibly promote sponsors!
Shoe Guy ™® Fashion Police
• Who among us has not had to put the kabash on a spouse or boyfriend's bad bad outfit? Same applies here. Watch these guys like hawks. You never know what crazy getup they'll try to get away with:
Yes!
(Simple & Elegant!)
No, No, No.
(Please: No Jeans &/or Bling)
Step 3: Event Promotion
Shoe Guys are awesome promo sources! Ideas:
Give them their own Facebook page Sample posts for Shoe Guys:
• Wine Women & Shoes?...HOT. I’ll be filling my foot-fetish quota for the year at this fundraiser for [CHARITY] on April 23. • Male to female ratio = 1:20 Just one of the many benefits of being a Shoe Guy. • Who can resist a guy dishing up sexy stilettos on a silver platter?! Give in to temptation at Wine Women & Shoes on Saturday…it’s for charity! • Who says drag queens have all the fun? Try being a shoe guy at Wine Women & Shoes!
Event Photos At your event, try to get a group shot, which makes for great post event publicity material and a good recruiting piece for the following year:
PR committee can write or pitch cute articles like this one:
Step 4: Assignments & Training
Assignments for 25 Guys
Greeting
2 guys at elevator/stairs greeting
2 guys handing out glasses writing names on glasses in gold pen
Marketplace
2 selling raffle tickets
2 assigned to silent auction walking room with lots on trays - need to make double lot display for these lots
2 guys assigned to silent auction tables promoting lots to the bidders
2 guys assigned to live auction lots walking the room with lot display on trays - need to make double of these displays
1 guy assigned to live auction table promoting lots to bidders 10 assigned to vendors 2 extra guys can float as needed
4 guys who are greeting and handing out glasses will rotate in once that is done and do something else
During seated portion or program
8 assigned to VIP tables
2 assigned to VIP rows, pouring wine
4 assigned to helping pour wine
4 assigned to promote bidding and
4 assigned to thank bidders and put feather boa around her neck
The ones associated with the auction lots will come up on stage
3 - 4 assigned to walking the Best in Shoe winners on stage
Check out
4 assigned to taking silent items to people's cars
•Train on yourcharity's mission. Give each guy a different talking point to use with guests as they work the event. The more educated everyone is on what the charity does, the better.
• Have them arrive an hour before the event so the Shoe Guy Chair can spend about 20 minutes with the group giving an overview of their role. They’ll also need to be broken up and designated to the various vendors and speak to their vendor about what they’re showcasing on their tray.
Get‘er Done: "HONEY DO" LIST COMPLETION PACKAGE Home improvement pros get it all done for you! (Your shoe guys may be candidates for this!) The following example from our 2012 Napa event sold twice for $6500:
12 professionals complete your home improvement needs. Ranging from painting to window washing to cabinet making they will complete your Honey Do list. Architect, Charles Covell - 2 hours of consulting services. Knittel Construction - 1 day of space planning design & one improvement service. Myles Davis Electric - 8 hours of design and installation or repair work. RMS Designs - Design drawings of cabinetry for whatever room you choose. Ken Bankson Painting - 8 hours of “Man”ual labor to paint an interior room. Ebersole Construction - Will fix a little this and a little of that. Best View Services - Clean your windows, blinds, gutters, and air ducts. The Christopher Hill Gallery - Home consultation & $750 gift card for a fine art piece. Van Winden Landscaping - 1 hour consultation & $70.00 worth of materials. Von Saal Design Build - 4 hours of services ranging from interior design, landscape design, and staging your home or office to personal/makeover and shopping. James West - IT services and 1 on-site visit to your home. While some of this work is being completed, perhaps a little pampering is in order! The Carneros Inn Spa is rewarding you with a package that includes a $300 gift certificate for spa services. Amanda Phelps is your make-up artist! Value: $8,095
Shoe Guys ™® Dinner
Ask Shoe Guys to donate a lot together, like a dinner. This could be auctioned as a Silent or Live lot.
The signage at right is what the Auction coordinators would create to promote the lot at the event.
Have them come up on stage &really ham it up & WORK THE AUDIENCEduring bidding, like these cute firemen did. They were outgoing, polite and hunky. A number of our charities have Firemen Lots. In these cute pictures they're auctioning off a dinner for 10 at their firehouse. And it sold twice – for $3500 apiece. Have the firemen come up on stage, ham it up, and flirt with the audience. Play a fun song when they come on stage, like Fire by the Ohio Players. Give out fun props to auction winner. In Marin they gave the lots winner cute little plastic fireman hats, which they wore for the rest of the event.
"Make Me Your Shoemmelier" or "Sole Mate"
Ifyou have VIP tables for the fashion show, and the Shoe Guys are willing, you can auction them off to be personal sommeliers for the tables.
• Before the event, post SG photos and short bios on your Web site (like most silent auction lots)
• Minimum bids of around $300 per table is suggested to start
• Only VIP ticket holders can pre-bid (first dibbs) on a shoe guy. They can be bought out in advance if someone wants to make a buy out bid.
• On the day of the event, pre-bought Shoe Guys wear a large shoe tag on their chest that says, “I am the Shommelier for XYZ table”
• Non pre-bid guys will have bid sheets at a table (like other silent auction items) or posted to their chest that reads, “Make Me Your Sole Mate” or “Make me Your Shommelier.” Ladies can write on their chest/bid sheet their bid and bidding #. See sample Bid Sheet: Shoe Guy Bid Template
• Close the shoe guy bidding just before the silent auction.
• Gather SG bid sheets and deliver them to registration. Marks down the winning bidder and make a Shommelier tag for each shoe guy and assign them to their winning bidder’s table.
• Each shoe guy can increase his value (like a competition) by stating what extra goodie they literally “bring to the table.” A magnum of wine or bubbles, chocolate, whatever they want to offer to sweeten their marketability. This is a great way for them to make a big difference and get creative.
• If you are doing the Make Me Your Shoemmelier program, then you only want the shoe guys to sell wine and not do any other services, like bringing wine to the table.
Auction Lot & Vendor Promotions:
Auction Lots Promo:
Why promote these? Because you make 100% revenue off them!! (You make only 20% off vendors.)
• Place auction lot display items on shoe guys' trays so they promote lots around the room.
• Place one of these groovery auction displays (at left) on the guys' trays.
Shoe Guys will fill them out each time they are loaned a piece for the event.
Wine Sales Contests:
Shoe Guys can help sell wine!
Some Ideas:
• One event put a contest in place for the guy who sold the most wine to win a $100 gift certificate.
• To track the contest, make a place on the wine order form for the Shoe Guys or guests to write the name of the Shoe Guys who sold them the wine.
• To encourage wine sales at seated events, assign the Shoe Guys to tables. With 40 tables and 20 shoe guys, each guy has 2 tables to work and promote wine sales and help the ladies with anything they need. He who sells the most wine wins!
During the Show the Shoe Guys may assist in serving wine. These are instructions from the Vintners Committee page:
• Assign a team of 8 (volunteers or shoe guys -- or vintners if they want to stay after marketplace) for wine service to the seated guests during the show. 4 service tables on one side of the catwalk, and the other 4 service the other side of the catwalk. By service, this means they sweep their tables throughout the seated portion, replenishing wines and taking empty bottle. Have them use "caddies" [rent 8 of them]... imagine handheld milk crates... holding six bottles of wine. Tables can take a bottle or two for their table (no more than two).
• Have 2 wine service stations on either side of the seated area, where they have the wine staged with ice tubs for chilling whites and several corkscrews. Each service station will have 1 person who is responsible for managing and opening bottles.
Raffle Tickets:
To be honest, we go back & forth on this one. It CAN be very successful having a few Shoe Guys sell Key to the Closet & other raffle tickets. Or your shoe guys can alienate your guests, sending them running in the opposite direction whenever they see Shoe Guys. In the successful cases, we think that the chair asked only the cutest and most charismatic guys to sell. You know the type! Judge for yourself if you think any of your guys qualify. If you do, here are a few suggestions:
• Identify the raffle ticket Shoe Guys clearly apart from other Shoe Guys. • Have them competing for women's attention & see who can sell out first • They give something special to ticket buyers like a necklaces or blinking rings
Revenue Generating Ideas:
Business Sponsors (Coordinate with your Sponsorship committee) There are typically 20+ Shoe Guys working the room and engaging 350+ women. It's a super networking opportunity. Position this opportunity as a targeted group of brand ambassadors who will be the hit of the event.
Opportunities:
•Various businesses sponsor the entire group of Shoe Guys in return for logo placement and branding exposure on their black T-shirts. (Looks best if it's on the sleeves.)
•See if one of your shoe guys has a company who wants to sponsor, or add this as a benefit to sponsors.
Individual Supporters
•Shoe Guys can reach out to their connections, and ask their friends and associates to “sponsor” them, like they might be sponsored for a relay or fundraising run.
• Have you confirmed all Shoe Guy volunteers (minimum 15) • Have you confirmed the all-black uniform with each SG? Standard uniform is the following: short sleeve fitted black crew neck shirt, black pants, black shoes? • If sponsors are providing shirts with logos, have you asked each SG for his size (S-M-L-XL-XXL) to make sure enough sizes are pre-ordered? • Will they receive their black shirts in advance or day of? • Do you have all of their cell phone contact info for day of and do they have yours? • Did you tell them where to meet you to check in, get their shirt, and where to meet as a group 30 mins before the event starts? • Have you purchased/rented silver trays (1 for each SG)? • Do you want to create a contest where the SG who sells the most wine wins a prize? (Ask WWS about the Sarasota contest) • Do they know where to park at the event? • Have you emailed each of the SG’s the art of wine and shoe pairing presentation? • If there is a seated live auction with sponsor tables, have you designated 1 SG to pour wines at each table and keep guests happy? • If there is a seated portion of the event (live auction + fashion show), are there tables and if so, do you want to assign 1 SG to each table to assist with wine service, etc?
Event Day
• On event day the “Show Guy Chair” conducts a shoe guy “line-up,” ensuring that the men are there and dressed appropriately, and also understand their role. • Have you assigned 2 SG’s to each fashion vendor? • Have you assigned 2-4 SG’s to stand at event entry to greet guests? • Have you given them the pep rally 15 mins before the event starts to teach them how to engage guests and wax poetic on fine art of wine and shoe pairing? • Are they keeping their merchandise “fresh” on their trays and switching out their shoes/etc every 10 minutes? (The goal is to feature as much as possible throughout the event) • Are the SG’s hanging out with each other instead of engaging the guests, if so, are you encouraging them to float more? • If wineries need more traffic, have you told the Shoe Guys to promote those brands to guests by saying things like “have you tried the Chardonnay by so-and-so, it’s really sensational and pairs nicely with your stilettos!” • Are SG’s getting drunk/drinking excessively? (Keep your eye on this as there’s always one who demands a constant full glass from the vintners)
Lessons Learned
Someday my prince will come Anticipate a 10% no-show.
Death of a Salesman Be very selective about the Shoe Guys who sell raffle tickets. The point of the shoe guys is to flirt. As soon as they are selling something, it can create a barrier between the guest and the guy. So ensure you choose only the most outgoing, flirtatious guys who could sell ice to eskimoes, and make sure they're clearly identified apart from the other shoe guys.
“99 Bottles of Wine on the Wall. . .” Coach your guys on event “etiquette”—drinking and otherwise. We want them to imbibe and have fun, but it’s inappropriate for them to demand a full glass from the vintners. (Yes, that has happened.)
