Tag Archives: Whole Lot

Do You Know If Your Business is Offering Pain or Gain?

Posted on 03/26/2012 by admin
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In a post the other day I mentioned that customers primarily only buy for 2 reasons – Pain (avoidance) and Gain. Now in the Wedding Industry we are mainly on the happy side of things and the customers are buying for Gain, but WHAT are they gaining – a new dress, a cake, a photographer? Well yes all those things but the psychology behind it is a whole lot more.

When I talk about Pain and Gain what is meant? Well Gain is when people perceive they will gain from the purchase, they will gain things like peer admirations, higher standing in their social circle (why many people buy certain cars), makes you look better, makes you healthier etc. And Pain is reasons such as looking bad amongst your peers, losing money, losing health etc etc. The reason women spend billions on beauty products is to look better, but also because they don’t want to look old. The reason we all fork out on insurance is because we want to avoid the nighmare of NOT having it!

So what are your brides buying? Fancy stationery yes but more than that they are buying romance, one-upmanship on every other wedding they’ve been to, something that will add to the perfect day. In some way they believe that al the small things will make them look good, make the day happier and if they start married life with a perfect day then the marriage will be perfect too…..

Wedding planning is a perfect example of something that is booked because of the avoidance of pain – they don’t want anything to go wrong! And so is photography to some extent, yes the gain is that they have gorgeous images to remember the day but the pain avoidance is that they wont FORGET how they felt that day!

So, when you are marketing to your brides, instead of telling them what your selling, tell them what they want to buy – tell them what problem you are going to solve for them, tell them what they are going to gain from your product or service and tell them what pain they will avoid by working with you……

 

Claire x0x

 

If you want help with your business, I can offer marketing, mentoring and coaching all rolled in to one. Book your first FREE Breakthrough session, email me now claire@bombshellacademy.com

 

Getting Sales is a Process Not a One-Off Mission !

Posted on 10/17/2011 by admin
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If there’s one thing I get asked more than anything else its ‘How can I get more clients’ or ‘How can I get more sales’ Trust me, if I had a magic wand that I could wave to solve this problem then I’d probably be writing this blog from my million pound yacht moored just off the coast of the Maldives ! People that get it ‘right’ realize that getting new customers is not a thing that you suddenly do every now and then when you need more, its an ongoing process that is about building relationships with people and needs to be done regularly so that you get a steady stream of customers. Placing an advert in a glossy magazine isn’t going to work, it may get you a few customers while it loses you a whole lot of £’s at the same time but it wont solve the ‘no customer’ problem. Likewise a good bit of PR may solve your problem for a short while but it wont solve it long term.

In order to get more clients week after week, month after month and year after year you have to appreciate that getting clients is a process that you can learn and apply. First you have to generate ‘leads’, in other words find out the people that are actually looking for what you are supplying. The better you can identify these people then the higher your conversion rate will be and the less work you will have to do to convert them.  Once you’ve identified your interested people you then have to build a relationship with them through newsletters, blogs, FB interaction, snail mail, however you want really but you need to demonstrate to them that you know what you are talking about, you are willing to share some of that knowledge for free and that you are by far the best person they could possibly chose to work with. During this relationship build you give them lots of opportunities to do business with you and you make it simple for them to do so by making time limited offers (preferably dont discount your service or product because this can make people suspicious of the original price) but ADD VALUE such as an extra bonus if you order by the end of the week or an upgrade to a better package etc.

Then, once you have them as a customer don’t be tempted to stop there, what additional services will they want now or in a few months or even years time? Keep in touch with them on a regular basis.Ask for referrals and testimonials. Your greatest fans are always people that have sampled your product or service and this resource should be used.

Do all these things, automate them as much as possible and you will never need to go hunting for another client ever again, they will just keep turning up effortlessly…………………..

 

Claire xox

 

 

If you need help attracting all the clients you want then don’t delay, join my Wedding Wealth Program and have them beating down your door in no time…….

How Upselling Can Immediately Increase Your Sales by 5 Times!

Posted on 07/04/2011 by admin
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Upselling is probably the easiest and also the most efficient and cost effective way to instantly boost your sales. So what is it and how do you do it successfully? Well one of the biggest names in online retailing is complete wizard at upselling and thats Amazon! You go on their site with the idea of buying one book for about £7 and then before you know it you’ve bought a whole load of books and spent 50 quid! So many people use Amazon for purchases but its incredible how few people still mimic their brilliant upselling techniques.

So why does it work? Well, in psychology terms its a lot harder to get someone from a no-buying state into a buying state, once you’ve actually got them to the buying state the price is almost immaterial, in fact research shows that once in the buying state people will happily part with up to 5 times as much money as they originally intended. Amazon knows this and so do all the big retailers and especially the supermarkets, they know that if you are buying then they can sell a WHOLE lot more to you. Its why you go to the supermarket only needing a couple of things and come out with a whole trolley load!

Successful upselling has to be done once the buying decision has been made by your customer, once they’ve said Yes you can then tell them about add ons, if you are a photographer then introduce them to the next package up, if you are selling jewellery or accessories online then introduce them to other items in the range or things that would compliment their purchase – the take up rate for this type of upselling is ENORMOUS and can immediately boost your sales figures with very little extra effort.

The other great  time for upselling is when the customer has got their product and is feeling really happy about their purchase. At that particular time they feel good about themselves for choosing you and you should use the opportunity to sell them something else. If you upsell at this particular time then you should make any offer very time limited, the longer they delay in placing the order then the more the euphoria will where off so it has to be something that will encourage them to take immediate action. Photographers – you could say order a 2nd identical album within 48 hours and receive X discount. Accessories to match your purchase if order today will get free delivery or X £’s off. You don’t have to make the deal fantastic, its not the deal that spurs them into action, its the TIME element of the deal that will get results, the deal could be something as simple as free delivery.  The point is you are taking advantage of their current buoyant mood.

 

So – get thinking how you can introduce upselling into your business right away and see how much your sales increase.

 

Claire xox

 

If you would like first hand help with attracting more clients and developing your Wedding business then contact me today about the Wedding Wealth Program, 100% of my clients have said that it helped their business.

Do You Test and Measure Everything?

Posted on 06/14/2011 by admin
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One of the first things I ask new clients or people that are just asking for marketing advice is “Whats working for you currently?” I want to know this because if something is working then my philosophy is ‘If it aint broke don’t fix it’ although I do know some people with marketing strategies that seem to have the philosophy ‘If it aint broke fix it until it is’ but thats a whole ‘nothr blog!

I want to know whats working because sometimes the best marketing strategy is to increase and refine what you’re already doing if something is working for you rather than introduce a whole load of new things that take time and money and maybe wont work at all, but back to the point of the blog.  It simply amazes me when some people have no idea what is working or not working for them, they have a website, they advertise, the use Facebook and Twitter and they have no idea where their customers are coming from. This is madness in the extreme – if you are spending your time on Twitter, maybe several hours a day remember what your time is worth (hopefully a minimum of about £30 per hour) and thats a WHOLE lot of money you are spending on Twitter – are you getting enough returns from that to justify it?

The same goes with advertising (my soapbox topic so I’ll try not to get on it!) Its ok advertising in glossy magazines if you are GENUINELY getting the sales from it that not only cover the cost of the advert but also end up making you a profit, otherwise whats the point? Yes you could say that its brand awareness etc but let face it , you are NOT Coco-Cola or Cadbury’s you haven’t got millions to throw away on brand awareness, all your budget NEEDS to get you a return. Not only that but what use is brand awareness when the wedding industry is so continuously moving? Your brides and potential customers are potential customers for a year, maybe 18months tops, after that they are married and aren’t interested in the wedding industry anymore – weddings customers are around for a short time, chocolate customers are there for life!

So – what is all your hard work marketing REALLY costing you and what is it REALLY getting you? If you don’t measure it then you cannot improve it and if you can’t improve it then you could be just throwing your money away. One of my favourite sayings is from Ben Franklin “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” Yet that is EXACTLY what some people do with their advertising and marketing…..

 

 

Claire xox

 

 

Need help attracting more brides and getting more profit? Join the Wedding Wealth Program NOW!

How Becoming An Expert Will Help You Get Clients…..

Posted on 06/06/2011 by admin
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Before people do business with someone they like to know that they are dealing with an expert. Its why we pay top-notch for certain people when someone else supplies the same service for a 10th of the price, we do it because we feel less worried that we are making a bad decision. One great example is hairdressers, they have different prices for their experts and people tend to want to be seen by someone at the top but in all honesty you probably have just a good a haircut from someone lower down as they might not be so set in their ways and more up to date with new skills etc. But you pay for the expertise of these people.
So how do you become an expert? Well there is no sure-fire way to suddenly become an expert in your field but the daft thing is you probably already are, you just aren’t telling people enough! Have you ever seen someone in the same business as you that you KNOW doesn’t know half as much as you or do anywhere near as good as a job but everyone seems to think they are great? Its maddening isn’t it? But the truth is they’ve probably shouted about their expertise a whole lot more than you have, so stop hiding your talent and start blowing your own trumpet!
There are lots of ways to become perceived as an expert, the easiest way is to get writing. Give away Free reports on your website that demonstrate your skills, knowledge and talent, write regular blogs, write articles – this is especially good because if you submit them to online article companies such as Ezine google will start believing you’re an expert as well! Other ways are to write articles and blogs for other people, contribute to forums and discussions online.
Also, contribute articles to your local paper, listen to radio shows that have discussion etc and contribute to them. In fact many of you know the lovely Sue Lovell from Savvy Cinderella and her business completely went hyper after appearing on the Jeremy vine show when she phoned in to talk about starting a business in a recession.
One of my favourite ever quotes is from Marianne Willamson, altho its often attributed to Nelson Mandela for some reason…
“Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? ….. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine……”
So the simple answer to how to appear an expert is to get involved, keep active and stop hiding your skills and talents, that benefits no one, if you want your business to really take flight then let people know exactly why they should be doing business with YOU, if you don’t you can guarantee the next upstart chomping at your heels will……..
Claire
Need help with your business? Wedding Wealth coaching is for you…...

Why Are You In Business ???

Posted on 04/04/2011 by admin
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One of the first questions I like to ask new clients is Why Be Self-Employed? After all for most people working for yourself means long, unsociable hours, no chance for holidays, no sick pay, no benefits of being employed and more often than not it actually works out as less money! So why on earth would anyone want to work for themselves? Well of course when we all start our business we hope that things will work out and our plans of world domination will take fruition, but when things aren’t going quite so well what gives us the incentive to keep going?

For me the decision nearly 15 years ago to become self-employed was easy, I hated being told what to do and wanted to be in control of my own destiny and my own time. I like working odd hours such as very early in the morning and late at night so that I can have much of the day to do my own thing and thats always been my incentive and motivation. Having said all that, since finding out I’m expecting baby my motivation has completely changed. I now want to work really hard and get very organized so that I can spend as much time as possible with my new arrival and all my motivation to earn money has switched from shoes and handbags to being able to provide for a new small person… AND shoes still a little bit! lol

So WHY are you self-employed? When you can sit down and write a long list of what motivates you and what drives you its surprising exactly what you come up with and for most of us its actually NOT about the money. We all want to earn money so that we can live comfortable lives but we don’t just want to COLLECT money and let it sit in a bank, we all want it because it enables us to do the things that REALLY motivate us such as being able to travel a lot, having a dream home or car,having more time with your family,  providing for children etc.

Once you get the WHY down in black and white and really connect with your motivation it makes the tough times a whole lot easier, there have been many times for me over the past 15 years when I’ve thought about calling it quits and going back to being employed and I return to my WHY, and it drives me on to put in more effort and determination to succeed.

 

Whats your WHY? Would love to hear your comments!

 

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

Who Wants Wedding Wealth??????

Posted on 11/14/2010 by admin
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I’ve spent the last 13 years working for myself, some ideas have been successful, others less so but in those years I have learnt exactly what works and what doesn’t in business. By far my most successful business (so far icon smile Who Wants Wedding Wealth?????? ) was my Wedding Planning business called Kiss The Frog which I sold earlier this year, mainly spurred by my realisation that I don’t much like weddings and particularly brides! I DO love the wedding industry though and I enjoy its uniqueness and all the fabulous and creative people involved in it.

Unfortunately during my 6 years as a wedding planner I’ve seen lots of businesses come and go, not because the people weren’t talented or their products weren’t good, 99% of them had something truly fabulous to offer the world of weddings but their businesses failed because of their business strategy and lack of knowledge and skills.

The wedding industry is truly unique because you are constantly chasing new customers. Unlike other business strategies that encourage you to up-sell and cross-sell because its ten times easier to sell to existing customers than find new ones, this is virtually redundant when it comes to the wedding industry, not only that but unlike other industries you have a finite selling window – once the wedding date is there they will (hopefully) never need your service ever again.  That’s the bad points about selling to the wedding industry but the good part is that it’s the ultimate in ‘emotional purchasing’ ! Brides are driven almost exclusively by their emotions, even price rarely comes into the equation and if you understand this and use it to your advantage it makes the selling process a whole lot easier.

So what on earth is Wedding Wealth?

The Wedding Wealth program has been produced exclusively for the wedding industry to turn your business into something that you can make a good living from instead of barely scraping an existence from.

Wedding Wealth will cover :-

  • How to generate leads
  • How to turn your leads into paying customers
  • Confidence and the fear of rejection – Get Over It!
  • Pricing- exactly how much are your products/services worth?
  • How to ask for the sale
  • Social Media – What is it and how to get masses of business from it effortlessly
  • How to make your adverts and website really get business
  • What makes you different from everyone else
  • How to make your clients rave about you and become your free sales force.

So what are you waiting for? Find out more about Wedding Wealth and kick start your business Today!


Claire xoxo

A Good Man is Hard To Find……

Posted on 09/09/2010 by admin
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A good friend of mine seems to have a neon sign above her head that attracts the lowest imitations of men you can possibly imagine, they just seem never ending and they all treat her rubbish and then move on.  I must say I’ve had my fair share of meeting men like this as well, it seems there are plenty about but are the good ones as scarce as we sometimes make out or do we just not recognize them for what they are?

Many, many years ago I spent a few years with a lovely guy that thought the world of me and in all honesty the main reason it ended was because I got bored! I know, it’s a hard thing to admit I can tell you but it’s the truth. This guy used to do everything for me, cleaned the house, cooked dinner (he got home always before me), had no vices, rarely went out drinking with the lads etc, etc, so what happened? I was in my early 20’s and thought life should be much more exciting than what it was, I had no hankering for children so the excitement wasn’t going to come that way and eventually I met someone else that seemed a whole lot more interesting and dynamic and so I left.

The funny thing is, I spent many years with Mr Exciting but the excitement was the wrong kind – it was destructive, hurtful and emotionally draining and I didn’t realise this for a long time. We could argue like cats and dogs and although there were really good times, looking back most of the memories I have of that long period of my life were the bad times, the screaming and shouting, doors having holes kicked in them and heavy objects being hurled at me, at that time in my life I would have swapped boring for that so-called excitement in the blink of an eye.

I’ve now gone full circle, not that I’m looking for boring by any means but I have now come to appreciate that a good relationship doesn’t have to be a massive roller-coaster of constant excitement, in fact the best part of what I have now is the stability, the consistency, the dependability, that is exciting in its own wonderful way. I have come to the conclusion that a good man is not particularly hard to find, the problem lies in our ability to recognize them when we find them. He might not keep you on the edge of your seat wondering whether he will actually turn up or not, he may not disappear for days on end leaving you wondering if he’s laying in a ditch, and on the flipside he might not whisk you away to New York or Madrid with a couple of hours notice because he’d had a fun idea, but he will be reliable, honest, trustworthy and devoted and actually that’s all pretty exciting stuff…….



Claire xoxo

Space Invaders….

Posted on 08/05/2010 by admin
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I’m sat in the middle  of nowhere in the Fens whilst writing this blog, I’m not originally from this part of the world  (hence my slight obsession with a certain Football club called Reading) but I find it incredibly beautiful and unique, if you’ve never been here it really has the biggest skies you’ve ever seen and I think there is something strangely magical and peaceful about big skies – it feels open and wide as though you have a huge amount of lovely space all to yourself and that is blissful…

It occurred to me the past few weeks how important space is within a relationship, and at no time is this more important than right at the beginning. Recently a friend of a friend of a friend (you get the picture) started dating someone new, the first date was a drink in a pub and that went well, the next date was the following week and involved a sleepover (yeah ok maybe too soon but hey ho) and then the 3rd date was the following week again and another sleep over and thats when things went wrong and I’m sorry to say that it was the female part of the relationship that played it all wrong. From date number 3 she was not only completely in love with the date and best friends with everyone that knew him but she had crossed the line from casual, having fun, get to know each other to bunny boiler in about 24 hours.

The poor guy didn’t answer his mobile for a few hours and rather than be a sane person and wait for contact the woman phoned and text constantly to the point that when he finally did charge his phone up and was in a position to contact her he didn’t want to! She put him off her in one evening and he went running for the hills! Now I’m not psychic and have no idea if this relationship was going somewhere if she had acted more ‘normal’ and laid-back but I do know that it would have had a whole lot more chance of success if she hadn’t done this. Not only did she do all the texting/phoning but she also poured her heart out by email saying that she was only acting like this because she had been hurt and was insecure, blah, blah, blah – Big Mistake! We all want to think that the person we are dating is perfect and wonderful and it’s a huge turn off  when you’re told early on that they are not – leave all that for heart to heart WAY down the line…

We’ve all done it, we’ve all made fools of ourselves over someone we are really keen on and acted like the crazed girlfiend when they haven’t answered a text for hours on end, only to find that they were actually dying to talk to you all day but had mistakenly forgotten their phone or lost it etc. I’m sure we have all been on the other side of the equation too, when someone constantly texts you or emails you etc and you actually quite liked them to start with but the intensity just makes you less and less keen because they are coming across so pathetic and needy, and no one wants needy!

We live such fast-paced hectic lives that sometimes its easy to forget that relationships take time to develop.  We want everything at once, including the fairy story of meeting someone new. After all,  at the movies we see someone meet, fall in love, have children, have an affair and get married to someone else in the space of 90 minutes and celebrities seem to get married and live happily ever after (yeah right!) after knowing someone for about a week so why can’t it happen for us? Its called real-life!

I admit its tricky sometimes to get a grip on reality, just this week I’ve even done it myself, I’ve got in the habit of seeing the boyfriend nearly every day lately and its been like this for a few weeks, but this week circumstances are such that we cant see each other for a massive 4days!!! Well the first day I could have quite easily wound myself up and convinced myself that he’d completely fallen out of love with me because he hadn’t answered a few text messages, but when I told myself to get a grip, in reality it was actually about 12 hours since I’d actually seen him and probably only about 3or 4 hours since I’d heard from him! Not only that but he drives a lot for a living and being the (to his complete credit) sensible and safe soul that he is he doesn’t use his mobile at all whilst driving (lesson for us all there!) So in reality the time I hadn’t heard from him was minimal, and to be fair when I was living in the same house as my ex we could go for days more than that without talking! Lol

And space isn’t a bad thing, having your other half wondering what you are doing and where you are is all part of the fun and keeps them interested, we all want that excitement in our relationships and our partners, its what keeps it all alive!

The moral to the story is to keep the chill pills on hand, let love and relationships develop at a nice slow pace and don’t be so anxious to constantly move on to the next step, once again we all need to learn how to enjoy the ride of life rather than try and reach the final destination in a flash, because once you are there where else do you go?!?


Claire xoxo

Dating – Is It Really Like Ebay ??????

Posted on 04/13/2010 by admin
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Dating is tricky isn’t it? You find someone you like and the more you like them the more you act like the insane person you always warn your girlfriends about becoming and the more you end up pushing the guy away. I’ve recently had to give myself a big proverbial slap in the face for acting like the very person that I am always telling women they shouldn’t be! I even checked out horoscope compatability – Chinese AND regular !! Haha – what AM I on??????

It occurred to me that Ebay is a lot like dating, they key is to be the seller and not the bidder! Have you ever bought something on Ebay that you saw and really, really wanted- you sit and watch the time countdown desperate to get the item and even though you had in mind a certain sensible figure you just get caught up in the bidding and desperately bid higher every time someone else gets in front? You are determined to get the item no matter what and you win- yay! The trouble is after the excitement of the bidding you realize you paid well over the odds and worse still when you get the item you are disappointed  because you thought the item was going to be much better than it turned out to be?! Well thats dating the bad way – you have your eye on one guy and in your mind you make him out to be your perfect match in every way and even imagine your future lives together and how fabulous it will be before you even get to know them that well.  Not only that but you invest all your time and emotion into this one person and you pay over the odds – you lose too much of yourself along the way and you pay too high a price.

The right way to do Ebay dating is to be the seller! Put yourself out there and let them come to you and make sure they bid high, dont sell yourself short, let them do the bidding, you may even have several watchers at once and I bet you’ll enjoy the journey a whole lot more! This way you still have some investment, after all you always have sellers fees but you know what the total is  right from the start – you dont keep shelling out in the hope you get some of it back at the end.

Next time you go on a date – go as the seller and if the bid is too low dont worry about it, just stick around for the next bidder!

Ïs it possible to enjoy the dating process? Its a journey – you get on a bus with a final destination in mind but theres nothing stopping you from enjoying the ride along the way, and lots of routes will take you to the same final place and there’s no rush, just sit back and enjoy.


Claire xoxo