fake enquiries from other djs

[soundmaster mobile disco]

Recently I have had a good few suspicious enquiries both on email and telephone. Most are enquiring about weddings but asking about equipment, sound system lighting ect.I gave them a short brief email reply thanking them for the enquiry but before I can proceed I need more information like date,venue,times ect.Well I never even got a reply back from one of them.

With the telephone call one what the caller did not know was that when I asked for the date, venue ect I checked my diary to find out that I was already booked for that date and venue for a wedding. I did not tell them this but I asked they who the contact at the venue was, they stuttered and paused before saying they could not remember, I asked was it a man or woman,woman he said. I know this venue really well and its a man that deals with the bookings, so I just said to them its better if we have a meeting to discuss your requirements and that is where the conversation ended.

Anyone else had similar enquiries?

[Shaun]

I get them too. If I suspect that it's a dodgy email I do as you do...try to press for more information. I personally detest that kind of thing and have no time for it. In all the years of doing this job I've never contacted a single DJ underhandedly to find out details. What good would it do? My business plan, services offered, and pricing structure is geared towards what I think my service is worth and what I think is a fair price to my clients. I don't know what the competitors charge and don't care to, it makes absolutely no difference to my business model at all. I prefer to concentrate on my own affairs.

I'm lucky enough that I class many local DJs as friends (yourself included Gary ). I honestly don't see ANY of you as competitors, just friends and of course..valuable networkers. I've lost count of the number of times I've passed work along and had work passed to me by my Scottish DJ Brethren. That's just the way it should be, helping and recommending others when you can't personally help the client. In my opinion it's the only way to work, and is far more valuable to a DJs bottom line than calling around other DJs to gauge price then trying to undercut them.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

I've had a few sketchy ones and you can usually smell them a mile off.

I think I got one through Amp DJ a while ago for a wedding later on in the year that they didn't know the date for but knew it was in October.

I don't get the point of doing it I mean unless you're offering EXACTLY the same service (gear, amount of service (i.e. what do you offer as "standard", meetings, experience and so on) then there's absolutely no point in comparing as the prices will inevitably be different as far as the market is compared.

Say I tap up someone for a quote who is £100 above me and offer more - I up my prices to match and I'm going to end up losing work as I can't compete whereas the guy in question will keep getting work at his price point.

Same goes for anyone price checking to see if they can charge more than they currently are.

[DazzyD]

To be fair, when starting a new business and writing your business plan it's imperative that you research, and know, your market. Although it's not a practise I approve of, it would seem that a lot of people think the only way to do this is to ring up current established DJs with fake enquiries. If they are serious about the business then they may well have a small business advisor who will insist on them getting to know their market which includes competition. I had the advantage of working under someone else for years before I flew solo. This gave me the knowledge I needed (like the fact I knew he wasn't charging enough!!!) but I still learn along the way.

My advice is not to spend any time worrying about it - it's only business, after all! Just do what you do and do it good!

[musicologydisco]

When I moved here to Norfolk 6 years ago I rang and emailed local jocks posing as a customer. Some twigged me but most didn't but at the end of the day I didn't care. It gave me a pretty good snapshot of what was happening locally and it helped me to set my initial prices. Basically undercut most of them to get some bookings then, as I became established and recommended, put the price up.

[ultrasound disco]

When I moved here to Norfolk 6 years ago I rang and emailed local jocks posing as a customer. Some twigged me but most didn't but at the end of the day I didn't care. It gave me a pretty good snapshot of what was happening locally and it helped me to set my initial prices. Basically undercut most of them to get some bookings then, as I became established and recommended, put the price up.

Standard procedure so it is (for those of us who would admit to it) lol

[chrisj]

I have never done it. I do what I do and charge for what I do. I am not going to charge different because other DJ's are more expensive or cheaper. Always depends on travel, times and gear required. Biggest disco ever on Thursday but then it is far from the most expensive I have ever done.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Standard procedure so it is (for those of us who would admit to it) lol

It's not at all though.

I have a vague idea of what others in a similar bracket as me charge thanks to being of the age where several of my mates are getting married and coming to me asking is DJ X worth £Y because that's what he's charging or the odd enquiry that will say DJ A has said he'll do it for £B, will you beat it (the answer is no btw)

If you're just randomly e-mailing to find out what others charge then you're not taking into account the differences in gigs that will affect price, what others offer that is different, better or worse than you and so on.

The only ones I know dead on what they charge are your gumtree £90 any function mob and I've got no reason to need to know or care what they charge as we're in a completely different sphere or operation.

[Gary (GDK)]

I had this one a few weeks ago:



Name: Craig
Email: ****
Phone #: 07*******59
Event Type: wedding
Venue: blackhall community center
Date/Time: 1st november 2013 1pm
Message: Hi please can you tell me how much it will cost to have a dj at my wedding from 1pm to 12am maybe a little later than that with the face painting for the kids big screens microphones for speachers and disco lights
From: *****

I smelt a rat, but replied... They couldn't meet up as they lived in Manchester (smells another one)...I rang the venue and they have country and western style on the first friday of every month!

[ukpartydj]

I'll admit when I started up I knew what I charged for parties but had no idea what price DJ's charged for weddings and what they provided / how they worded their responses.
If I remember correctly I used needadisco to get all this info and was sussed by one of the DJ's that recognised my name. Nowadays needadisco seem pretty tight on this sort of thing.

I don't spend a massive amount of time replying to every quote so it's far easier for me to just "churn them out" and not worry about this stuff which to be honest I have no problem sharing anyway!