Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Very early on in my career this would have been mid to late 80s, I remember playing with all sorts of ideas of how to promote myself and back in those days it was well before the digital age, the web and all the rest of it… (Oh Dear God I’m sounding like some sort of grandpa… Ya know… Back in MY DAY we didn’t have this newfangled Internet with it’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube…) Oops… Sort of digressed there… At any rate it was a different time and one of the key elements to any good hard copy promotional kit was letters of reference from satisfied clients. Having these sorts of letters and client lists included in a digital promotional package is just as important for the following reasons.
Calling to an outside reference – You can suggest that you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread until the cows come home, but when you have a letter from a satisfied client that says not only are you the best thing since sliced bread, but you the peanut butter and jelly, that you are in fact a full meal deal in and of ourself, this speaks volumes to other potential clients.
Comparable Experience – Now in the best of all possible you have a folder full of letters to choose from and can be a bit selective about the letters you choose when courting a potential new client. Ideally you want to show that other companies of a similar size/scope have been entirely satisfied with the services that you’ve provided. In other words, if you’re looking to work for Microsoft, you might show that you’ve worked for IBM or Toshiba or Dell, other companies that are comparable. Basically what this says to a potential client is that if I’m good enough to work for these guys I’m good enough to work for you too.
If you show Microsoft that you’ve worked at your son’s daycare, the local library and did an appearance at a local hockey tournament wrap-up party they may pass on hiring you and decided to look for someone who’s references more closely reflect the corporate image that they represent. You may have an amazing show that would be ideally suited to the event they’re planning, but the perception is that you’re not in their league…
Suitability – Every venue and every client has a different set of parameters that they’re looking to achieve during the event that they’re programming. For example, a stand-up comedy club may be looking for comics with material that push the edge a bit where as a large church looking to hire entertainment has an entirely set of parameters that they want the entertainer to follow. You may well be able to happily satisfy both, but having different letters from different former clients will likely help convince the new client your pitching that you’ll be a right fit. If for example you send the comedy club a letter from a comedy festival producer attesting to your off the wall approach and the howls of laughter that came when you took various risks in your show you may be a shoe in for the headliner spot. The Church group gets the letter from the organizer of the Local children’s hospital family picnic attesting to how great you show was for the family audience that they were catering too and how your clean family-friendly material was a huge hit.
Anything you can do to reassure a client that you are exactly the right choice to satisfy their entertainment needs, the greater the chance that you’ll land the gig which is what this is all about. Get the gig, do the gig and ideally do it again and again and again.
So how do you get people to write glowing testimonial letters? Quite simple – ask them. After every job, make a practice of sending a thank you letter to the client who hired you and ask them if they’d be willing to sing your praises in a letter on their companies letterhead. I’ve sometimes gone to the extent of including an example of a letter I’ve received from another client to help get them started. If you’ve done an amazing show and have given the client everything they wanted and more, chances are they’ll be more than happy to take the time to craft a letter for you thus adding one more potential letter for your file. The more you have, the greater the chance of having just the right one when you’re being considered by yet another new client.
