All in Sales

Tips for Making the Sale With Add-Ons

Even if you’re satisfied with the numbers you’re making, chances are you wouldn’t be one to say ‘no’ to an extra boost of revenue. (Believe it or not, ten out of ten entrepreneurs would like to increase their earnings!)

If you haven’t considered building in ‘add-ons’ to your business, then it’s time to rethink your business structure. More often than not, engaged couples are in need of standard décor items for their wedding day – think candles, linens, or even boutique candy favors. By upselling these types of products, you can not only make more money, but you’ll also be saving your clients the time and effort of buying them from a brick-and-mortar store. (Not to mention the savings, but we’ll get to that!)

Training Your Staff to Make the Sale

As a small business owner, there will come a time when you need to share the wealth when it comes to sales. Whether you want to take on more clients or you simply want to delegate the sales process to free up some time for yourself, it’s key to instill your sales processes and procedures on your team.

By training each staff member the same way across the board, you can ensure that every prospective client is being treated in the same manner. This is essential for staying true to your brand, which isn’t just about colors and logos but speaks to client experience as well.

How to Sell Weddings on the Weekend (When You Happen to Work Weddings All Weekend)

Couples: "We’d love to meet with you on the weekend to plan our weekend wedding that only happens on one weekend of our entire lives."

You: "I’d love to meet with you sometime during the week because I work almost every weekend on weddings that occur only on the weekend."  

I kid, but the struggle is real, for you and for your potential clients. You may not work every weekend or every day of the weekend, but let’s face it, you might want a weekend off every once in awhile or to recover from a long day by relaxing. It’s difficult to schedule meetings in this 9-to-5 (and exceedingly 9-to-9) culture when your business hours are slightly more ambiguous or the opposite of most of society's schedule. You also don’t want to fall in the trap of working seven days a week just to appease your clients, or neglect to schedule time off so you can recharge and get back to the grind the following week.  

Meeting Techniques for Making the Sale

(Editor's Note: We're closing out the week with this great guest post from Kevin Dennis of Fantasy Sound Event Services. Read more about Kevin at the end of the post, and be sure to check back Monday for a special announcement regarding WeddingIQ!)

These days, the bottom line isn’t solely about having great products or services and making sure people know about them. Sales play an incredibly important role in the conversion of “I like you guys!” to “I want to book you!”
 
In fact, selling starts as soon as a potential client shows interest- from the ease of contacting you to the look of your office when they first walk in the door (that’s right- time to find a new home for all those mason jars peeking out from around the corner!).  It should be your top priority to make sure prospects look forward to your meeting.

Are You Making it Easy for Clients to Hire You?

So we're all in business to make money, right? Okay...making money certainly isn't the only goal (at least for most of us), but if selling our products/services wasn't important, we'd just be doing what we do as a hobby.

With that in mind, I can't emphasize enough how important it is for you to make it easy for clients to hire you. Sounds pretty basic, doesn't it? Yet, especially for those of us who've been doing this since the dark ages, it's so easy to get stuck in low-tech, unnecessarily complicated booking processes that, as business systems and client expectations evolve, can render us unappealing to savvy couples who may choose to sign with another company rather than wait for us to get our act together.