Management & Media Company

[Timothy J. allen]

Let’s pretend that you find yourself on an elevator with an artist, artist rep. or label executive. What would you say, do, point them to, or give to that person to convince them that it’s worth taking the risk to hire your company?

When you develop material to promote your company, you’ll want to anticipate questions the most common questions and objections. The material that you will provide to potential clients should at least anticipate questions such as:

1. Who are you and why should I trust what you say? (How do you establish your credibility?)
2. What can your company do to better promote or brand what I sell? (in your case, the image of the artists, or the label, records, etc.)? (What have you done for other companies such as mine?)
3. Why should we hire you instead of A) doing that work ourselves or B) hiring a larger “known” company? (Again, this is related to risk vs. reward.)

While you won’t be able to get into specific details with potential clients until you find out what their specific needs are, that micro-presentation and any materials you develop to help it, should be targeted towards getting you that appointment with the right person. At that appointment, you can “sell” your services based on their specific needs.

The fun part about the media and marketing business is that you don’t have to (and in my opinion, shouldn’t) limit your sales materials to “boring powerpoints and brochures”. Use your own creativity to offer unique solutions based on the flavor of your company. There’s a fine line between memorable and over-the-top, but in your field you might be able to have more fun with your ideas.

Just like the salesmen of old, be prepared to bring out “product samples” to show what you can do. This might be toys with website URLs printed on them to direct them to some online marketing you’ve done, to samples of major press coverage. The good thing is that you are in the idea business, and ideas don’t have to weigh much when you carry them around. 😉 Just be able to quickly show people what you can do and why it would be worth hiring you.

Remember the way you present yourself is their first clue on how you will represent them.

Good luck!
-TJA

[Kris Simmons]

Seems like to me you have two divisions within your company. One is the video/creative side and the other is the talent agency side.

Divide the line down the middle and figure out how to promote each service independent of the other. Then, use the opposite service as a competitive advantage.

For instance, when selling video/creative services, use the fact that you also deal with talent management as a differentiator between you and the competitors in your area. You are a media production company that also handles/manages talent.

When selling the talent management service, use the fact that you also handle full-service video/creative services as a differentiator between you and other talent managers. Offer a free demo reel created just for them that they can continue to use after the contract has expired or simply use your creative abilities to boost efforts in promoting the talent you represent.

You may run into trouble when dealing with agencies based on your model. You are dangerously close to being a full-blown agency…at least in the eyes of other agencies. You’ll have to be careful how you position yourselves in the market because if agencies view you as a threat instead of an asset, you could be in for a rough ride.

Your model sounds exciting. Keep us posted!

Kris

Kristopher G. Simmons
Video Business Coach
https://MindYourVideoBusiness.com