I’m back this week with another from our ‘A Day In The Life’ series. Strangely, you all responded so positively to my day in the life blog a few weeks back – it must have been the photo of Joey – so I thought I’d make this into a series so you can see what our production team get up to on a daily/weekly basis behind the scenes.
This week, Claire (our Business Development Manager) is taking the reins and will be telling you all about what she gets up to behind the scenes. In addition to working for us for several years as part of our freelance creative team, Claire has a strong track record in managing key accounts, marketing & sales, and we’re blessed to have her as part of the team here at Valcato HQ.
Whether you’re looking for a safe and affordable way to introduce live entertainment to your venue, or you’re looking to find new audiences for your existing productions and events via HD quality live streaming, Claire is the woman in the know!
So I’ll leave you in her very capable hands for all things sales…
‘A day in the life’ of working with Valcato Entertainment is very hard to explain! So I am going to do ‘a week in the life’ of working with Valcato Entertainment. I am lucky enough to work with Valcato in two capacities – as a performer and as Business Development Manager. These two roles are very different to each other but I still enjoy them both!
As Business Development Manager, I get to work from home in my PJs ….. living the dream! Valcato are generous enough to allow me to work flexibly, allowing me to work as little or much as I can each week, which is perfect for me. I snuggle up on my sofa with a can of Diet Coke and research new venues, festivals, agencies and opportunities for our amazing acts to be put forward to. The beauty of this as well, is, that I’m searching for work partly for myself too – as I said, I perform for Valcato too, in many of their shows, so it’s a business and personal gain – WIN WIN!
Once I have found a great venue, I get all the info I need and contact information and put it into our online CRM system. This enables us to have full visibility throughout the production team as to what stage we’re at with different enquiries. I’ll then send an initial introductory email and wait for a response; sometimes I can be left waiting a long time, so a little polite nudge sometimes does the trick!
The work load can vary from week to week; often there is a lot going on with venues wanting contracts, follow up calls and emails being made, and some weeks it’s a lot more chilled so I focus on reach outs. That’s why working flexible hours with in this position is perfect!
While being busy with the Business Development Manager role in the week, the weekend is gig time!!! We perform all over the country with the shows, some are round the corner and some are hours away! For the ones that are far away, we all drive to a meeting point and jump in the van together! It’s so nice travelling together – junk food, music, endless girl talk and a few stops at services… just the standard gig life for those that know! We are like a little family at Valcato Entertainment and the bonds we have all formed with our fellow performers are like no other!
I feel super lucky to be in the position I’m in with Valcato, and I’m looking forward to a busy, booked up 2022/23′ season!
So there you have it… without giving away the trade secrets, I hope you all have enjoyed the small insight into the sales side of Valcato. And it doesn’t stop there – this year, we also took on Orin Vallely to work alongside Claire on corporate contracts and artist liaison.
Orin has been a busy bee this week, representing Valcato Entertainment at the Showcase Productions at Viva Blackpool. For bookers, it’s an opportunity to meet fellow agents, network, make connections and see a variety of fresh talent you wouldn’t ordinarily get the chance to see live.
Orin has been getting his network on with the other incredible agents from across the UK, and scouting talent for Valcato. I’ve heard it was a great day, and I’m gutted to have missed it, but my birthday fell on the first day so the spa was calling my name.
I applaud Claire and Orin’s ability to work in this area of the business – I’m definitely more the hermit crab type, just happy being left to my own devices. Their tenacity, determination and charm is clearly working, as the performer calendar for 2022/23 is looking BUSY!
I’ll be back in a few weeks with another blog installment of the ‘A Day/Week In The Life’ series, but who will be my next victim…
Ciao for now, Otti x
WeAreValcato.