Many corporate event planners forget to consider ROI on the planning of their event. If you would like your event to be profitable, one thing you should consider is how to quantify the value of your entertainment to be worth their asking price. How do you do this? There are some specific things you should look at when booking your entertainer to make sure you get a high quality service.
Professionalism.
This is the easiest thing to determine. Check for all of these things in your prospect. If they don’t have them all, find someone else. These are absolutely necessary for a professional performer.
Professional Looking Website.
Promo Video.
Audio Samples.
Video Samples.
Client Testimonials.
Education.
It is wise to choose an entertainer with a degree in what you are hiring them to do. Your entertainment should be of the same caliber that your company itself adheres to, so check for a college education in their field of performance. This is an indicator the performer has invested seriously into their craft and will be of a very high quality.
Experience.
You watch the video and audio and they sound great but they show up and it’s awful. What happened? You have to make sure you not only listen to them, but also check for their experience as a performer. With professional production tools, almost anyone can make themselves sound great on video and audio but without years of experience, you may get a falsely advertised product. In terms of how many years they have been playing, think of it the same way you would as if hiring an employee. If they have less than three years experience, they are still getting the fundamentals down and although it is possible they are great and exactly what you are looking for, the odds of this being the case drastically decreases.
1 - 2 years - Novice
3 - 5 years - Apprentice
5 - 10 years - Journeyman
10 + years - Master
It’s a scientifically verified observation that 10,000 hours of practice are needed in order to be considered a master of something. This is true of performing as well. So if you can’t find how many years they have been performing, ask them. 10+ years of experience is your best choice when determining who to choose, however, some entertainers may play once a month, which does not equate to the same level of proficiency. So on top of how many years, see how many shows they have played. If you can’t find it somewhere on their website, then ask how many shows they have played. Ideally, your performer will have over 10 years experience and over 1000 performances.
1 - 200 - Novice
200 - 500 - Apprentice
500 - 1000 - Journeyman
1000 + - Master
Versatility.
It’s completely fine to hire a performer who does one thing really well, but in the event that there needs to be a change last minute for some reason or you just want a little more customizability, it’s good to check your artist’s website to see if they are versatile. A few things that add some nice choices to your performers checklist are:
Instrumental Songs
High Energy/Low energy songs
Loop pedal songs
Songs from different genres and decades
Talent.
This one is a bit more ambiguous and harder to quantify. How do you spot talent? It’s kind of like music that plays in a movie - when it’s really good, you feel it, but when it’s really bad, you notice it’s really off. When you watch and listen to the media on the performers website, do you like the way it sounds? The way they play? The tone of their voices? Their instrumentation? The mix of the music? A video of them performing live would be ideal to watch so you can see exactly how they will sound and look performing and if you like what you see, then book em!
Go through and look at each one of these attributes to see if you are making a good investment with your money. These are all of the most important qualities to look for in your entertainment choice. Taking time to look over these things will give you assurance that your performer will be worth what you are paying, very likely to be well received by your audience and give you a good ROI with the money you spend hiring them.
For more on what type of musician you should get for what specific event you are having CLICK HERE.
The infographic below is FREE to download, just right click "Save As" or drag and drop to your desktop. Use it as a reference when doing your booking!
Dylan Galvin (Dylan like “Bob Dylan”, Galvin like “Calvin and Hobbes” with a “G”) is a singer/songwriter and live performer in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on Instagram, Youtube and Facebook.
