Posted by Sharon Odmann on February 19, 1998 at 07:23:05 :
In Reply to: What would you do? posted by Carl Jones on February 17, 1998 at 07:25:15 :
Carl,
The only choice you really have is to "keep on keeping on". There will always be the customers who see price as the most important aspect of an event, but you have to keep remembering that they get what they pay for. In order to keep your name in front of the new committees, why not make up a tray of some specialty of yours, in small bites, and make a point of giving it to them once a quarter or something. Use that kind of marketing to be proactive. Send out a newsletter, not one of your fax deals, once a quarter, too. They are pretty easy to do and you can get ideas for short articles off the Net. Have business card magnets made up (they really work, I swear it!).
Keep your image just as it is, don't start some phony affiliation. Take a look at your pricing and develop some different levels of price for "those" sort of events. That way, you can get the events, and at the next go round when they want YOU to cater the event, you can price it more appropriately and give the client guidance. In culinary school they called this approach "retained earnings". You don't make as much money on the first go round, but you will later.
Cheers. Don't hesitate to contact me for further advice.
Sharon