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Alan Berg

Real Life versus Facebook Life

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Have you ever noticed that, for the most part, everything we see on Facebook paints a rosy picture of someone’s life and/or business? We see their best work and their personal and business successes. What happens in between the posts? What is it that they’re not showing and talking about? That folks, is called real life. Not reality TV life. Real, everyday life, like the ones you and I lead.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as guilty as you are. With rare exceptions, I post only the good stuff, too. You’ve probably seen my “#ConferenceSelfies”, where I take a selfie, from the stage, before almost every presentation. Some of you picture me jet setting around the world, living the glamorous life. Well, I am jetting around the country, and internationally, but it’s usually in a coach seat on a commercial flight. No private jet here. Now imagine how much time I spend in TSA lines, and waiting for flights. Or how about the 133 nights I spent in hotels last year. You rarely see me posting about that – although I have been known to tweet out of frustration to an airline or two. Read More

I’m a hypocrite, are you?

By Blog, Uncategorized
Every so often, I’m guilty of buying based upon price. hypocriteThere, I said it. But, that makes me a hypocrite. I want my customers choosing me as their speaker, mastermind leader, consultant, or for a website review, not because I’m the cheapest price; rather, I want you choosing me because you feel, for that particular need, that the value you’ll get exceeds the cost. If the return on your investment, exceeds the cost of the investment, then it’s probably a good choice; however, not all ‘returns’ are the same, and not all investments are the same.

I recently shopped around for home and auto insurance. The thing is, I like my current company. They have great customer service, and, in the times we’ve had to make claims, the service has been wonderful. So, why did I shop around? I got another increase in rate, and when I looked back, I had been increased every 6 months (on the auto) and every year (on the home). I wasn’t looking to make a change. I was looking for verification that my rate was still fair. I don’t need them to have the lowest rate, when their service is so good; but, I do need them to be somewhere in the same ballpark as other, high-quality companies. Read More

Wanna Get Lucky?

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OK, get your minds out of the gutter (you know who you are) and let’s talk about luck as it pertains to your business. The Roman philosopher, Seneca, is credited with the saying “Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity.” You need both of these to ‘get lucky’; however, the preparation part comes first. You have to do the work, learn the skills, invest in your success, and then, be on the lookout for opportunity.

Life is a highway
If your life path has been like mine, it hasn’t been a straight line. Far from it. Mine is a series of zigs and zags, fueled by opportunities. You’ve probably heard the expression “being in the right place, at the right time.” Well, I believe that we’re all right where we’re supposed to be, all the time. Opportunity is all around us. That’s why some businesses are succeeding, while others – in the same market and category – are faltering or failing. Whether it’s opting to pass on opportunities, or not seeing them, the result is still the same. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Read More

Why do WE always ask “How much?”

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I speak a lot in my presentations about why our customers often ask us How Much“How much…?” before they ask more important questions about our products and services. They should be asking us questions to find out if we can deliver on their important wants and needs; while price is certainly one of those things on their list, it’s by no means the most important one. If we don’t—or can’t—do what they want or need, then price doesn’t matter.

 

Sing on, Brother Alan
OK, I know I’m preaching to the choir with you on that subject. So, why is it that when we’re the customer, we do exactly the same thing? Why do we default to price first, instead of asking, or at least looking for, better questions? You can call it hypocrisy, irony, or just human nature, but it happens all the time. What prompted this article are instances where wedding and event pros have put price before return, and it stood out, not because it happened, rather because it happened so much. Read More

Veamos nuestro primer baile de casados … oh, es cierto, no podemos

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Originally published, in English, in Beautiful Bride Magazine, “Let’s watch our first dance … oh, that’s right, we can’t”, has been translated for our Spanish speaking compañeros to enjoy as well.  To see the original English version, click here.


 

Veamos nuestro primer baile de casados … oh, es cierto, no podemosAlan-Berg-Beautiful-Bride-Magazine-video-article-231x300
Contratar a un videografo es más importante de lo que piensas
por Alan Berg – publicado en la revista “Beautiful Bride” www.BeautifulBrideMagazine.com

Recientemente estuve ayudando a mis padres a limpiar su casa cuando me encontré una caja de rollos de película 8 mm. En su mayoría se filmaron con la cámara de la familia cuando mi Hermana y yo éramos niños. Uno de los rollos era más grande y venía en una canasta plástica muy linda y no de metal como las otras. No recordaba haberla visto antes y me dio mucha curiosidad saber que contenía. Read More

There’s Always a Cost

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I was conducting a private group mastermind the other day and the discussion turned to investments versus expenses. I remember reading that business people, including most CEO’s, always look at the cost of an opportunity, before asking about the potential return. I guess it’s just human nature that when presented with an opportunity you want to know how much it’s going to cost you. Then it dawned on me…there’s always a cost, but it’s not always money.

What’s the cost?
Whether it’s for your business, your family, or in a personal relationship, there’s always a cost of taking, or avoiding taking, action. Your cost may be: Read More

Making it Right, When You Got it Wrong (or even if you didn’t get it wrong)

By Blog, Uncategorized

I was conducting a group mastermind the other day and the subject of handling
problems and issues came up. While we all agreed that making the customer happy should be paramount in our decision making, that’s easier said than done in the real world. It’s even harder when it’s your business, and your money that’s at stake. The connectivity and access of today’s world adds another dimension. So how should we react when something goes differently than planned?

The worst thing you can do is to look for why it happened. The customer doesn’t care why, they only care that it happened to them. The importance and emotions of a wedding day are just fuel on the fire. Advertising and marketing sells the idea of having a ‘perfect’ wedding, but that’s an unattainable dream. There are just too many variables Read More

You Win Some, You Lose Some – 5 WAYS TO HANDLE LOSING A SALE

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This article was published in the November/December 2015 edition of Wedding Planner Magazine entitled You Win Some, You Lose Some – 5 WAYS TO HANDLE LOSING A SALE.   If you would like to use this on your site or blog, email Alan to receive the .pdf and Word versions, along with the attribution to include.


You Win Some, You Lose Some – 5 WAYS TO HANDLE LOSING A SALE
By Alan Berg, CSP, WWW.ALANBERG.COM, Kendall Park, NJ

In a perfect world, we’d get every sale we want, for the dollars we want. But we don’t live in a perfect world, do we? There are no trophies for second place when it comes to winning a sale. You either get the sale, or you don’t, so what’s a wedding planner to do? Here are five ways to handle losing a sale:

1) Rejection is in the eyes of the beholder. When you don’t get a sale, you might feel like you’ve been rejected, but that’s not usually the case. They just liked/trusted/believed in someone else more. Is that semantics? I prefer to call it optimism. When it comes to choosing a wedding planner, there can be only one winner—that doesn’t make everyone else losers. Prospective clients may like you enough to hire you, but they have to choose one pro among the many available. How many weddings do you do each year? That’s how many times clients chose you and not another planner. Are you the winner? Yes, but you may not have been their only choice. Had you not been available, they would have chosen someone else, someone very capable, nice, and likely at a similar price point. This isn’t like second grade, where everyone gets a trophy these days, there’s a winner and then there’s everyone else.

Read More

Gratitude vs. Entitlement

By Blog, Uncategorized

There’s a lot of talk about how today’s couples, the millennial generation, has a
strong sense of entitlement. Rather than appreciating the opportunities, they often act as if it’s their right to have virtually unlimited choices. It makes sense since they’re the children of the baby boom, a time of unprecedented prosperity and hope in our country. It makes sense when you think that they can search on Google for free, interact on Facebook for free, and read/post reviews online for free.

What’s your first thought when you receive an inquiry?
The wedding industry is one that should be based upon gratitude. It costs very little to get married, just a license and someone to perform the ceremony. Yet, billions of dollars are spent on wedding celebrations each year, money they don’t have to spend if they just want to be married. Read More

GOAL is a 4-Letter Word

By Blog, Uncategorized

We live in a society driven by goals, whether in sports, school or business; but IGoals had my perspective on goals changed a few years ago by my uncle. He told me not to use the word GOAL because goals, by their nature, can be self-limiting. If you’re trying to achieve the goal, you may deprive yourself of achieving more. In other words, if we just do our best, every time, we’ll achieve exactly what we’re capable of. On the surface that sounds plausible, but does it work in the real world?

When are goals good?
When you’re driving down the road you need to know the speed limit, as that’s the maximum allowable speed for that particular road. Did you know that many roads also have a minimum allowable speed? If you drive 20 mph on the interstate (when there’s no traffic slowing you down) you can get a ticket for driving too slow. Your car is capable of much more that any legal speed limit, but you have to hold it back to the target speed (or something close to it ;-).

Minimum goals, or targets, have their place as well. Besides not driving too slow to be a danger to others, it’s OK to have a minimum target when it comes to your sales and/or income. We all have to cover our expenses, put a roof over our heads, feed our families, etc. Many theme park rides have signs “you must be this tall to go on this ride”, and that’s for your safety. So, there are times when a minimum is good.

Goals don’t all have to be monetary Read More