People are tired of interacting with colleagues and business partners behind their screens, and corporate events are back in full swing. Booking corporate clients can lead to big payouts, as they’re often more consistent, larger accounts — but first, you’ve got to know the basics about corporate clients.
Here are key considerations on how to book more corporate events, grow your event business’s audience, and reap the benefits of corporate bookings.
When to Diversify With Corporate Clients
Starting the transition into booking more corporate events can feel daunting, so if you’re debating when to start diversifying, consider adding corporate clients in these times.
During Slow Seasons
Want to boost business in the slow season? Bookings for corporate events peak in January, which is when many corporate clients receive their new year budgets. Diversifying your business with corporate gigs can be a great way to bring in added revenue during the slow season when you have the resources to expand your offerings.
During Weekdays and Weeknights
Unlike weddings or birthday celebrations, large conferences and smaller corporate group gatherings consistently happen throughout the week. Booking more corporate events can be a great way to keep your team busy and employed on the weekdays too.
What Makes Corporate Events Different?
When looking to book more corporate events, there are a couple important differences to keep in mind. For instance, corporate clients will work on tighter schedules while still expecting customizability from your event rental business, so start transitioning by accounting for these factors.
Corporate event timelines are shorter
Every corporate client and function is different, but corporate events are most likely working on a quick timeline. Be prepared to create an order, quote, or rendering quickly, and adjust your typical timeline between booking and event execution. It can be a huge change going from months of lead time to a couple of weeks, but adapting to client timelines and requests is essential for securing large corporate contracts.
With Goodshuffle Pro, you can easily manage contract signing, payment tracking and event logistics seamlessly to maintain the efficiency corporate clients require.
Logistics are more important
For corporate bookings, logistics like the event theme, environment, number of guests, event start time, set-up time, and other details will always take center stage for clients. You should always budget extra time in your schedule to account for unexpected delays, technical difficulties, and other setbacks that may arise.
Corporate budgets are stricter
The budget for every event is crucial, but can be particularly rigid for business clients. Corporate event budgets typically require multiple approvals and lots of internal paperwork, so it is best to be upfront about costs to meet budget constraints. If you’re customizing your offerings, price your events with customized add-ons, and clarify payment options, due dates, and processes with detailed forms ahead of time.
How to Make Yourself More Visible to Potential Corporate Clients
If you want to book more corporate gigs, the first step is ensuring your event rental business radiates professionalism. Invest in your business to look the part, network, and create referral opportunities — it’s the key to creating business-to-business relationships and ultimately getting more corporate gigs.
Professional images
Professional images of your inventory on your website, quotes, and marketing materials will highlight the quality of your offerings and brand. To effectively transition into the corporate space, invest in high-quality photos, or even consider a professional photoshoot, especially for your most popular rental items.
Well-stocked inventory
For corporate clients, we’ve seen a shift to modern and innovative rentals across all industries. They’re looking to make their brands stand out and excite employees, conference attendees, and business partners. Don’t be afraid to get inventive when sourcing your inventory, or branch into subrental partnerships with other rental companies.
While it’s not always a good idea to load up your inventory with trendy items, they are a critical component of bringing in new (and repeat) corporate bookings.
To keep your inventory updated with new additions and design trends, we recommend tracking inventory usage with Goodshuffle Pro and selling previously trendy items when the demand drops off.
Social media
Facebook and Instagram pages can be your lookbooks for clients to envision their next event. Sharing high-quality examples of past work, client testimonials, and more on social media is an accessible way to promote your business to prospective corporate clients. You can give them a glimpse into what their next corporate event could look like and show off your smiling customers.
Website & SEO
Corporate clients will often use large search engines like Google to source event companies, so investing in your website and SEO will help your event rental business land on top. Whether this means including local keywords in your website content or changing the design, developing your website will help you earn more, attract new corporate gigs, and grow your business.
Check out this list of event rental website builders to help bring your site to life, or consider implementing Goodshuffle Pro’s Website Integration so clients can build their perfect day directly from your website, 24/7.
Network, network, network
You might be thinking, “That sounds great, but how do you even find corporate clients?” One of the best organizations to join is Meeting Professionals International, or MPI. There are also a number of associations that host yearly conferences, such as NACE (National Association for Catering & Events) and ARA (American Rentals Association) that are great for referrals.
Check out our full guide to event rental associations and trade shows to start networking.
How to Win Corporate Gigs
So you’re on the radar of potential corporate clients, but how do you convert interest into corporate bookings? Poor customer experience will overshadow even the best selection of rental items, so for booking corporate events, clear communication and going the extra mile can be more crucial than ever.
Familiarize yourself with their audience
It should go without saying, but to successfully get new corporate gigs, your event rental business needs to have a solid grasp of your corporate client’s brand. Who are they? What do they value? How do they communicate their message? Companies host a variety of internal and external events, each with unique goals in mind such as a brand activation or employee bonding opportunity.
Trends also vary from industry to industry, but a bit of research can reveal the hottest design styles within a specific market. For example, we’ve found that oil, agriculture, and medical industries are focusing on family values and farm tables while tech companies are pushing for the latest and greatest in innovative experiential design. Get familiar with the industry before diving into a full design plan.
Many companies have also become aware of their environmental footprint. If a corporate client prioritizes sustainability, working with your client to have a greener corporate event could be a huge selling point for your event business over others. Reusing décor items, reducing transportation, and ditching single-use items are great ways to be environmentally conscious.
Send professional proposals
When working on a short timeline for corporate bookings, your branded proposals, quotes, contracts and any materials must be detailed, professional, and transparent. Corporate clients are expecting a seamless transaction, complete with online payment options and itemized costs.
Goodshuffle Pro offers professional quotes that can be tailored to your event company’s branding. Your party rental business can show thumbnails of the items ordered, specs, taxes, delivery fees, and all other relevant information on the order.
Colors are also customizable and you can even have your party rental logo on each quote, which should be simple, unique, and memorable — you can read more about logos here.
Give examples of past work
Providing examples of previous work is a fantastic way to sell corporate clients an idea of what to expect for their corporate event, and customer testimonials generate confidence that other clients have been happy with your work. Corporate clients love to brand everything with their logos and graphics, so examples of what a custom branded event would look like for them, such as a photo backdrop with their logo, is key when presenting.
Once you’ve won a few corporate gigs, the content from those events and referrals from those clients can continue building your presence and reputation in the corporate space.
Communicate clearly
Having a clear line of communication at any time contributes greatly to corporate client satisfaction. Your terminology with corporate clients should be focused on curation, ideas, and logistics, and it may need to shift to match what they’re used to, such as changing “deposits” into “retainers” when payments in advance are non-refundable.
Considering that corporate gigs could be larger scale, it’s also vital that you check in consistently before the event, and be prepared to professionally handle changes. Having a software to manage customer communication can keep you organized, and the easier you are to reach throughout the event process, the more likely your corporate clients are to return and refer.
Provide stand-out customer service
Especially as you’re breaking out into corporate bookings, it’s important to always deliver a personalized experience. If you can efficiently bring your corporate client’s brand to life through an event while building connections along the way, your corporate gigs will increase tenfold. Your work can speak for itself, but your customer service will have corporate clients speaking for your event business in their networks.
Focus on building relationships
And don’t forget about the maintenance work that goes into any client relationship. Whether it’s through check-ins, thank you notes at the end of events, or end-of-year gifts for your best clients, little things can go a long way towards getting repeat clients and referrals. For many event businesses, these are their most valuable means of booking new events. Chances are, one corporate contact knows other corporate employees at many different companies.
You can always incentivize these corporate referrals by offering company-wide discounts for any referred clients. In Goodshuffle Pro, you can set these discounts to auto-populate whenever you create a new project for that client.
Now That You Know How to Book More Corporate Events…
Corporate clients are a great opportunity for long-lasting relationships that turn into returning work for life. The better your event rental business can serve their needs, the more likely they’ll return when it comes time for their next annual gala or customer appreciation event, and Goodshuffle Pro’s event rental management software offers all the tools you need to transition effectively into the corporate space.
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