10 Reasons You're Not Getting Booked
Author: Onna H.
11/25/2018
I know, it can get frustrating not getting booked when you love working events. But here are 10 reasons why you may not be getting booked. Keep in mind that all of these reasons are not the only reasons you may not be booked, and also keep in mind that you may not be doing all of the reasons listed below, but you may see this behavior in your fellow staff members. Although it's true that we don't win every contract, it is helpful to to be preventative when we can. I also conducted a Facebook Live where I covered more in depth about steps to overcome these reasons as well as further discussion on why and how these reasons are legit reasons to not book someone. In this same Facebook Live, I conducted a Q&A session to answer your questions.
Here’s the link to the Facebook Live:
There are many reasons why so I will only address a few.
A.) You didn't make a big enough impression for that particular staffer to remember who you are in the sea of promos that they are connected with.
B.) You usually don't reply to their emails so your name isn't familiar.
C.) You haven't been booked with them for a long time.
D.). The company hired a new Staffer and they don’t know you ... yet.
There are many reasons for this, but in either case, MANY of you can't handle the fact that it's a no. You want to debate the no into a yes to be booked. You want to force the staffer into booking you and that is drama. You not getting the booking confirmation was your NO, but you want the booking anyway. No, isn't something you want to hear.
A.) Sometimes staffers are actually given strict guidelines to follow when selecting staff and you don't fall in line with those guidelines.
B.) The client doesn't want you working the event, but the staffer does, but the staffer must give the client what they want. And it wouldn't be good business to expose the client like that.
C.) You're skill set doesn't match what's needed.
A.) You have become a 50/50 risk to book.
B.) You have become too much of a risk to book.
C.) You are developing/maintaining bad habits as a staff member.
D.). You’re getting too comfortable and it’s starting to show.
A.) You wasted the staffer's time in booking you and have now put them in a situation to get a replacement that meet the standards.
B.) The staffer needs a particular level of certainty when booking you and you are not reassuring the staffer enough to trust booking you again.
C.) Sometimes credentials are already created for you... or the client already has what was considered the final list of staff members... or security at the event needs a roster and now all this work and updates have to be issued out.
A.) You two keep trying to get booked together when the staffer really wants to separate you, but you haven't caught the hint.
B.) You have a different skill set than your partner which is needed for this event.
C.) You don't know how to let go and work apart sometimes. D.) Dare I say it, you don’t work well as a couple at the event even though you think y’all do.
A.) There are enough good local staff to book.
B.) You aren't already in the area.
C.) It would be too big of a hassle to book you even though you are a good promo, just in case something like you flight gets delayed or something.
Lights, Camera, Action and her you go ...
A.) You want to nickel and dime everything. I get it, you gotta get your money, but sometimes for the staffer/company, it's not worth it for that event or there isn't enough time to go back and forth to establish a new agreement/arrangement.
B.) When booked, you are hard to work with. You nitpick too often, unyielding, difficult, messy, etc..
C.) Your entitlement is not realistic.
A.) You're trying to force the staffer's hand into what you want when in reality, the staffer doesn't control the budget of how much was allocated to the pay-rates for those booked.
B.) When you confirm to an event, you are confirming that you are agreeing to the terms laid out prior to your confirmation, so trying to change that after you confirmed is backwards and unprofessional.
C.) You have taken a spot that someone else would have taken without any problem. All in all, it's all business.
OK, so on this one, it's a catch 22. Just because you are the first to reply to the event email doesn't mean that the staffer MUST book you, but if the staffer is under a very tight deadline, then responding first can work in your favor.
However, sometimes things happen when, for example, a staffer has the event booked and then a promo drops and now there is an open spot; now that promo who was super late to reply to the event email gets booked. Why, you ask? Because the replies to the original email are considered “cold” now so your late response was actually right on time. So always respond to your email. This is why you may see Staffers reposting the same event you already applied/submitted to. Your original response is considered cold after a certain amount of days. So what do you do? Go check out my Facebook Live on the matter. The link is at the bottom of this article. But for this reason on the list, this can also be applied to after you get booked.
A.) Updates about the event may be emailed, but it's a hassle to get you to see the email because you're slow to respond or slow to check emails. (My book "The Rockstar Promo Advise Book" touches on this in Chapter 2: The Morning Routine).
B.) You wait until the last minute to reply to a booking email or event update emails or finalized event details, which puts the staffer on edge because they don't know if you are ghosting them in order to find a replacement or not for just in case purposes. Then magically after all that, you send in your reply at the last minute and the staffer has spent all of that extra time outside of what they already had planned for the day putting together a plan B.
C.) You responded super quick to the event email, slow to respond to the booking confirmation. Or time has passed and you still haven't responded to the booking confirmation, but when the staffer sends you an email about your booking being cancelled, you're quick to respond to that.
D.) The staffer had a last minute spot that became available or the client approved that more people can be booked and you responded too late.
A.) Your performance review isn't consistently in good standings.
B.) You're always late.
C.) You keep calling off.
To learn how to resolve these issues, go watch my Facebook Live 💁🏽♀️ https://www.facebook.com/551853687/videos/10156863155653688/UzpfSTIxNDI0NzQ0NDI3MzQ1MDU6MjE1NzYzNjIzNDU1MTY1OQ/?modal=admin_todo_tour
Feel free to leave your questions in the comments of the Facebook Live and I will respond soon.
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