What's your best marketing tip?

[Corabar Entertainment]

Originally Posted by BIZAL

If what you are looking at/for does meet your requirements it does not matter how cheap it is.

The answer is no, I would not. However, I am not talking about a theory, I am talking about experience - those people who do not allow you to give your 'sales pitch', who get annoyed when you try to ask them questions, and just keep saying "All I want to know is how much?"

A lot of the points you mentioned, you would not find out until it is too late (ie on the night, at your event). Admittedly, people would hopefully learn from that if they booked a DJ again, they would hopefully be interested in 'quality'.

Unfortunately, unless you are talking about pubs, clubs, hotels etc. most private individuals don't regularly book mobile DJs and discos - maybe only a couple of times in their life.

It is sadly a fact that many members of the public think 'a mobile disco is a mobile disco', and so, for them, price is the driving factor.

I am not saying that this is true of everyone (see the last paragraph of my last post), - it is as untrue to say that everyone is driven by price as it is to say that price has never been the driving factor.

( Ooo, I like a good debate!)

[BIZAL]

So sell on fear!!!

Re:

Price is the #1 factor when you have a commodity business - have a look at the adverts when price is the biggest selling point (eg: airlines for economy travel)

MMMM ok if this is true please send your order for 1 x flight from Sky to Thurso on the 31 of December 2018 at 11.30 pm. Check in time is 3 days before the flight and you must pay the money into the abbey national branch in fort William in person with 6 forms of ID Oh it is the cheapest price in the world for that route and is only £7.00.00

OK that was me being funny, but in reality no services is the same and hence you buy on best value NOT cheapest price!!!

[peterjhale]

Think commodity

You want to go from London to Brussels

What do you choose - cheapest or most expensive ?

It's only when it really is a commodity

For long haul it's entirely different

But when you are simply going from A to B and you have a choice of three airlines for an hours flight all going from the same place to the same place what is your decision making process ?

[Corabar Entertainment]

Originally Posted by BIZAL

MMMM ok if this is true please send your order for 1 x flight from Sky to Thurso on the 31 of December 2018 at 11.30 pm. Check in time is 3 days before the flight and you must pay the money into the abbey national branch in fort William in person with 6 forms of ID Oh it is the cheapest price in the world for that route and is only £7.00.00

I know you said you were being funny here but, if you took out the condition to pay it in person in Fort William (which would mean paying a lot to travel there and thereby making it expensive), I bet you would get people taking you up on your offer (providing there are people who want to fly from 'Sky to Thurso' that is - my geography is not what it should be and I do not know where either of these places are!!!)

You only have to look at the budget airlines who offer flights for £1, or the cross-channel day trips for £1. They impose conditions on customers wishing to take up these offers which would not be your first choice - ie, travelling at unsociable hours, etc. but they get a huge take up on those offers - and not just by people who wanted or needed to travel, but by people seeing thos offers and thinking "Ooh, that's a good offer, let's take a trip to......."

[inbakumar]

Before I start my reply, I would like to inform the forum members that the 4 P’s concept mentioned by me above as one of the first few replies to this interesting debate can be found on any good basic marketing course. The concept was first introduced by the eminent marketer, E Jerome McCarthy in his famous book called ‘Basic Marketing’ nearly 40 years ago. As a corporate financier, I don’t normally buy into marketing theories but the 4 P’s concept is something that I found made sense and proven over time.

Now let us look at some of BIZAL’s comments earlier:

Originally Posted by BIZAL

Sorry but price is irrelevant and has never been the number 1 reason anyone has bought anything ever!!!!

By implication this means that all consumers have no resource constraints i-e no problems with money! - I wish the world is such a place . Moving on to the travel industry example quoted by Peter earlier, one can see from the link below for the search term “cheap flights” in UK by searchers online.

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/su...hts&country=uk

According to Overture UK, which accounts for only about 25% of the traffic – there were around 32000 searches for the term “cheap flights” PER DAY. Therefore over an year there are nearly 12 MILLION (32000 x 365) searches for this term on Overture UK and this only represents a quarter of the online environment!. So BIZAL, could you please explain to me why people do this if price is not an issue?

If you need further proof, then take a look at the advertisements by banks, credit card companies and insurance companies for their loans, credit card and insurance policies. They do compete on price because customers are looking for the cheapest deal around. Why do you think the News papers publish 'best buy' tables for these products?

Personally speaking, and similar to Corabar Entertainment's experiences, the number of deals my firm has lost because the rate we offered was only about 0.25% per annum higher is unbelievable. I would be a seriously wealthy man if price is not important to our customers!

Originally Posted by BIZAL

As for service again it is perceived service that is vital not how good you actually i.e. remember beta-max, word perfect etc?

Your statement implies that customers are idiots and personally I take exception to anyone who tries to sell me something under false pretenses. BTW, Word Perfect failed because they couldn’t compete with Microsoft Word on price, place (the bundling of it with the Windows operating system) and promotion…….it has very little to do with service.

Originally Posted by BIZAL

So Corabar change your Elavotor pitch!!!

I suggest here that you check your spelling and first truly understand what an “elevator pitch” means before start advising others using over-used American phrases. I have nothing against the Americans mind you, I have worked in California and still have many American friends . BTW, do you know that office buildings are not higher than 2-3 stories in California for earthquake safety reasons meaning you get only about 5 seconds for an "elevator pitch"?

Regards,

[Cougar]

Sometimes a focus on price alone can be your best weapon in protecting your business from potential customers that you do not want at all!! All you have to do is price the offer so high, you know they will go elsewhere or do without it.

I agree with Peter about commoditisation. The range of services we offer range from commoditised to bespoke consultancy. The further we move from "commoditised" towards "consulting", the less resistence there seems to be on price, 1) because there is less competition and 2) because other factors kick in - reputation, ability to deliver, adding value to the client business beyond the activity or process undertaken, and so on.

One of the most important aspects on pricing when I started out was being prepared to ask for enough £££s. (I am still learning this!) If you start high, then you have some room to come down in negotiation; the customer believes they are getting something as well, so it's a win-win. If you start low, you will never get more than the opening figure (unless you do additional work and agree an extra charge) and you may even have to come down on price even from that low start point if you get into negotiation and want the business. Then you can be in a loss position before you even perform the service.

For me pricing is always an issue. How important an issue though really depends on the overall mix of all the factors in pitching for a particular peice of consulting business with a client; these factors (the P's mentioned earlier by Inbakumar) and the weight they each carry, will vary from one scenario to another.

However, my starting point on the discussion Peter originated is still the key issue of quality of service... for this reason ... that even if I do get my pricing right for an upcoming peice of business, I will not get any repeat business, any recommendations or any referrals via that source, if I do not deliver outstanding customer service .... because this impacts my reputation, my value in the market and therefore what price I can command - therefore I am only as good as the last peice of work I performed ... and how I perfomed it.

[peterjhale]

Customer service is key

Price is very important - but let me move my thoughts on a little

Going back to the 4 Ps - they are ALL important - it depends for what weight you apply to each.

Going back to the airline arguement - I kinda just threw in the price is the #1 factor - and it is certainly important

But in the back of peoples minds is also the 4 Ps
- from what airport to what airport (location)
- time of day of flight
- are there any stop overs (even in Europe you can get routed via Paris or Brussels)

All of the above are wrapped up in product and service

For the bigger guys they are large funds to tell people

For us smaller guys we need a hook to get people to read on - and that's when we go in and sell the benefits - which our DJ needs to do

What are the benefits and USPs of going with you?

You need to tell people - and if you offer all of that for 10% above the average market price....well, you will make your sales

Why not give your current customers some "member get member" type of vouchers - so if someone has a voucher they get 10% off (or whatever) for their gig?

[Corabar Entertainment]

Originally Posted by peterjhale

Why not give your current customers some "member get member" type of vouchers - so if someone has a voucher they get 10% off (or whatever) for their gig?

We have experimented with that type of thing in the past, with little success.

I think the particular problems in our industry are that there is a very small 'repeat business' market, and the public's perception of mobile discos in the first place (too many cowboys always undercutting). Getting across the reasons why a professional show costs so much more is very difficult.

We are lucky in that we do usually manage to persuade those people who will listen that they will be getting a more professional service (we have around a 60-70% conversion rate from enquiries to bookings - and almost 30% of the remainder are the "I only want to know how much" brigade! who, incidentally BIZAL, don't let the lift door open, let alone get in and go for a ride!!) Also, once we get a booking for, say an 18th birthday party, we often then get 'the full round' - ie word of mouth around a group of friends. So, all in all, we don't do too bad but we are always looking to do better!!!!!

Angela
Corabar Entertainment

[BIZAL]

Cricky where to start.

Inbakumer.

Sorry as a sales development company that has grown from 2 people to over 45 in less than 2 years and has seen turnover go from 0 to over 2.5 million in the same time we practice what we preach and hence feel very strongly that your comments are more interesting that accurate.
i.e.

If you need further proof, then take a look at the advertisements by banks, credit card companies and insurance companies for their loans, credit card and insurance policies. They do compete on price because customers are looking for the cheapest deal around. Why do you think the News papers publish 'best buy' tables for these products?

1:Fist of all notice your comment “best buy” rather than “cheapest” i.e. you imply best value.
2: Why do all these company’s keeping trying to find further ways of making themselves looking different from every one else? Why not copy and just reduce the price??????

Many spend millions on this and service is often at the centre of the advert/ promotion i.e. the new tv add from Abby promoting the fact that you do not need to trawl the high street every 2 years.



Re the flights. Ok 3 flights to the same place time etc all cost £100.00, all that is different is who you fly with. The first is easy jet. The 2nd is Ryan Air and the 3rd is to fly business class with BA but it costs an extra 10p. Would you fly with anyone but BA and pay the extra 10p? Now if it was an extra £200.00 most people would not bother because they perceive the extra benefit is not worth the extra money and hence in both cases the buy on Perceived VALUE not PRICE!!!!!

I suggest here that you check your spelling and first truly understand what an “elevator pitch” means before start advising others using over-used American phrases. I have nothing against the Americans mind you, I have worked in California and still have many American friends . BTW, do you know that office buildings are not higher than 2-3 stories in California for earthquake safety reasons meaning you get only about 5 seconds for an "elevator pitch"?

OK an Elevator pitch is commonly used UK sales term. Sorry that you did not know this but we are happy with over 400 years of sales experience in the company that this is the case. Oh re your 5 seconds, any sales professional will tell you that is 10 seconds and that this is a standard i.e. it does not change.

Oh and unless I am mistaken I thought a lot of the words and phrases we used (especially ones that are industry specific) came from other countries.


Re:

Quote:
Originally Posted by BIZALMMMM ok if this is true please send your order for 1 x flight from Sky to Thurso on the 31 of December 2018 at 11.30 pm. Check in time is 3 days before the flight and you must pay the money into the abbey national branch in fort William in person with 6 forms of ID Oh it is the cheapest price in the world for that route and is only £7.00.00


I know you said you were being funny here but, if you took out the condition to pay it in person in Fort William (which would mean paying a lot to travel there and thereby making it expensive), I bet you would get people taking you up on your offer (providing there are people who want to fly from 'Sky to Thurso' that is - my geography is not what it should be and I do not know where either of these places are!!!)

You only have to look at the budget airlines who offer flights for £1, or the cross-channel day trips for £1. They impose conditions on customers wishing to take up these offers which would not be your first choice - ie, travelling at unsociable hours, etc. but they get a huge take up on those offers - and not just by people who wanted or needed to travel, but by people seeing thos offers and thinking "Ooh, that's a good offer, let's take a trip to......."

Well done. You do need to pay in Fort William and as you pointed out this effects how good the offer is to a lot of people because of the time and hassle of getting there to pay for which again goes some way of showing that it is the perceived overall value that is key to you buying this.

Re your buy a flight for £1.00. Again perceived value i.e. if to fly at a better times costs your more, is it worth the extra? i.e. it could mean you need to take less time off work, to fly from an airport that is not as easy to get to could add additional costs, time and hassle factor. So effectively what we look at is what is the best value deal not what is the cheapest deal and this varies from person to person and deal by deal.

[Corabar Entertainment]

Originally Posted by BIZAL

Well done. You do need to pay in Fort William and as you pointed out this effects how good the offer is to a lot of people because of the time and hassle of getting there to pay for which again goes some way of showing that it is the perceived overall value that is key to you buying this.

Please re-read my comments, as you seem not to have read them and are putting words in my mouth - I referred to the cost of getting to Fort William. If we were purely talking about 'inconvenience', I do think that many people would still take up a bargain offer. I would again cite the example of flights/ferry trips for £1. In order to get these, people have to buy the paper every day, collect the tokens and send them off. There is a tremendous increase in the sale of those papers when these offers are on, which proves that people who would not normally buy the paper are doing so.

Can I again re-iterate that, I am not saying that value and service are not hugely important sales factors, indeed, if they weren't we wouldn't make a single sale as that is our 'pitch' because we cannot compete with the 'cowboys' on price, but to say that price is not and never has been the No1 driving factor for anyone is as false as claiming that the other factors are irrelevant.

Angela