Activity Breeds Productivity in Networking for Clients!

What are you going to do today to build your Independent A&R business? If you have a list of activities to complete that work for the good of your business, wonderful! If you do not, it may time to take a look at your goals for your business and your motivation to succeed in it.

If you were truly inspired enough about our product(s) and the opportunity to build your own Independent A&R business when you joined our company, you should be excited to get up every morning and talk with every artist, artist managers or independent labels you meet about it. The time you spend actually presenting either our products to artist, artist managers or independent labels is what your day should be based on. However, there will be days when you do not have any new artist, artist managers or independent labels to talk with. When that happens, you still need to be productive.

Early in my Independent A&R career, I identified a dozen or so activities I could do that would eventually lead to productivity. I would try to get as many of those activities worked into each day as possible. So, even when business was slow and I didn’t have any artist, artist managers or independent labels to talk with that day, I had other things to do that would bring me future clients to talk with. Eventually, I put these activities on a chart so I could track my efforts and be able to predict my future success.

I would give each of these activities a point value and set a goal to achieve a certain number of points per day. I quickly saw the difference in my success levels when I achieved 50 points in a day versus when I achieved 100.

Here is a list of activities you could and should be doing to build your Independent A&R career to the success level of your dreams:

    Identify new potential artists (users of your product)

    Think of the various groups of artist, artist managers or independent labels you know. In each group, there is likely to be at least one or two artist who would have an interest in our product(s). After all, we all tend to become friends and associate with others who are like us.

    Make calls to potential artists

    Prepare a short message about the benefits of our products that would entice artist , artist managers or independent labels to want to experience them or to learn more. If you reach artist in person; be prepared to ask them when they would like to get together; so they can enjoy the benefits or try the products for themselves. If you reach a voice messaging system, leave the same message, but end with when and how they can best reach you. If you do not hear back from them within 48 hours, try again at a different time of the day.

    Contact existing artists for follow up

    Commit to a regularly-scheduled follow up call, email or in person visit with each, artist manager or independent labels. Your goals are to be certain they are still satisfied with their artist distribution; to determine if they need to place another order or if they’d be interested in trying additional product(s); and to ask who they’ve told about their experience with the product. If they’re telling others about their positive experiences, these artists should be asked either to join the business or to provide you with referrals. Either way, you are increasing your business.

    Schedule presentations or meetings

    Getting a commitment for a presentation or meeting is an extremely valuable activity. Be certain to send out a confirmation of the details immediately and to reconfirm everything the day of the meeting.

    Distribute product information

    Carry your product information with you everywhere. You never know when you’ll encounter an artist, his/her manager or their independent label and strike up a conversation. Of course, you want to lead the conversation to the value of our products. Always be ready to leave something in the hands of new artist. Always ask for managers or independent labels business cards or contact information and follow up immediately with a note of appreciation for their time.

    Prepare for your next presentation

    In very few instances can you be over-prepared to give a presentation on our music services products. If you must, give yourself a presentation in your mirror. Otherwise, have a friend or family member watch your presentation and offer suggestions for improvement—whether it’s in what you say or in your body movements or in the handling of your products.

    Give presentations

    This is the most fun part of most our days. We all love the opportunity to showcase our great products to new potential artists and independent labels. Unfortunately, we don’t get to hold many of these if we haven’t been busy with all the other activities listed above.

    Close new artists

    For this activity, you might give yourself a money value as points. As your selling skills improve, so should the amount of money you earn.

    Identify and contact new artists for the business

    At every presentation, there is likely to be artists, their managers or their independent labels, who have thought of distributing their music online. It’s up to you to discover who they are and make arrangements to talk with them privately about their needs and reasons for making such a commitment. If their needs are strong enough, they’ll make a good addition to your business.

    Referrals received

    Give yourself a point for every referred lead you acquire each and every day. Referrals are like gold—but only when you do something with them.

    Thank you notes sent

    Develop a habit of sending thank you notes to every artist you meet and talk with on a daily basis. I used to set a goal for sending 10 each day. That meant I needed to get out in the world physically or on the phone and talk with 10 artists each day. I would thank past artists for their patronage. I would thank potential artists for sharing their time with me. I would send thank you notes to my mechanic, my dry cleaner, anyone who provided me service. They appreciated it and would often tell others about me—generating interest and leads.

    Attend music business functions or meeting

    If you are with a strong company that is dedicated to growth in our industry and our geographic area, attend every meeting you possibly can. They may all begin to sound the same after a while but if you listen well and meet with others who are in the music business, you will soon find yourself with a network of successful people who will be willing to share new ideas for success with you.