Are things slowing down a bad thing?
I’ve been predicting for about 2 years that things would be slowing down as things went from pandemic lockdowns to the next normal. Yet some people are freaking out that their inquiries have slowed down. After the craziness that so many of us felt in 2022, is a slowdown actually a good thing?
Listen to this new, 7-minute episode for a little reality check and perspective on where things are and if that’s good or bad for you and your business.
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– Are things slowing down a bad thing? Listen to this episode and find out where I’m going with this. Hi, it’s Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions Podcast. I’ve been hearing a lot from clients lately about how inquiries are slowing down, things are slowing down. And I’m not surprised because I’ve actually been talking about this for probably close to two years now, that, you know, we have to be coming back to a different new normal or the next normal, but something that feels and looks more like 2018 or 2019 than the last few years have. And what I find, and I know I’ve done another episode on this, that, you know, more inquiries is not better. You know, I find that we miss the opportunity here when we see that things are slowing down in terms of inquiries to maybe take a step back and say, okay, do we really need more? Or what could we do differently to maximize the profits from the events we’re getting?
Because one thing that certainly 2022 proved to a lot of businesses is that doing more business in a year is not necessarily a benefit. You know, you’re short staffed, you’re burning your people out, looks great on the calendar until you have to live it. So if you think about this, if you’re getting fewer inquiries, that’s not necessarily a bad thing if you work those inquiries better because the number of inquiries does not equate to the quality, just like the traffic to your website. I was doing a consultation the other day with another speaker and they were telling me how many visits they get to their website every month and it was like 6,500. It’s like, well that’s fantastic. And they’re more concerned with inquiries, leads than they are with traffic, which is a good thing. And we get fooled by the big number and say, well that’s wonderful, but this is a speaker, or she’s the only speaker and then they have also a consultant.
There’s a very limited number of customers they can deal with on a particular year. Number of speeches she can give number of, you know, consulting clients that they can work with. And even if that number is a a three digit number, you know, let’s say it’s, she can do 100 speaking gigs a year. I don’t want to do that, but let’s say she can do 100 speaking gigs a year, right? And they can deal with 100 clients. You’re getting 6,500 people visiting your website every month is way, way, way more than you would need to try to convert that. So a lot of that traffic is clearly not good traffic and they’re maybe not converting the ones that they need. So for me, you know, I don’t want to get a lot more leads because there’s only a limited number of things I can do and my calendar is pretty full as it is.
Yes, I want to get more leads and yes, I’m going to fit people in when I can and I try to leave space in my calendar all the time for the next client, but also for me and for my wife and for our family and, you know, things like that. So I’m okay that it isn’t filling up as much as it did in for me, 2019 was my 2022 for you guys. 2019, I was away half the year and, you know, yes, it was great that I went to a lot of countries and things, but you know, when you’re away half the year, and I’m talking about literally half the year and flying, I think I flew 150,000 miles that year. It’s too much. And I realized that I don’t want to do that again. And although 2020 kind of brought that to a screeching halt, 2021 was slow, 2022 was busy, 2023 is looking very busy. But I’m trying not to make it like that because I realized that was too much and I’m willing to sacrifice some of the revenue, you know, even though I raised my rates so that I would do less. I tell you guys that all the time, the customers are saying yes is still me, I have to be able to say no, that’s not the right opportunity. That’s not what I’m going to do.
Less inquiries is not necessarily a bad thing if you’re getting good inquiries. Kind of the same thing with the wedding expos. People tell me, you know, I do these wedding expos and the number of couples coming through is fewer and fewer. I said, yeah, but the ones that are coming are interested and they’re buyers. You can never do business with all the people that came through anyway. So what if you did a small local show and 30 couples showed up, right? If you booked a few of those, isn’t that a win? And you always complain that there’s not enough time to talk to the people that come, but if fewer people come, you have more time to talk to them. So fewer is not necessarily a bad thing. As a matter of fact, many times it’s a very good thing because if you look at the numbers, right? If you think about all the couples that used to come to a show, let’s say it’s twice what you’re getting now, right? May not be that, may be 10% less or 20% or whatever, right? You could never have done business with all those hundreds of couples or thousands at some of these shows there.
Why are you worried that it’s less? Just worry about the business you get and the ROI. Follow up better, have better conversations. Same with the email inquiries and the messages through The Knot and Wedding Wire and Instagram and Facebook and TikTok and all those places. Just have a better conversation and follow up better, right? A client I was working with yesterday on a consultation, I said, well, how many times do you follow up? If you get the inquiry, you respond, then you don’t hear back. And they said, we don’t. Well, they need more inquiries. No, I told them, you don’t. What you need to do is follow up more with the ones that you’re getting. You don’t need more. They needed a system, they needed a CRM system or something to be able to help them follow up.
Are things slowing down a good thing? Well, if you get to have good conversations and follow up with the people that you are getting, I think most of you will find it’s a good thing. Because as long as you’re able to fill your calendar with the people you want to work with, who are paying the prices you want, then it means whatever marketing and advertising and networking you’re doing and following up and asking for referrals and all is good. If you’re not getting enough inquiries, then you have to look back, step back and look at your marketing, your advertising, your networking, asking for referrals and all those things because maybe you’re just not filling the top of your funnel enough. So is things slowing down a good thing? It could be. Curious to think what, to hear what you think, actually. So let me know, [email protected] Thanks for listening.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:
- Apple Podcast:
- YouTube: www.WeddingBusinessSolutionsPodcast.tv
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sGsuB8
- Stitcher:
- Google Podcast:
- iHeart Radio: https://ihr.fm/31C9Mic
- Pandora:
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