June 2005 - By Kavit M Haria

This article will show you how to make yourself more Performance Attractive by standing out in the musicians’ marketplace. One of the secrets of attracting lots of performances to you (as opposed to pushing hard to get them, like you may be doing now) is to stand out big time and offer things others don’t.

There’s a standard marketing term called the USP, Unique Selling Proposition, that’s going to be very important in helping you (and prospective performance managers) figure out why they should hire you as opposed to the other musician down the street.

Let’s face it, as human beings we are all unique and different. As musicians (especially self-employed!), we all have something that sets us apart from everyone else, including our friends and competitors. We may have a different genre or playing style, a pitch that has more benefits, a speciality or music niche that we know better than anyone else does.

It is crucial for you to identify and communicate whatever sets you and your music style apart from others. If you can offer the Latin style with an Asian spice in it, why not tell them. Imagine one of your potential performance managers looking through the phone book and seeing 65 musicians and ads for your category. How would you stand out? What would make them call YOU as opposed to the next musician?

Be able to clearly communicate what your USP is whenever speaking to a potential performance or venue manager.

Your Unique Selling Propositions answers these questions:

* Of all the people in my field, what do I do that others do not?
* What features of my music style sets me apart from others?
* What benefits can I promise that others do not?
* Why should a prospective venue manager or other musicians work with ME as opposed to the musician down the road?

Grab a pad of paper and take some time to think about what you offer as opposed to what your competitors offer and write this down. Write in detail. Even go one step further and write down a whole list of songs you play and the different styles you play them in. Maybe this will inspire you to go even further and try new styles for existing songs and become even more creative.

If you want to make it straightforward so that you REALLY stand out, write down and create a marketing document stating the 10 things that make you different from your competitors and give it to potential performance and venue managers as one of your Performance Attraction tools.

Take another step and send an email out to everyone you know letting them know what you can offer them through your music. Ask them to tell others. This works magic. Whether now or later, you’ll get people coming to you asking you to perform, teach and much more. Remember what we’ve discovered in previous editions of this newsletter – the universe will respond to your desire!