How is your booking pitch working for you lately? Have you recently taken a close look at how many booking calls turn into gigs?
I talk to a lot of artists every week. Certain themes keep coming up. One of the main topics seems to be presenting your value.
Whether you are aware of it or not, the way you write your bio, the way to write an email or a newsletter and even the way in which you introduce yourself on a phone call, all speak to how you value yourself.
This one factor can make or break a booking or an interview in a choice media outlet. Understanding how to present your most valuable assets to a prospective booker or client or artistic director at a festival, is crucial to your career movement. In other words, how is your booking pitch working?
Your first step in getting a handle on this critical issue, is to understand how to describe what you are offering to a prospective booker or client. Describe your assets in terms they see as valuable to them and their goals.
Here’s an example:
So many bios tend to cite an artist’s accomplishments by the number of recordings they’ve made, who they played with either on stage or in the studio, perhaps some awards they received and most often where they’ve played in the past. These are all excellent historical facts that help paint a picture of the artist’s career and are all helpful.
BUT… citing these facts won’t help you describe your value to the booker in a way that helps them sell tickets to a show or reach a particular audience type.
To do that, you must add into the mix, the concerns of your prospective booker or festival director. Do you spend time considering their concerns, needs and desires for their event?
Take all of your historical facts and re-frame your conversation. Describe how you can serve them and their audience. Base it on what value you can bring to their venue because of your experience and years of doing what you do so well.
For instance:
- The fact that you might have played hundreds of children’s shows and have the performance skills to keep your young audience enthralled throughout a 45 minute set, is a valuable asset to a cultural arts coordinator at an elementary school or library.
- The fact that your shows are peppered with content that meets the state’s educational core values, is a highlight to be pitched to a principal.
These are just two elementary school performance situations.
Look at your audience and venue type. Consider how you can roll your facts into a pitch that honors your years of experience while promoting how valuable you might be to the venue to help them attract a great audience.
It’s amazing how much more a booker or presenter or client will value you and what you offer when your pitch is not about you, but rather about them. Help them solve their problems and concerns and you will turn your career around.
How is your booking pitch working for you?
Can you think of ways to re-frame your booking pitch? Are you missing opportunities to promote your value to your prospective buyers?
