The DJ SHOPPING GUIDE™ - What to Avoid, Part 1

As you interview DJs, you're likely to come across a variety of different sales presentations, and some tactics that can be hard to see through if you're new to the DJ industry (as most brides and grooms are!). In this third section of The DJ SHOPPING GUIDE™, we're providing information to make your search easier, and so you can make the most informed decision possible.

"SCARE TACTICS"

Scare tactics are designed to pressure you into making a hasty decision. They prey upon your fears -- the fear that you won't get a good DJ if you don't book the one immediately in front of you, the fear that something will go disastrously wrong if you choose a different company, and the fear that other companies you're considering aren't legitimate businesses for one reason or another. These types of tactics are easy to spot, because they will give you a negative emotional response -- a feeling of doubt or uneasiness. They are, unfortunately, commonly used sales tactics for disc jockeys (especially for large agencies), but are relatively easy to identify, and transparent enough that you can feel comfortable disregarding them entirely.

High-Pressure Sales

A high pressure sales approach is your first clue that a company is using scare tactics. While no company would ever describe itself as "high pressure" or "aggressive," the fact of the matter is, if a company won't guarantee its availability, price and contract terms for a reasonable period of time, or if it discourages you from doing adequate research, they're pressuring you. This kind of pressure can take several forms, often presented in a benevolent way, as though they're doing you a favor. These include:

Stating, or even just strongly implying, that the company has other sales meetings directly after yours, and reminding you that DJs are booked on a "first come, first served" basis
Announcing the company is having some sort of "sale" to incentivize you to sign immediately - stopping you from completing your interviews of other disc jockeys
Offering you some kind of arbitrary discount (usually done after the company massively inflates its subtotal) so that you feel like you'd be crazy not to book on-the-spot

Again, if a company isn't respecting your wish to consider all your options before making your decision, they're pressuring you. Any DJ business worth considering should feel confident enough in their service to allow you the opportunity to complete your interviews with the other disc jockeys on your list and make an informed decision.

Legal Claims

Another form of scare tactic is using legal claims to make you doubt the authenticity, legitimacy, or legality of another company. For example:

Claiming the company holds a "DJ license," a "certification" or some other form of permit other than a standard business license and liability insurance. A "DJ license" is not required by any state or local government; as a matter of fact, it doesn't exist.
Claiming that DJs are required to be, or implying they should be, bonded. The only businesses that may be required to hold a surety bond are those that operate as employment agencies. Virtually all DJ companies are structured using independent contractors and do not actually employ the DJs who work for them, so bonding is not necessary.
Claiming that DJ companies must be licensed members of ASCAP and BMI, the organizations that handle copyright issues for songwriters. Disc jockeys for private events (including weddings) are not required to hold such licenses or pay royalties, period.

Any company that uses legal scare tactics is merely doing so to make you doubt their competitors, and in turn, book the "certified, bonded, licensed" company instead. If you are presented with a legal claim and have questions about its validity, we would love to hear about it so we can add it to this list. Evan Reitmeyer, MyDeejay's president, was also the founding president of the Washington, DC Chapter of the American Disc Jockey Association (ADJA-DC) and would be happy to ask the national ADJA's legal advisor for clarification on any legal issue. The most important thing to realize in these cases is that bogus legal claims are almost always a red herring, and are simply used as an anti-competitive measure.

Business Structure

In a similar vein, some companies rely on the tactic of casting doubt on their competitors' legitimacy, painting them as "fly-by-night" operations if they happen to structure their business differently. For example, these companies may claim that, by not operating from a central office space, their competitors could simply disappear at any time, leaving you without a DJ. This is no different from the other types of scare tactics, and is used to distract you from evaluating the other company on its own merits.

Next, we'll review the most commonly used pieces of logical trickery in What to Avoid, Part 2: Distraction & Misdirection.