A corporate client tells Marty their DJ budget is $2,500. He quotes $5,000. They book him.

A couple tells him their wedding budget is $2,300. He quotes $3,500. The other DJ they are considering charges $2,300, is a friend of his, and runs almost the exact same gear. They book Marty anyway.

Two gigs, back to back, both closed well over what the client planned to spend. On this week’s Coaches Corner, Marty walks through exactly what he said on those calls, and why it works. It is not a pricing trick. It comes down to one thing he sells that most entertainers never mention.

Budgets live in your client’s head

Everyone has a budget. Marty’s point is that a budget is not a wall, it is a feeling.

“If you were gonna get a burger, and you went out to McDonald’s, and they said that’s gonna be thirty dollars, you would probably never buy that. Now, if you were to go to one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants, and you were to order a burger from there, and they said that’s fifty dollars, you might pay that because in your head it’s worth that.”

“Why would somebody pay more than what they were expecting to pay? The simple answer is because they believe that the value is going to be worth it. All budgets live in our heads, and they kinda live in our hearts because we’re emotional people.”

The number the client gives you is where their brain starts. It is not where it has to end.

Features do not move a budget

The corporate client pushed back, the way most clients do.

“Five thousand is twice the budget that we had planned on for this event. Can you talk to us a little bit more about why you charge five thousand dollars? Because we’re looking into a few different DJs, and most of them have submitted quotes that were within our budget range.”

Here is the move most of us make, and why Marty refuses to make it:

“I could have gone into all the different features, and that wouldn’t have helped me. They would’ve just gone with somebody that offered the same features for less money.”

Speakers, lighting, three hours of music, a song request list. Every DJ on their shortlist offers that. If features are the argument, the cheapest feature list wins every time.

What Marty sells instead

“The main one that I think sold me on this and the other gig is that I sold trust. When you start to get higher up the ladder in terms of price, trust is more important than a lot of other things.”

The event had a $1.5 million budget. Marty asked what mattered to them. They said a smooth flow, a charismatic host, guests who feel welcome. What they did not say out loud is what he sold to.

“If your budget is one point five million dollars, you want someone that you’re not gonna have to worry about. You want somebody that is gonna be a team player, that if issues arise, technical issues, whatever arise, that person’s gonna do their best to make everything as smooth as humanly possible.”

So the conversation stopped being about his skills as an entertainer and became about how he would take care of them.

“For twenty-five hundred dollars they could absolutely get someone to do the job. For five thousand dollars they were gonna get me to do the job, and they weren’t gonna have to worry about a single thing. That if anything went wrong that had nothing to do with me, I was gonna be there helping them out.”

And the line that closed it:

“If you wanna pay an average amount for an average entertainer, then you’re gonna get an average experience. If you wanna get an experience where you can be guaranteed and you can trust that the person is going to do everything humanly possible, then it might be above average for cost, but you’re getting above average value. You’re getting a hundred percent trust, and that is worth every penny of that five thousand dollars.”

They took it back to HR. Marty got five more phone calls. Then they booked him. No pressure, no tactics.

“I simply just told them that for the price that I charge, that is what I charge to guarantee that you’re gonna have a flawless event that won’t have any issues, and that I’m gonna help out even if there are issues that don’t involve me.”

At the gig, the client’s game show producer hit a string of problems. Marty had prepared for it. That is the second half of selling trust, and he is blunt about it.

If you sell trust, you have to deliver it

“If you can say, ‘You’re gonna trust me,’ then make sure that you deliver on that. Make sure that you are putting in the time and effort to have backups, to start thinking about issues before they can happen.”

Power goes out. A laptop freezes. A speaker forgets their notes and walks off to find them. Is there music under the silence? Can you jump on the mic and hold the room while the problem gets fixed?

“You can’t be prepared for everything, but there’s always things you can do to help smooth over situations that happen at gigs.”

Selling trust without the follow-through is a one-time sale. Selling it and delivering it is a referral.

“Make it make sense”

The wedding is the cleaner test, because the competition was identical.

The couple’s budget was $2,300. Marty quoted $3,500. The other DJ, a friend of his, quoted $2,300, partly because the wedding is on a Wednesday. Marty does not discount weekdays.

“I don’t book quantity, I book on quality. My services aren’t worth less on a Tuesday, they’re not worth less on a Sunday, they’re not worth less on a Friday morning. My services are worth what they’re worth.”

The couple laid it out for him.

“He’s charging 2,300, you’re charging 3,500. You both offer the same services. You both offer lighting, you both offer ceremony microphones, all the stuff.”

And they were right.

“Me and this friend of mine offer literally the exact same thing. He’s almost got the same gear as me. He’s a great DJ.”

Then the bride said the line every one of us has heard in some form: “You’re $1,200 more for the same thing. Make it make sense.”

Here is what Marty said back:

“You can, for $2,300, get someone who does the same service as me. But for $3,500, I can guarantee you that absolutely everything will go smooth and flawless, and that I’m the one person in the whole wedding that you’re not gonna have to worry about. I’ve got your back every moment of that day, no matter what.”

“What you’re getting for $3,500 is peace of mind that you’re not gonna have to worry about a single thing. You’re not gonna have to worry if you forgot a detail, if you gave me the right version of a song. I’m gonna double-check everything. I’m gonna check in with you.”

They paid $1,200 more than they planned to. The bride told him why: they wanted someone they trusted.

“The only thing that was different was that I think my friend sold his services, and he’s got great services. He’s got great videos. I sold my services and the trust that those services were gonna be delivered in the best way humanly possible without having to worry.”

Relief, not risk

This is the idea to write down.

“People wanna feel that hiring you is a relief, not a risk. Hiring someone that they’ve never met, maybe hiring a vendor or an entertainer is something completely new to them. This is a risk. Spending your money on something you know nothing about is a risk.”

Most clients have never hired entertainment before. They are finding you on the internet next to ten other people who all say the same thing.

“If every entertainer says, ‘I give three hours of great music. I bring speakers, I bring microphones, I bring lighting,’ if that’s what everyone says, then how do you stand out? How are you any different?”

“I would love to say that that’s just a theory, but I just booked two gigs that were way more than my client’s budget.”

The three things that book gigs over budget

Marty closes with the filter he now runs every sale through.

1. Great video of you doing the thing. “They have to be able to see you doing the thing. It has to be that social proof of, ‘I can see them doing it. Now I want that at my event.’”

2. Find out what is important to them, then show how you deliver it. “Don’t just say, ‘I can make it run smooth.’ Say, ‘This is how I’m gonna help make this event run smooth. This is how I’ve helped past clients.’”

3. Sell that they can trust you. “If somebody feels that what you do is guaranteed a win, then it’s worth more than somebody else who’s just selling their services but isn’t guaranteeing that it’s gonna be a relief to hire them.”

“How can you make purchasing your experience, hiring your professionalism, less risky and more of a relief for your potential clients? If you can find any way to add that in there, I think there’s a good chance that you’re gonna find people are gonna start booking you, even if you’re more expensive than the competition.”

The client’s budget is where the conversation starts. Trust is what moves it.

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Watch the full episode with Marty on YouTube.