Event Planning Proposals. How Do You Handle Rejection?

It’s such a great sensation getting the call telling you that you’ve been awarded a piece of business. There’s the sense of relief and reward for all your hard work and effort compiling your request for proposal. You knew you had put your best forward and now you’ve just received confirmation that your client thought the same way about your event planning proposal. Next up is to execute that proposal into a successful program.

But there are also those times when you get that dreaded call informing you that you didn’t get the piece of business. In other words, your event planning proposal was rejected. If you’re like me your first reaction might be to tell the potential client just how off his or her rocker he or she is for not selecting you. After all how could any other event planning company win over you and your excellent ideas? Well, unfortunately, that’s just part of the meetings and events industry and, as the saying goes, you win some and you lose some.

What to Do When Event Planning Proposals Don’t Win

We’ve been trained all our lives to be gracious losers (just try being a Toronto sports fan to better understand that). It’s how you handle rejection that can better prepare you for the next round of proposals. For every event planning contract awarded there are probably two or three companies that have received the bad news.

My advice, after taking a day or two to drown your sorrows, is to reach out to your contact for a constructive conversation. This isn’t about pointing fingers and hurling insults. Rather ask the person if there was something in your proposal that didn’t make sense. Remember price isn’t always the deciding factor when awarding event planning contracts. Maybe it was the selection of venues or perhaps it was a unique approach that one of your competitor’s offered that sealed the deal for him or her.

My experiences have shown that most meeting planners don’t have a problem discussing their decision as long as they’re approached in an appropriate manner. Sometimes you’ll get answers that will help you understand and deal with the loss. Other times you may learn a new technique or two that will help you submit successful event planning proposals down the road.