Event Planners Level The Playing Field With Tech-Savvy Millennials
The millennial generation is becoming the largest demographic of event planners, managers, and meeting goers.
There is another decade before they become the majority of the event planning workforce, but they are still causing a large disruption in the industry right now.
According to Cvent, “…Millennials are technologically sophisticated, as youngsters they lack the real-world experience and negotiation skills that Boomers have taken years to accrue. To compensate, Millennials use peer recommendations and bottom line dicta as their benchmarks.”
In other words, they do most of their purchasing, selling, review and comparisons online. As the market shifts to becoming more millennial driven, the need to apply technology to your event planning business increases.
Any event planner who can utilize technology and the web in their event planning process will have a massive competitive advantage. In 2016 & beyond, web-based proposals are set to become an industry standard practice and within a couple of years will be expected by some prospects.
If you are outside of the millennial generation, such as a baby boomer or member of generation X, then you may have noticed this ongoing shift in the market. You might have years of experience but be finding it harder & harder to compete at the same technical-level as millennial event planners.
This is not to say that you are struggling to find business or are overly concerned about young event planners taking your clients from you. But, when it comes to event tech planners are traditionally notorious for being late adopters. This has always been fine for you as all the other planners were the same — Millennials change all that!
As technology moves forward at increasing speeds and more and more of the event planning population are Millennials, who love technology, there is going to be increasing pressure for your own event planning company to get with the times — or at least give your clients the perception that you up-to-date with modern technology.
Web-based event planning proposals help to level the playing field. Ultra-simple drag and drop proposal builders allow older generation event planners to compete against the tech-savvy millennial generation. They allow you to quickly create multi-media rich, stunning proposals that elevate your brand and give your prospective clients the perception that you are just as tech-savvy, more so even, than any of your other competitors.
To understand why web-based proposals are going to become standard industry practice, it is important to understand the mindset of a millennial.
The Low-Down on the Millennials
Millennials are people who are in Generation Y, which tends to be between the early 1980’s to the mid-1990’s. They were born with technology at their fingertips. The computer was becoming more common in homes, the internet more was introduced and video games were constantly being developed.
For millennials, technology is everything. They want their answers now. They want everything take place and be delivered to them on their smartphones or tablets.
This is the place they build communities, chat with their friends, market their business, contact prospects, and more. They crave access to information and data while being on the go.
Millennial event planners live and operate their business under one simple rule: everything MUST be online.
The internet is the place where people go to find information, find companies, and find answers about how to grow their event planning business. They know that a website, online reviews, their event proposals and more must be online.
The millennial generation uses online tools to build their proposals, which offer a superior advantage over traditional proposals done in Word or other applications because of the flexibility, ease of use, and the ability to use video. This is why you should think about incorporating web-based proposals into your business.
If you are still not convinced then here is your proof. Perfect Event Proposals has recently been invited by the Academy of Wedding & Event Planning to be one module in all of the diploma courses it’s students take. The 2,000 event planning students in the Academy will learn to use our web-based proposal tool and are likely to start their businesses with web-based proposals.
Web-Based Event Proposals Offer Flexibility
The largest advantage to using web based proposals is time saving & flexibility. With a web-based proposal you can easily design your proposals anyway that you want.
Drag and drop interface with pre-formatted content blocks, simple image resizing, the ability to add video and easily match the design of your proposal to your company brand or that of your client, saves millennials (& you) a ton of time while also allowing you to easily create an awesome looking proposal that your clients will take note of above a standard PDF proposal.
Our proposal design software allows event planners to send their proposals in multiple different ways — PDF or as a URL link. Our software is flexible because we know that you and your clients have different needs.
With traditional proposal methods, such as Word, you are limited in your ability to alter or modify the design of your proposal. Applications like Word are not built for creating custom event planning proposals.
This leaves many event planners with rigid and often times boring proposals that look like every other proposal that a prospect receives. Not to mention the hours that get wasted trying to line up images and make the proposal look impressive.
Ease of Use Will Save You Time
Event planners who use web-based proposals tend to save an average of 45% of the time. The drag-and-drop interface, ability to save any proposal as a template for future use, being able to save your favorite or most used sections and add those to you proposal with the click of a button & knowing when your proposal has been viewed by your client all save event planners a ton of time and frustration.
For example, you do not have to mess around for hours with Word trying to get that image to look “just right”, only for it to still not be what you want. A web based proposal will allow you to select an image, position it, and edit it all in a matter of seconds.
What would an extra four or eight hours per week mean for your business or your social life? Would you go out and get more clients by being able to spend more time marketing and networking? Would you serve your clients better by spending more time involved in the planning process of each event? Would you finally make it to that lunch date you keep cancelling?
A Video is Worth a Million Words
They say that an image is worth a thousand words. If that is true, then a video must be worth a million words. Web based proposals allow event planners to add videos to their proposals, unlike traditional methods.
Adding video to your proposals can set you far above your competition and provide a lot more value to your prospects. A video will allow your prospects to immerse themselves in the idea of what it would be like working with you.
For example, if you are in destination management, then a video could seal the deal on your proposal. Showing a video of what the local area, hotel, or transportation would be like, your client will be able to immerse themselves and experience the feelings of what it would be like to work with you. It is like test-driving a car.
Level the Playing Field Today
In order to be competitive in the event planning industry, you will need to adopt technology, specifically web based proposals, into your business. They offer a competitive advantage and level the playing field for older generations, such as baby boomers and Generation X, to compete against millennials.
Millennials grew up with technology at their fingertips, so they demand that everything is delivered and created by using technology.
Our web-based event planning proposal software is flexible, easy to use and will save you time. You can get started today without any risk by signing-up for a free trial. If you are ready to see the benefits that a web proposal will have on your business, then start today.