Does your event marketing need improvement? 8

You’re drinking a beer from Ben and Jerry’s, recalling the details of your pitch. What went wrong, you wonder?

You thought everything was going well. You smiled. They smiled. There was a spark between you. No, not just a spark, there was a fire between you. But everything went up in smoke when the potential event client ignored you, and now you’ve been binge-watching for two days straight. bachelor Wearing pajamas.

Throw away the ice cream and turn off the TV, because we have eight ways to improve your sales pitch to close more deals. Win more events Facilitate your business.

1. Understand your potential customers

You can plan a hundred weddings, but no two will be the same. Aside from your obvious talent for event planning, there’s a reason why every event you host is a unique triumph. And that reason is that every client is unique.

Even a company has a unique identity that makes it stand out from the competition. Your job is to learn as much as you can about your prospect before you meet them. We’ll help you get started by sharing what we know about your prospect.

• Your potential customers Study you And event planning overview, then get in touch.
• Let’s assume your prospect is meeting with at least one event planner.
• Your prospect is ready to sign an agreement with the event planner.

Pro Tips: Reach the decision makers. Perhaps the most important thing to know about your potential customers is who holds the purse strings. You can give a bride-to-be the wedding of her dreams. But if her parents are paying for the wedding, you need persuade Address their concerns and meet their needs.

2. Personalize your sales pitch

You wouldn’t create a cookie-cutter campaign. So why would you create a cookie-cutter sales pitch? Use your pre-sales pitch research to create a pitch that’s specifically targeted to your prospects.

If you discover that the celebrants of your upcoming Bar Mitzvah love video games, be prepared to include a sales pitch for VR stations, gamification, or other event technology to pique their interest.

Pro Tips: Be prepared to switch gears during the meeting. Often, you’ll learn key information about your prospect during a sales pitch. Be prepared with a variety of niche ideas to attract clients with different interests.

3. Practice active listening

Active listening is more than just not talking. You need to make your prospect feel heard and understood. To achieve both of these goals, you first listen actively with no other purpose than to understand. Then, you paraphrase what you heard to verify and prove that you understood.

Active Listening:

• Build trust with your customers.
• Look for subtle cues to help you change the direction of the conversation.
• Save time by focusing on your prospect’s unique situation.
• Win more event planning contracts.

4. Earn trust

If your prospect doesn’t trust you, then what you say means nothing. The concept of trust sounds heavy. It means that the client believes:

• You will put their interests above your own.
• You will fulfill your promises.
• You are trustworthy, principled, and genuine.

You may have the best campaign idea in the world, but if prospects don’t feel you can be trusted, they’ll leave. Use the following strategies to convey trust during your sales pitch:

• Share case studies, Successfully obtained sponsorsand online reviews.
• Share your achievements with other clients.
• Show confidence through the way you dress and the way you speak.
• Show empathy through active listening and genuine concern.
• Look your prospect in the eye and remember to smile.
• (Free) Share information that potential customers wouldn’t be able to learn through their own research.

Pro Tips: Take on the role of a trusted advisor for whom sales is secondary and helping the client is the priority. Doing so will prioritize the client’s needs over your own. Psychologically, you will shift from being selfish to being generous. Clients will sense this shift in energy and be more likely to sign an event planning contract with you.

5. Focus on solutions

Although the focus is on celebration, your prospects will come to you with problems. These problems are what prevent them from planning their event themselves or in-house. Event planning problems include lack of time, tight budgets, or even the inability to deliver the grand event that it should be. Identify the unique problems your prospects face and offer personalized solutions.

6. Use data to target your efforts

We can see your eyes glazing over, like you’re back in middle school math class. But stick with us, because even if your event planning business is a one-man band, you can still use data to hone your sales strategy and land event planning contracts.

Sales data is information about prospects, customers, and internal data, such as conversion metrics. Tracking and measuring this information can answer important questions, such as:

• Where do most of my potential customers come from?
• How many leads do I need to get one customer?
• What is the average income and education level of the clients I attract?
• How much time do I spend interacting with prospects before closing the sale?
• What is the success rate of my sales pitch?
• Which marketing strategies can consistently bring in more leads?

Answering these and other questions will give you an idea of ​​whether your sales strategy is successful. It will also help you Develop an improvement roadmap and benchmarks for measuring success.

7. Be prepared to overcome objections

If you woke up from the math lesson above, pinch your cheeks, because it’s time for physics. Newton always taught us that an object at rest stays at rest unless it encounters a Yoda-like sales trick – or something like that.

Newton was apparently talking about common objections that potential clients raise before signing on the dotted line. These objections are known by the acronym BANT, which stands for budget, authority, need and time.

In other words, these objections may be holding your prospect back. Be prepared to allay their concerns or make concessions to close the deal.

8. End with a call to action

After you’ve finished your sales pitch, you still have one important task before you call it a day. End with a call to action that tells the prospect what to do next. The call to action can be as simple (and obvious) as “Call my cell phone.” Saying this will give the customer an extra boost of motivation to complete the task.

Learn Winning Sales Strategies and More at Event Planning Expo

We know rejection hurts. But if you use these tips, you’ll win more event planning clients and you can delete your sad songs playlist once and for all. You can learn more about effective sales strategies at Event Planning Expo.

Learning and networking is the key to your success, and there’s no better place to learn and network than with thousands of top event professionals and marketers. Speaker Series or All-Access Ticket And make connections to move your business forward!