Best Practices for Responding to Your Leads When and how you respond to a client can make or break whether you get hired for their event. There are a few simple things you can do to increase your chances of getting the gig and it all starts with your response...

First Things First: Always Respond and Do It Quickly

You can have the perfect response to a lead, but if you’re not responding quickly enough or at all, it’s likely you won’t secure the gig. To provide some context, the average response by vendors on The Bash is 9 hours, while our most successful vendors respond within 6 hours, on average.

If you're a member of The Bash, take a look at what your response time is on your dashboard and make sure you’re at or below the average. (Psst...Here are 3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Response Time).

We also recommend responding to ALL leads even if...

You’re unavailable for their event date. It's common courtesy to let a client know you're not available for their event so they can continue looking at options. If you leave a good impression, there's a chance they'll reach out to you for future events. Also, if you respond to 99% or more of gigs on The Bash (with an average response rate of 24 hours or less) you'll receive the Rapid Responder Badge on your profile.
The client’s budget is below what you normally charge. A lot of the time, clients are not aware of how much it typically costs to hire your service. Even if their budget is lower than you’d normally bid, you should still respond with your typical quote and explain the value you provide, years of experience, what's included in your quote, and anything else that sets you apart from other vendors. If you’re curious what the average and maximum booking amounts are in your area for your service, contact our team here.
It's an auto-add lead. Just because a client hasn’t directly requested you doesn’t mean you shouldn’t respond. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Almost 50% of bookings on The Bash are from auto-add leads, so treat these just as you would a direct request and beat out your competition by responding first (you have 48 hours to respond to auto-add leads before the request is sent to another vendor). The lead type (auto-add lead or direct lead) will be indicated on the request.

Helpful Tip! You can change your travel radius, primary location, and categories at any time throughout your membership if you're looking to adjust the leads that you're receiving.

Perfecting Your Quote Response

A lightning fast response combined with a detailed, personalized, and friendly quote to the client is the perfect recipe for success. We pulled together a checklist to follow when you’re writing your next response:

Always start your response with 'Hi' or 'Hello' followed by the client's first name.
Show excitement by congratulating the client on their event and thanking them for reaching out to you.
Let them know you're you're available for their event date.
Tell the client about your business and what makes you stand out in a few short sentences.
Include links to your profile on The Bash and personal website (if you have one) so they can view photos and videos from your past events.
Provide a quote based on their event details and what is included in that quote. Ask follow-up questions, if needed.
Offer next steps to either meet with them in person or set up a phone/video chat (FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Skype are all great tools if a meeting in person is not feasible).
Add a professional signature to the bottom of your email, including links to your social media pages and even other sites where you have client testimonials or where your past work is featured.

Of course there's no exact science to securing gigs, but this full 'How to Respond Like a Pro' checklist should help! It has tips for responding to clients and a full email template that you can follow. Try creating a version of the email for your own business, saving it as a response, and testing it out on your next lead.

Looking for more booking tips? Check out this helpful guide to getting booked for more weddings, birthdays and corporate events.

Best Practices for Responding to Your Leads

First Things First: Always Respond and Do It Quickly

Perfecting Your Quote Response

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