In-person vs virtual sales meetings?

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rickryan.com

rickryan.com

DJ Extraordinaire
ODJT Supporter
Dec 9, 2009
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Hendersonville, TN
www.rickryan.com
Are you guys running into prospects who want to meet virtual instead of in-person? Every time somebody asks for a tour (sales meeting), I assume it's in-person but I've been noticing a significant number who will ask "Are we meeting in person?" Never run into this before and figured it's likely a covid thing.
 
My sales meetings are normally calls by default. I'll meet in person by request, so that hasn't really changed. But with a venue I would expect people still wanting to see the physical space.

Do you book tours through a scheduling system (like Calendly) or just via email?
 
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Albatross said:
My sales meetings are normally calls by default. I'll meet in person by request, so that hasn't really changed. But with a venue I would expect people still wanting to see the physical space.

Do you book tours through a scheduling system (like Calendly) or just via email?
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Email, phone, text and smoke signals. For DJ gigs (and especially when we had photography) I usually preferred in-person but there were obviously many more who would just book after a phone call. It's got me befuddled why these girls are assuming that it's suppose to be a virtual tour. I use google calendar to do a meeting invite and it clearly lists the physical location. I was just wondering if you guys had seen a change in meeting preferences.
 
Ha. I just had a lady who no-showed on me today for the 2nd time. When I texted her to find out where they were she wrote "I thought we said Tuesday at 4", to which I replied "This is Tuesday." She's going to ask her fiance if she can just give me a CC over the phone, without seeing the place. People are funny critters.
 
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My question is how would you show off the venue virtually? Walk around with a phone or laptop showing different parts of the venue?
 
MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
My question is how would you show off the venue virtually? Walk around with a phone or laptop showing different parts of the venue?
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This is where photo and video and being able to showcase it online come in handy. I’ve accumulated hundreds of videos and photos to showcase my work and to appeal to just about any client and situation.
From a venue perspective, collecting photo and video from every clients event will have the same effect. If they want to see the venue from a light and airy or a very floral type of look, pull up photos and videos from past clients that went for that look, if they want a more rustic wedding feel, show cool photos from clients that had that look. It takes years to accumulate but yeah, it’s easy to do at that point.
 
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MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
My question is how would you show off the venue virtually?
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The same way every other venue (and realtor) does it: Video footage. Hire someone, get it done, and post it everywhere.
 
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I would question the wisdom of any client who booked a venue without ever actually visiting the site.

Even a venue attended many times should be visited again to know if any changes to management, chef, or other key personnel or policy would impact your own event in a way that differs from past experience.
 
Proformance said:
I would question the wisdom of any client who booked a venue without ever actually visiting the site.

Even a venue attended many times should be visited again to know if any changes to management, chef, or other key personnel or policy would impact your own event in a way that differs from past experience.
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It’s happening all the time. Just had a client from Virginia book a venue in NJ sight unseen. Why? Cause her original plans in VA keep falling through and since half her family is in NJ, she figured why not.

Also many clients from NY are booking sight unseen in NJ right now as their restrictions on weddings in NY, while lifted on paper, are not practical (all guests must be tested 3 days in advance, each couple has their own dance pod, can’t dance with anyone else, can’t mingle w anyone outside of your table).

Now why would they book it sight unseen... simply because in NJ dates have been filling up like crazy since the summer since we never stopped our events. People are calling me thinking their way ahead of the rest for 2022 only to be shocked when I have no saturdays left in may for example. People are doing crazy things right now to get dates... just like people are buying homes sight unseen.
 
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rickryan.com said:
Are you guys running into prospects who want to meet virtual instead of in-person? Every time somebody asks for a tour (sales meeting), I assume it's in-person but I've been noticing a significant number who will ask "Are we meeting in person?" Never run into this before and figured it's likely a covid thing.
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I think “virtual” is here to stay. It seems EVERYTHING is going that way. My wife has been interviewing for jobs, and all of the interviews have been virtual, at least through the first two rounds. She had 3 final interviews in person. It’s really kinda crazy... ZOOM, Microsoft Teams, Skype, FaceTime; you name it. We have not had time to set up a proper set, but if she was still doing interviews, I would do something to set up a nice background. It probably does not look so professional to have my office w/ DJ setups behind her, and our dog running in and out the doggie door. Something to keep in mind though. If you want to look professional, make sure the background is not distracting or off-putting.
 
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B-Sharp said:
All of mine have shifted to either phone, Facetime or Zoom. The office days are over, and the Starbucks/Panera meetings won't be back anytime soon.
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Especially if your (<-generic) clientele' is mostly sheeple.
 
djtaso said:
Are we talking about DJ or for venue. DJ I’ve been virtual since before covid. It was why I let go of my office space
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Any of the wedding services. A lot of my former DJ calls were just over phone/email but most of the photography things required an in-person meeting. They wanted to see if the got a good vibe from the photographer. Most of my venue meetings are in-person but it's been weird that several girls in the past month or two have just assumed that the tour I setup with them was virtual. They will actually ask if it's okay to have an in-person meeting. Just seems bizarre to me.
 
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