I have decided to start doing a feature on the Serendipity Videography blog called “Vendors Corner”. This feature will be directed toward wedding industry professionals and since sales and marketing is my forte I will post about these topics. I want to begin my feature with the topic of “Can You Sell It?”. I have gotten together with a few vendors lately discussing how now more than ever we are seeing new wedding vendors pop up like the weeds in our yard from this past winters crazy rain. It seems like the cat is out of the bag, weddings are recession proof!! By the way that is only true if you know how to market your business and continue to do so in tough economic times but that is another post…. Back to our topic… Now I am all about the open market and I welcome the competition. Competition helps you strive to be better and forces you to take your product to the next level. I am not threatened by it in fact your competitors can be your greatest allies, again I digress. Fortunately in the video category it requires editing which is a very difficult skill to learn so there are not as many competitors. But in the Photography category it seems like ever person with a Canon Rebel calls themselves a Wedding Photographer. So more and more I am talking with fellow vendors about what they can do to set themselves apart and here is what I have discovered…. Many wedding professionals are a one man band… They are the artist, the accountant, the sales person and the assistant all wrapped into one. Often times the artist is great at the art but I have realized that the artist’s strength often times is not sales and they can’t sell it or they just don’t know how to!!!! You can have an amazing website and collateral materials and even a great studio but if you can’t sit down across from that bride and present to her a case of why her wedding day will not be all it can be without hiring you then you are dead in the water. The beautiful website, big full page ads and fancy folder will mean nothing to her. Those items are only confirmation of her decision they aren’t what is closing the deal. So here are some things to ask yourself about your sales presentation…
1. How are you beginning your sales meeting? Do you tell the couple what you are going to be doing in the hour you spend together. When people are in unfamiliar settings and situations they like to know what is about to happen to them. Tell them what you are going to cover in the next hour it will set the bride or couple at ease.
2. Nobody likes to be sold to myself included. So don’t make the meeting about a sales pitch. Do you establish a connection with the bride from the get go? Do you ask her to tell you about her wedding day? How she and her beau met and how he proposed? Are you gaining trust and earning the right to do business or simply launching into a diatribe about what makes you the best wedding vendor?
3. Once you have earned the right to do business it is now appropriate to talk about what you do and how you do it but do you include how you began doing it? Again brides want to connect with you. They want to hear what inspired you to get started was it an “A Ha” moment or did you fall into this gig by accident and it was the best thing that ever happened to you? Next it’s time to talk about your experience. Oddly enough I am shocked that many vendors don’t talk about their experience or why they are qualified to be a part of your wedding day. Do you know what makes you different from your competitors? And not the generic things like customer service and attention to detail. For us one of the things is our “Signature Storytelling Style”. What is your story, your style, and are you explaining that. If you have a Photojournalistic style what does that mean to you and what will it mean for your bride? Do you know what makes you, you, and why a bride must have your service?? And does what makes you, you, stand out from what makes him, him? You and your business need definition to survive right now and if you don’t have it sit down with someone who can help review your work with you and drill down what defines you and your business and why a bride should purchase your service or product.
4. Then it is time for the meat and potatoes. Again I am shocked at how complex vendors packages are. I understand the whole “we will create a customized package according to your needs” deal and I am happy to do that for my clients but A La Carte packaging can be a slippery slope. The potential client can perceive it to be that this is a way for you to upsell me, overcharge me for your services or get more money out of me. Are you clear and concise about what you offer and what the cost is? You don’t want the potential bride to leave your meeting with their eyes glazed over not knowing what you offer or how much it is going to cost them. Many couples prefer clear and concise and then if they want more they can add from the A La Carte. menu.
5. How do you wrap up your meetings? I am a fan of the “tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them”. I like my meetings to have a beginning, a middle and an end and to wrap up nicely with a pretty little bow explaining next steps if they decide they want to move forward. I am not a hard closer and I am not a fan of the “sign a contract today and you will get a widget” tactic because let’s face it, chances are if they call tomorrow you will gladly give them the same widget. Who is part of a brides wedding day is a big decision. You want her to sleep on it and hire you because you are a fit for one another, not because you are desperate to get another bride on the books. Brides are being very careful with their budgets right now and like to think their decision over. Allow her the time to do that and the majority of the time you will book the business because you didn’t get all used car sales on her.
What inspired this post was a line from one of my favorite movies “The American President” with Michael Douglas. At the end of the movie he is in front of the White House Press Corp and is talking about his fellow Presidential running mate Bob Rumson and as he says ”I’ve known Bob Rumson for years. I’ve been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn’t get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob’s problem isn’t that he doesn’t get it. Bob’s problem is that he can’t sell it.”
Can you sell it? Do you have a sales presentation that truly defines who you are, what you do, why you do it, why you are qualified to do it and why she should pick you over all of the others flooding the marketplace right now?
