Why Do I Keep Getting Low Budget Brides? Part 1
Here is a scenario that some of you may be familiar with:
You’ve been humming along your wedding season. The phone is ringing; emails are coming in. You seem to be meeting with quite a lot of brides and/or grooms. But the consults don’t end in sales. You have a great rapport with the couple. But they are a bit shocked by your pricing. They came in expecting something quite different. In fact, they were expecting a much lower price. SHOCK and AWE!
Has this happened to you?
I want to spend these next two weeks breaking this down and helping you make some changes to your business. FIRST, I want to uncover the factors that cause the low budget people to KEEP finding you, time after time after time. AND THEN, I’m going to ask you to take a look at how you are communicating with these potential clients: before the consult and during the consult. We’re going to break this into six parts over the next two weeks:
- Where is the client getting information PRIOR to the consult?
- What does your branding say about your business, your services, and your pricing?
- Where are you advertising?
- What is your pricing history?
- Who is your referral network?
- What is your sales approach?
Ready? Let’s do this!
Where is the client getting information PRIOR to the consult?
If you find yourself in this scenario often, the client is getting the message somehow, somewhere that you may give them a good deal. Something has indicated to them that you are “budget-friendly”. Your job is to figure out how they are getting this information. Here are some factors to consider:
- Do you have “Starting Rates” on your website?
It used to be that branding alone could dictate how expensive something is. Everyone knows that the jewelry in the little blue box with the white ribbon is pricey. But, these days the lines are blurred. This is particularly true in the wedding industry where everything is luxurious – or so it seems. Unless you are a celebrity planner – or well known in your market – your branding alone may not be able to tell someone that you are middle to high end. You need to spell it out – especially if you keep having people come to you that are expecting lower pricing. By listing a “starting rate” in your website you give people a price to start with. And, you weed out the people who cannot truly afford you.
There is a LOT of debate about listing starting rates. In my experience – and in many businesses I’ve watched over the years – it is VERY helpful in finding your target market. (Please feel free to ask me question and opinions about this in the comment area. I’m happy to share more thoughts on this!)
- Are you clients familiar with your products and services?
Most people who are newly engaged know VERY little about getting married, how much things cost, let alone your specific products and services. Where did they get their information on wedding budgets? They may have read in an article in a magazine that the average budget for wedding invites is $200 when we all know full well that this is nearly impossible unless you have a guest list of 10-20 people.
We assume that potential clients have all the information. We assume this because we are in the wedding industry and are knowledgeable about our field and talk shop all.day.long. But, a newly engaged couple may not know the first thing about wedding services – particularly what they cost. It’s our job to educate our clientele. This can be done on our site, on our blog, or in the consult. But somewhere before they found you, they got information that made them feel comfortable with a price.
- There are other “low ball” wedding vendors in your market.
There are some new wedding vendors who are incredibly under-priced. This is true EVERYWHERE in this country and I don’t think it’s going to change. The barrier to entry in the wedding industry is nil. You need to adapt to this. Face the challenge and move forward. Don’t use this as an excuse as to why potential clients think they can get a $700 wedding planner. You know that your services are worth much more because you have identified the RIGHT PRICE for your experience, expertise, knowledge, reliability, branding, niche, etc. Regardless, they may think that a $700 wedding planner is the norm because their cousin Sally found someone on Craig’s List that charged that. Again, your job is to educate and inform as to why you are valued at much more than that. (We’ll get to that on our last day when we talk about the sale approach.)
Do you see where I’m going with this? Take a look at the information that the potential client is getting BEFORE the consult: on your own website and in other media. When you know how and where they got this information you can start working to fix it.
We have 6 parts in this series, you can find all the posts here:
- Where is the client getting their information?
- What does your branding say about your business?
- Where are you advertising?
- What is your pricing history?
- Who is your referral network?
- What is your sales approach?
I’m absolutely thrilled about this series! Lots of good tips here. Thank you!
I am absolutely thrilled about this series. So many good tips here! Thank you for sharing this!
THANK YOU for covering this topic. I think it will really open the door to vendors better educating brides and really creating a client experience that targets the right market for them.
Yes yes yes! It’s all about what brides know and how we’re educating them! So funny that you’re focusing on this, because I’m in the process of putting together a series for brides about what kind of prices to expect for wedding vendors!!!
Thank you so much for starting this series! This is helpful for both established planners and new ones trying to better understand how to market and educate overall. Looking forward to the next post.
what a great post, and perfectly timed!! looking forward to more in the series.
Love this, thanks for sharing. Can’t wait for the rest of the wonderful tips!
I have shared this link with many of my wedding cake making friends. The points are transferrable to many wedding vendors and are the types of things that are so simple yet need repeated often. Looking forward to this series!
thanks for this post. can’t wait to read the rest. i’m in the invitation business and we focus on custom invitations. our prices are super competitive but not the cheapest. my question is, do we lower our prices slightly so we can retain clients that contact us, get a name for ourselves and increase our prices over time, or should we not budget our price at all and keep getting low amounts of clients?
Hi Yamina,
I would recommend NEVER discounting your prices. If you want to “throw in something” as a freebie (50 thank you notes) as a bonus, that is better than discounting. Otherwise, you cheapen your brand and become known as a discounter. Also, it’s very hard to start your pricing low and expect to increase in big jumps over time. (I’m going to tackle that next week.) Once customers come to know you as “low budget” it’s difficult to convince them otherwise. (Read this post on PRICING LOW.) Make sure you price your products accordingly and you take into consideration all the factors that go into producing your invites. I’m going to talk about your branding and where you advertise over the next couple days. It’s possible that you are getting low budget clients because you are marketing yourself in the wrong way or in the wrong places. (ALSO – with the right pricing, you won’t need as many clients to achieve financial success. A 20% increase in pricing can have a positive impact on your bottom line!
Thanks for the question… let me know if I don’t address your question sufficiently in the next couple days.
Michelle
Thanks for this Michelle- I’ve gone back and forth about listing my pricing on my website or not. I had it up for a while, then I took it down. I’m thinking I’m going to put the pricing back up for a few key packages. Then I’m going to let it be and let it rest for about 6 months and see what happens. Can’t wait to see the rest of the series!
LOOOVE LOVE LOVE this post! 🙂 Thanks SO MUCH for sharing this! 🙂
This is such a great topic and I’m grateful you’re covering it, Michelle! I’ll definitely be tuning in for the rest of the series to read your expert advice 🙂
Cannot wait for tomorrow’s post. Now that I am going through an entire brand “makeover” {actually it’s more like a “do over”} this really helps me. I was on the fence about listing prices, but you are absolutely right. Clients need to know so they don’t waste their time or ours. “Starting at $…” will be one MAJOR change I will make. I can’t wait to read more, Michelle! Thank you for being such a positive influence to us all. It really is right on time for many of us. I can’t thank you enough for all you do…soooo on time! xo
Great post! Thanks so much for covering this!
I went back and forth on putting a starting price. I’m thinking of doing it again. I’m looking forward to reading more on this series. Right now my biggest concern are potential clients trying to low-ball me. The latest potential client figured I should be charging a lot less than what I normally charge. When I explained my pricing and what they get out of my services and my worth she still didn’t understand it. She insisted that by taking out key elements in the my month-of package that my pricing will decrease. What should I do???
Hi Majell,
I think here it comes to 3 factors 1) knowing your target market, 2) educating the client and 3) being confident in your services and value. 1) Know your market. Not everyone is a match for your business. Is your client one that would be so disrespectful to rip your packages apart and insist on a lower price? (I personally wouldn’t want to work with someone this disrespectful. What would they be like work with? Probably not good.) It’s OK to pass on a client if they are not a good match. 2) Educate the client. She may not know that this isn’t an alacarte business… what we do goes much further than a McDonald’s alacarte menu. Your services are offered the way they are so that you can best service your client. She may not understand it. Think about the reasoning behind your packages and talk to her about it. “In order for me to deliver to you in the best way possible, I need to be able to assist you in these ways. By removing these services, I can’t provide you with the quality that I’ve built my business upon. I can’t guarantee that you will have a top-notch wedding without these services.” And if she doesn’t accept that, go back to #1 (know your market). 3) Be confident. Some people want a “deal” and they are willing to test you… especially if that’s what they’ve read in media that they should do. (Unfortunately a lot of their information is telling them to break up planning packages.) Be confident and let that confidence exude. – Michelle
Thank you for this series! We are relatively new to the wedding cinematography scene, and these posts address a lot I have been struggling with the last several months. We provide unique services – weddings filmed on Super 8 film (in addition to video) and the cost of film is much more expensive than video, but definitely worth it to the discerning bride who appreciates the look of vintage-style film and weddings films as an artistic way to preserve memories, but we are having a hard time finding the perfect clients (though we have lucked out a couple of times)! I am thinking of adding back “Starting From:”–I was afraid of scaring brides off–and doing away with discounting, entirely. Thanks!
Admittedly, I know there are two more parts to this series, but this is good advice to begin with. Good stuff Michelle.
Great content, as usual, Michelle. I see an inner cause for attracting low brides- money set point. We all have an amount of money we were taught to think of as ‘expensive’. Let’s take shoes for an example.
I grew up thinking shoes were for function only; it’s good if they look nice but my family didn’t believe in PAYING for that. So, the most I ever spent on a pair of shoes was $80 or so. I just didnt see the value. And, stay with me now, I couldn’t imagine anyone ELSE seeing the value of spending more for something functional.
Same thing for pricing wedding services. Until you can get past your money set point- the amount you feel comfortable getting (which is usually too low)- you can’t imagine brides paying you more. so, guess what? They don’t.
Crazy thing is I fell in love with these imported leather riding boots last winter which were way over $80. I bought them. I see the value and I’m open to more…Taryn Rose shoes perhaps?
I think it comes down to karma, really. How can I expect to someone to pay the fees I want if I’m not willing to pay others?
You’re point of view and blog are something I see as very valuable. Thanks a bunch.
This was wonderful! Looking forward to the next part!
This as if you were reading my mind (or my diary, lol)! This is something that we’ve been going through lately, wondering if the market is changing…Looking forward to learning more!
Thanks!