Weddings What makes a $1500 wedding DJ worth his price?

I knew a local DJ who purposely jacked up his price to $1500 to give an allusion of being the best ($850-$1100 being the typical here). He would setup at the last minute and literally bring in hundreds of cds (no computers) and no lighting (ok , maybe a few par cans), and a broken down pickup truck to entrust getting him to gigs. At the events he would only focus on music and not much else. His auditory skills were fairly decent, but that was about it.
*So did he do a good job overall,,,YES
* Would he offer to help anyone in assistance (carrying plate for grandmother, or mom with three lil kids.....NO
* Help find an officiate, photographer, etc.....NO
* 20-30 more "help with" examples like above.....NO

Just saying that money does not totally equal value. I will do most anything for my clients, even at a monetary loss (from time spent), as long as I walked away feeling good about myself and my clients. Full disclosure, I also work full time and can afford a few losses from time to time.

As far as I am concerned I personally would not pay for a $1500 DJ if they didn't sincerely do the small unexpected stuff.
a few Examples .....
*Having Kleenex handy for the toasts
*Bottled water for an outdoor ceremony behind the "alter"
* Dress pins on hand, along with Tylenol, antacid, band-aids, etc
* Battery powered personal fans for outdoor weddings and barns for B&G and moms/grandmothers.

Clients do not expect all of this.. All the above examples may set you back $20-$30 but the extra service is priceless to a client, and not so much your mighty DJ equipment to justify a higher quote.
Regards,
Joncor

Didn't read all responses, but there's a lot of good, insightful, and worthwhile stuff going around for sure.

All this being said, what makes "a $1500 DJ" "worth" the price is that they probably aren't marketing, or selling... "DJ services."

Anyone "looking for a DJ for their wedding" isn't the ideal or target demographic of the "$1500" (I keep using quotes because I'm really referring to DJs that charge more than that as well) DJ.

The target demographic of the "$1500" DJ is someone who already knows they want - and understands they NEED - so much more than "a dj."

This clientele exists, and they are more than able and willing to invest accordingly in what they perceive to be what they want and NEED for their wedding day.

And my point isn't necessarily that these things they intuit needing and are looking for are things that folks here aren't providing. In a lot of cases, quite the opposite.

It's not that many need to do more to charge more. They just need to - justifiably - charge more for what they already do.

Not a new idea by any means, but something to think about.

Define your ideal clientele. Figure out how to reach them. Communicate and connect with them successfully. Build a value perception for them. When you realize folks are writing you deposits for $1500 contracts at the first consultation more often than not, you'll realize you really should be charging more.

I do not see this line of work as a supply and demand business, but as a WOM business that heavily relies on your talent and target market.

We all know that there's a plethora of DJs focused on volume and yet a paucity of talented specialists who strive to provide a quality service.

For this reason WOM trumps all other forms of promotion for the Professional Mobile DJ and will dictate the rewards you seek.

joncor18 said:

As far as I am concerned I personally would not pay for a $1500 DJ if they didn't sincerely do the small unexpected stuff.
a few Examples .....
*Having Kleenex handy for the toasts
*Bottled water for an outdoor ceremony behind the "alter"
* Dress pins on hand, along with Tylenol, antacid, band-aids, etc
* Battery powered personal fans for outdoor weddings and barns for B&G and moms/grandmothers.

Clients do not expect all of this..

Click to expand...

This is non-sense. These are all distractions from the job I promised to give my full attention to. I would certainly recommend during our planning conversations anything my experience tells me the client should anticipate and plan for - but, I will certainly not run around like I have ADHD playing mommy to every last person who needs a tissue or a band-aid. They are adults for goodness sake! They can wipe their own nose.

I charge many times $1500 for some events and won't be responsible for any of this. Your last line says it best: "Clients do not expect all of this." Furthermore - they don't want it, they expect you to act like a professional and provide Dj service - not be Dr. Phil.

I've heard the same spiel about wedding photographers that you need to carry a bag with all sorts of things (toothpaste and a new brush even). Really? I carry safety pins and in over 100 weddings used them twice...once on my ass't so only ONCE on a customer. Less than 1% use.

Not gonna carry somthing I only need .08% of the time.