For over 20 years, Alan Berg has been sharing his expertise in the field of events sales and marketing, and has rightfully been dubbed North America’s leading expert on the business of weddings and events. The industry insider is known to provide his audience with no-nonsense hard-hitting advice on strategic understanding of sales, marketing and social networking to help elevate their business to new heights. As the author of the popular books If Your Website Was An Employee, Would You Fire It? and Your Attitude For Success and the mini-book Don’t Paint The House, Alan is undoubtedly a voice of reason you shouldn’t ignore. In anticipation of his exclusive talk at the upcoming fifth annual DWP Congress in Los Cabos, Mexico, Alan shares with us his insight on the definition of success in the wedding planning industry.
As I travel from conference to conference, event to event, I often hear wedding pros talking about different speakers and well-known industry people. They often debate the success of that person; but, hang on – who are we to debate someone else’s success? Success, as with beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Each of us gets to define our success. For some, it’s a monetary value. For others, it’s quality time with family.
Choose your own benchmark
The key is that no one can really tell you if you’re successful, or not. Only you can determine that, using your own benchmark. A problem I see, all-too-often, is when I see someone trying to achieve what they perceive to be someone else’s success. It may be trying to do a certain number of weddings or events, or reaching a certain dollar value of sales. The thing is, it took that other company time to get where they are. Along the way, they may have stumbled. The economy may have taken a swing, up or down. They may have had help from family and/or friends. Maybe they own their building. Maybe they rent. Maybe they’re getting free space. All of these seemingly minor factors can make a big difference.
And then, of course, there’s “being in the right place, at the right time.” Is it luck? Maybe. But luck isn’t always about luck. It’s often about being ready when an opportunity arises. You have to have done the work, prior to the opportunity showing up; you have to keep your eyes open for those opportunities.
Back to success
I had a consulting client who wanted to increase his sales volume, so he’d be seen as a more substantial player in his market. He had a boutique business, and had achieved a level of success, but he felt that reaching that higher sales volume would make him more successful. Of course, only he could make that determination, because his success is really only for him to determine. So, he took on lower-dollar business to reach the higher volume. He only profited a little from that additional business, and – in my estimation – it was more of a distraction than it was worth. I remember telling him that I was interested in helping him feed his family, not his ego!
What is your goal?
My uncle once told me not to use the word ‘goal.’ He said that goals, by their nature, are self-limiting. They’re caps on what you’re trying to achieve, rather than your actual potential. If we always do the best we can do, then goals are unnecessary. Of course, that’s simplifying things. Some people are self-motivated that way; while others need the focus and encouragement. In my sales career, I don’t remember having self-imposed goals. I just got in my car, drove around making cold-calls, having appointments, and trying to close every sale that I could. I guess my only real goal was to do more than I had done before.
When I was publishing magazines, we wanted to sell more ads than we did in the last issue. We wanted to renew more customers than we had done before. It’s a mindset that I learned while doing Tae Kwon Do, and one I’ve spoken and written about. I don’t want to ever be the best I can ever be – I want to be the best I’ve ever been, every time.
How do you know if you’re successful?
So, are you successful? How do you know? We can only make that determination if we have something to compare it to. Is success putting a roof over your head and feeding your family? If we lived in a third-world country, the answer would more likely be yes than it is here. What I don’t want you to do, is judge your success by someone else’s benchmark. There will always be someone who makes more money than you do – and plenty of people who earn less. There will always be another wedding pro, in your market, in your category, who does more events than you do. The thing is, you can’t control what they do any more than they can control what you do. It’s wasted effort. So, stop focusing on them, and focus on what you can control… and that’s you and your actions.
Put your focus in the right place
What I’ve found in my career, is that when I focus on providing value to my customers, the money follows. When I put the money first, it falls short. In my position, as an international speaker, I’m often approached with opportunities. The ones that come at me with “how much money I can make” get very little of my attention. The ones that come at me with how it will help my customers (audiences, consulting and training clients), are the ones I want to explore. The more value I add for you, the more value I’ll get in return.
So, where is your focus?
Reflect on what didn’t work, and see if you can figure out why; not to beat yourself up, but rather to determine if you should put in more effort or cut your losses. Knowing when to move on is important. Not cutting and running too soon is important, as well. Successful people stick with ideas through the tough stages, but they also know when it’s time to pack it in and put their focus towards something else. Take a step back and figure out where you are along your journey. Set mileposts, not destinations. Enjoy the journey, and the successes that come along the way. Don’t wait until an endpoint to assess your success.
