"Why Should We Book You?" - How To Respond! (Difficult Client Questions)
As things start to open back up, I really do think we’re going to see the events and entertainment industry coming back, we’re going to see people booking more services of all types, and since that’s my main field, that’s where I want to focus some attention. I’ve done a number of videos about answering tough client questions during the booking and sales process, and if that’s something that’s helpful to you, make sure you subscribe and check those other videos out in the description below. Today, we’re going to talk about a particularly tough and annoying question that comes up. What do you do when a client asks you “Why should we book you?”.
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You’re mostly going to encounter this type of questioning if the client is out there looking for bids on a booking site like Gigmasters, Gigsalad, Thumbtack, etc, where frankly, a lot of the time, yes, they’re looking to find out who’s cheapest. You might get something like this if you’re doing direct marketing and are in competition with other vendors also doing direct marketing, like they might tell you “you’re one of 5 people who has contacted us about the upcoming trade show, so just in a nutshell, why should we book you?”. Still a bit rude, but understandable if their phone has been ringing off the hook with cold calls and they’re short on time.
if someone comes at me with a question like this, I’ll empathize with them. They’ll ask “why should we book you?” and I’ll respond “well, this early on, I’m honestly not sure that you should yet. Now I know we’ve exchanged a little bit of information, but I’d really like to find out a bit more about your needs and your vision for this event, and that way we can decide together if this is a good fit both ways. Sound fair? Because my goal here is to make sure that you get your needs met. And if what I do isn’t a good fit for what you’re looking for, I can probably recommend someone who is. How’s that sound?”
Now what we’ve just done here is inserted a major pattern interrupt into the conversation. 9 out of 10 people they’re asking this question to – your competition – are giving the same type of answer. They’re stammering with “well, I’ve won this award, and I’ve been in business for this many years, and I have a perfect 5 star Google rating”, and they fall into this expected pattern of basically begging and groveling for the job. What we’ve done is interrupted that pattern, which is an incredibly powerful tool when you’re in a sales conversation like this, we’ve interrupted that pattern and we’ve preliminarily disqualified ourselves a little bit from the running by telling them “I’m not sure you should book me yet”.
Not only is this not what they will be expecting to hear, so they’re much more likely to listen, but we’ve just turned this conversation around and are having it on much more level ground. A minute ago, they were in this position of power, holding this potential job that we want over our heads. But now, we’re having an actual conversation about whether this is a good fit both ways. You’re communicating to them, “hey, I don’t necessarily need this job… but if it’s a good fit for both of us, I’d like to work together”.
Ideally though, you’re going to get your potential client here into a conversation about what their specific needs are. The problems they’re trying to solve. What the cost will be to them if these problem aren’t solved. Typical sales call. You’ll want to find out exactly what needs they have, and then communicate to them about which services you offer that are the perfect solution to those needs. This is kind of sales 101 at this point, but hopefully you can see how we’ve been able to transition that playing field that this conversation was taking place on into something that is more evenly balanced, and then get it into our favor by getting them talking about how big their problems are.
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