Tag Archives: Bride

Are You a Square Peg in a Round Hole?

Posted on 09/29/2011 by admin
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Unfortunately in business things change all the time, and some business people like the challenge of keeping ahead of the competition and coming up with new ways to do business and make themselves original and others definitely do not!  If you want to succeed in business long term then you have to be in the former group I’m afraid because your customers requirements and problems change and unless you keep up then your business will simply run out of people to sell to.

One of the things I like to look at when working with a client is how can we keep streaks ahead of whats already out there, what innovation can we come up with or new way of presenting our skills is there? If you can constantly think outside the box with regards to your business then you are definitely on to a winner.

Did anyone see Dragons Den this week? Two women were on there because they have come up with the idea of people doing their own Wedding Videos. Now this struck me as odd because why aren’t videographers nationwide offering this service already? Lets face it Videos have changed a LOT in the past 10 years, they used to be a novelty that people went for then the price of videos came down and down so people did their own, then the CLEVER videographers started doing videos to music almost like pop videos and they were everywhere on YouTube and now we seem to be going back to the DIY version but brides want them professionally edited, so its changed a LOT!

Other businesses have changed a LOT – cakes are more fancy and quirky, photography has got more artistic, everything has had to change to meet the requirements of the bride and unless you supply what your customer actually wants then you will get left behind. So how do you know what they want? Well the easiest way is to ASK! Keep chatting to future brides at every opportunity and ask them EXACTLY what they want, don’t try and pigeon hole them into what you are offering – its their wedding, they are the customer and they are the ones paying so make sure you listen.  And especially important is to ask when you DON’T get the business, ask the bride why not, was iit price (very rarely is) or was it what you were offering?!?!

 

Claire x

 

Have you heard? I’ve just released my latest book… Wedding Fairs – From Waste of Time to Goldmine. The book tells you EXACTLY how to generate a huge income from every single Wedding Fair you do and bring in all the customers you want from them.

 

 

 

Wedding Fairs – The Right Mindset and Preparation

Posted on 03/21/2011 by admin
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I often go to Wedding Fairs to keep up with trends and ideas and generally see what people are selling and what brides are going for and interested in, after all the only way to know your customer really well is to get close to them. Whilst walking round the wedding fair I am a completely amazed at how many suppliers go to Wedding Fairs with the sole purpose of manically selling to the brides at the fair! This is all very well but imagine if you are a bride and you go into a wedding fair and there are 50 or so wedding suppliers desperately trying to sell to you as soon as you get through the door. The poor bride may have only got engaged a couple of weeks before and my be just there to gather a few ideas and think about what kind of wedding she wants to plan, she may be getting married abroad or the other side of the country, may be planning a big or small or wedding or may just not have a single clue so she REALLY will not appreciate the hard sell!

On the other hand, I’ve seen the suppliers that are completely opposite to this, they sit on their chair near their table/stand and they hardly say anything unless a bride starts to ask questions, then they answer the questions with knowledge and enthusiasm and the bride smiles…… and walks off never to be seen again! In this scenario it IS possible to be TOO nice, after all your not there to just impart information you ARE there to actually sell, otherwise why bother going?

I’ve also been to wedding fairs where the people manning the stand spent the entire time either talking to each other or being on the phone and I don’t think they actually spoke to a SINGLE bride! I wonder how many sales THEY got? I’ve also walked round fairs where the stand holders were miserable to the point of being rude and I’ve gone away thinking that they would have actually done themselves and all the brides a favour if they’d have just stayed at home.

One of the many things I’ll cover in my next Teleclass is how to get into the right mindset for a wedding fair and to get straight in your head the EXACT reason you are there! Yes, it is of course to make sales but there is definitely a way to do it that can make it much more pleasurable for both YOU and the bride!

So – next time you do a Wedding Fair, get your head right, put on a smile, be friendly, and don’t be desperate!

 

Claire xox

 

Do you need help to put together a Marketing Strategy for your business that will make it SOAR? Are you ready to Step Up??? Click Here NOW

The Difference Between Features And Benefits….

Posted on 03/14/2011 by admin
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When I start working with a new client we have a good look at their website and marketing materials to see what message they are sending out and one of the things I often see is the listing of lots of FEATURES of their service but not the BENEFIT and this is a mistake thats always done and easy to correct, so whats the difference between features and benefits?

Well if you are a photographer for instance you may say that you take over 1000 photographs per wedding- THATS a feature! Your potential client will read that and think to themselves “What does that mean to me?!” Well the answer to what it means to the bride – It means that she has loads more shots to choose from and it ensures the perfect moment is captured is the benefit!

Let take a stationery example which many designers use…. “Our designs are completely bespoke and tailored to you” Thats great but its a feature, how is relevant to the bride? Well to get the feature all you need to do is complete the sentence so…
“Our designs are completely bespoke and tailored to you” which MEANS that your wedding will be completely unique and all your stationery will expertly and tastefully match the feel and style of your wedding day <—-NOW THATS a benefit!!!!

When writing anything to your potential clients you MUST focus on the benefits to the client, the features are all about what YOU do but the benefits are all about whats important to the customer.

So read through your copy today and decide whether you are highlighting features or benefits and if you are in any doubt then just get in touch and I’ll happily point you in the right direction.


Claire x0x


Do you need help to put together a Marketing Strategy for your business that will make it SOAR? Are you ready to Step Up??? Click Here NOW

Are you ‘different’ enough to survive the Wedding Industry???

Posted on 02/23/2011 by admin
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Whenever I walk around local wedding fairs to have a look at what people are selling and how people are selling it you tend to see the same thing over and over again and I go to fairs from the perspective of a bride (no, I’m not getting married) but without sounding too sad and pathetic I try and put myself in the mind of the bride and walk around to see what appeals and what doesn’t. Of course not all brides have the same taste as me so the products themselves will appear to some brides and not others but some Wedding Suppliers are indeed ‘different’. This has got nothing to do with what they are selling, this has to do with the people selling them.

If you want to be different and really stand out in the wedding industry then you have to be ‘extraordinary’ and do things that none of your competitors do. If you ask any supplier what makes them different from everyone else then they will say things such as good quality products, great service etc etc – EVERYONE  says this so in fact they are not being different at all, they are being just like everyone else.

In order to rise above everyone else you need to raise the bar! When I was wedding planning I found online these gorgeous silver frogs with little gold crowns – they were really cute and tasteful and they cost me about £30 each so not cheap. Every time I signed a new client (which was generally worth about £3k to me) I would send the couple one of the frogs to thank them for choosing to do business with me and they loved them!

How many of you send your previous clients anniversary cards every year? Do you send thank you gifts for referrals received? One of my lovely clients send gorgeous hand made cards that she writes and send by snail mail to new clients (snail mail in this age of everything electronic can be incredibly effective!)  Do you go out of your way to make your clients feel really good about their decision to work with you? If you do they will be falling over themselves to get everyone else to choose you as well.

The key to going the extra mile it consistency – come up with extraordinary acts that you can do EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!! And do them!

I’d love to hear your comments about what you are going to start doing thats extraordinary in your business!


Claire x0x


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How a little NLP can help your sales rocket……

Posted on 02/19/2011 by admin
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When I tell people I am a Master Practitioner in NLP most of them look at me blankly as if I have started speaking an alien language. NLP stands for neurolinguistic programming and its a way of changing your thoughts and therefore your behaviours so that you think more clearly, communicate more effectively and are able to manage your thoughts, moods and behaviours more effectively, it is a series of techniques rather than ‘programming’ which makes it sound like some kind of freaky brain-washing – But how can some simple NLP knowledge help you sell more effectively?

Part of NLP is the ability to recognise that we all communicate differently. Have you ever met someone and immediately clicked with them and literally felt as if you were both speaking the same language, and yet another time you have spoken to someone and not got on at all and its been really hard work? Well this is in part to do with something called Representational Systems- we all have them and we all communicate using them and knowing a little about them can mean that you can communicate effectively with pretty much anyone, and THAT would help you in your business when talking to prospective clients.

We all fall into one of four representational systems, the most used ones are Visual,Auditory, Kineasthetic and AD. Visual people tend to be creative and think in pictures and use lots of words like see, imagine, picture, visualize. An Auditory person would use words like hear, say, listen, resonate.A Kineasthetic person would use words like feel, grasp, touch, get hold of and an AD person just loves lists and facts andlogic and would use words such as know, think, process and understand. Of course people don’t rigidly stick to this but you definitely find they has a preference for a particular type.

So how does this effect you and your sales?Well imagine (yes, there I go, I am very visual! lol) you are speaking to a bride that is typically AD. She will have in her mind a checklist of criteria that her new florist should fulfil and yet the florist keeps going on about how pretty and colourful the flowers are etc, and at some point she may stop and say to the bride “Do you see what I mean?” This is NOT speaking the brides language, she will feel no connection with you and will shop elsewhere. If the florist was clever though, they would listen carefully to the bride and what she wants, they could talk about how pretty the flowers are but they would also go through the things the bride has in mind, how fresh they are, how much they cost, how long it will take to set up, what time they will be delivered etc, etc and they could end by saying “IS everything clear and understood?” Your AD bride will be beaming and sign you immediately because you are talking HER language!!!!

The real art is to LISTEN to your clients, listen to the words they use, and talk to them in the same way and you will not only have them eating out of your hand but your sales and client numbers will rocket!

Happy Listening

Claire xox


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What Risk Are your Customers Taking With You???

Posted on 12/29/2010 by admin
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We all like to think we offer a really great service and that our customers will be completely satisfied but how do we convince new customers of this? Well, if you are in the wedding industry you actually have an advantage because weddings are so emotive and the brides are pretty much driven by how your service or product will make them ‘feel’ What does every bride want her wedding day to be???? PERFECT!!!! But what is perfect? Well it varies from bride to bride of course but your job as a supplier is to let the bride know that her idea of ‘perfect’ is exactly the same as yours and that you will do everything you can to ensure it – what about if you GUARANTEED it? Wow – thats scary stuff isn’t it? Could you guarantee to your brides that your element of the wedding would be perfect?? Lets put it slightly differently, how many of the brides that you have dealt with in the past have actually thought things weren’t perfect? I bet there’s been very few, if any at all!

So – what is stopping you from offering some type of guarantee to your clients to help them make the decision to buy from you? Forever Living is a huge, global Multi Level Marketing company and has a completely brilliant guarantee, it really does make the decision to buy from them a complete no-brainer :-

“You will have the right to cancel any order within 14 days of it being placed. In addition, we are so confident that you will love our products, that we offer a complete money-back guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied with any item, simply return the receipt to me together with the unused part of the product or empty containers, within 60 days of the date of purchase and I will refund the price paid”

The other guarantee I always think works well is the one on the shopping channel QVC – it really gets round the possibility that people will not buy because they can’t actually see something…

“Every product purchased is backed by our 30-day money-back guarantee for extra peace of mind. So, if you decide you’d prefer a different colour, size or a refund, just return it to us within 30 days of receipt using the enclosed returns label”


Even I offer a guarantee to all my new clients, I’m so confident that I can help people build a successful wedding supplier business that I guarantee that if you follow all my recommendations and you don’t see an improvement in your business then I will refund all your money – win, win all the way!


So – what can you guarantee to your new clients to make the buying decision a no-brainer????



Happy and Successful New Year Everyone


Claire  x0x


Remember – if you want your business to grow and bring you wealth in 2011 my Wedding Wealth Program

Yes – I want Wedding Wealth!

How Can You Make Multiple Sales to Each bride?

Posted on 12/07/2010 by admin
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When talking to Wedding suppliers I constantly hear them say that the wedding industry is difficult because brides (hopefully) only get married once, therefore you are constantly looking for new customers. This is true……. or is it?

Have you ever noticed at weddings that there are always loads of other people there that are getting married within a year or so, or have just got engaged etc?  Your potential for sales with every single bride you deal with is enormous and you should take full advantage of this by keeping yourself prominent in the brides mind even after the wedding! Of course you can only take advantage of this fantastic opportunity if you’ve already done an exceptional job in the first place so I can’t stress enough how important excellent customer service is but thats for a whole nother blog……..

You have to remember that for every bride you work for you have a valuable bit of information – their wedding date! This gives you a fantastic opportunity to contact them at least once a year, send them a card celebrating their anniversary and their friends will see the card as well, you can even offer an incentive for every referral they give you, it doesn’t have to be money, it can be vouchers or if you are a cake maker send them a few cup cakes with Thank You on them – I guarantee when they receive them they will go out of their way to find you more customers because they will love receiving your gifts!

One of the nicest gifts I ever received was a gorgeous bottle of Champagne and box of Champagne truffles for recommending a customer to someone. It was fabulous and I was over the moon about it, admittedly the customer meant a lot of financial gain to them, way more than the gift but thats not the point, the point is I literally cannot recommend these people enough now – I’m literally their best salesperson ever and all because of a gift!

A previous client of mine does this kind of marketing fabulously now and every single year she gets masses of orders for anniversary cakes, childrens birthday cakes and christmas cakes from her previous brides – this is virtually NO COST marketing in action at its best and all Wedding Suppliers can do this.

 


Claire x0x

 

If you want your business to grow into the something that brings you the profit you always imagined then sign up for my Wedding Wealth Program NOW, its guaranteed to succeed!