The key is three tiers, and three is the target. More than three and you get decision paralysis, less than three and you cut yourself at the knees, and here’s why:
There are by and large three types of buyers.
The “Fuckit buyer“
They want the top tier because they want it. They want the best, at whatever cost. Money is no object.
The “Budget buyer“
They are pinching pennies which, to no fault of theirs perhaps, they just don’t have the budget… but they want YOU. Give them your most affordable option.
“Everyone else“
Most folks don’t want the cheapest, or the most expensive. Buyers also use the first price they see as the “anchor”, hence you list a premium package before the middle package. (This tactic is also used at restaurants with a priced bottle of wine they hardly ever expect to sell; its primary purpose is to anchor every other bottle of wine.)
Getting Started
Whatever is in the packages almost doesn’t matter, just begin with your historically most popular package the middle of the three. My pricing structure is as follows: $3.5k $2.5k $1.7k (the industry average Wedding DJ price in my area is $1.1k-$1.5k, ala greater NYC metro)
Most folks book my middle package, a smaller portion book the budget package, and a rare rare few book my highest rate. Can you tell I have a Psychology degree?!
ALL NUMBERS, FIGURES, CHARTS, GRAPHS, FORMATTING AND CALCULATIONS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE. NOTHING IS TO BE TAKEN AS ADVICE, NEITHER TAX, LEGAL OR OTHERWISE. USE AT OWN RISK, CONSULT A TAX OR LEGAL PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING DECISIONS
In searching for a new CRM I heavily valued two things: Automation and Support. Dubsado brings these in spades.
CRM Quick Compare
Features vs CRM
Dubsado
17Hats
HoneyBook
Releventful
Lead Intake Form
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Bulk Import Leads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Contracts
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Visual Lead Board
Ok
Meh
Best
Meh
Automated Workflows
Best
Ok
Meh
Ok
Song List Manager
No
No
No
Yes
Support/Community
Best
Ok
Ok
?
QuickBooks Link
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Price/Year
$350
$295
$400
$240
My Ranking
1
2
3
4
My Favorite: Dubsado FTW
Support & Community
Their chat support responded nearly in real time, under a minute! And look at the interactivity in their Facebook group? Questions pop up all the time because there’s so much under the hood, and if you can’t figure it out someone else has likely engineered a workaround and will gladly help.
Automation & Workflows
I have a tech background and experience coding and with automation. You can’t code in Dubsado, but you can implement conditional logic for workflows to do things for you under various criteria. Look at how specific you can get:
Smart Fields As Integrated Variables
Dubsado also uses Smart Fields which are essentially variables that allow you to use the same data across forms, emails, contracts, etc. Proposals and Contracts can build themselves as clients select their own packages and options, then automatically create an invoice and pay on the spot.
Weakness One: No Song Selection For Clients
If you’re a DJ who incorporates a song selection system for clients to pick out tracks, you won’t find that with Dubsado. It’s not targeted to DJs so you’ll have to incorporate another service such as Vibo.io That being said I’ve heard great things about Vibo, though it’s also expensive going at more than $30 per month.
Weakness Two: Lead Board
The other thing I’m not in love with is the lead board. You have to click into each category to get a sense of what’s going on. I really love the one on HoneyBook pictured in the second image below. You can customize your categories in Dubsado, I just wish they utilized a more condensed drag & drop system like HoneyBook.
Dubsado’s Lead Board
My favorite lead board, similar to HoneyBook
Conclusion
Dubsado’s not the cheapest but it’s still in the same price range as other options. They’ll even transfer all contacts from your old CRM for free! With the level of customized automation Dubsado offers paired with the Support Community and speed of updates, I’ll be happy with Dubsado for quite a while. Even better, you can get 20% off your first year by using anyone’s referral promo code!
Disclaimer: I get a free month if you use it. I wasn’t however biased in any way in writing this review or deciding which service to use.
On that note, happy automating!
PS: A Note On DJ Event Planner (DJEP)
DJ Event Planner is used by many many DJs to manage their business. For years it looked like Windows 95 had a baby with GeoCities, and they got away with it because they were really the only game in town for us. A big plus they had going for them is client song selection.
But after a visual refresh it still looks dated and feels clunky. Workflow automation is severely lacking and their comparative service plan still comes in at $240 per year, a similar price range as our modern alternatives above. For that reason I didn’t include DJEP in my showdown, automation is KEY these days. DJ Event Planner also doesn’t integrate with QuickBooks. Should I go on?
Some will disagree with me, that’s fine. I’ll be automating my business so I can focus on what we enjoy most: playing music and making money!
