touting for business

[Paul Mailath]

I just wanted your opinion on meeting with prospective clients (brides) my website is up and I'm advertising on a number of bridal sites and when an enquiry comes through I'm pushing to meet the client - I figure face to face I have a much better chance of closing the deal.

Is that likely to put them off? just quoting and waiting seems way to passive for me.

[Susanto Widjaja]

Paul!

Good for ya adv on those sites. I'm sure it will bring a lot of exposure.

for me, the steps are:

1. show the work
2. show the packages
3. meet

90% people I met have closed the deal. I see that as being efficient. my meeting with a client usually last more than an hour.. its quiet tiring afterwards.. I talk a lot... :P

But it'll be good to hear more thoughts about this!

By the way Paul, just got my multi today.. thanks for showing it to me the other day!! its expensive though!!!!

Santo

[Chris Davis]

You will have to handle this on a case-by-case basis. I think meeting in person will most likely close the deal, but some people will not want to (I wouldn't). Simply making a statement like "I'd like to meet with you and your fiance" would be good. Don't make it a question, make it a statement. If they're completely against it, they'll say so.

[Jeff Kellam]

I see you are in AU.

Dosen't it usually take a bit of travel time to meet people in most areas?

[Ryan Morey]

I never push meeting people....ever! I usually just try and get them on the phone.Once we speak for a few minutes we'll have built a rapport and they get a feel for my personality.I do book a good number of wedding strictly through emails.I also advertise on most of the larger bridal wbsites and I find that clients like to keep their distance.From what I here from couple it's a real turn off when peopl push to meet.I think they almost take it as a hard sell.I have 58 weddings this year so I'm doing something right.....I think.

Ryan

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Paul Mailath

I just wanted your opinion on meeting with prospective clients (brides) my website is up and I'm advertising on a number of bridal sites and when an enquiry comes through I'm pushing to meet the client - I figure face to face I have a much better chance of closing the deal.

Is that likely to put them off? just quoting and waiting seems way to passive for me.

I have closed on all but ONE of the prospective clients I have met in person. And this year is the first year that I have booked a majority of my clients just over the phone (probably because I finally have a kickass demo & sample video selection).

But I absolutely agree that geeting someone to carve out time and meet with you is hte best way for your personality and your salesmenship to do its job.

You did realize that being in biz for yoruself meant your were also goign to be a sales expert in addition to post production, yoru own IT dept, etc? :-)

[Jon Geddes]

You will definitely have more success on closing the deal when you meet with the client in person. They will get to know you better and will feel much more comfortable hiring you. However, like the others have said, you could easily lose the client if you are too forceful on meeting with them. I would answer any questions they have over the phone/through email and communicate with them several times before meeting.

When you meet with them though, you need to be very professional, and show them quality work that will impress them. I worked with a leading video production company in southern california for years. Once the clients came to our office and saw samples of our work... we were successful in booking them 100% of the time. Of course, our custom dvd motion menus and matching cover/label artwork helped immensely in impressing them before they even watched the video. I now design templates for video production companies so they can impress their clients as we did with the best motion menus in the industry.

If the clients are unsure about going with you, suggest they come meet with you, but certainly don't suggest it before giving them plenty of information about your services. You will get the feel for it after a little experience.

[Mary Angelini]

Interesting thought guys, thanks for sharing.
I'm finding a difficult time reaching the client only via e-mail. Its almost like my brides care enough to ask for more info, but never reply after that. It has got to be what I am saying. I do ask when the best time for us to meet, I will try to exclude that in my next lead and see where that takes me.

Jason, BTW I love the idea of your demo. Besides the internet, who do you give your demo to?

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Mary Angelini

Jason, BTW I love the idea of your demo. Besides the internet, who do you give your demo to?

THe demo is only online. I premiered it at a wedding show and it looked pretty good on a nice 32" LCD HDTV even though it is SD shot on mostly GL2 cams and played on an upconverter.

I don't mail the demo out anywhere so the only people that see it, see it by going to the web site.