DJGold

goodknightdj · Joined: August 3rd, 2005 Posts: 149

Since I have been getting many "how much is x hours" questions on the phone lately, I am getting rather tired of explaining worth. While the question, "Is price your only concern?" is still a valid one, explaining what I mean and worth is beginning to cut into the time I could be using to pursue other clients.

I am at the point of just making the quote and moving on. If they bite, fine, we'll have an interview, if not, then they can just keep on calling till they find the $250 downloading from Limewire kid in cutoffs that'll ruin their wedding. Why should I really be concerned? It is not my wedding.

djmc · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:14 am Post subject:

Prospects ask that question ("How much....") because they don't know any better.

If you are tired of the idiots, GET OUT OF THE YELLOW PAGES (LOL).

Still, a significant percentage of Internet prospects will ask the same "price" question.

First off, I say "we don't charge by the hour, but by the package"
Then, I give them our range (xxx to xxxx).

I try to give every internet prospect at least 10 minutes of my time, and will try to get them to ask for a "written estimate" by mail. They all get a DJ-MC Refer Magnet, and my entire cost is less than $1..... Maybe one of those "price shoppers" will turn into a referral....especially if they DO hire the skanky kid with a laptop full of stolen downloaded MP3's.

jwg · Joined: September 15th, 2004 Posts: 1089 Location: Erie, PA

Tom:

Why are you tiring of the worth question? As it's been said on many forums, not every client is ours. But, it's worth a shot to try and find out about their event. Let them do the talking. Ask them about their day and what they envision. Find out how important entertainment is to their event. If Aunt Martha is baking the cake and Uncle Phil is taking pictures, then it's definitely not your event!

CJ Greiner · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:13 pm Post subject:

DJMC -- I like your idea for a written estimate. It would allow me to send a small amount of marketing material without sending an entire package that I usually reserve for clients who have scheduled a meeting.

___________________________

Don't get too frustrated with the question "How much do you charge" -- it may not be what you think.

There are clients that will hear what you charge, then politely end the conversation. WHY?

Because you charge too little!

Keep in mind that the average national wedding cost is well over $20,000 now, and that means that there are LOTS of weddings that cost considerably more. Those clients may use your price to quickly disqualify you because you don't charge enough -- and therefore "must not be good enough" for the elegant extravaganza they're planning. Clients who spend $10,000 on dinner DO NOT want a $500 DJ. I personally wonder how many jobs I've lost because my ($1,000+) quotes weren't high enough...
Tom -- you're obviously a fairly high-priced DJ -- any chance some clients are thinking you're not high-priced enough? (Read: "Exclusive Pricing")

djmc

jwg wrote: Find out how important entertainment is to their event. If Aunt Martha is baking the cake and Uncle Phil is taking pictures, then it's definitely not your event!

Ironically, enough.....I have had MANY a reception where the relatives were catering the food & taking all the pictures/videos, that is unless they used "disposable cameras"....LOL

BUT they were smart enough to hire a professional DJ-emcee for the entertainment portion of the event.

I've had brides tell me that I was 35% to 50% of their entire wedding reception budget....
These savvy couples cut corners on things like the cake, the flowers, the decos, etc........and will make their limited budget go toward things that count, like the DJ.

You never know......I definitely agree that the DIY couples who value the importance of entertainment, will be the ones you convince. Maybe its a 1/10 ratio but its worth 10-15 minutes of my time to hear them out!

Its like shuffling thru packs of bacon at the supermarket......I usually go thru 9 of those packages, peeking thru the little fold-out windows, until I find 1 pound of bacon worth buying!

Brides are like bacon....hehehe

jwg · Joined: September 15th, 2004 Posts: 1089 Location: Erie, PA

djmc wrote: Brides are like bacon....hehehe

Ya know, there's a line there I just won't touch and keep my mouth shut... :hahaha:

Getting out of the phone book was one of the best decisions I ever made. But, I tell you, these YP salespeople will hound you day & night when you tell them no more advertising.

That's why a website is SOOO much more of a 24/7 store a potential client can visit. While at work, or in their jammies! :P

davergr

Tom, I understand your frustration. It took 25 years of that question before I finally got to the point of pulling my hair out on each call.

There really is only one solution to the problem---training each new crop of brides as best we can. That is why I finally decided to try and do that. I wrote an article on "How To Hire A DJ" and published it. You can find it here... http://www.weddinghowto.com/dj.htm.

I try to steer the brides that call me and ask that question to it and then call me back. The more brides-to-be that read the article the easier time we'll have. It will probably take a generation or two, but what the heck, I'm only 67. MAybe by the time I'm 85 or 90 it will work. LOL

TheBartman47

davergr wrote: I wrote an article on "How To Hire A DJ" and published it. You can find it here... http://www.weddinghowto.com/dj.htm

I think I'll go add that link to my web page. Great article.

jwg · Joined: September 15th, 2004 Posts: 1089 Location: Erie, PA

Dave:

Good to see you here. The link you provided was dead.

I went through the direct weddinghowto site. Mind if some of us use that on our individual sites (with permission granted) and credit to you as the author?

TheBartman47 · Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:26 am Post subject:

The link is not actually "dead", just remove the "." at the end of the link then it will work. The period got parsed in with the rest of the link automatically. You can click on the link in my first reply where I "fixed" it.

jwg · Joined: September 15th, 2004 Posts: 1089 Location: Erie, PA

My eyes missed the period. Brain fart on my part, lol.

goodknightdj · Joined: August 3rd, 2005 Posts: 149

Quote: Since I have been getting many "how much is x hours" questions on the phone lately, I am getting rather tired of explaining worth. While the question, "Is price your only concern?" is still a valid one, explaining what I mean and worth is beginning to cut into the time I could be using to pursue other clients.

I am at the point of just making the quote and moving on. If they bite, fine, we'll have an interview, if not, then they can just keep on calling till they find the $250 downloading from Limewire kid in cutoffs that'll ruin their wedding. Why should I really be concerned? It is not my wedding.

OK, I was being sarcastic. Here's why ...

Because they need to know about that kid in the cutoffs. They need to know how their wedding could be ruined. Because I really do care. Because that kid in the cutoffs is going to ruin it for us all.

If price is their only concern then maybe they deserve to have their day ruined by the kid in the cutoffs, but, at least I will have told them about what could happen and I will feel somewhat better. Maybe they'll tell their friends about the DJ that tried to warn them and I'll get that business.

Toneman · Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:04 am Post subject:

One thing I have notice over the last ten years is the question "How much do you charge?" isn't asked as much anymore in my area. This could be due to the stable number of Professional DJs that we have here today. Back in the day there use to be at least two to three what I like to call "Fly by night DJ services, or bottom feeders" for every one professional DJ. Over time, with alot of the professionals educating the consumer and clients having experiance BAD DJs, the number of clients asking that question has gone down. Most of the time when I get an inquiry for my service, I send them a basic informational package the contains a "HOW TO HIRE A DJ" article that I wrote. I also have a "How To" link on my website that I can referr them to.

The bottom line is....Consumers are becoming more educated about our industry.