Note from the Editorial Team: Today we bring to you yet another guest blog as part of the DWP Insider Insight Series, specially curated to share tips and expert knowledge from industry veterans that will help you elevate your business.
Our expert this week is Kelly Mortimer, one of the world’s leading wedding consultants and a renowned wedding venue consultant, and an integral member of DWP. The success of any business is in all honesty defined by the number of clients or sales to be precise. The more the client base, the higher are your chances of doing business with them. But something that comes across as a common challenge with a lot of businesses is converting leads to deals. We are fortunate to have Kelly share her expertise and tips that will help you overcome this challenge and further enhance your sales skills. So give it a read and get inspired!
We would like to thank Kelly for her valuable contribution!
“Top 3 Tips To Get More Bookings For Your Wedding Business”
– Guest Blog by Kelly Mortimer
40% of all couples who will get engaged in the next 12 months will do so in “Engagement Season”. A time of year, to us in the wedding industry, that we are oh-so-familiar with and yet a term that feels alien to those outside our unique world.
With Engagement Season on the horizon, I’ll share just 3 Lessons learnt along the way that helped me and my clients to turn potential couples into booked weddings at dramatically increased rates. Buckle up my friend, let’s get you booking more weddings.
Irresistible Pricing (it’s not what you think!)
Whether your business has specific packages/products OR you create a bespoke quote for every couple, we know that contrast pricing not only helps couples to choose you but also helps to increase their ABV (average booking value).
This forms one of the steps in our ‘Easy to Buy’ Method, and I encourage you to try it out. It works like magic. Except there’s no trick, it’s simply psychology.
Humans need contrast to feel the value of a price point. If we only offer 1 option or way too many, our brains don’t come to a solution. Meaning it becomes harder to choose you. In real terms, every time we show a price we must also show a higher and lower option than the one we want them to choose.
Why? Because our brains love a choice of 3 and in over 90% of cases, we’ll choose the MIDDLE option. Create the proposal or package you want them to choose and then create a lower budget option (that you’re still happy to offer for some who choose it) and a super wow VIP off-the-scale amazing offer which is likely double the budget of the middle choice.
Thereby making the middle option, the one you want to sell will feel of higher value.
BONUS: By offering couples 3 choices within your business, you diminish the need for them to create a contrast with your competitors. Double win.
Attention is Everything
In today’s world our couples are bombarded with messages, marketing, and ads – anything to get their attention! This means your initial response email has to do heavy lifting to get you noticed. Do you often feel like you get ‘Ghosted’? You respond to that first request and then nothing? Here are my top tips when it comes to getting attention plus a FREE download to help you craft yours!
- The less you write the more they read. Everyone today is time poor and majority of us have short attention spans (we can thank TikTok later!). Remove the fluff and know you don’t have to answer every single question they’ll ever have in the first communication
- Use Emotion not just logic. Yes they need information, but opening and closing with emotion based sentences will help your couple connect and feel. And guess what? People buy on feeling and emotion, then justify with logic.
- Clear next step. For many of your gorgeous Wedding Pros reading this right now I could increase your sales with this one thing alone. Your response email needs a clear next step, make it as easy as possible for your couple to do whatever it is you want them to do. Is it a call, zoom or meeting? Tell them what happens next and bonus sales if you have an online scheduler that makes you the easiest business to work with.
To go in deeper on crafting an emotionally engaging response email CLICK HERE to download the free guide.
Nurture, nurture, nurture
This is where we stop leaving money on the table. Too many potential couples come across you but then float away to one of your competitors. Let’s address that right now.
After the initial email exchange the follow up is the next priority. I see Wedding Pros in 2 camps:
- No follow up because: I don’t chase people, or I don’t have time or I have followed up with no results no now I don’t do it.
- Follow up with no low or no results, usually ending in defaulting to camp A!
This step is so simple like all good business strategies. So let’s dive in:
After the initial emotionally engaging response (See point 2 above) next we’ll create a nurture sequence. A series of emails usually around 4, that get sent every 2-3 days. Do not panic at this point. You can easily automate the emails using any of the platforms available, so this works while you sleep.
Plus your emails are going to be full of helpful wedding advice, tips and support related to your perfect couple and your niche. Thereby allowing you to keep showing up in their inbox, while simultaneously helping them to get to know like and trust you.
About the Author:
Kelly Mortimer
Kelly Mortimer is one of the world’s leading Wedding Industry consultants. Helping businesses to grow their bookings and revenue, while working smarter not harder.
With over 20 years in the business and working for the world’s leading brands such as Mandarin Oriental and Rosewood. Clients come to Kelly as they trust her many years of working with £multi-Million budgets, royalty and even 2 events for the late Queen Elizabeth.
Find out more about working with her here: Website
Follow her on Instagram: Instagram
Follow her on Linkedin: Linkedin
