Bidding advice

Shane Presley

Shane Presley

Senior
Jan 12, 2011
909
0
0
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
www.bssproductions.com
So I have a situation where a brand new country festival has started up, and they have a committee member who has run a blues festival event at the same location for a couple of years now. This guy is the operations manager for the blues radio station in town. Anyway, he's got a buddy who is the production provider, Er should I say they guy that has 6 powered sx250's as monitors, and subrents an sl260, ev xlc rig and lighting, and didnt have a clue how to deploy it. In fact year one, he rented a cobra rig and had it pointing up the ski hill on day one...had to bring it in and re focus it. Anyway you get the idea. Also to boot, the provider isn't local, in fact he's out of province so I'm not even sure he's insured. So I've contacted the country festival and they have pointed me to the station manager as p.o.c. ANY ideas on how to go about bidding on this show, or approaching the committee with the possibility that this will just get funneled to this poor sub rent artist....
 
Re: Bidding advice

Is the radio station guy in charge? If not, I would just approach whoever is in charge (either by phone or in person), introduce yourself, explain what you do and say that you would be interested in bidding in the future. It may not get you the job this year, or even next, but if the competitor is as bad as you say eventually he is going to drop the ball.

It's not entirely uncommon for us to get cold called to bid on an event because someone involved is tired of dealing with "the other guys".
 
Re: Bidding advice

What Spenser said. Try to meet in person whenever you can. It is all about relationships in this business. Keep making yourself known and always in a positive way. I have done the little things that were needed occasionally and eventually got the bigger jobs by doing well on the smaller ones.
 
Re: Bidding advice

I would try to point out some of the issues in the past-and don't tell them you are "better", but rather how you would go about either fixing them or not having them in the first place.

Generally they are not technical-and just want it to go smoothly.

It is real easy to get tied up in the technical and whos fault it is-but the people in charge could care less-they just want it to work-that is why they hired you.
 
Re: Bidding advice

Keep it friendly and low-key. Ask questions to draw them out, don't try to "sell". If in your conversation you can inquire as to what they liked about last year and what they would change or improve if they could, then you're on the road.

It's about who you are and the service you can provide, never the gear. My most satisfied clients are the ones who say, "It was great. You took care of everything and I didn't have to deal with anything or waste any time. You made my job easier."
 
Re: Bidding advice

I agree with all of the above, Here is my input on this. I joined the chamber of commerce in the next state over , and gave bids on every job that they were involved in for about a year, and nothing. so this year I finally got my chance to spotlight my services, I got to do a event with them, the event had some technical difficulites with the sound but I got word that the artist and the one who hired me thought i worked through them very well. so that was a plus, and while i was loading up, I told them thank you for their business and if they had anywhere else they could use me then i would love for them to consider me for another job and the guy that hired me told me " well, you are defiantly going to hear back from me. so I am going to keep on bidding, you never know when they will be in a bind or something and then call on you. so i would go ahead and bid on the event , 9 times out of 10 they may take the other guy but dont give up because that one time you get to do it , may be the other guys last time.
 
Re: Bidding advice

Jimmy Hardin said:
I agree with all of the above, Here is my input on this. I joined the chamber of commerce in the next state over , and gave bids on every job that they were involved in for about a year, and nothing. so this year I finally got my chance to spotlight my services, I got to do a event with them, the event had some technical difficulites with the sound but I got word that the artist and the one who hired me thought i worked through them very well. so that was a plus, and while i was loading up, I told them thank you for their business and if they had anywhere else they could use me then i would love for them to consider me for another job and the guy that hired me told me " well, you are defiantly going to hear back from me. so I am going to keep on bidding, you never know when they will be in a bind or something and then call on you. so i would go ahead and bid on the event , 9 times out of 10 they may take the other guy but dont give up because that one time you get to do it , may be the other guys last time.
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Or they may say, "You WERE way better than the other guy!...but he IS cheaper and this isn't Carnegie Hall, and we don't have much budget so............."
 
Re: Bidding advice

It is important to have referals from other events that you have done. When I bid on an install,I hand them a list of previous customers with phone numbers and say " give them a call". That,along with a decent price usually works.
 
Re: Bidding advice

As mentioned, be low key and don't offend. It's not good tact to bash other vendors to try and get a job. Ask the potential client if they are happy with the current services they are being provided. If they are happy, you can say that if they ( the current provider ) are unable to help them in the future, to give you a call. If they say they are not happy, then you can say give me a call and I would be glad to help you.
 
Re: Bidding advice

You need to establish if they are unhappy with the service 1st of all. You can bid against hacks all day but if they are resonably happy with the service than you can talk yourself blue in the face. Just let the station guy know your interested and available. Either he si going to be like "We use xyz hes great or super cheap" or he will be like "we are looking for a change"

If hes looking for a change ask him why and what the chalenges are, it might have nothing to do with sound it might be a personality issue. Listen, ask questions and then talk about what you would do differant or better. Most people are going to give a crap about brand x or deply this or etc. they like words like "reliable" "easy to work with"
 
Re: Bidding advice

Dave Rickard said:
Exactly.
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i've changed my approach... I'm going to see if "the buddy" wants to mix on my gear... the buddy really shouldn't care where the gear is coming from (unless he's up charging it as well) as long as it's "equivalent quality"... That way radio station guy is happy that his buddy is mixing, and mixing guy is probably happier not TD'ing the event, he can brief case it. We'll see how that flies...
I'm also contacting the main sponsor of the event , a private music store that is 15 mintues form my house, to see if I can play the "local small business card"
 
Jimmy Hardin said:
so that was a plus, and while i was loading up, I told them thank you for their business and if they had anywhere else they could use me then i would love for them to consider me for another job and the guy that hired me told me .
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This is an ultra under rated aspect of customer service. I always take this approach, whether large show or small SOS. "Thank you for the business, my guys and our families are grateful". It may sound cheesy, but I am genuine in saying it and I really mean it.
In my neck of the woods I am gaining a lot of business from people not using two other companies that have been here a long time and feel entitled to the business (I have had one say almost those exact words). I am not even selling to his clients, they are just coming to us because they prefer our positive attitude. (I even tried to refer a client that I couldn't cover and they came right back saying I would rather go with less gear and have you then deal with xyz)
Bottom line, even if they do not go with you this time let them know you appreciated the opportunity and would love to work with them down the road if a need arises. Always show gratitude and I believe it pays off in the end.

Good luck!
 
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