Wedding Industry Insider Podcast

WII 082: Lindsay Landman Shares Her Handbook for Scaling Your Wedding Planning Business

Is expanding your business one of your goals? Do you want to learn more about how to do it? According to this guest, the first step is to figure out the numbers that reflect not only where you’re at but also where you want to go.

So, be sure to tune in for this podcast episode!

Lindsay Landman is the President and Creative Director of Lindsay Landman Events, a planning, design, and production firm that executes events in New York and around the world. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2021, Lindsay Landman Events has its own complete in-house production team, as well as headquarters in both New York and California.  BizBash even named Lindsay in The BizBash Top 1000 People in the U.S. Event Industry.  She also has been recognized as one of the world’s best wedding planners by VOGUE, Harper’s BAZAAR, and BRIDES.

In this episode, Lindsay challenges common misconceptions about pricing and explains why scaling requires more than booking a client with a larger budget. Specifically, she breaks down what you can do to successfully scale your wedding planning business.

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Wedding Industry Biz

How to Effectively Turn Inquiries into Profit-Generating Bookings

When we talk about sales strategies, we tend to think about the tactics that will win over a client on the other side of a sales meeting or call. But let’s not lose sight of the first step in a successful sales funnel: the inquiry response. Without a compelling inquiry strategy, you will not even get those meetings on the books. Every booked client starts in your inbox (or DMs these days!).

If you’re receiving plenty of inquiries, it’s a good sign that your marketing efforts are successful. Your website, social media, and emails drive people to fill out your contact form or write you directly to inquire about available dates, pricing, and more.

However, if you’re losing them there, it’s likely your responses aren’t measuring up to those of your competitors. Remember: the average person isn’t sending out one inquiry just to you. They are sending the same thing to everyone else in your vendor category, particularly those on the first page of Google. They don’t know anything about you beyond what’s on your website, but the same goes for your competitors. To a new prospect, you are a commodity—just one of a bunch.

But, when you wow them with an informative and personable response to their inquiry, they will start to form a relationship with you in their head. Suddenly, you’re the one who loves their venue, the one with the cool signature, or the one who attached helpful PDFs they immediately saved to their desktop. You are not the one who sent a templated email with no enthusiasm.

The bottom line: a great reply will earn you the valuable opportunity to get them on the phone, but that begs the question: what does the winning response look like?

It’s Prompt

Nowadays, the average person’s attention span is mere seconds, so you need to be on top of your inquiries. That doesn’t mean you need to be vigilantly monitoring everything so that you can respond within seconds. But it does mean that you need to be one of the first (if not the first) person to answer their email. Otherwise, they’ll forget about you and consider those who graced them with a reply.

The reality is that 24 hours is far too long to keep a prospect waiting. Your competitors aren’t waiting that long, so you can’t either. Aim for a two-hour grace period within business hours and, for inquiries that come in overnight, make it your first priority in the morning to answer them.

If you need more time to provide them with what they need, reply to let them know you’re working on it and give them an ETA. Creating that very first touch point is more important than checking off all of the boxes right away.

It’s Consistent

A consistent brand experience is crucial in sales. Otherwise, your messaging will vary depending on the day you’ve had, and your leads will be left wondering where they fit into the picture. By keeping your tone and message steady, you put your client at the center of the relationship, allowing their needs and preferences to dictate the flow of conversation.

Fortunately, email templates and automated responders can help you stay consistent in all of your inquiries. (Bonus: It also enables you to keep in that two-hour window!) There are a few ways to streamline your inquiries—you can rely on customizable templates from past emails, you can use out-of-office responders, or you can create an email sequence in a platform like ConvertKit or Mailchimp.

The benefit of the latter two is that you don’t actually have to hit send, although you should certainly follow up with a personal email.

Regardless of your chosen method, make sure that your emails still capture the energy and personality of your brand. You don’t have to sacrifice authenticity for automation!

It’s Engaging

Events are exhilarating and vibrant. People don’t want to hire event pros that seem bored and indifferent by the prospect of working on their celebration. You need to match their enthusiasm in your email responses!

Share their excitement by asking them questions and putting out a few ideas to show your brain is already dreaming up the possibilities. If it’s a wedding inquiry, ask them how they met or what the proposal was like! If it’s a corporate inquiry, ask about their mission and how they envision their brand in the world! Help them visualize what you can do for them.

Prospective clients tend to ask a lot of questions about you, your business, and your offerings. Of course, you should answer them, but you should also turn the script back to them. Give them a reason to respond and answer your questions! When you show them you’re interested; the feeling becomes mutual.

Of course, you still need to practice your in-person selling. You need to know how to sell your benefits, overcome client objections, and close a sale. But, before you can do any of that, you have to know how to respond to an inquiry so you can get that chance in the first place.

 

Jennifer Taylor is the principal of Jen Taylor Consulting, a consulting firm that works with creative businesses of all sizes to implement streamlined workflows and organized systems to find more time and space for business growth and personal development.

Wedding Industry Biz

Expert Tips To Maximize Your Vendor & Venue Relationships For More Profit

We have a big treat for you today Timeline Geniuses!

We’ve created an Expert Guide with the help of Master Wedding Planner Brigid Horne-Nestor, that we are providing to all of you for free (don’t you love that word?). If you haven’t heard us say it before, we are dedicated to making the lives of wedding planners easier.

This guide will help you maximize your profits by strategically approaching Vendor and Venue Relationships. Here’s our first tip for you to check out:

expertguide

TIP #1: BE A STRATEGIC NETWORKER

Focus your energy on building relationships with people who can – and will – help your business grow.

  • First, think about the types of vendors and venues that are most likely to view a wedding planner as an asset – and not competition – on the wedding day. Build relationships with these people first – they have the potential to be your biggest fans! When a couple visits a venue for the first time, or meets with their officiant, you want those people to think of youSecond, ask yourself: Which vendors and venues see me as an asset and what specific value can I add to their work, and to our relationship? Certain types of vendors and venues – especially those who are part of the wedding planning process from the very beginning – are most likely to be your greatest partners.Your best bet is to focus on the following:
  • Ceremony and reception venues: These are typically the first things that people secure. They are a great pipeline to an early referral. And remember: the earlier in the process you get a referral, the more revenue
  • Officiants: Planners add value by attending to the wedding party at the rehearsal and on the wedding day. Most officiants love having someone to help keep everything organized and running smoothly, so they can focus on what they love the most – officiating.
  • Caterers: Planners can help translate what clients want, and serve as a valuable liaison on the wedding day. Keeping events running on time allows the food to be served at the proper temperature – and that makes everyone happy.
  • Invitation Designers: Planners can make designers’ jobs easier by helping clients articulate their design vision, and by encouraging clients to be organized and timely with critical information.
  • Also consider vendors like florists, photographers,videographers & rental companies: These vendors see planners as assets because they appreciate the high level of professionalism that wedding planners bring to events. You help keep everything running smoothly, so as vendors, they can excel at their job.

Want to know more? Our expert guide is chock full of more great tips that you can download here for free. Our gift to you – happy wedding season one and all!

-Your Timeline Genius Team