Bree Wailes, event sales consultant and founder of We Surge, offers her tips on how to minimise stress and tackle the busy events season.
Words by Bree Wailes.
Let’s be real, managing stress through the peak events season can be difficult.
We have the fifth most stressful job in Australia due to managing client expectations, departmental clashes, contracts and agreements – but there are certainly ways to manage it.
Here are my five tips for reducing stress in peak event season:
1: Set realistic goals
Firstly, let’s set some realistic goals. Work on your time management first thing each morning with a clean list of tasks for the day in the following order of priority:
1) Organising the day’s event and ensuring operational handovers are complete, greeting the client, etc
2) Now you have office time, ensure you are converting sales who are ready to go
3) When all is quiet and your event is running smoothly, respond to the current clients who have contacted you in order of reach out
2: Support your team
Your team are always there to support you, remember it’s important to support them even though you’re just as busy. If they’ve got an event running and require urgent attention – let’s get all hands on deck – your emails will still be there when you return to your desk and be sure to know that you will also need their help in a few days.
3: Be mindful
Most importantly, don’t forget about mindfulness and giving yourself a break. It’s not good for yourself or the clients if you feel flustered in busy situations so give yourself some time. If you need to take a couple of minutes to get some fresh air before returning – that’s ok! You will perform and communicate better in a calmer state.
Take your lunch break! Even if you can only manage 15 minutes, do your best not to eat at your desk. Instead, look at your surroundings and try to place yourself in a different state of mind instead of your workload.
4: Get a head start
My favourite and most successful piece of advice is ARRIVE EARLY to work. This isn’t to be seen as a superstar employee but having those few hours of quiet time before anyone else has arrived is priceless. Put your headphones in, knock out your list for the day and hey, you might even convert a few more sales before your crazy day begins. One thing is for sure though, by the time everyone else arrives you’ll be calm, organised and ready to tackle the peak season challenges of the day.
5: Remember to celebrate
And of course – celebrate the wins with wine and cheese!
Bree Wailes is the founder of We Surge, a hospitality and event sales consultancy specialised in increasing revenue for venue owners across Australia. We Surge also offers newly developed sales training courses for event, wedding and marketing managers worldwide.