Why Some Clients Choose NOT to Hire TrivWorks

“We’ve decided to go in another direction.”

I hate seeing these words staring back at me from my computer screen. It means that despite my best efforts – responding promptly to an inquiry, providing a comprehensive overview of my services, crafting a customized proposal and diligently following up – I failed to close the deal.

But why? Why had I been unable to convince this potential client to go with me, rather than another trivia company? TrivWorks is the industry leader in corporate trivia events, after all – who else has been doing this, and ONLY this, for over fifteen years? Who else is trusted by some of the biggest companies in the world to entertain employees, clients, interns and other stakeholders?

I ask myself this every time I get the dreaded, “Thank you for your time, we’ll keep you in mind for the future” note. I’ve known for a while that while my product is high-quality, it may not be for everyone (see “When Should You Go With a Corporate Trivia Vendor That ISN’T TrivWorks?” for more). But let’s take a look at why some prospects may decide to go with someone else as their event entertainment or team building vendor.

Price

This is probably the biggest deciding factor, the reason some clients choose someone else over me.

When I first started doing this over fifteen years ago, there were no “trivia companies.” My brand really was quite unique: not only did I specialize exclusively in trivia team building & entertainment, but I only did corporate events, not bar trivia. With the growth in popularity of pub quiz here in the United States, there’s since been a massive explosion of trivia companies – both local and nationwide – whose customers aren’t corporate clients, but bars & restaurants.

As bar quiz nights have become more familiar to people around the country, so has the notion that this is somehow an “informal” or “cheap” way to engage a group. All of these vendors will also do private events, with many in fact offering their services for cheap – far below the standard industry rate for professional corporate events.

So what happens? Prospects compare my price to that of the local, low-cost quizmaster down the street, and think it’s a no brainer. “Why should I pay so much to this guy over here, when someone else is charging way less for the same thing?”

I get it, I do. And if I were shopping for a T-shirt or a dozen eggs, I’d think the same thing. However, would you do this with any other form of entertainment for an important event? For instance, if you wanted live music to play at your wedding you could hire a really popular wedding band, with years of experience and great reviews – or, you could hire the guy noodling on a guitar in the corner of the local dive bar.

They both play music, right? Why pay more, when you can pay less!

What I do is NOT the same thing as the local quiz guy. I provide professional emcees, customized content and top-notch client service, not to mention years of experience working corporate events. You really do get what you pay for, and this no different.

For more on pricing, check out my recent article, “How Much Do Corporate Trivia Events Cost?”

Booked a Venue With Trivia

I hear this one from time to time. When booking a venue, the client finds out that the space actually “has their own trivia,” so they don’t need to hire an external vendor like me.

What this ACTUALLY means is that they’ve booked at a bar or restaurant with – you guessed it – a weekly quiz night. So why rock the boat (or break the bank) with an outside vendor, when we can just use the guy that’s already there? Easy peasy!  

What the venue DOESN’T tell you, however, is that their resident quizmaster who comes with this “package deal” isn’t a professional performer, let alone an event emcee. More often than not, he or she is an underemployed or unemployed person with a creative bent, working a side gig to earn some extra cash – as someone who got his own start this way, I know. They have little to no corporate experience, and won’t customize anything – in fact, I’m willing to bet they won’t devote a minute more to your event than they would their weekly quiz night. They’ll probably show up just before showtime, and leave the second it’s over.

THAT’s who you get when you book a venue “that has trivia.”

Going to Run It Themselves

This one always amuses me. After taking the time to research and find a professional trivia hosting company like TrivWorks, talking to me on the phone and receiving a proposal with all of my service offerings, they decide that this is something they can do themselves.

Really? Are you sure about that?

I wrote an earlier article earlier this year recounting a time when comedian Christian Finnegen, one of the celebrity trivia hosts I’m honored to work with, and I were at a gig. The client had hired Christian to perform stand-up, but in addition wanted to create an “open mic” for their own employees to do stand-up as well. Needless to say, one after another inexperienced wannabe comics came up to the mic in front of their colleagues, and bombed in spectacular, awkward fashion.

Christian turned to me and said, “Everyone thinks it’s easy…!”

With trivia, it’s the exact same thing. “How hard can it be to come up with some questions and then ask them?” folks sometimes think. Well…have you ever tried it? Once you do, you’ll understand right away just how much work it takes to produce a corporate trivia event, let alone how much skill it takes to run it. You will realize just how much time and effort writing all the material takes, trying to decide who’s on which team and why, figuring out venue, equipment, etc., not to mention running around securing prizes, pens and other necessary materials. Somewhere in between stapling answer packets and trying to poll your colleagues on their hidden talents, you’ll probably ask yourself: why didn’t I just hire someone else to do this?

Doing Something Completely Different

Sometimes, it’s got nothing to do with me or my service at all.

The person or committee making the final decision was considering a variety of activities, with trivia being just one. In the end, I simply lost out to bowling, mixology, build-a-bike, cooking class, goldfish racing, Botox night, or countless other group bonding endeavors. While still frustrating, it makes me feel a bit better to know that there’s really nothing I could have done to change the outcome. I offer what I know to be the absolute best company trivia party experience there is, so if that’s not what they want I couldn’t have done anything differently to sell them on it.     

In Closure: Everything Happens for a Reason

I try not to beat myself up too much when a client passes on me in favor of another vendor. Very often they’re just looking for the cheapest solution, in which case I’m not a good fit anyway. Or perhaps they’ve got something else in mind altogether. In any event, when a client passes I at least know I gave it my best shot, and presented TrivWorks as a great option – if not this time around, then perhaps for the future. Heck, there’s been times when a prospect that passed on TrivWorks years earlier reaches out to me out of the blue, and wants to finally do something together. I believe things happen for a reason, and if our paths have crossed once, then maybe – just maybe – we’ll someday meet again!

To examine this topic from the other side, you may enjoy reading, “How Does TrivWorks Decide Which Clients to Take On?”