Preface: I want to thank everyone for the encouragement during the creation of these eight essays. I hope that the information I presented is useful to you. Not only that I hope you can use it to get work!
My next goal is to compile these eight essays into a single document, and then add in some extra chapters that I've outlined but not included here. I hope to publish this as a PDF download if not a full on book.
So without any further adue, the last chapter in How To Get Gigs and Keep Clients!
Chapter 8. Keeping Clients
So far, through this entire book we’ve gone through painstaking measures to get noticed by our clients, identify their venues, set up an aggressive yet fair compensation plan for ourselves, pitch the client on said plan, we’ve done interviews, we’ve done our 5 minute demo, and we’ve performed the gig, networked, and followed up with the client afterwards. That’s a lot of work! Why would you want to go through all that effort only to do one show with them? If you consider the time is money expression, then it really isn’t worth your time to go through all of that effort with the end game being only one gig. When you are booking your venues, you should always be on the lookout for repeat business. In marketing it’s called “Building a pipeline”. That pipeline is what will keep those checks rolling in month after month. You constantly work on putting new business into the pipe line, but you also keep booking and working off the ones that are already there. The people in your pipeline are called “warm clients”. They are a radically different market than all those cold ones you’ve been calling on. You know their names, they know yours. You’ve been to their kids baseball game, you’ve brought chocolates to their employees, etc. Getting rebooked with them requires significantly less work than a cold client, so take good advantage of that! In this chapter we’re going to take a look at client retention so that way you can keep your pipeline full and your pocket book happy.
Customer vs. Client. If you have noticed all through this work I’ve referred to the people that hire me as “clients”, I’ve also referred to the people that attend their functions (be it restaurant or private party) as “guests.” Guests and Clients are just another way to say the word customer, but it goes a lot deeper than that. The word customer is generic. It could be anyone. It has no emotional attachments, and it’s a one size fits all. The words Client and Guest suggest a relationship. A relationship that is vital in the way business is done in this day and age. The relationship extends beyond just the key contact and you. The relationship is between you and the key contact’s entire staff, their place of business, all their guests that spend their hard earned money there, or the families and their neighbors and friends that attend that special birthday party you worked. When you refer to someone as a client you take ownership for their business. You dedicate yourself to them, and it makes them feel better for it. They know that you have the answers and they can turn to you if they have questions. A customer usually just has a generic 1800 customer hotline with a pre-recorded voice usually. How personal is that?
The Golden Rule, and The Rule Of Time Management. Everyone’s heard of the golden rule: “Do unto others as you will have others do unto you.” That’s a pretty preachy way of saying “Be nice, so people can be nice to you.” If you think about it for two minutes, it’s true. Call it what you will, Karma, The Golden Rule, Three-Fold Law, what ever, you get back what you give. When you are working with booking clients you have to keep the golden rule on the forefront of your mind. You never want to be rude, you always want to be helpful but you also want to be aware of another rule. The rule of Time Management. Remember that saying: “Time is Money?” The one thing you don’t want to do is waste time doing things that aren’t going to get you paid what you are worth!
Lets take a look at an example that actually happened to me about a week before I wrote this chapter. I was performing at a local pizza parlor that happens to be the hub of the youth in the city I live in. After my gig was over I was approached and asked to do a private demonstration for this person’s karate class, his studio being somewhat near by. We negotiated on a price that was well beneath my minimum, but because he was local to me, I accepted it and waved the contract. We shook hands on a date and time. When I got there he informed me that that night wasn’t going to work, most of his class had already left for some excuse I didn’t bother to remember, and he wanted to re-book me.
Now, this is where I have to seriously ask myself a question. “Is the gig with this individual actually worth the effort I’m going to have to go through to do it?” I’ve already given up one night to this person that I could have been working a gig at my normal rates. I’ve already spent (all be it minimal) the money in gas to drive to his location, and I’ve been stood up, an offense that I usually never return your call for. Do I accept this person’s re-booking offer when he calls the next day? Or do I blow him off? If you decide, like I did, that it’s not worth it for you then you can’t be rude about it! You always need to be nice, and time efficient! When he called me back, I politely told him that I was already booked for that day, and that I normally don’t work under my minimum. I explained my credits and why I charge what I do. (I built value in my self) I then informed him that I know a local magician who does excellent work with children. I told him I would forward his information along, and put him in touch with my colleague. He’s happy, he still has a magician. My friend is happy, he’s got a paying gig, and I’m happy because I can now focus my time on getting more promising bookings.
Don’t make the mistake in assuming that the amount paid for your time is the only way it can be wasted! Sometimes you’ll find yourself working with a client that is just a bit too needy. A client that monopolizes your time for their soul use is also a bad idea. You may want to defer them to a magician colleague of yours, or you may want to limit their access to you. I’m not saying to turn down money! I’m just saying be smart about how you spend your time!
So once you’ve established who the clients are that you really want to focus on keeping, now you’ll want to know what you can do to make sure they stay with you for all their entertainment needs! Let me give you a couple of neat ideas.
(To Be Continued)
My next goal is to compile these eight essays into a single document, and then add in some extra chapters that I've outlined but not included here. I hope to publish this as a PDF download if not a full on book.
So without any further adue, the last chapter in How To Get Gigs and Keep Clients!
Chapter 8. Keeping Clients
So far, through this entire book we’ve gone through painstaking measures to get noticed by our clients, identify their venues, set up an aggressive yet fair compensation plan for ourselves, pitch the client on said plan, we’ve done interviews, we’ve done our 5 minute demo, and we’ve performed the gig, networked, and followed up with the client afterwards. That’s a lot of work! Why would you want to go through all that effort only to do one show with them? If you consider the time is money expression, then it really isn’t worth your time to go through all of that effort with the end game being only one gig. When you are booking your venues, you should always be on the lookout for repeat business. In marketing it’s called “Building a pipeline”. That pipeline is what will keep those checks rolling in month after month. You constantly work on putting new business into the pipe line, but you also keep booking and working off the ones that are already there. The people in your pipeline are called “warm clients”. They are a radically different market than all those cold ones you’ve been calling on. You know their names, they know yours. You’ve been to their kids baseball game, you’ve brought chocolates to their employees, etc. Getting rebooked with them requires significantly less work than a cold client, so take good advantage of that! In this chapter we’re going to take a look at client retention so that way you can keep your pipeline full and your pocket book happy.
Customer vs. Client. If you have noticed all through this work I’ve referred to the people that hire me as “clients”, I’ve also referred to the people that attend their functions (be it restaurant or private party) as “guests.” Guests and Clients are just another way to say the word customer, but it goes a lot deeper than that. The word customer is generic. It could be anyone. It has no emotional attachments, and it’s a one size fits all. The words Client and Guest suggest a relationship. A relationship that is vital in the way business is done in this day and age. The relationship extends beyond just the key contact and you. The relationship is between you and the key contact’s entire staff, their place of business, all their guests that spend their hard earned money there, or the families and their neighbors and friends that attend that special birthday party you worked. When you refer to someone as a client you take ownership for their business. You dedicate yourself to them, and it makes them feel better for it. They know that you have the answers and they can turn to you if they have questions. A customer usually just has a generic 1800 customer hotline with a pre-recorded voice usually. How personal is that?
The Golden Rule, and The Rule Of Time Management. Everyone’s heard of the golden rule: “Do unto others as you will have others do unto you.” That’s a pretty preachy way of saying “Be nice, so people can be nice to you.” If you think about it for two minutes, it’s true. Call it what you will, Karma, The Golden Rule, Three-Fold Law, what ever, you get back what you give. When you are working with booking clients you have to keep the golden rule on the forefront of your mind. You never want to be rude, you always want to be helpful but you also want to be aware of another rule. The rule of Time Management. Remember that saying: “Time is Money?” The one thing you don’t want to do is waste time doing things that aren’t going to get you paid what you are worth!
Lets take a look at an example that actually happened to me about a week before I wrote this chapter. I was performing at a local pizza parlor that happens to be the hub of the youth in the city I live in. After my gig was over I was approached and asked to do a private demonstration for this person’s karate class, his studio being somewhat near by. We negotiated on a price that was well beneath my minimum, but because he was local to me, I accepted it and waved the contract. We shook hands on a date and time. When I got there he informed me that that night wasn’t going to work, most of his class had already left for some excuse I didn’t bother to remember, and he wanted to re-book me.
Now, this is where I have to seriously ask myself a question. “Is the gig with this individual actually worth the effort I’m going to have to go through to do it?” I’ve already given up one night to this person that I could have been working a gig at my normal rates. I’ve already spent (all be it minimal) the money in gas to drive to his location, and I’ve been stood up, an offense that I usually never return your call for. Do I accept this person’s re-booking offer when he calls the next day? Or do I blow him off? If you decide, like I did, that it’s not worth it for you then you can’t be rude about it! You always need to be nice, and time efficient! When he called me back, I politely told him that I was already booked for that day, and that I normally don’t work under my minimum. I explained my credits and why I charge what I do. (I built value in my self) I then informed him that I know a local magician who does excellent work with children. I told him I would forward his information along, and put him in touch with my colleague. He’s happy, he still has a magician. My friend is happy, he’s got a paying gig, and I’m happy because I can now focus my time on getting more promising bookings.
Don’t make the mistake in assuming that the amount paid for your time is the only way it can be wasted! Sometimes you’ll find yourself working with a client that is just a bit too needy. A client that monopolizes your time for their soul use is also a bad idea. You may want to defer them to a magician colleague of yours, or you may want to limit their access to you. I’m not saying to turn down money! I’m just saying be smart about how you spend your time!
So once you’ve established who the clients are that you really want to focus on keeping, now you’ll want to know what you can do to make sure they stay with you for all their entertainment needs! Let me give you a couple of neat ideas.
(To Be Continued)
