10 Ways To Get Tipped Without Even Asking

DJ Joe was getting stressed. He would be needing gas for his car on the way home after his Saturday mobile gig, and he also needed groceries-bad. The bread products in his kitchen apartment were beginning to turn green and yellow, the milk was two weeks past the sell date, and there were exactly four little squares left on his last roll of toilet paper. He wouldn’t get paid for DJing tonight’s wedding reception until next Friday, but how could he get cash tonight?
His mind raced. “Let’s see, I could sell my body to one of the bridesmaids,” he reasoned, “but with a buck and a half I can’t even buy a gallon of gas these days. I could pick up spare change off the dance floor, but my back is killing me from setting up my rig alone. Maybe I could ask for a tip at the end of the night? No, that would seem a bit tacky.”In the end, DJ Joe stopped worrying about his financial woes and instead concentrated on doing his best to make this party the best ever. Part entertainer, part service person, and part event coordinator, he found himself personally waiting on the needs of the guests but also keeping them entertained throughout the night. And after the event, the bride’s father had noticed his extra effort and slipped him a $50 bill.

Ka-ching!

One thing is for certain, and that’s that nothing is for certain when it comes to receiving tips. There are no absolute rules that can be applied to every gig in every region of the country-or even in the same town, for that matter. You can bend over backwards to serve clients one weekend and get $100 extra from the bridal couple, and then you can do the exact same thing the following Saturday and get nothing but a sincere thank you.

In the end, it all depends on what we do to win the bonus-did we resort to falling on our knees and begging? Did we out of our way to drop overt hints? Or did we simply concentrate on doing our job and letting the “tips” fall where they might? Mobile jocks around the country have been discovering that in order to get the best tips, we should not concentrate on getting tipped as much as merely offering the best service.

The following are eleven things we can do to better our chances of getting tipped after an event:

1. Avoid suggesting that your clients tip

For years we’ve all learned at convention seminars that it’s nice to remind clients in our literature that tips are accepted for exceptional performances. But if hints are given this way, it must be done very cautiously. If clients feel that we are requiring or even suggesting tips, this tactic can totally backfire.

“The worst thing you can do-and something that will kill your referrals-is if you put on your contract that gratuities are not included in your price,” says Brian Doyle of San Francisco’s Denon & Doyle. “Some DJs at the end of the night will say, ‘The balance due is $500, but that doesn’t include gratuities.’ But I think that’s the worst thing you can do, when you throw it in their face and suggest that they have to tip you. It should be more of a subtle thing.”

In fact, according to some DJs this issue is probably best not addressed in our literature at all, but rather saved for when we meet one-on-one with clients. “I believe it is wrong to include a ‘suggested tip’ on any of my company’s literature,” says Paul Chamberlin of The Music Machine in South Bend, Indiana. “Although, I’ve even heard that a ‘required’ tip is included on the contracts of some multiple-system companies-yikes!”

Geoff Carlisle of JAMM Entertainment says he used to not get very many tips. “I think the people in the South don’t seem to believe in tipping,” he explains. “So I developed a little form that each DJ can fill out at the end of the event to show what is owed. This form shows the total charge, deposit amount, overtime charge, balance due and a blank area for the tip before the total. It seems to work very well.”

“My policy is to never ask for a gratuity or even hint at the idea,” says Jon “Gadget Man” Davidson of Atlanta-based Vibrations DJs. “That would be tacky. But when I am offered a tip, I gladly and graciously accept it and tell the client how much I appreciate the offer.

2. Provide clients with a list of frequently asked questions

To circumvent the dangers of Idea #1 above, some mobile companies provide a Question & Answer sheet for their new clients: “Should we provide a table? Should we feed the DJ? Should we tip the DJ?”

After they receive a signed contract and deposit for an event, for example, Denon & Doyle sends out such a form. One of the questions is, “Is it appropriate to tip the DJ?” The suggested answer is, “If you feel your DJ has delivered exceptional service, then absolutely. As in any service industry, please do so only for exceptional service and base your gratuity on your level of satisfaction.”

As Doyle would subtly suggest, “The more you can drop the hint and introduce it to your client, the more the word ‘gratuity’ is going to get in their brains” without actually begging for it.

3. Turn down offers for a “free” meal?

As nice as it is to eat a nice meal with nice guests at a nice wedding reception, did you ever think about the fact that you may be eating your tip?

“Meals out here in California are about $50 a plate,” says Doyle, “so if they include you in the meal count they may not be as likely to tip you because they’ve already ‘given you’ $50. I’ve noticed that quite a bit. If we mention to clients that they don’t have to include us in the meal count, they’re more likely to give us a tip.”

In fact, Doyle suggests addressing to the client concerns about feeding and tipping the DJ at the same time. “These are both legitimate questions that everyone wants to know,” he says. “Are they supposed to include the DJ in the guest count, and are they supposed to tip the DJ? But if you couch these two issues together it actually works-while you’re suggesting that they save $50 by not providing a meal for the DJ, you can say that gratuities are accepted for exceptional services rendered.”

To keep their DJs from scarfing up reception food, Denon & Doyle sends them out with “love kits” that contain such basic items as breath mints, candy bars, granola bars and bottled water.

Of course, for some DJs a free meal in itself is enough of a bonus. “A tip can be anything from money to an expensive plate or feed, or even simply helping the entertainer get another event because of doing a great job,” says Stanley Samuel of Dubuque-based Infinity Entertainment.

4. Greet your guests before an event

Employees in my own personal company, Lighthouse Productions, greet guests at a reception dressed more like chimney sweeps than DJs. Attired in black tux coats with tails, top hats, white gloves and canes, sometimes the guests even wonder aloud if they’ve arrived at the wrong reception because they don’t recognize us from their bridal party! But in the end, we make a huge impression not only on the guests but on the family of the bridal couple-the most potential tippers.

“At the beginning of an event I call this the personal valet approach,” says Mark Haggerty of Denon & Doyle, a company that does a similar routine. “When appropriate, I greet the bridal party at the limo with champagne and appetizers. This also helps you get to know the bridal party and bond with them.

“When I surpass their expectations it’s fertile ground for tips. It’s not any one thing I do-it’s all the little things done well from beginning to end. What it all comes down to is simply doing your job and paying attention.”

Says Doyle, “The moment you bring out a tray of hors d’ouvres when you’re lining up the bridal party for their introduction, the chance of getting a tip improves 100%. All of a sudden people look at you in a totally different light.”

5. Help wait on the head table?

While some DJs may think of themselves as “too good” to become “servants” at a reception, others see this as an opportunity to totally impress their clients. If we humble ourselves and take on the form of a servant, the results are impressive.

“When I do my shows, I cater to the bride and groom’s every need,” says Scotty O’Brien of Sunshine Entertainment in St. Louis. “For example, I walk around with the bride and groom after they arrive and-if the facility hasn’t made sure they have drinks and stuff-I give the bride a glass of wine and make sure the groom has a beer or whatever he drinks. I take care of more than their entertainment needs-I also take care of their practical needs!”

The result? “I always get tipped,” claims O’Brien.

Doyle remembers a reception where he played this past summer. “The staff was passing around champagne bottles and I talked them into letting me pass champagne around with them,” he recalls. “I was really able to make things happen, and the bride noticed what I had done and that the outcome was a lot nicer because of it. She tipped me $100 at the end of the night.”

Last summer the bride at one of my own shows asked me to be the one who walked around and released individual tables for the buffet line. It was another way for the guests to warm up to me, and this extra “service” resulted in a nice tip after the event.

But are these tips consistent responses for me or for Doyle or for any other DJ? Should they even be expected?

“Sometimes the client will notice what you do and sometimes they won’t notice,” admits Doyle. “But when they do notice and at the end of the night they’re about to give you a mere $20, they suddenly remember all the extra things you did and feel bad just giving a small tip.”

6. Help make the hall look good

Because he specializes in sound reinforcement, Dave Lundon of Full Spectrum Entertainment in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is especially able to assist clients when they have unique sound requirements. This also carries over into his every-weekend corporate and reception market.

“If a corporate VP is going to speak and needs a microphone hooked up real quick,” he says, “or if the father of a bride or a minister is having problem with the hall’s microphone, I can take out my own wireless mic for them to use.”

And Lundon can remember playing for a Legion Hall once at which the bar paid him to go an extra hour overtime simply because they were doing so well with drink sales. He refers to this as “third-party overtime.”

Make the hall look good, and you’ll not only get referrals but the client might also observe that you’re going the extra mile to make their event successful.

7. Provide “care kits” for your clients

If Brandi Smith, the operations manager for Denon & Doyle, is aware of a client who is going to need a little extra “hand holding” at an event, she’ll inform the DJ ahead of time. This allows the DJ to respond to extra needs and requirements of a client, which can result in an extra tip after the event.

“It’s nice to have a little care kit for the bride,” suggests Doyle. “I know some DJs who bring along extra safety pins and nylons and other bridal accessories. For the guys you can bring along extra cuff links, and those little things tend to make a huge impression. How about giving wet towels to the bride and groom when they come off the dance floor for the first dance?

“It’s all those little touches that seem to make everything all right.”

8. Play humorous/memorable soundbites during the event

After the blessing and toasts in the Midwest, the bride and groom will usually kiss for the guests. But that’s not enough for my company’s receptions. We have the couple stand up and tell them, “All right, we don’t want to see you kiss like you’ve been married for 300 years-we want to see you kiss like you’ve only been married for three hours! Let’s see some Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman action here!”

As soon as the couple’s lips touch, we play a sample of a long, wet kiss. The guests go wild, the groom is made to look like Al Gore giving Tipper the Hormonal Kiss, and we’re likely to get a tip later on.

“When I do wedding ceremonies, I get a sample of the vows on mini disc,” says Haggerty, “and then I’ll play it back at the reception when the first dance starts. One time I sampled the best man’s toast, where at the end he said,’Let’s party!’ Later on, I laid that sample down a few times during dancing.”

9. Provide the groom with a rose to give the bride

Mark Haggerty loves to do whatever it takes to make a groom look good. “In our market, the first dance is usually after the introduction, toasts and meal,” he explains. “Just before the first dance, I sneak a long-stem red rose to the groom-thornless, of course-and have him hide it inside his jacket. Then, when he presents it to his bride at the start of the song, the guests let out a big ‘Ahhh!’

“You need to set this up with the florist ahead of time,” he explains,” but the groom is usually the tipper, so we make him look good-and hopefully he remembers this later.”

10. Be prepared for the awkward tip questions after an event

How do you handle the situation at the end of the night when a client asks if they should give a tip? That happens to a lot of DJs. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” they tell us. “Am I supposed to tip you?” Or, “I’m not sure how much to give you-how much do people normally give for a tip?”

These questions make us feel uncomfortable, because we don’t want to be beggers. But at the same time, unless we accidently knocked over the wedding cake or forgot to wear our tux that night, we usually do feel like we deserve a tip.

“Those are always awkward questions,” says Doyle. “But if you don’t have a plan for what you’re going to tell people in response, you’ll end up saying ‘Oh, don’t worry about it!’ And then you’ve just talked yourself out of a tip.

Doyle suggests a couple of ways to make those situations more comfortable. “I know one DJ (David Demers from A Good Time DJs), when clients ask how much they’re supposed to tip him, he asks them to pull out their wallet and take out a couple of dollars-and then give him the rest! Everyone laughs, so it breaks the uncomfortable silence, and he gets tipped. It’s taking a fun, light-hearted approach to it.”

Sometimes people will ask Doyle what his ‘normal’ tip is, he says. “I’ll say, ‘Well, I’ve seen anything from $20 to $100.’ Many times people out here will hear that $100 and decide that they want to be cool like everyone else.”

11. Let your employees keep their overtime money

Denon & Doyle’s employees get to keep any money they make for playing overtime. The company sees this as an opportunity to not only reward their employees for doing a super job, but also a chance to help them make tips. “We try to get into their brains that when they go up to collect the overtime they should do it for the company,” says Doyle. “Don’t say, ‘It’s my overtime!’ because in that case you’ll get $100 for overtime and no tip. But if the client thinks the money is going to the company, they figure they should take care of you as well.”

“And there have been several times when we’ve done really cheap gigs for friends,” he adds, “and we always tell them to make sure they tip the DJ.”

What it all comes down to is making people happy by going the extra mile. “It’s a thank you, is what it is,” sums up Haggerty. “People tip when their expectations have been exceeded. They just feel inclined to do it.”

Mitzvah Mobile Marketing: It’s All About Getting That First Gig

The following is our first installment in a series of articles by mobile scribe Jeff Stiles on ways DJs can better their marketing tactics. This month Stiles explores what mobile jocks on both coasts are doing to capitalize on the financially lucrative bar/bat mitzvah market.
When mobile jocks prepare to entertain at a bar mitzvah, they take with them their music library, their dual CD players, their light shows and their roadies, and dress in their tuxedos just as they would for any other gig.It’s what they do differently, however, that enables them to capitalize on the lucrative and rewarding bar/bat mitzvah scene

Webster’s dictionary defines “mitzvah” as 1) a commandment of the Jewish law, and 2) a meritorious or charitable act. A Jewish rabbi in San Diego adds that “bar” is an Aramaic word meaning “son” and “mitzvah” refers to a son accepting responsibility for the commandments of Jewish law and adulthood.

To be tops in the bar mitzvah market, DJs need professionalism, personality and perseverance. But according to DJs who specialize in this specialty market, the hardest part is getting that ever-elusive first gig.

Sundance Productions

Eric Sands of Sundance Productions in San Diego was mitzvahed himself when he was young. Of course, when Sands was honored at the Wailing Wall in Israel in the summer of 1977, it was about 115 degrees, he had to recite from the Torah for a full 45 minutes, and girls were not allowed near the actual ceremony. A full DJ party, obviously, would have not been kosher.

Sands started DJing in 1982, when as a college student he would lead dormitory parties “for 500 sweaty drunk students” every weekend. From there he graduated to the wedding scene and eventually started specializing in bar mitzvahs. Although he’s a single-unit operator, eight assistants work with him for each show. “My roadies are actually much different than conventional roadies because they help me set up and actually do the party with me. You really have to have at least one assistant, if not more, with you when you do these parties, as well as the dancers.” Sands has four dancers that he uses regularly.

Why is marketing so important in the mitzvah realm? Well, for the basic bar mitzvah, the revenue is almost twice that of a wedding reception or other private parties. And for the more elaborate bar mitzvah, mobile jocks can often get over three times their normal rates. “My rates are $975 for four hours, that includes myself and my assistant, basic lights, bubbles and prizes,” says Sands. “That does not include dancers or props. Our high end could be $2400 or more, and that would include a minimum of two dancers, props and sometimes big-screen video.”

DJs are different than other vendors in the bar mitzvah scene, according to Sands, because DJs are the only vendors in the industry that can get considerably more than they can in the wedding scene. “All other vendors-photographers, video, caterers, florists-pretty much get the same or less for doing a bar mitzvah than they would for the typical wedding,” he explains.

Once you’re established in the mitzvah industry, marketing is a cinch-it’s basically all word-of-mouth from there within tightly bound Jewish communities. The trick is breaking into that market.

“To know the Jewish community-where the temples are and to personally know the rabbis-is definitely important,” says Sands. “Word-of-mouth between all the parents is especially important, because that’s what’s going to keep things going once you’re in the business. The goal is that you’re able to quote several people from a temple where you’ve done a bar mitzvah, so when the next person calls who belongs to that temple you can say, ‘Oh yeah, I just did the Schwartz’s bar mitzvah!’ They like to keep it in the family.”

But to get into the business, you’ve got to start somewhere, and that’s often by advertising within that community. According to Sands, temple newspapers can be a good source of exposure for mitzvah jocks: “You’ve got to find the main temple publications within your community and then commit yourself to them for two or three years.”

Sands, having grown up in a Jewish family, says that although having a Jewish DJ might be what a lot of what parents want to see, it’s not altogether necessary. “It’s just important to know the terms,” he says. “For example, you don’t want the bar mitzvah parents to see that you’re announcing the blessing over the bread; what you’re doing is announcing the motzi over the harma. Terminology is important.”

Would a DJ want to go to the extreme of putting their logo on a yarmulke (beanie) and handing it out at a bar mitzvah? “I don’t think that’s appropriate,” laughs Sands, “but it would make you stand out!”

Randy Rae

While most DJ companies specialize in either weddings or bar mitzvahs, New Jersey jock Randy Rae makes just as much of her living doing either one. In fact, her base price on both weddings and bar mitzvahs is the same. But her prices on mitzvahs can escalate quite high-depending on lighting, staging, the number of dancers provided, and if the client wants karaoke or magicians.

“I believe that I’m doing the same thing whether I’m doing a wedding or a bar mitzvah,” Rae says. “I’m bringing in gear and setting it up, I’m playing music, I’m working with photographers, videographers, caterers. Yes, bar mitzvahs are more work because you have more children and more things to do,” but for Rae it’s worth the extra work because of the additional revenue generated.

As far as marketing her business, Rae says she’s very involved with her clients. “I know that time is money,” she explains, “and when you spend more than a half hour with a client it can seem like you’re wasting time. But I tell my clients when they come to see me that they’ll be there with me for at least an hour. I tell them to bring a notebook and encourage them to bring the whole family. I think the kids really set the tone of the party-if they’re mature or immature, cool or nerdy, girls or boys, if they like to dance. And the relationships between the parents and kids are also a good determination of what kind of money you’re going to get.”

The first question Rae asks mitzvah clients at these consultations is what they’ve seen before and liked and what they’ve seen and disliked. “I think the first part of sales and marketing is listening, listening, listening,” she says. “I start writing everything down-I take a gizillion notes. That’s how you know where their head level is, and that’s how you know what package you’re gonna sell them. As soon as the first words out of their mouths is, ‘I love those giveaways!’ you know you need to set up a nice bulky giveaway package for them. As soon as they say, ‘I don’t like the music too loud’ then you know that they’re a little more conservative and they don’t like what we call here the Long Island Style, which is very pumped up and high energy, nonstop aerobic-styled dancing.”

Rae’s first recommendation for mitzvah advertising is to be in Jewish publications. “You want to be where the clientele is,” she says. “Most people don’t shop for mitzvah DJs out of the phone book, except the very low-end clients. And you won’t get much from advertising on the walls in kosher delis and places like that.”

Rae also suggests advertising in Hebrew schools. “I actually do 6-week sessions in these schools for the kids who are graduating, and we teach them the actual dances so that if they’ve never been to a bar mitzvah they won’t feel uncomfortable.”

Although Rae says that having a Jewish heritage is not essential for a mitzvah jock, it does help. “It helps because people know that I understand about Jewish religion and about kosher and non-kosher. You listen to me talk, and you know I’m Jewish. I can do certain things in selling a job, like using terms and knowing the prayers.

“I think if you educate yourself, you’re okay. I’ve done Russian weddings, Polish weddings, Italian weddings, Spanish weddings, and introductions in those languages. You should see me lead the Electric Slide in Russian! It’s all about entertainment, and I educate myself about these things.”

Bobby Morganstein Productions

“All my marketing revolves around how to get bar mitzvahs,” says Bobby Morganstein of Philadelphia-based BMP Productions. “Less than 1% of what we do is weddings, and the only way we’ll take a reception is if someone was at a bar/bat mitzvah we did and want that style for their wedding reception.

There’s just a lot more competition in that market and we can’t demand the prices we’re getting for bar mitzvahs.”

While BMP does demand quite a large price for mitzvahs, Morganstein says that he concentrates on sending out large packages for more money. “With my larger packages, it may start out at $3000 with two dancers, going up to about $7000 for some of the fuller packages. My average personally for a Saturday night is around $5000, although some of my guys work for less than that. It really depends on what the customer is looking for when it comes to staff.”

Morganstein has a marketing angle for everything his company does. “For a Friday night school dance that we may do,” he says as an example, “the max we can get is about $300-$500. But for me, that’s a marketing angle to get more business. I tend not to book any parties that don’t give me a marketing angle to get more bar and bat mitzvahs.”

Morganstein says his best advice is for mitzvah DJs is to get that first job . . . and to get the first job, you have to do some networking. “You really have to get involved a little bit with the Jewish community,” he says. “That might mean going to a synagogue and doing a free party for Hanakkah, or telling them that you’re going to do a one-hour free party so the kids get to hear your name.”

Crunching prices or cutting production costs won’t do the job, he says. “People really want to be happy with who’s running their party. And once you get that first job you need to really spend a lot of money on that job to do it right. You have to hire dancers, you have to get a good DJ so you can stay on the floor with a wireless microphone, you have to go the extra mile, because doing a great job is the only way you’re going to build a bar mitzvah clientele.”

For advertising, Morganstein recommends a variety of avenues. “Number one, advertise in any Jewish periodicals in your market such as a synagogue newsletter to let people know that you’re out there. It’s pretty inexpensive to advertise in the classifieds. Some of the Jewish newspapers have bar and bat mitzvah issues, and we sometimes put an ad in those just to let our customers know we’re here.”

Other areas of marketing he advises would include party showcases. “At the showcases you get to either perform or set up a booth to show your video to people who are walking around. For a new company looking to break in and show their stuff, it’s a great forum.”

Morganstein says the greatest marketing tool his company utilizes is a summer camp tour among all the main summer youth camps in the Philadelphia market. The company usually will charge a very low amount-just enough to cover prizes-and then run a mini-bar mitzvah.

Morganstein is quick to admit that he used to think a DJ had to be Jewish to do bar mitzvahs, until he found non-Jewish DJs with great personalities.

“In the old days I thought everyone wanted a Jewish male to run their parties, but now in my company I have a female MC who’s the most requested MC in my company; Byron is a Jamaican guy who used to be a dancer and is a a fun, funky person; another of my DJs is from Trinidad, and I also have another female MC.

“Oh yeah,” he adds, laughing, “then I have a couple Jewish guys! “That’s the bottom line-if you’ve got the personality that’s all you need. Once you get a job, just take care of your customer and always put them first. As the old saying goes, good news travels slowly but bad news travels about twenty times faster

Ineffective Habits: Screwing Up a Bridal Fair

Randy Bartlett laughs when he remembers the first time his company ever rented a booth at a bridal fair. “It cost me $200 for a booth and I was charging $200 to play for a reception back then, so basically I figured if I could book one reception I’d break even. In fact, I didn’t have any bookings at the time and had never even DJ’d for a wedding, so I thought this would be pretty cool.

“What an amazing joke that was,” he continues. “People were asking me, ‘So, how long you been doing this?’ and I was saying, ‘Ha, you guys think I’ve done a wedding before? Isn’t this great!’ They’d think I was just so funny and they’d book me!”

Actually, Bartlett’s story is not so unusual. Many of us can recount bridal shows where we appeared practically side-by-side with guys blasting their favorite home stereo system and dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. But if you own a large multi-system mobile DJ company and have to keep a dozen or more units on the road every weekend, appearing at bridal fairs to maintain your schedule is likely a must.

In fact, bridal fairs are arguably the number-one source that some large companies utilize to gain reception bookings.

But what can a company do to maximize the money they spend on this method of attracting gigs? Let’s find out by taking a look at some ways in which we could spend lots of money on bridal fairs but still be guaranteed not to have brides sign contracts with our companies.

1. To save money, work your booth alone or with your wife/girlfriend.

Sure, why waste your hard-earned profits on having your employees spend their weekend day off trying to help you sell your business? Besides, you’re the best salesperson your company has!

“Back in the day, I would try to work these bridal fairs by myself,” says Randy Bartlett of Premier Entertainment in Sacramento, California. “After all, I’m by far the best salesman for my company, but that also became a big problem. Brides and their mothers would come to my booth in batches, and suddenly I’d have six brides who would start listening to different parts of my presentation at different times, and I couldn’t really devote my attention to any one of them anyway. And then I’d have these great DJs of mine who weren’t necessarily good salespeople, but when I’d bring them into the booth it would also create problems.”

Opinions on properly staffing a bridal fair booth range from taking the time to train your staff to sell properly to actually hiring professional salespeople to run your booth.

“We don’t spend a lot of money on a fancy booth,” says Robert Arthur of Invisible Touch in Anaheim, California, “but I spend a lot of money on the staffing of the booth. I’ll get enough guys to make sure we have coverage-five or six people in case we get swamped. Our philosophy is to go out there and have fun, and go out and be who we are.”

And if you would send out a handful of staff to provide adequate coverage at a large and important wedding reception, why would you try to cover an intense sales pitch session alone with dozens of prospective brides?

“Actually, I remember this one mobile DJ who used to run a fantastic booth,” says Bartlett. “He’d hire professional salespeople to come run his booth for him. He’d go out of there with 27 bookings, and I’d walk out with 2-and both of them people I’d already talked to in my office before the show!”

2. Don’t worry about where your booth is set up for the bridal show.

Why should it matter where your table is located in the exhibit hall, since the brides will be visiting all over anyway? Just grab the quickest table to the door so you can head out as soon as it’s over!

When my own personal DJ company used to do bridal shows, we would make sure the show was limited to only one other DJ vendor, and then we’d have the sponsors set our booth up at one end of the sales floor and keep company at the other end. That way we our music and interactions weren’t interfering with the other DJ service, plus the sponsors could use each of our sound systems to broadcast the times of the fashion shows and winners of door prizes.

According to Siracusa, where a company’s booth is located is essential to the success of their event. “Be very, very conscious of where your table is located,” he says. “You don’t want to be in a corner. As you walk in you want to be to the left of the door.”

3. Don’t give anything to the brides to help them remember your company with.

Since when brides-to-be come to a bridal show they’re quickly issued a large plastic bag they will soon fill with brochures, postcards, coupons, fliers, business cards and business samples, certainly anything you could give them would simply be ‘lost in the shuffle.’

“Ah yeah, leave something for brides to remember us by,” reminisces Russ Harris of Chicago’s Show on the Road Productions. “One year we passed out balloons with ‘Show On the Road’ on it tied to a CD brochure we had made up beforehand. We went into a studio and had this done, with ‘brides’ and ‘grooms’ asking us questions about our company; things like: ‘I want a small light show but my fiancee wants a big light show. What do you suggest?’ And then our announcer would answer, ‘Well, you could choose between this and that . . .’ These brides would take home these CDs, which also included sample songs, and they left an impression on those brides’ minds.”

4. Don’t worry about getting ‘the live spot’ MCing the fashion show.

Why bother with the extra time and effort of providing sound and lighting for a bridal show’s fashion show, especially since it often costs considerably more than having a booth? Besides, appearing before all those people at once would increase the likelihood of screwing up in front of everyone!

Gerry Siracusa of Gold Note Entertainment in New Jersey has been appearing at bridal fairs for over six years, but says he dislikes the prospect of being simply one of eight DJs sitting around in a room handing out literature.

“Once you put a performance in, that puts you above and beyond the rest,” he says. “Of course, that’s a double-edge sword too, because if you take a live spot and you suck-if you haven’t put a lot of thought and organization into it-it will be your damnation.”

When Show on the Road does sound and lighting support for bridal shows, Harris says people recognize them as the company that does the show. “People tend to remember you afterwards,” he says. “And to make sure that impression lasts long, we use a Martin Image Scanner that uses transparencies you run through a regular copier. At bridal shows when they do our plug in the middle of the fashion show, we’ll turn our Image Scanner on and this heart will suddenly appear up on the ceiling in a gobo, rotating around with a bride and groom’s name on it. They get a lasting impression.”

According to Harris, a live show involves lots of high energy, several dance routines, and a question and answer session in which people get to throw out different ideas. “We encourage responses, and we like to get people up and on the stage with us to see how we do things. It’s usually only 20-25 minutes, using a spinner, at least three MCs, and then dancers. We set up a whole system and sometimes a light show.”

“Try to get the live spot,” Siracusa advises. “Put the time in. It’s extra money, usually double or triple, but if you put the extra dedication and time into doing a live show, you’ll do very well.

5. Have your staff simply stand behind your booth and hand out materials.

Keep in mind that your staff is likely to be exhausted from the busy party you performed at the night before the bridal show. Allow them to stay seated behind your booth. Besides, there are way too many potential clients for them to be able to spend the necessary time with each one, so why should you even try?

“Actually, just standing there would make you just another DJ, the same as everyone else,” says Arthur. “Say you’re a single-unit operator and you hire your wife to come to the bridal show because you have a gig that day. You’ve got the wife there and maybe another assistant who just hand out materials to people as they come up. They’ve done absolutely to cause the bride and groom to think your company is unique.

“Basically Invisible Touch goes into a bridal show and say, ‘Okay, we’re the most expensive. Find out why!’”

6. Tick off the other vendors at the show by being loud and obnoxious with your interactions.

Getting up and performing in the middle of a bridal show rocks! You get to monopolize the attention of the brides who are there to get information on all aspects of their reception, and who cares about the other vendors? They aren’t the ones who hire you!

“I used to do this too, back when I started doing weddings back in college,” says Harris. “At the first couple bridal shows I would get up and we would do YMCA or Shout or whatever in front of all the traffic in malls. But businesses would get interrupted, and people couldn’t pass by because everyone was doing the YMCA with us. It worked, but we were ticking everyone off, including the vendors next to us.”

In fact, there was one company in Harris’ market a few years ago that was kicked out of doing bridal shows because they kept on holding up traffic and irritating the other vendors. “You don’t want to tick off the other vendors who could potentially refer you,” Harris says of a lesson learned, “because bad news travels faster than good news.”

Of course, this doesn’t mean that we can’t do interactive skits that involve the brides and get their attention. Mobiles simply have to use their heads and do these things in moderation. And when done correctly, many mobile companies find this is a great way to make your company stand out.

“We might put on sunglasses and hats and the YMCA headgear, and we’ll give out trivia prizes,” explains Arthur. “We’ve had situations where there’s been a line going into the fashion show, and our booth has been right in front of this line. Rather than DJing or MCing the fashion show, we’ll hand out glow necklaces to all the brides in the line and teach them an interactive dance, and then we’ll tell them that if they want to have fun at their wedding reception they should come back to our booth after the fashion show.”

7. Talk down your competition at the show.

You subscribe to this magazine. You attend all the major DJ conventions. You’re the member of a national association of mobile DJs. And you network with other quality companies around the country. Since your own company is so much better than any of the other mobile DJ services in your area, let the brides who come to the show know all the sordid details about your competition. You’ll be saving them the grief of finding out later for themselves.

“No matter how fast it travels around before it gets back to you, that stuff gets around,” warns Harris. “That’s one things I’ve taught my guys not to do. We want to educate brides, and to give them something they can remember. We’ll give them an idea we do at our weddings-a lot of twists in the regular traditions.” They’ll usually end up laughing, and then they’ll put a star on the envelope we give them to remind themselves to check into our company more. Basically a lot of the other guys just badmouth their competition so they can talk about themselves. I’ve seen it happen, and those people don’t last long in the shows.

“I always thought I sucked at bridal fairs,” admits Bartlett. “It was an attitude more than anything else. The reason I thought I sucked was because of my arrogance. I would look at these other DJs who were there and I would think to myself, ‘I know about these guys. I know I’m better than them. And it was really tough for me to be out there and to be a commodity. The reason I worked so hard to improve my referral base was because I hated it when people would simply come up to me and say, ‘Hi, how much are you? Okay, thanks, hi, how much are you?’ And in their minds, a DJ is a DJ; we’re all commodities.”

8. Try to book as many receptions as possible at the show.

Get a credit card setup, offer 15% off the price of a basic reception package, and see if you can’t book enough deposits to pay off your biggest credit card! Sure, you’ll be working for a lot less than usual and the quality of clients might not be so great, but you’ll have cash!

“I don’t think you can book gigs at shows very well,” says Bartlett. “From my perspective, I even hate discounts at a bridal fair. When you say, ‘Hey, if you book us today you’ll get $100 off!’ that’s creating a commodity. You’ve now made yourself like everyone else there. I also hate the pressuring manner of asking someone to book at the fair. I don’t think the decision to book a DJ is something someone should make as a spur-of-the-moment decision.”

“We never try to book at the show, never,” says Arthur. “We don’t try to get deposits at the show and we don’t give major discounts. I used to, but I don’t believe in that anymore. The only discount we give, in fact, is if a bride and groom come into our offices for an appointment-and that’s only a small discount. We don’t pull out the credit card machines and book masses of people. If we were to give $300 off our packages when they book at the show, we could probably book a lot of people-but then we’re washing away our profit.”

9. Try to convince the brides in attendance that you’re something you’re not.

Even if you’re an entertainer who specializes in throwing hugely interactive parties, it’s best to succumb to tradition and appear at bridal shows to be a formal and laid-back businessperson. Who cares what kind of company the bride thinks she’s hiring, as long as we get paid!

“Let’s say a DJ company is wild and crazy at a gig,” suggests Arthur. “They’re into using props and teaching dances, and that’s their style. But when they’re at a bridal show they’re dressed in a fancy tuxedo and are just standing there, barely smiling, and handing out brochures. They’ve just ruined any chance of showing who they are as a company.

“You might get the argument that you don’t want to be too wild or have the music too loud at a bridal show, because you don’t want to get the other vendors upset. Well, our philosophy is to have fun, not play the music too loud, and do exactly what we would do at a job.

“If we have 1000 brides at a show, and if we can get 50 of those 1000 brides who believe sort of the same way we believe, then I’m a happy camper. If it’s a bride who walks by and sees us doing an interactive dance of some sort and thinks it’s stupid, I don’t want her business anyway.

In fact, Arthur had just performed at a reception the Saturday before being interviewed for this article for a bride who had been introduced to his company at a bridal show the previous year. “That couple loved us because we did exactly what they saw us do at the bridal show,” says Arthur proudly. “We fulfilled what we promised. We matched what they’re looking for, and if they don’t like what we do then they’re not for us anyway.

10. If you don’t need to do bridal fairs for more business, turn them down even if requested by your preferred and referring halls.

If your Saturdays are already booked for the summer of 2001 and you’re in fact already starting to fill up for June 2002, why face the flea-market mentality of a bridal show-even if invited to do so by a hotel that regularly refers your business?

“We built our business with bridal fairs, no question,” admits Bartlett. “The first three years we were in business I think I did every bridal fair that came into town. I did them in shopping centers, I did the free ones, I did the expensive ones. Once we got into our fourth year, though, we started cutting back gradually. It was the same thing with Yellow Pages ads-when we first started in business we had a large ad, and then the ad shrunk and became an in-line ad, and then a single-line ad. Now it’s all single-line ads and the only bridal fairs I do would be at facilities who do their own in-house events.

Yes, you heard it right-even Mr. Anti-Bridal Fair Bartlett will occasionally do a bridal fair!

“It’s more like these places will want me to set up a system for an event they’re putting on with their preferred vendors,” he explains quickly. “I don’t do it for the business I’m going to generate, but you don’t refuse to come out and do sound for a preferred vendor who uses your company a lot.”

Randy Bartlett on Bridal Fairs:

Never Again!

“I got lucky. It turned out that I was pretty good in this industry, but most guys in my experience has been that people who are at bridal fairs are either new in the business, bad in the business-or they’re the big companies who are just trying to book tons of events. The guys I know who are really top-notch DJs, none of them do bridal fairs anymore. They all did at one time, but none of them do it anymore. Why would you spend $1000 to appear at a bridal fair if your business is all referral? We get calls from prospective brides asking if we’re going to be at a bridal fair, and we simply say no. And then we tell them why.”

“The problem I found with being the MC is that all the people say, ‘Wow, he’s really good!’ but the other guys with the other companies simply say, ‘Yeah, we do all of that too, but I’m $200 less.’ I try to get these other DJs on the microphone as much as I can, because every time they’d get on the microphone my stock would go up because I’m much better than they are on the microphone.”

“That’s why back when I did them I really liked the bridal fairs that charged an admission price,” says Bartlett. “People who were really serious would come by.”

“One of the things I pushed for was to have a workshop on “Choosing Your DJ, Seven Secret Steps,” and then I’d have them put me on a panel with four other DJs. Let us just sit and talk, and when they see us side by side they’ll realize there’s a big difference.”