Negotiating with venues and vendors

Dates, minimums, inclusions and payment terms are negotiable; quality rarely is. Learn the asks that work in Toronto and the ones that annoy good vendors.

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Negotiating with venues and vendors.

Dates, minimums, inclusions and payment terms are negotiable; quality rarely is.

Learn the asks that work in Toronto and the ones that annoy good vendors.

What is negotiable.

With venues: the date (weekdays, Sundays, January), inclusions (AV package, staging, uplighting, parking, a complimentary suite), minimums in the off-season, payment terms, and sometimes the service charge percentage.

Rarely negotiable: the per-person food price at a quality venue, and anything in peak season.

Prepare three asks.

Walk into every negotiation with three specific asks, ranked.

"Could you include the house sound system?

Where the value sits in the GTA calendar.

Toronto venues price by demand, and demand follows a known pattern.

In our experience the softest dates for hotels and banquet halls are January through March, Sundays, and weekday evenings outside December; the hardest are Saturdays from May to October and the first three weeks of December.

Preparing the three asks: a procedure.

List everything the quote includes and everything the event needs. The gap is the shopping list.

Price each gap item from a third party. The house PA against an AV quote; the riser against a staging rental; the balance timing against the client's cash flow.

Trade flexibility for value.

Your flexibility is currency.

A venue with an open Thursday in February will add inclusions to fill it.

That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.

What you will be able to do

• Prepare a negotiation with three asks
• Trade date flexibility for value
• Keep vendor relationships intact

What is negotiable

With venues: the date (weekdays, Sundays, January), inclusions (AV package, staging, uplighting, parking, a complimentary suite), minimums in the off-season, payment terms, and sometimes the service charge percentage. Rarely negotiable: the per-person food price at a quality venue, and anything in peak season.

With vendors: set length and format, travel fees, payment timing, add-ons. Rarely negotiable: the base rate of a performer who is good and busy.

Prepare three asks

Walk into every negotiation with three specific asks, ranked. “Could you include the house sound system? Could the balance be due 7 days out instead of 14? Could the minimum drop to $15,000 if we move to the Thursday?” Specific asks get yes-or-no answers; “can you do better on price” gets a shrug.

Where the value sits in the GTA calendar

Toronto venues price by demand, and demand follows a known pattern. In our experience the softest dates for hotels and banquet halls are January through March, Sundays, and weekday evenings outside December; the hardest are Saturdays from May to October and the first three weeks of December. A planner who can offer a Thursday in February has something to trade; one who needs a Saturday in June has almost nothing. Entertainers follow a similar curve: a magician’s December calendar fills by October, and a performer with an open Tuesday will often add a half hour or waive travel to fill it. Before any negotiation, know which side of the curve your date is on, because it decides whether you are asking for a favour or offering one.

Preparing the three asks: a procedure

1. List everything the quote includes and everything the event needs. The gap is the shopping list.
2. Price each gap item from a third party. The house PA against an AV quote; the riser against a staging rental; the balance timing against the client’s cash flow.
3. Pick the three gap items with the highest value to you and the lowest cost to them. A venue’s own sound system costs them nothing to include; a $2,000 price cut costs them $2,000.
4. Rank them. Ask for the first; if yes, ask for the second; if no, offer flexibility and ask again.
5. Write the agreed inclusions into the contract or the BEO before you sign. A verbal yes from a salesperson is not on the banquet captain’s sheet.

Trade flexibility for value

Your flexibility is currency. A venue with an open Thursday in February will add inclusions to fill it. A performer with a gap between two shows nearby may waive travel. Offer the flexibility, then ask.

Questions that open a negotiation without annoying anyone

• “What dates in that month are you most keen to fill?”
• “Which of these items is easiest for you to include?”
• “If we committed today, what could you add?”
• “Is the balance timing fixed by your accounting, or can it move?”
• “We will be back next year; does a two-year hold change anything?”
• To a performer: “You are our first choice; is there any flexibility on set length or travel if the date works for your calendar?”

Each question gives the other side a way to say yes that costs them little and treats their time as valuable. That is the whole method.

What not to do

• Ask a performer to work “for exposure”. It signals you do not understand their business and the good ones decline.
• Play vendors against each other with invented quotes. The GTA is a small market and they talk.
• Negotiate after the contract is signed.

Add three more. Do not ask a performer to shave the base rate and then book someone cheaper anyway; you will not be their first call next time. Do not negotiate the service charge down and then skip the cash tip if the charge does not reach staff; the bartenders remember. And do not ask for a concession you do not need in order to “see what they will do”; it spends goodwill you will want on the night when the room set runs late.

Worked example

Harbour Gala: the hotel would not move the per-person price but agreed to include the house PA, two wireless microphones and a riser, waive the dance-floor fee, and set the balance at 7 days. Value of the inclusions against the AV quote: about $2,400.

How the three asks were prepared. The gap list from the hotel’s quote: house sound, microphones, a riser for the mentalist, uplighting, the dance-floor fee, parking validation, the balance timing and the minimum itself. The AV supplier’s quote priced the PA, microphones and riser at about $2,400; the dance-floor fee was on the BEO; the balance timing mattered because the foundation’s board meets monthly. The hotel’s cost to include its own PA and riser is close to zero, so those were asks one and two; the balance at 7 days was ask three. The minimum and the per-plate price were left alone because a November Thursday is a middling date and the hotel had another enquiry. The flexibility offered in return was a two-year hold on the same Thursday, which the hotel valued more than we expected. Uplighting was not asked for; the hotel’s included uplights turned out to be enough, which is why the workshop budget later drops the lighting wash. Everything agreed was written into the BEO revision before the contract was countersigned.

With the mentalist, the only ask was set length: 25 minutes rather than 30 so the paddle raise lands before 9 p.m. The fee did not move and was not asked to.

Common mistakes

• Opening with “what is your best price”. Fix: three specific asks, ranked, with the value of each priced beforehand.
• Negotiating the wrong line. Fix: ask for things that cost them little and you a lot; leave the food price alone at a good venue.
• A verbal agreement. Fix: into the BEO or the contract before signing.
• Treating a performer like a rental. Fix: negotiate format and timing, not the base rate of someone good.
• Spending goodwill on asks you do not need. Fix: save it for the night.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet, complete it for your own event (or the running gala example), and keep it in your course binder. It takes about 12 minutes.

Download the worksheet (PDF)