How to negotiate the right terms as an event planner
As an event planner, you will be very familiar with the word ‘negotiation’. It is considered one of the most vital skills an event planner can have, helping to keep organisers within the event budget, get better value for money when working with venues and suppliers, and improve the events return on investment (ROI).
However, negotiation isn’t easy. We are managing events in an ever-changing environment where factors such as interest rates and the cost of living are affecting the way in which event planners negotiate. What we aim to discuss in this article, is ways to help event planners negotiate and ensure the right terms for their event.
Understand your budget, goals and objectives.
Before you delve into negotiation, you firstly need to go back to basics and understand the key aspects of your event budget. Ask yourself, what do you or your employer want out of this event? What do you want to achieve? What are your objectives? Once you know this, you then need to think about what you want your audience to achieve from that? Do they want opportunities to network? Or, is the purpose to understand more about your brand or any goals and strategics that year? Once you have answers, you can then really look into your budget and you can speak to your stakeholders and find out how they can support you in creating an achievable event and getting the most for your money.
Have transparent and honest communication.
As mentioned, the next step is to communicate the critical goals and objectives with your suppliers. This includes your event dates, programme and target attendee numbers. What we have noticed in recent years is that it can be hard to forecast these attendee numbers, but you can watch our recent webinar for some useful tips and suggestions on this. By being honest and transparent, you can build trust and longevity with your suppliers, which in turn helps you get better rates when it comes to the negotiation stage of the planning process.
Suppliers service-level agreement.
Your event contracts must include everything in detail about the details provided by your suppliers. Following on from what we have previously mentioned about honest communication, a Service-Level Agreement (SLA), is often used and acts as a formal written agreement which outlines clearly the services that will be provided, the expectations, and the quality of service. These must include:
The event details
All the stakeholders involved
Included services
Excluded services
Payment schedule and budget
Deadlines
Approval and signatures form all stakeholders involved
Flexibility.
Once you are at the negotiation stage, the best place to start is to think about what the non-negotiables are. Communicating these along with your expectations and gals early can prevent any confusion or mis-understanding later on. What is really important is that you need to be flexible with these non-negotiables to ensure you get the most in return, so think about the things that can be altered without having a drastic effect on the events overall purpose and objectives. A good example of this is dates. We always advise our clients to be flexible with their dates as we are more likely to negotiate the best rates during off-peak seasons, weekdays, and outside of large city events (for example, Eurovision or the Olympics). In our recent webinar, we also talk about lead times and how longer lead times can often ensure you get better rates as the venues are less likely to be booked up. Once our client is set on a destination or main event objective, that is when we can begin our research far enough in advance to secure the best rates with venues.
If you want to find out more about how you can negotiate the right terms as an event planner and get the most out of your event budget watch our latest webinar. You can also get in touch to discuss your goals with our friendly team and find out how we can help.