Conquer Phone Phobia and prepare your calls for the best booking results.
Making booking calls may not be your favorite thing to do, but at some point you just have to get to it. When you have the added pressure to get the job done, that might be exactly the wrong time to make the calls. If you jump into a calling session unprepared you may come off scattered and unprofessional. That’s not the picture you want to paint of yourself and your act.
So to avoid this problem the best thing you can do is to practice your call, prepare your calls and conquer phone phobia. Knowing what you are going to say when you call is only half the picture, the other half is knowing as much as possible about the venue or contact you are calling.
Preparing for your calls is all about doing a bit of research about the venue, their schedule, their previous presentations and the community in which they present their performances. This approach is different from just sitting down with a long database of potential venue numbers and calling one after another. Now you are focused on the venues you really want to play and that make sense for you as an artist. This reduces the numbers of calls and concentrates your efforts on the right calls. By understanding as much as you can about the venue and their programming challenges, you are able to really formulate a conversation to include the call recipient and talk about their concerns first and then how you and your act can help them solve a programming unmet need in their performance schedule.
Solve their Problem
When you approach a call with research to back you up, a deep understanding of what you have to offer the venue to help solve their programming needs, your call comes across with a sensitivity to the venue’s objectives and situation.
Laser focus your information about your act and what you are trying to do for the venue to help be a solution to their programming concerns. Research the venue and how your act can provide something unique to their schedule that serves a segment of their audience now not being served. Make it less about you and more about them. Programmers love that level of understanding. You will be more comfortable during the call process when you engage the booking person in this manner.
So the next time you pick up the phone to make a booking call, ask yourself if you are really ready to make this call? Have you done enough research to prepare for this call to make it count? The more time you spend preparing for each call, you will be able to turn more calls into gigs, more often.
Conquer phone phobia and prepare your calls with research, thoughtfulness, concern for the presenter’s challenges and a deep understanding of how your act can be an asset to their programming season and a specific audience they serve in their market.
This week, pick a venue or two and prepare your calls to those venues. Do some research, plan your pitch, practice your call and make your call with confidence. You will then have this phone phobia under control.
Do you prepare your calls before making them? Has it helped to conquer your phone phobia?
Leave me a comment below or on the Performingbiz Success Strategies Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/PerformingbizSuccessStrategies.
I can’t wait to hear about your success.
Thanks to Carol Ehrlich for this week’s Biz Booster graphic image, “Conquer Phone Phobia And Prepare Your Calls.”
Now, Thanks to the Band Curfew from the UK for providing the Biz Booster theme Music, Future Dance. Check them out at www.curfew.co.uk
And for more career boosting tips, articles, books, resources, tele-seminars and online courses, visit me at Performingbiz.com
