I’ve had a few conversations lately with wedding pros who are looking for couples who are spending more than their current customers. That’s a perfectly fine goal, that is if you’re willing to do what’s necessary to attract those customers. You can’t expect to do what you’re now doing and those higher-paying customers will miraculously appear. You have to approach this as if you were a new business because if you’re not servicing that segment of the market now, you are a new business to those other couples.
Read More
Who is your social audience? Many of us have a few different audiences for our social content: current customers, potential customers, industry contacts, family, friends, etc. Additionally, we may have many different pages and channels on which to engage with those audiences: personal pages, business pages, groups, events, etc. Before you start posting (I know it’s a little late for that for most of you) begin with which audience(s) you’re trying to reach, and then what value you’re going to provide them. If they’re not getting value from the interaction, they’re not likely to come back for more. 
When you’re the customer, how do you judge whether a company, product or service has done right by you? It’s a matter of your expectations going into the encounter. Your expectations are a product of your past experiences. It’s your combined experiences with other businesses, not just in that industry, but all of your previous experiences. That means that each of us has a unique set of experiences that we use to judge our next experience. And that creates an invisible target for each business to meet or exceed.
If I ever write another sales book, this will likely be the title: “Stop Selling and Help Them Buy!” In many industries, businesses have to do a lot of cold calling and prospecting. You’d spend a lot of your time trying to identify people, and businesses, who might be interested in your business offers. While that’s true for corporate events, non-profit events and some others, the wedding industry is mostly a reactive industry. Sure, you have to advertise and market yourself so that you can be found, and that involves putting yourself out there where your target customers are looking. But, for most sales people in the wedding industry, the sales process starts when the email comes in, the social media message arrives, the contact form gets filled out or the phone rings (I know… if only!). 
I’ve been around the wedding and event industry long enough to see many different business models, from solo-preneurs (we used to call them Mom & Pop shops) to large businesses with many employees and/or locations. None of them is right for everyone. Your business model can, and likely will change throughout the life cycle of your business. I know many DJ’s, planners and photographers who started out as just them, grew to many employees and then decided to go back to just them, later in their business’ life cycle. 
When is a ghost, not really a ghost?
I’m right and you’re wrong! That attitude is a recipe for disaster in business and in life. If you want to keep your significant-other happy, telling them that they’re wrong is, let’s just say, not a good plan. Similarly, if you want to keep your customers, and employees, happy, telling them they’re wrong is counter-productive. The fact is that you can’t change anyone else’s mind. It’s not yours to change. It’s theirs. What you can do is provide them with information they didn’t have, and then they may decide to come to a different conclusion. 
It’s the end of wedding season and the end of the year, which means it’s also engagement season. The top 10 days to get engaged are happening NOW! That means a new crop of couples needing your services – yeah! It also means it’s a great time to take a look at the products and services you’ll be offering them – and at what prices.