As an Event Business Owner, it is imperative that you identify early on if you are selling to the right person. If you’re not, the success of the event may be in jeopardy!
It’s vital to the success of your event that you start a conversation with the decision maker(s) of the organization during the very early stages of planning their face-to-face event.
Today, more and more leading brands are seeing the value of investing in live events. Pulling in existing customers, potential customers and press under one roof can propel a brand to achieve unbelievable results.
Marketers have realized that hosting live events is one of the most effective marketing channels available.
This trend comes as no surprise to you. As an independent meeting planner, you already know the impact that a face-to-face meeting can have on an organization.
When you are aligned and understand your client’s strategies and goals, you can create a fantastic event!
But all this is for nothing if you are not selling to the decision maker of the organization or brand.
So let me ask you a few questions:
- Who are you selling to?
- Are you selling to the right person?
- Can you identify the decision makers?
First, you want to identify who has the final say and makes the final decision in confirming the event budget. Trace the money. That person in your customer’s company could be the CEO, CMO or the Director of Events.
Early on in my career as an event business owner, I pitched my event plan and budget to the wrong person, and here’s what happened:
Cue story …
I was on top of the world. I was talking to the Director of Events of a large corporation about my proposal for his upcoming event and what we would be accomplishing for him.
He was excited about everything I was proposing, along with the innovations I wanted to implement for the event.
I thought this is it, the big moment where I get “the nod” that this was a done deal and I can begin working on his event.
When we got to the end of our conversation, I asked him, “Who is involved in your companies decision-making process?”
He replied that he was “not the decision maker” and that he was “not handling the budget” … and a hush fell over the crowd …
The proposal did not move forward …
Say What? Why?
I failed to identify the person who held the budget. I was not selling to the right person.
The person I was talking to was not in charge of the event budget or had the power to make decisions about the event.
From this experience, I vowed always to find the decision maker in the organization first.
You won’t make the same mistake because now you know that it is critical when you are building a relationship with your customer that you identify who are the different decision makers in your client’s organization.
When you follow this process and seek out the stakeholders who are responsible for approving the budget first, you will not waste your time selling to the wrong person!
Did you experience the same situation as I did?
What happened? What did you do and what was the outcome?
And most importantly, what will you do differently in the future?
Let me know in the comments below…
