Below is some advice on for professional dancers when your client makes the first call to you:
- The Client’s initial call
When a client phones you regarding a performance they would like to hire you for, you must be open to listen to all the questions that they have and answer it diligently. Sometimes however, they do expect you to give them all the information without being asked.
So here are some questions which are most commonly asked by the client:
How much do you charge for a performance?
Here I must tell you that although clients are looking for affordability this is not your cue to cheapen yourself by giving them the cheapest performance fee you can or that they want to merely get the client to hire you. This makes you come across as cheap or desperate for a paid performance and is not professional. Travelling, time and our belly dance costumes and props wear and tear cost money and therefore we should all have a set price for a performance for what we are ‘worth’ and what covers our expense. This does not mean charge the most expensive price either.
Are you available on X date?
Naturally you cannot determine dates or leave vacancies within your calendar or diary for days you would think a performance would arise. Your client is the only person who would be able to tell you that and it is important to be able to verify with your client if you are available on a certain date. Do not accept a performance if you know you cannot make it. You cannot phone around for a belly dancer (especially from another school) if you do not know how they dance professionally. If the client is unsatisfied with the performance or something goes wrong in the performance, the client will refer badly to you from X school and not the dancer who came from Y school. After all he is your client and you do not want to give away the contact to someone else unless it is from your own belly dance school which you attend. Please diarise the date and please remember to go, nothing is more unprofessional than a dancer who has been booked does not pitch because of some reason or because she ‘forgot’.
How long is your performance?
Your belly dance performance is very unique and as stated above you should not under quote yourself on price but also on time as well. The standard performance length is 30 to 40 minutes in length at the initial price your quote your clients. Remember that they are paying you to entertain and you should not cheat them out of there money for a performance that will only be 15 to 20 minutes in length.
What do you do in your performance?
Without hesitation you should be able to tell the client what they you will be doing in your performance when you are hired. This would be your cue to tell them the variety of things you are capable of doing such as:
- The various props you can do: Isis Wings, Fire, Sword, Tray, Veil and so on.
- If your performance includes a small teaching. Here you would teach them exactly how to do certain movements and then put it together in a song.
- If your performance includes audience participation. This is not the same thing as teaching. In your audience participation you get the birthday person or some audience members up to simply join you and dance. They would have to follow what you do.
NB: Your client would very much like you to get the audience involved on the evening of the function and you should include audience participation in your performance unless the client requests that you not involve any one.
- Filling in the blanks
After you have answered the client’s questions, fill in all the other blanks that they might not have asked that you should ask them. This would be things like:
How much space will you have?
This is very important to find out from you client as the amount of space you have will determine what type of props you will be able to perform on that day. Trust me when I say this as a student and myself were expected to perform fire sticks under a heavily decorated small gazebo.
Is the venue decorated?
Again this is important as some venues where I have danced had fabric hanging from the ceiling and I had to take very special care when dancing with my fire not to hold my arms up very high. If you have to move between tables and the walls have draping as well, you need to take note of this and be able to work with the space you have.
Will there be a sound system off which you can play your music?
Most clients nowadays would have a sound system for you to play your music off of when you are hired for a performance. However it is always good to ask this question as there may come a day when you would need to bring with your own CD player. Please note that tapes are old fashioned, it will be very embarrassing on the day if you would need to rewind or fast forward your tape to a song and not know where it is. A CD you can merely skip tracks until the right one. But of course you will have your music burnt onto a CD in the order you intend to dance them
What type of function will it be?
Knowing what type of function it is will benefit you.
Example: If it is a children’s party, you are then capable of planning your performance to suite children which would be a small performance and then getting the children involved in fun activities centred around teaching them belly dancing. If it is a Greek restaurant, you can plan your performance around using Greek music instead of Egyptian or Turkish to suite the theme and so on.
- Explain to them how the payment works
Ask them for an email or fax whereby you can send them an invoice for the performance where you should ask a 50% deposit to ensure the booking which is not refundable 1 week before the function. The remainder 50% can be collected on the night or preferable to be paid 3 days before the function begins. Remember time is money and nothing is more frustrating than turning away other performances or referring them to a fellow dancer due to the fact that you have booked a function for a certain day and it gets cancelled on the last minute. Your invoice must also look professional and must have all your information on as well as the client’s information.
- Making sure you have all the correct details
Make sure you take the name and contact down of the person who has booked your for a function or the person you will need to get in contact with on that day. Make sure you have the correct date and ask for the address to the venue. If you do not have a map book whereby you can look up directions, ask the client to send you directions or to explain it to you over the phone. After all you do not want to be late because you got lost on the day.
- Courtesy call to your client
3 days before the function, give your client a courtesy call to keep in touch with them and let them know that everything is still set for the day and time they have booked you. Remember that just as you would not want your client to cancel on you, your client would also like to know that you are not going to drop them on the day leaving them without entertainment.
Okay great, so if you know what to expect and do so far, you are well on your way, not let’s move on…
What you should have in your bag before leaving the house
What to do when you get to the venue
What is a professional belly dancer?