Houston : the First {GET REAL} Sales Workshop for Wedding Professionals

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 from 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM (CT)
Houston, TX | Christine Tremoulet Studios

****ALERT: Early Bird Pricing Ends TODAY 2/23/10

Austin: the First {GET REAL} Sales Workshop for Wedding Professionals

Thursday, March 18, 2010 from 9:00 AM – 3:oo PM (CT)
Austin, TX | Vintage Villas

I can’t wait to meet all of you !!!

Happy Selling!

So with gentle prodding (more like nagging) from my peer and BFF, Jennifer Ramirez Jasiczek, we have finally set the dates for the first ever ….

Woot! Woot!

And what better location to launch a new Sales Workshop, but in a whole DIFFERENT COUNTRY, like …

(If you live in Texas or have ever been pulled over by a Texas State Trooper, you will get that joke.)

Houston : the First {GET REAL} Sales Workshop for Wedding Professionals

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 from 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM (CT)
Houston, TX | Christine Tremoulet Studios

Austin: the First {GET REAL} Sales Workshop for Wedding Professionals

Thursday, March 18, 2010 from 9:00 AM – 3:oo PM (CT)
Austin, TX | Vintage Villas

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Join us for a {GET REAL} Sales training is a one-day workshop will be chock full of real applicable sales techniques that will let you leave the door and immediately implement positive changes. It is comprehensive, fast-paced, blunt, collaborative, profound, humorous and will take you to the next level of Closing the Sale with your prospective clients. That’s why we’re calling it {GET REAL} .

The training will be instructional with break out sessions and a collaborative spirit (that means, you’ll be expected to participate). In addition, each attendee will receive a questionnaire before the workshop to ensure that topics are being covered that are applicable to your situation and your challenges!

You can’t afford to miss this workshop, so please visit the above links for full workshop descriptions. There are early bird pricing and seats are limited (really, they are).

Can’t WAIT to see you there!!!

AND … if you’d like to see other cities for future dates, drop me  a comment! Like in “sales”, sometimes all you have to do, is ask.

Happy Selling!

I talk a lot about sales (cause that what you want to hear), but if you have read my bio you know that I have a long background in (selling) advertising and creating marketing campaigns.

Around this time of year, many of us are getting calls from all potential advertising mediums. It is difficult to be able to decide where to put your (hard earned) advertising dollars to attract your potential client. I wrote a two-part synopsis about this on The Smart Planner which is now Think Splendid.

However, this blog post is about Yellow Page advertising. Instead of me giving you advice on how to spend your dollars with this medium, I would like to instead poll YOU for discussion.

So, please add a comment with your personal experience on this type of advertising. I’m sure it will be a good read for all of us. Please answer the following questions in your comment:

1. What is your profession?
2. Have you used Yellow Page advertising before?
3. Did you purchases print and online?
4. If yes, what type of ad did you take out (display or just your company name/number listing)?
5. How did it work out for you? Did you track your calls and were they qualified potential clients or something else?
6. Are you still incorporating this medium in your current advertising program?
7. OR… you’ve NEVER done YP advertising and if so, why not?

You can answer anonymously or with your company information. I think the feedback will help others in our industry. Let’s find out if the “fingers do the walking” is working for our businesses!

Happy Selling!

I quickly wrote out 10 Tips on how to Make the Sale (down and dirty, blunt as usual) for event professionals for their current How to Gain Attention Series.

Be sure to click on this link to read all the tips!

Happy Selling!

1. Promote your blog. Remember that “Bridal Wars” giveaway I mentioned above? Well we decided to take photos of brides/friends and put it on the blog to VOTE for the best photo. Our blog traffic went through the roof that week and several months afterwards. So simple, and it totally worked. We now hear from brides that show up at our booth that they faithfully read our blog. Which is a great form of marketing for our business.
2. Bring your Calendar. Depending on your type of wedding business it will depend on whether you will actually BOOK new clients at the show. DJ’s, bakers, some photographers and other vendors that offer package pricing can book clients at shows. As wedding planners, we do not bring one single contract to the show. We want appointments. Usually we ask the bride (if the conversation is going well) if we can contact them later to set an appointment or schedule the consult on the spot. EVERY vendor is vying for their attention so our approach is a “soft one”, not pushy at all. We ask to contact them. I will carry a notebook and may write down their name so I can flag them later for follow-up or at least remember the conversation. It’s really your choice, but I find that being respectful of them and their time is a much better approach.
3. Discounting. Not a huge fan of this concept. For one, we have many clients that will walk through the show and come to see us. (Which is awesome, by the way. Nothing like an excited bride running up and hugging you in FRONT of other potential brides.) I would hate to see a full-priced client walk in and see a published discount. But again, for some vendors this works. If you are going to offer a show discount, be very specific with a limited time frame. I think the best way to discount is wait to send out personalized information to brides after the show when you have collected the attendee database.
4. Show Follow-Up: We have found that direct snail mail marketing is “zzzzzzzzzzzzzz” and costly. So we use email marketing. Be sure that you have permission to email the show attendees. A good idea is to create your email campaign while you are preparing for the show. How many times are you too tired after a big bridal show or you are moving on to the next big project, that the email campaign gets lost in the shuffle. If you are interested in getting more business, be sure to have a sales “hook” in the email campaign otherwise you should simply look at it as a branding campaign.

Happy Selling!

I received some questions from a reader who is about to embark on her FIRST Bridal Show. Sweet!

This blog post won’t get into the controversy of whether you should actually participate in bridal shows or not. EVERY market is different.  For us, a few of the elite bridal shows work well. Yes, they are exhausting but the way we go about it, people (vendors and clients) remember our booth FOR YEARS. We closed the deal with a bride this year who visited our booth 2 years ago! We can work a bridal show….

So here are a few best practices that we have found work well if you decide to participate in a bridal show:

1. Create a dramatic affect. I think that most event professionals concentrate so much on their booth collateral that they skimp on the actual “booth decor”. You have seconds to capture someone’s attention. You want them to stop and say “Oooooohhh” and walk into your booth. Use color, texture, unusual seating arrangements. Make the most of your space and make sure it is open to draw people in. NEVER stand behind a table. Put your visuals behind you and talk/meet/greet your new client. Create your own banner with your logo. Rent linens to cover the white skirted table. BE DIFFERENT and plan ahead!
2. Staff your booth. Do not work your booth by yourself, even if you are a single person operation. When first starting out, I actually paid friends who were in the “sales” field to help me at my booth. I didn’t care whether they knew about event planning or not. They knew how to talk to people and draw them in. You must have 2-3 people. Remember there are bathroom breaks, food breaks, etc. You never want your booth to be empty.
3. Show up early. Take the time to network with other vendors before the show starts. This is an opportunity to get face-to-face time with many vendors, which is priceless. Help them with their setup if you are already completed. Don’t miss this easy networking opportunity.
4. Offer a giveaway. But hopefully the giveaway can lead to more business. For instance, we gave away a “head table decor” once…. with the thought that the design consult would lead us to designing the whole event. Or just giveaway something fun! We offered tickets to see “Bride Wars” when the movie was just coming out. It went over so well!!! Talk to local businesses and see if they will give away a free night at a hotel in *trade for a promotion at your booth. *Be sure to talk to the bridal show producers, sometimes they won’t allow this.

Come back tomorrow for FOUR  more tips on working Bridal Shows.

Happy Selling!

You read that right, LOVE THIS objection. Look if a potential client took the time to admit this to you, they are interested in your services. They are wanting you to negotiate, which actually…keeps you in the running.

Think about it, for someone to actually take the time to tell you his/her objection … then he/she is an interested buyer.

What you want to do is cut that objection off early in the consultation. You’ll do this by listening to certain indicators that they may say and by asking the right questions. By eliminating the “price issue” early on, then you have already addressed that “objection” and it becomes a moot issue.

Be proactive and confront any sales objections in a conversational manner before they become a true obstacle!

Happy Selling!

Here’s a recap of two entirely different sales approaches. Can you determine the wrong tactics that were taken?

Real Experience Scenario A:

I called a rental company that I had originally called for a price quote months ago. Once the sales person remembered my previous inquiry the tone of the conversation changed. Suddenly the mid-level speciality item was not available, only the high-level speciality item was available for rent on our event date. Without going into too much detail, I knew that I was being taken advantage of because I was calling back only 30 days before the event. They smelled an easy sale and were jumping on the chance to make some money. I felt used.

Real Experience Scenario B:

I called another rental company that did not have the a quality speciality item in comparison to the other rental companies, but it would work and frankly our options were becoming limited. I asked how much the rental price was and was told $ xyz price. I paused in the conversation, honestly just thinking to myself and weighing what my clients would like the most. The sales person at this rental company mistook my silence for not liking the product price, and immediately began to negotiate down the price. This was good for my client; but I cringed a bit when I heard the sales person devalue their rental price without so much of a negative comment from me.

Do you do make any of these mistakes?

Happy Selling!

One sales material I saw was done on beautiful quality paper, the service packages were laid out nicely and clearly. But the price was so difficult to figure out. The price for Package A might be $x,xxx if Add-on B wasn’t on there, but may be reduced if Add-on C was added. Huh?

You don’t want your sales material to look like a football playbook.

Your price should never be in smaller font. Or buried in a paragraph. Or in a lighter colored font.

While I am not a fan of gimmick pricing such as: $4k instead of $4,000. I do like omitting the “cents” whenever possible. For example.

$15,000.00

$15,000

Glancing quickly, which looks better? The second one.

State the investment proudly and clearly….let your buyer see the bottom line (most want to anyway) and then they can go back up into the proposal and read how incredibly wonderful your service is in the details.

You’ll never confuse someone into a sale by being sneaky or hiding your price.

Happy Selling!

photo credit: http://blog.widen.com/blog/widen-guest

Ideas, strategies, and important notes go up on the white board.

Also, our sales leads. Sure we have a database strategy to keep track of the sales leads that come in and keep track of our sales cycle such as responses, notes and scheduling dates for follow up. That stuff is automated within our company online calendar.

But I’ve found it very motivating to put potential client’s names on the white board: and track results in a modified way. This keeps them in front of my face and constant reminder to follow and close the sale.

Sure it’s a little bit of double work, but it is so satisfying to draw a line and put the word SOLD on their name. Also right under the section of potential clients is also a fabulous thank you note from a happy client. Just to remind ourselves how happy we make our clients!

How do you do it?

Happy Selling!

{update on photo: Since the photo was taken, we can add two more “SOLD” notices to it. Holla!}