Initial Consultation

Working With Your Ideal Bride…Or Not

Ever been in a room full of people and unable to connect with any of them in any way, shape or form? I know…it’s an uncomfortable feeling. And the worst part is, sometimes you just can’t get up and leave. So you stick around and try to make the best of it by smiling nicely and trying to engage conversation relevant to the occasion. Eventually though, available subject matter is non-existent and you’re left with…dead air. Sound familiar?

Working with a bride that isn’t an ideal client for you may feel the same way. During the initial consultation, you are both assessing each other and trying to determine how well you will work together. She’s trying to pick up clues into how responsive you’ll be and vice versa.

~Are you bossy?
~Is she calm?
~Are you polite?
~Is she flexible?

Throughout the conversation, you’ll be able to tell if this is the bride for you based on the preferred answers to these questions. Your potential bride however, may not have the skills to tell if you are the planner for you.

Brides count on us to be the professional in this situation…including the psychology of it all…so If you don’t feel that she is your ideal bride, finish the consultation…and inform her that you will follow up with her in a day or so. Don’t just blurt out during the meeting that she isn’t “your ideal bride” and tell her she’ll have to find another planner. (This REALLY happened to someone I know!)

When you do call her, share with her that your company specializes in “X” and that you’re more than happy to refer her to “Planner Y”, who specializes in “Y” types of service and would be the perfect fit for her and her wedding vision.

Hopefully you have developed some key business relationships with other planners in your local area. Call the planner and let them know you referred them to a potential client. More than likely, both bride and planner will thank you!

See you next time on…

Aspire to Plan!

The Phone Consult

When I had my very first face to face initial consultation, I gave the bride a bouquet of six roses in my company’s signature colors…pink and lavendar. She was very appreciative and it made a great first impression…or so I thought. I spent close to 90 minutes with her..answered her questions about her wedding and basically gave her several solutions to obstacles she was facing. She took those ideas and planned the rest of her wedding…without hiring me.

Lesson learned.

For this reason, I now pre-qualify my potential clients over the phone whenever possible. I use a questionnaire that helps me determine whether or not they are seriously looking to hire a planner or just price shopping.

I’ll ask permission to go over a few questions in order to assess where the bride is in her planning process and what it is they think they need. I also explain how the question and answer session will benefit her. Some brides don’t always know what stage of planning they are in or whether or not they need a planner at all. (Although, I think EVERY bride needs a planner!)

The process helps to give her a sense of direction…one that I’ve seen lacking in newly engaged brides. This is very valuable to her because more than likely, she’s finding that all the choices she has to make are becoming a bit overwhelming. And as a planner, this begins to build credibility and trust for me.

The goal is to find brides that fit your ideal profile…your niche. Not every bride is for you. We’ll explore this a bit more in detail in the next post but hopefully you have a group of planner friends that you can refer her to if you find that she isn’t your ideal bride or that she needs another type of vendor. Remember? Networking and building relationships is necessary to build a successful business.

Here’s a link to a good pre-qualifying lead questionnaire. It can be customized to fit your particular wedding planning niche or specialty.

Let me know how it works out for you!

Until then…

Aspire to Plan!