Prom Season is in full swing these days, and mobile DJs all over social media are showcasing their prom gigs for all to see.
Behind the scenes, though, a new prom committee has been elected/appointed, and these eager-beaver students are already starting work preparing for Prom 2025. DJs cannot afford to rest on their laurels after their prom performances are over, as a significant portion of schools are going to make purchase decisions soon.
BOOKING TIMELINES
Prom Committees break down into three categories:
- Eager-Beavers. The Prom Committees that will go hard all summer long, and make purchase decisions in September/October at the latest.
- Normal. Prom committees that start their work slowly over the summer, but then pick things up fast when school gets back in season, and make purchase decisions by the Christmas break or in early January.
- Procrastination. These are prom committees that don’t even start work until school gets back in September, and make their decisions by February/March.
As you can see, the sales cycle is different for lots of schools, but you can generally count on these three categories with respect to where a school fits into the sales cycle. No matter where a school fits into the above categories, you should have a plan in place for all schools. Here’s one that we used to use back in the day:
SUMMER – INFORMATION GATHERING
- Targets
- Prom Committee Members
- Find on Instagram & Tik Tok
- Find through Facebook school-specific prom groups
- Prom Committee Teacher-In-Charge
- Find on the school website
- Find through LinkedIn
- Find through referrals
- Parents Committee (for the very lucrative After-Proms)
- Find through the PTA
- Prom Committee Members
Seriously, the more prepared you are over the summer, the more ahead of the game you will be when school gets back in session. And, do not underestimate the After-Prom opportunities. Some of those contracts can be in the tens of thousands of dollars for those more-robust entertainment companies.
FALL – QUOTES, VIDEOCALLS & WEBINARS
In point form…
- Be ready with all your sales materials before Labor Day, including the following;
- Dedicated digital-sales room (to work alongside your website, we use https://stageset.io/).
- Videocall link right in your main menu (see my seminar on Aug. 8 at DJX for details on this). Thanks to Ken Cosco and his crew from Boston’s A Touch Of Class for giving a fresh new example of how this can be done.
- Prepared monthly prom-focused webinars (we use both https://sessions.us/ and https://webinarninja.com/ for these) so that you can invite prom committees to whatever webinar date works for them with respect to whatever sales cycle they happen to be in.
- Make sure your email newsletter platform has a prom-centric drip campaign configured (again, details on this to be discussed in detail on Aug. 8 at DJX.)
- Make sure you have a good website. These are teenagers you’re dealing with here. A bad website is an even greater turn-off for this crowd than for weddings and corporates. The best way to portray yourself is a prom-centric separate website for your brand.
- Do not be passive here. Schools will no doubt receive quite a lot of inquiries for their prom business, and so you have to adopt a slightly more aggressive stance here. Best advice is… get potential clients onto your drip campaign (mentioned above) as a priority.
WINTER/SPRING – FOLLOW-UPS, STRAGGLERS & BAD GIGS
In point form…
- Don’t be lazy, and follow up with quotes from the fall if you never heard back from a particular school.
- Be prepared to talk to those last-minute schools who aren’t prepared properly (but don’t give them a discount – lol).
- Pay attention to anything you hear about a bad DJ ruining a prom with a bad performance. Hop on that immediately, so that the school in question remembers you when it’s time for them to book again.
THE “CONVERSATION”
Schools are by far the worst when it comes to price expectations. For some reason, these teachers still expect 1995 pricing, and it’s a chore during some sales processes to justify your quotes. So, some notes to counteract this proper price resistance:
- Compare your packages to what it would cost the school to rent and setup the gear on their own at the nearest AV rental shop (RIP Sam Ash).
- Offer testimonials of how the entertainment is far more important than the meal, as well as focus groups from students who had a bad prom in their past.
The best conversational pitch I have ever heard was delivered by Rhode Island jock Derek Panell, who sat on a DJX panel that I ran a few years back. He’s a regular at DJX, so perhaps he might join us on Aug. 8 at that seminar as well. One thing’s for sure… Aug. 8 will be a seminar that will lead to increased prom bookings, so try and stay for the full four days at DJX!
