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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:

  1. Where is the client getting information PRIOR to the consult?
  2. What does your branding say about your business, your services, and your pricing?
  3. Where are you advertising?
  4. What is your pricing history?
  5. Who is your referral network?
  6. 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: