Negotiation Technique Reduce Call Me Next Week Syndrome

Negotiation Technique - by Jeri Goldstein     

Negotiation Technique
Reduce Call Me Next Week Syndrome

Here is a negotiation technique reduce Call Me Next Week Syndrome.

Let’s face it, people are busy with their own agendas and are not always ready to work on your agenda—even when you think you set an appointment. It can be very frustrating to get the booking person to deal with you when you want them to and be ready to work with you to book your gig. So you have to set your own deadlines. Allow yourself 3 call opportunities to get them on board to work with you.

1^st Call: Perhaps it’s the introduction, you send your stuff, you set another callback time and along with that alert them to your deadline. For example: “I need to have all my dates lined up by the end of next week as my marketing pieces go out.” Insert a sense of urgency, a need to move along your conversation. If you leave your time-line for confirmation open-ended, then the booking person has no particular need or urgency to confirm. Most likely, they are waiting for another act to confirm with them, so as far as they are concerned, that act is the important one on their agenda.

Also, give them a specific date or date-range that is of interest to you. Don’t just call for any open date. Even if your schedule is wide-open, make sure you offer some specific dates. This sends the message that you are busy.

Now, you need to be ready to have three possible things happen and be ok with any one of them.

1. They may tell you to call back next week.

        Here’s where you remind them of your deadline to attempt to at least get a hold on a date. Then set another call-back for no more than two days away, not next week to, impress your urgency upon them.

2. They may give the date you are looking for or a date in the time-frame you are looking for. Great, book it.
3. Or, they may say they are not interested in that date or time-frame since you’ve indicated a deadline. In this case, be ready with an alternative date or time-frame. Do some research previous to your call to see who else they have coming in and perhaps suggest that you can open for a particular show you noticed on their upcoming schedule. Be quick on your feet with another choice of dates for when you will be back in the area.

2^nd Call: If you do need to make the second call, which is often likely, then make sure you use your deadline at the start of the conversation. See if they are any closer to having an answer for you. Keep in mind, “No” is the second favorite answer of booking agents all over the world. When you get a no, then get information about other potential dates or programming opportunities. And, best of all, you can now move on and make calls to other venues.

3^rd call: If you are willing to give it 3 calls, then again, try to set a date closer than “next week” and impress upon them your deadline. If they are no closer to an answer, let them know you are interested in working with them in the future and will be back in touch when you are booking dates in their area again, but, you need to move on to fill this date. Thank them for their consideration. Sometimes, this alone may spark their interest to really look at the calendar and take you more seriously.

Use this negotiation technique reduce call me next week syndrome to move your conversations along and get those gigs booked.

Have you used deadlines during your negotiations to move your conversations along and book your tours?

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