Wedding Pro CEO | Building Profitable Wedding Businesses

279. Close Every Wedding Sale in 4 Steps

• Brandee Gaar • Season 6

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Wedding pros, if you’re blaming the economy for slow bookings, think again! It’s not the market—it’s your strategy. 

In this episode, I’m sharing my exact process for selling in today’s wedding industry, straight from my talk at the SWEL Celestial Summit. 

I break down how to shift your marketing, master consultations, and close the sale on the call—no more ghosting! 

Thank you to Imagery Wedding Films https://imageryweddingfilms.com/ for providing the audio and video of me speaking at this SWEL Event.

Are you a Wedding Professional in Sun Coast of Florida, check out SWEL: https://www.suncoastweddingsandevents.com/

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Brandee Gaar:

It's not the economy. It's your strategy. And if you're a wedding pro in 2025, feeling like the market has completely shifted, you would be a hundred percent right. But being an entrepreneur means understanding how to shift your strategies to adapt to the changing economy. Over the last 17 years that I've grown my wedding business, I've had to navigate a couple of bumpy economies and this year is no exception. But because we are constantly updating our strategies to fit that changing economy, our students are seeing massive wins and successes inside of Wedding Pro CEO. Hey there, CEO, you're listening to the Wedding Pro CEO podcast, the podcast to help you grow and scale your profitable wedding business. In this episode, you're going to listen to a presentation I gave at the SWEL Celestial Summit to about 150 Wedding Pros in South West Florida, where I walk them through the exact process that I use and teach to hundreds of wedding pros inside of our programs on how to market and sell in today's economy. I promise you that this is an episode you do not want to miss. So I cannot wait to talk about sales. Are you guys ready to talk about how to close the perfect consultation? Yes. Who loves sales in this room? Okay, okay. That was not that excitingly loud, but I saw some hands. Who hates sales? Okay. Okay. I see some familiar faces, so you guys might get called out. I'm not gonna lie. Okay. Um, sales is so simple. We overcomplicate it in the wedding industry, and I think a lot of business owners overcomplicate it, but at the end of the day, it is the lifeblood of your business. You have to be good. You can outsource sales. Both of my companies, I don't, I no longer sell for. So, um, to the pro in the back who was asking, how do you outsource sales? I would love to teach you how to outsource sales. It is very possible. Um, but you have to do it first, right? Like none of us build our business by outsourcing everything. And sales is typically the last thing that you're going to outsource in your business. So it's so important that you understand how to do it and how to do it well. But at the end of the day, Sales is nothing more than providing a solution to the problem someone else has. That's it. That's all you're doing. You have a solution because you're a wedding pro. You're working with engaged couples who need what you do. And that's all you have to do is provide the solution. That's it. That's how simple it is. Okay. So how many of you guys are on threads? Okay. Okay. Who's who doesn't even know what threads is? Let's okay. Okay. So really quick. The only reason I bring up threads is because it's kind of like Twitter. Slightly less unhinged, slightly less unhinged. So it is Instagram's version of Twitter. It's called Threads. You have Threns? I don't know who, who loves it. Threns I think are what they're called, like little friends. Um, but it's slightly unhinged over there. And so a lot of people are talking about this. Who feels this way? I saw one hand. Anybody else? Okay. The wedding industry is collapsing. 19, 000 markets. Not one is profitable. You, shout out. What do you guys think about this? Okay, good. I'm glad to hear more false than Yes, Brandeans, I'm dying! So, I'm so glad to hear that, but this is obviously fake news, right? It's obviously fake news, but if you're on threads, and the reason that I bring that up is because you can get yourself down a dirty rabbit hole over there of people telling you like I can't book anything, everyone I know is saying they can't book anything, all my friends, all my vendor friends, and I'm like, I can't. Get a better circle. Like, what is happening right now? It's so bad over there sometimes, and it makes me sad because I think It's just untrue. And so I'm a data girl. If you've ever heard me talk, you know, I always take it back to the numbers. We work in a very emotional industry. We don't get to be emotional. We don't get to be emotional about our businesses, right? We're typically the ones who are bringing the unemotional, third party, like rational brain. to a wedding, right? And so it's important that we are also unemotional about our business. So we can't run our businesses on like fear, right? Or what it feels like, like it feels like the wedding industry is collapsing, right? So we're going to take it to the numbers. So here's a couple of data points for you. These are all by Signet Jewelers. Signet Jewelers is, um, well, they're a jewelry company and they track. A little more than four dozen data points that they've been tracking for over 50 years. So it's not like this is a new thing, but during the pandemic it really became like their data came in very handy cause people were like, what's happening to the wedding industry? Are people getting engaged? What's going on? Well, let's look at the numbers. So 2020 2021, we don't talk about those years. It's like they don't exist, right? We're all like 2019 2022. Um, so we don't want to talk about that. You But just to give you an idea, the numbers were slightly smaller in those years. It makes sense, right? Everyone was shut in their house. They couldn't get engaged. Okay, so 2022, that's the year you don't even have to have a website. You don't even have to actually be good at what you did. You could just do weddings. Everyone could do weddings, right? It was like, I'm a wedding planner. I planned mine. And so now I can plan one and you'd book 30 weddings. It was crazy because there was more couples than there were vendors. Right? So 2022, there was 2. 5 million engagements. That's insane. 2023. Who felt it? 2023 is what we call the wedding gap. That is because there were so few engagements, 2. 1 million, right? 2. 1 million engagements then. But here's the thing. We are predicting to have 2. 4 million engagements really for the next several years, which when you look at the numbers, you think, okay, wait, so the biggest year we ever had in recent history had 2. 5 million and we're freaking out about 2. 4. Yeah. This is just the states. Yes. Yeah. This is U. S. data. So this is something that I want you guys to think about is these numbers tell us why are we freaking out? What are we freaking out about? And that's when, when I'm working with my students and they come to me and they're like, I just, I don't know if I haven't booked a wedding in like three weeks and I just, I'm freaking out and the leads are down and all my friends are telling me the same thing. And I'm like, well, how many leads did you get the same time period last year? And there's a few of my students in the room and they know, I'm like, go back to the data. It's, it's telling you the truth, which is you got the same number of leads last year. You're not freaking out. It's always a down month for you, right? Take it back to the data. Okay. So 2. 4 million engagements. That's about how many we averaged over the last five years before the pandemic. So we're back to pre pandemic numbers. Okay. Here's the thing. It's not the economy. It's your strategy. And I ruffle feathers when I say that, and I'm very aware of that. But at the end of the day, the truth is, the data's telling us you're wrong if you think it's the economy. It's not. It's your strategy. And I don't say that to say like, you suck at what you do. Get better. I don't say it like that. I want you to know the market has changed since the pandemic. Not only do people buy differently, but think about it. Think about what has happened since the pandemic, right? Like we had the pandemic, we've had Multiple elections, which have been crazy. There's been so much going on. Gen Z is in the marketplace now. Gen Z is 27, 28 years old. They're in the marketplace now. They kind of came in during that whole dark period after the pandemic, and all of us are like, who are these people that are buying now all of a sudden, right? They buy differently. Your strategy has to change. It has to change. It has to be updated. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Wedding pros who are winning right now have three things, a clear marketing strategy, clear marketing strategy. This is what Mark was talking about. Part of what Mark does is to help wedding pros have that clear marketing strategy, both ads, paid advertising, and organic. They also have the ability to assume the sale, which I'm going to teach you today. And they have a lack of time to worry about the economy because they're too busy worried about numbers one and two. And I'm not going to lie to you guys. When I see the rabbit trail on threads, I'm like, the amount of time you spent on this rabbit trail, you could have posted a real. And I probably would have gotten one or two leads. I don't know. Yes. Don't fall down the rabbit trail. Okay. Be the wedding pros who have not enough time to get on threads and gripe about not having enough leads. Go get some leads. Only those who adapt their strategies. And shift with the market will win. Period. End of conversation. And I've been in the market since 2007. I should know that off the top of my head. I've been in the market since 2007. So I've grown one of the largest planning firms in Orlando and you guys have been through every market shift. Every market requires you to think on your toes. You can't just blame the economy. You have to think, what should I do next? What are my leads telling me? What is my marketing telling me? You have to be watching it. It's not a passive sport to be an entrepreneur. It's not set it and forget it. My favorite comments I get on our ads are things when people say, well, 17 years. And I'm like, great. Then you don't need my strategy. You should go just do what you've been doing for 17 years. That's totally perfect. Why are you here? Right? Like, I want to help you move into the next generation if that's what you're looking for. Right? And so I want you guys to know you've got to start adapting. Whether you're any of these vendors, photographer, DJ, planner, videographer, florist, stationer, I want you to know one thing from this presentation, and I think you've heard it today several times. Irene talked about profit a lot. It's okay to want to make more money. We're going to talk about sales in this presentation. And you guys, wedding pros, we serve with all of our heart, right? Most of us got into this industry because you have a servant heart. You want to see somebody's wedding come to life. You want to give them photos that are going to be, That are going to help them to show their grandkids one day and be part of their legacy. Like that's why we do what we do. But at the end of the day, you can't continue to do it if you don't make money, right? Like who's here to make money, right? We are not running charitable organizations. And if you are, It's so good, right? Like I'm so proud of you. I didn't start my business for that reason, right? I want to make money and it's okay to make money. It's okay to get paid for your services because you have a service that your couple needs and it's how you're going to stay in business. It's how you're going to scale a team. It's how you're going to be able to spend time with your family and build the business that you dreamed of when you first started it. If you have no profit, you have no purpose. You have to have profit in your business. Okay. And that starts with sales. Okay. So let's talk about what a sales funnel is, right? So this is a very basic version of a sales funnel. Okay. So at the top of your sales funnel is going to be awareness. This is going to be things like Um, reels, reels are huge for awareness, right? Reels, it could be a speaking event, it could be a networking event. It's just how people are becoming aware of you, whether that's other vendors or whether it's couples, right? You want people to become aware of you. TikTok is also a great platform for this. Paid advertising, like Mark was talking about, is a great way to get more awareness. But this is where people are just becoming more aware. Aware of you. That's it. They know nothing about you. They're just starting to understand that you exist, which is really great, right? The next one is consideration. So this is where they have Seen you maybe a few times and they're like I kind of I think I kind of like this person I want to know more. This is typically where your email funnel is going to come into play Which i'm going to give you at the end. So if you don't have a You Really clear email funnel. When somebody inquires, I'll be giving that to you at the end, the one that my company uses, and then I give to all of my students. I, this is where you really want to nurture them, right? So they've inquired at this point. But that's all they've done. They've inquired. And so this is a really important piece of the puzzle because now you want to help them make a decision. They've inquired with you. They've probably inquired with two or three other people as well that do what you do, right? Hopefully not like seven or eight, but some of these couples are exhausting, right? Like you're like, how many people did you inquire with? But this is where you really want to get them through that consideration phase. So it's super, super important that you're focused on what do I do What do I do really well? What do other couples say about working with me? And why should this couple want to work with me? Right? So we want to automate that funnel. And like I said, I'm going to give that to you at the end. The last one is decision. And this is where we're going to focus today is decision. This is that perfect consultation. You want to help your couples make a decision right there while they're sitting with you. We don't want to send a proposal. We don't want to wonder if they're going to book. We don't want to follow up in a few days. We want to book them right there during the consultation. And that takes a strong consultation and a really strong sales funnel, which is why I wanted you guys to see what a sales funnel looks like. Because by the time they sit down with you for a consultation and that decision That decision piece of the funnel, look at it. Look how much more narrow it is than the top of the funnel. That's because the only people that got there had to kind of take each step and go, yes, I want to learn more. Yes, I want to learn more. By the time they sit down at a consultation with you, this is the coolest thing about social media. I know we all want to hate on social media, but they know so much about you. They know so much about you. They will not, you guys, People aren't going to spend an hour with you and book a consultation with you to irritate you. They're not doing that. They are actually interested. You've made the short list. So with this decision point, you've just got to close it up. That's all you're doing. You're closing it up. You're finding out about them because, like I said, they know so much about you. Depending on how much you divulge of your life on your social media, They might know a whole lot about you. And sometimes it's kind of scary. I'm like, Oh, that person knows a lot about me. But that's a good thing, right? Because they've decided to still spend an hour of their time with you. That's a big deal. And so when you go into that consultation, what happens, I see a lot of my students do this. You're so. You want to sell it so bad that you almost unsell it, right? You don't want to come off salesy. Who's, who's felt like that before? I don't want to come off salesy. Right. They came to you to sell them. Like they literally came to this consultation because they were like, I need what you have. Can you do it? Like, do you have what I actually need? Right. They already know you have what they need. They should already have your pricing at this point. Hot topic. Mark talked about this earlier. Woo! Can I get some hands for they should already know your pricing at this point. Thank you. Okay. Um, but they should already have your pricing at this point. So what's the last decision to be made for you to show them the value? in the service that they're paying for, right? When somebody, we were talking earlier today, when somebody says, you're out of my budget, but they had your pricing before the consultation, you're not out of their budget. You didn't show the value for the money they're going to spend. That's a consultation problem. That's not a pricing problem, right? Okay. All right. So how do we actually run a perfect consultation, right? So we've gotten through the awareness stage. Right? They're aware of you. We've gotten through the consideration phase. You guys have killer boss emails and they're like, yeah, I want to work with this wedding pro. They book the consultation, right? They're sitting down for the consultation. And then what do you do? Okay. So I call my consultations the assume method. I love it. I'm obsessed with it. Did anybody's mom ever teach them? You know what happens when you assume, right? It's not good. Right? Mom would always be like, don't assume. Well, I say always assume because always assuming in your consultations means you win every time. So I'm sorry to the moms in the room that used to say that, but I'm a big lover of assume. Okay. So the first thing is first, we want to make this consultation about them, about them. Why do we want to make it about them? Any guesses? They know you're invested. Yep. Relationship with them. Yes. Yes. They like to talk about themselves, right? Yes. People love it. They, they remember you more if you talk about them. Here's the thing. I also just kind of gave you a hint about this. They already know all about you. They've checked you out. I promise they have checked you out. The Knott's report last year said, what was it? 92 percent I think now of, um, this is my husband in the front. Sorry. So I'm looking at him like, yeah, 92. That's what we said. 92 percent of, um, engaged couples are researching their vendors online before they even reach out to you. They know you. They know about you. They know your pricing. They know your packages. They'll say they don't know your pricing. They know your pricing. They looked at it. Um, but they, they know your packages. They know all about you. So we want to learn about them, right? There's another reason we want to learn about them because we're going to use it. We're going to use it to sell back to them. Right? And a lot of times what I see happen in consultations is you want to So badly to win that sale that you've got your checklist out and you've got all the bullet points. You're like, we're in the not hall of fame. We are, you know, we, we do 117 weddings last year. We have a team of six, like all the things. And it's like, how does that benefit me? Right? Because ultimately at the end of the day, they want to know how does what you do serve what I need? Right? That's it. So we want 85 percent of our consultation to be about them and only 15 percent about us. And you may be surprised, the 15 percent that I want you to talk about for you is going to be what they told you. We're going to spin it. Okay? You're not going to sit there and say, Hey, Um, well, we come with two sets of equipment and eight hours and we always bring in our emergency kit. They don't care. Everyone does that. You should be expected to do that. Right? How do we stand out? How do we uniquely serve them? Right? So 85 percent about them, 15 percent about you. Number two, ask questions. This is how you're finding out about them. You want to ask questions, lots of questions. I, when I sit down in a consultation, I ask questions for probably 30 minutes before I ever say a word about what my company does because I'm trying to break them down. And I say that in, um, that probably doesn't sound that good, right? Like I'm trying to break them down. I, as that came out of my mouth, I was like, let's try something different. Okay. We want to make sure that we break down the wall. And here's what I mean. They have made a decision to come sit in a consultation with you, right? We talked about that. They chose to spend an hour with you. They're coming to be sold to because they need what you have, right? But you want to make sure that you are. Talking about what you can do, what, sorry, what they need from you, right? That's what you want to be talking about in this consultation. So you're thinking, okay, what questions would I even ask, right? What questions would I ask them? How do I break that wall down? I want to help them kind of feel comfortable, right? Like they know they're being sold to, they know they're being sold to. It's like when you walk into a car lot, you're like, and the poor person that has to go after you. You're like, Oh, right. I don't really want to talk to you, but I know I need a car. So I have to talk to you. Right. So, but what do we do? We want to break that down. We don't want to be a used car salesman. We are not used car salesmen. We are selling the most important day of their whole life. It's an emotional purchase. So how do we break it down and make them feel comfortable? We're going to ask them questions. So the first couple of questions that I'm asking them have nothing to do. with me at all, because I am trying to break them down. I'm trying to get the wall that's around them. Think about it like crab legs, right? You got to get past the shell to get to the good stuff. So you want to break the shell off of them. How am I breaking the shell off of them? I'm asking them easy questions. And the way that I think about this is like, I'm going to sit for a second and think about it like this. If I was in a consultation with a couple, I would literally be, my couple's here or you're on zoom, right? Like we do mostly zoom consultations at this point. I want to use my body language. I want to lean in. I want to ask them questions. Like I'm genuinely interested. I don't want a checklist. I don't want a clipboard. I don't need to write down their answers because they mean nothing to me except how I'm going to use them to sell to them in just a few minutes. I don't need it for their file. It doesn't look good if I'm writing while I'm talking to them. I want to be interested. I want to treat it like, let's say Anna, Anna sitting up front. If Anna said to me, Brandee. I just got engaged. I'm like, girl, I'm so excited for you. And then I wanted to ask her all the questions. So Anna, how did it happen? Like how long have you guys been dating? How did he propose? Like, tell me all about it. Did you know? Did you know that he was going to propose? Like, were you surprised? This is literally how I'm talking to my clients. Now, I am a little bit more of a bubbly person, so I'm not telling you have to talk to them like that. You should do it in your own personality, but I want you guys to feel this. Feel how I'm leaning in. Feel how excited I am to talk to them. I'm genuinely interested in their story. I want to know, right? If I'm just asking them, like, You know, when did you get engaged? And they say, December 3rd. And then you move on to the next question. It's like, what was that? You know, like that's not exciting. I want to know, okay, December 3rd. How did you choose December 3rd? If they're both there, I want to ask them to tell me about the proposal story. Tell me about the proposal story. I want to know because it's usually different. If they both tell it, right? Which also gets them talking. It also gets them kind of like bantering back and forth. Like, Oh, I don't think it went down like that. Right? And so my goal with these questions is to get them to just treat me like a friend because I'm an emotional purchase. Unless you're selling a product, most of us, not all of us, but most of us are selling ourselves, right? Like Mark talked about that. It's really hard. You're selling yourself or you're selling your company. You're selling your team members. I'm selling a brand. I'm selling an emotion, an experience. That experience starts with the way that you talk to them, right? You want to get them to know, like, and trust you. They know about you. They've already known about you, but now you have to get them to like and trust you. And that's not easy to do. Mark literally talked about this, how Wedding service providers have such a harder time with paid advertising because we're selling ourselves and that's really hard to do. So I want to lean in. I want to treat it like it's my best friend who just got engaged and I want to ask them. These questions are starting to just break them down. You can make your own. These are just an example of what I say, but I want you to really think about don't talk about services yet. Don't even talk about their wedding. How are you dating? What do you guys like to do together? What do you do for work? All of these things are telling me things about them. They tell me they're a teacher. I'm starting to think dates. They're, they're going to have to only talk after three and they've got like summer break and Christmas break, right? If they tell me they're a CPA, I'm like, Oh, we might have some super, super like, Black and white people here, like everybody, everything's very linear, right? So I want to be putting these things in my bank as I'm thinking about how I'm going to sell to them. Then I'm going to start turning the tables, right? How do I start to turn it towards, okay, well, thanks Brandee. Like now I know their whole life story, but like, when do we get to sell? Right? When do I get to close this thing? Okay. So we're going to start turning the questions to I didn't change it, right? Okay. Yes. Sorry. I pushed the button when I was, um, how do we start turning it towards the wedding? We want to start now getting their focus towards the wedding. So I want to start asking questions that are about the wedding. How'd you choose your venue? This tells me so much. Um, unless you are a venue, obviously. Um, but if, if I say, how did you choose your venue? Oh my gosh, it totally tells me about the type of couple that you're working with, right? If they say, I've been stalking them on Instagram forever and I know their Saturdays fill up so fast. So like, as soon as I got the ring, I had to just go out and book them. You're like, got it. I know what type of client I'm working with. Right. But if they're like, I mean, we had to get married on June 3rd and honestly, it was the first venue we looked at and they had the date available, so. I don't know. It was good. We like it. It's fine. Right? Totally different kind of couple. It's telling you how to sell to them. I can't be my crazy up in your face self with a couple who are both CPAs. They would be like, what's happening to me right now? So I have to kind of sit back and be like, cool. Yeah. Okay, that's good. Well, let's move on to the next thing. Um, so then the next thing I'm going to ask him is how did you choose your date? This one also tells me a lot of information, kind of like the venue question. It's like, well, how did you choose your date? Well, he's in the military and I'm in residency and it was literally the only date where we could get married and then we both have to fly back to where we came from. You know what I mean? Like, it's crazy. So again, it's telling you things that you can use. It's telling you things that you can use. What type of couple that you're What other vendors have you Booked. If you are good in your industry, if you know your industry, if you know the other people that are around you, this can tell you what their price point is, right? We all know. It, it, there's nothing good or bad about vendors who charge a whole whole lot or a whole whole little, but it's telling you what you're working with. Because it's going to help you to know, okay, well if they've already booked other vendors, kind of helpful to know, right? Or if they're like, I haven't booked anyone else. I came straight to you. You were the one I wanted to talk to first. You're like, all right. Like now you're like in a whole different kind of sales mode, right? You're like, okay, let's do it. So that's a great question to ask. What other vendors have you booked? And then what is your worst wedding fear? So the way I like to ask this one is I'll say, um, um, Okay, you've been to weddings before, right? And of course they've been to a thousand because they're of that age and they're like, yeah. And I'm like, what has happened at a wedding? You've been to that. If it happened at your wedding, you would literally crawl under the table. Like you would die. And they're like, Oh, let us tell you about Johnny and Jessica's wedding. And you're like, okay, tell me about Johnny and Jessica's wedding. And it gives you ammunition because they're usually going to tell you a story that has to do with what you do. Right? So if you're a DJ, they'll be like, Oh my gosh, the DJ was drinking behind the booth and then he announced the best man for the toast and no one could even find the best man. And you're like, got it, right? So when I go to sell, what am I going to say? I'm going to focus on, I'm like, shout it out, who was about to say it? Yeah, we know who the best man is, right? If I'm a planner and they tell me a horrible DJ story, I'm like, well, we only work with the best DJs. We vet all of our DJs and bet that one of my assistants is standing next to him all night long, right? Because he's not announcing anything until we make sure the people are in the room, right? So when I go to sell, I want to talk about that. If I'm the DJ, I want to talk about that. I want to say that, right? If, if you're a photographer, you can even use a DJ store. You can be like, yeah, that doesn't happen because I always make sure that I introduce myself to the DJ right away when I get there, because I want to make sure that we're always in the room and not only that, but we're going to make sure that we work with all of your vendors to make sure your planer has the best man in the room. Do you see where I'm going? Like we, they have fears. That if we can realize them, if we can know them, we can sell to them, which is really exciting. Right? Because these are the fears that they have. So we want to battle those fears. So this is why these questions are so, so important. Okay? The third point, we're only selling to their pain points. So this is what I was just talking about. So here's what typically happens when I'm reviewing sales calls for wedding pros that we work with. So I'll listen to it and you're like, okay, now I've got to get into my pitch, right? It's time to get into my pitch. And you've got your packages in front of you and you're like, okay, so we have the diamond package and we have the platinum package and we have our own inclusive package. So let me tell you about all three. And you start going to this, And they're like, they're so glazed over at that point. Right. They don't really, they don't have the packages in front of them. You might hand them to them and then they're trying to figure out like, well, which of these packages do I need? Like I've never been married before. Right. I don't know. Do I need six hours or eight hours? Do I, do I need the parent album? Do I need the moving lights? Like they're so confused. You've lost them. You've lost them. They're so confused. And here's the thing. It's not their job to pick what service that they're going to get from you. It's not. It's yours. It is your job. You do it every weekend, every single weekend you go out and you say things like, Oh my gosh, these people booked us for event management, but they're totally not an event management couple. Right? How many planners have said that? I know we all have, right? And that's our problem. It's our fault. Why did you let them buy event management if you knew it wasn't going to work for them? Why didn't you upsell them? Right? And I've done it. I'm not pointing fingers. I've totally done it, but I've learned now that's because I say to them, here's A, B, and C. Which would you like? They don't know. They don't know what they need. Photographers, they have no idea how much time they need. You're a photographer, right? They have no idea. And all of a sudden they're like, I think I'll take six hours. And you're like, you're not going to get any getting ready. You're not going to get the end. You're at three different locations. It's not going to work. So why are we offering it to them? Why are Right? Your job is to tell them, based on everything they've told you, what they need and how you provide it. You don't even talk about your other packages. That's what's really fun about sales. So when you go into the pitch, you're only going to sell to their pain points, right? So you start talking the way I turn it because I've been asking questions the whole time, right? So now I've got to start selling and I'm like, okay, how do I turn this? Right? The way that I want to ask that is I say, do you have any questions for me about what we do? That's a really important question because here's the thing. They've probably already reviewed all your stuff. They've probably already came in knowing what they want to buy. You may need to change that. But I asked them, what questions do you have about what we do? Because I want them, I'm only going to answer their questions. My contract covers everything that's actually included, but I don't need to tell them. We line up your bridal party. We fluff your dress. We make sure all your vendors are there. No kidding. That's literally my job, right? What is different about what I do? What's different about me from my competition? I have to know that. I have to know that because when they start asking questions, I'm Sell against my competition, too, without saying, well, Susie Jane events down the street. She doesn't do that. No, I'm not going to say that. I can promise you this. If I know they're meeting with Susie Jane events, or that's my biggest competitor, I'm going to make sure that I'm selling to something Susie Jane events doesn't do. Right? I, that's how this is. We know, we know our competition, right? We don't throw names. But we certainly are going to make sure why we're different. One of the things that comes up for me is I have a team, right? So I know we were talking about it earlier, like you have a team, they want you, right? So I have to sell to my team and I have to make sure that if Susie chain events down the street doesn't have a team, how's she going to sell? Anybody know what kind of a thing she's going to say during her pitch? You're always going to get me. I'm the only one who shows up. I'm the only one who does events. That's hard when you have a team and you're like, it definitely won't be me. It won't be me. It will be one of my planners, but I know they're meeting with Susie during events and, or I at least know she's one of my biggest competitors. So when I go to pitch, I'm going to say something like, you know, one of the things that makes my company unique is we have a team. And some people think that that's kind of like, oh my gosh, but I won't know my planner. You will know your planner, trust me. But one of the things that's really important about that is that if any one of our planners were to get sick and it has happened in our company, we have a backup right away. We don't have to outsource from another company. In fact, other solopreneurs have, have outsourced from my company because they got sick. So we, that's not something we have to worry about here. We also have a team think environment. So if you have this, some crazy design you find on Pinterest, all of us are going to put our heads together to figure out how to do it. That's really unique to my company. And so I'm selling it before it's ever a problem, right? I want them to think, well, that Susie Jane girl, we have a consultation with her tomorrow, but she always talks about how she only is the only person. Like what's her backup plan? Plant the seed before it can become a problem, right? Sell against it. I also want to sell to their pain points. So they told me that they love their venue. But they're super concerned about lighting. They want a 6 p. m. wedding. They're getting married in December. Not going to happen, right? It's outside. So we want to talk to those pain points that they've shared with us. Best man was in the bathroom. My mom is a total train wreck. She makes me crazy. No problem. I'm going to make sure she stays out of the hair and makeup room as much as possible. I'll give her jobs during the day. That's what I'm going to sell to. So when I say something like, Do you have any questions for me about what we do? They're going to ask a few questions. They're going to say, you know, do you have a team? Of course, they already know that. They might ask you, um, you know, um, do you always have backup equipment? Because guess what? The Knot gave them a list of questions that they should ask their vendors. So they start, they pull out this list. Has anybody pulled out the Knot? Questions list and you're sitting there and you're like, okay, let's go. Um, but I always say to them, they're like, Oh, I'm sorry. I printed this out. I'm like, girl, go ahead. I got those memorized. Let's go. Let's talk about it. Right. So, but I want to let them get out all the questions that they have. It's so important because we want to make sure that whatever questions they have, we talk about right there. Because they're going to share all their objections with you right there. One of the objections might be price. They might say, you know, I'm going to use a planner as an example because that's what I am. But they might say, well, we really need partial planning. I know we need partial planning. I feel so overwhelmed by the design. Um, but we really didn't have that in our budget. Okay, great. Let's talk about that. Right. But now I know I didn't send a proposal and get ghosted because I never found out that they were concerned about not being able to for partial planning. We talked about it right there in the console, right? If they don't bring up pricing, you bring up pricing, you know, so the package that I think would be the best for you is XYZ. Here's Why I think it's best for you, right? You talked about that you're overwhelmed by design. You talked about mom being crazy. We're going to take on some of that for him. We're going to make sure that we work with mom directly. We're only selling to the pain points. We're only selling to the pain points. Then I'm going to say that service is 5, 600. Did you, how does that feel for you? Is that within your budget? Talk about the price. Talk about the price. And for every person sitting in the room that's telling me, well, I do all custom pricing, so I can't, I can't talk about the price. Anybody want to throw their hand up and say, I was just getting ready to tell you that. No. Okay. You don't have to throw your hand up, but this is the pushback I get all the time from vendors. It's like, yeah, but I do fully custom pricing. And I'm like, yeah, but it's all in your head. Like if you tell me you can, oh, but they'll say, well, but I can get a proposal out in five minutes. I'm like, well, then why couldn't you just. Do it in the console. I'm confused, right? You do know your pricing. You do know your pricing. And so you can spit that pricing out to them. You can talk about everything that they want. If you're a DJ, I want you to sell every, every single upsell that you have, but I want you to talk about it. We need uplights. Okay, great. So in your ballroom where you are, I suggest 20 uplights. Here's why. It's going to give you this type of effect, right? Add it in. Okay, great. And you want to dancing on a cloud too. I love doing dancing in the cloud in that ballroom. It's so magical. It's going to be great for you and Mike. When you're doing your private last dance, we'll turn it back on. It's going to be so cool. I'll go ahead and add that in. You keep going through until you've got to that final price so that you can talk about it right there. Because the number one reason you get ghosted is because you let them walk away without a price. is the number one reason you're getting ghosted. And I hear, I hear wedding pros talk about all the time. They're like, I did this great consultation. I totally vibed with them. They said everything was fine. And then they left. I sent their proposal and they never wrote back. And I'm like, well, you made them sit through a one hour consultation. Then you made them wait 24 hours. And then you made them read. A six page proposal. And now they're confused because you gave them options. They don't even know which one to pick. Now they have to get back on the phone with you. Like no one has time for that anymore. And this is what I'm talking about. When I say the market has shifted, no one wants to spend that much time. I see. Couple after couple after couple on Tik Tok that literally, Oh my gosh, you guys, it's so bad. Like it's all rabble on Tik Tok, but I love it. Cause I use it with all my students. I'm like, watch this. These brands do not want to talk to you 14 times. They don't want to have to get on a consult call to figure out what your pricing is. They're over it because here's the thing from their side, they have had to reach out to three, four, five of you to even get a response from two. Right? We know planners know for sure that we are not getting responses as quickly as we should be. And I get it. We're all busy, but they're reaching out to that many vendors in every category. And we want them to spend an hour with us and tell us their love story. And we want to send them a six page proposal. And get back on the phone with them, they're not doing it. They're not sell during your consultation. You can handle all the objections right there during the consultation. I promise you. Okay. I'm going to take questions. I promise. So we can talk about this. Okay. Last piece of this method is to assume the sale. So this is why I call it the assume method. So we want to assume the sale. What does that look like? If you've done all of the pieces so far, you should be about 45 minutes into your consultation, right? I'm doing okay on time, right? Yeah. Okay. You should be about 45 minutes into your consultation, 50 minutes, right? You talked about them for 30, you talked about yourself or your, what you're going to do for them, all that kind of stuff for 10 to 15. So now it's time to assume the sale, right? All of us are like, but, but how do I close? How do I just say, okay, well, here's the contract. You don't have to say that because now you're like their best friend. It's super exciting. At this point, you guys, like you, we've been warming up as we've been here. Right now it's like, okay, what else you got? Right? So that's what they want from you. They want to, they want you to sell to them. They want you to tell them the next steps. And so it looks something really easy like this. So you're going to say, let's say that they tell you that they really want to have their dog Domino. In the ceremony, he's so cute. And we got him when we first started dating and he's so cute. Like we take him everywhere and we have to have him in the wedding. And the venue already said it was fine. So we got him a little bow tie. Right? They're telling you this during the discovery and you're like, great. Okay. So when you go to sell, you're going to say, Susie and Mike, This is, I love talking to you guys. This is so fun. I've had a blast. And I have to tell you, I cannot wait to see Domino in his bow tie. Like he's going to be so cute when we send him down the aisle. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go ahead and send the contract over via email. You just review it, sign it right there. You pay the invoice. As soon as you do that, you're going to be part of the Blush family. And we'll go ahead and get started on your planning. There goes my voice. On your planning, right? Do you see how different that is than, would you like me to send you a contract? Right? That sounds so icky. You know, they're like, they always, the answer to that is always, well, I need to talk to my parents. Well, I need to talk to my fiance. Right. And you're like, Oh, here we go. So, but when you can assume the sale, assuming the sale means one, you assume they want to work with you and two, you've painted yourself into their wedding day. And just like Mark had said earlier, Mark was saying, um, you know, well, you want to make sure that you can, that like, that you can sell yourself because you're going to show up to their wedding day. Like you're an invited guest to their wedding day. Heck yeah, you are. Yeah. You want to make sure that you paint yourself in that day. So whatever they've said to you, if you're a DJ, I love using DJs because they always get the best, like, um, discovery. I feel like, cause they'll be like, we don't want a DJ that has the big hands and plays games with everybody. Right. I want to make sure the DJ can keep the dance floor packed. So you're going to use that. You're going to be like, I already have like 30 songs in my head that I would love to send you for your playlist. Like I can already see your guests just like dancing. We're going to have a blast. People are going to talk about your party for years to come. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go ahead and send the contract over via email, review it, pay the invoice online and then I'm going to go ahead and get started on your playlist. What are they going to say? They're like, okay, right? That's usually the answer. They're like, that's it. That's easy. That's how easy it is. And you're like, yeah, did you want me to add something else? And they're like, no, it's just, they've been to other vendors and they're like, surprised, right? Because you are just making it that easy. We're just going to review it. That's it. You're just going to review it online and you're going to buy. The assume method starts with a genuine connection. You can't miss this part. You guys, it doesn't work if you do not connect with them. Right. And sometimes I'm just going to be honest. Sometimes you don't. Right. Sometimes we get, we have people come to a consultation. You're like, you're not my client. Right. And that's okay. I wouldn't assume the sale on those. Right. I would not, I would not, I would be like, I'll send you a proposal. Right. Okay. You do not assume the zeal in those. So you want to make sure that it starts with a genuine connection and it ends with genuine excitement with both parties, right? It really does. You're so excited to welcome them to your client roster and honestly, they're like, check mark. Look at us. Another check on our long list of to dos, right? We just booked our DJ. We just booked our planner, our photographer. This is so important. Here's the thing. I know there's some of you in here that are like, I can't do this. Like, I'm not doing this. It feels too pushy. And I'm here to tell you, we work with hundreds of students. This has changed the way they sell. And the reason I even put these up here is because I want you guys to see like, this person wasn't even in my program. This person just came in. He like kept watching, kept watching. He's a DJ and he kept watching my reels. And he was like, finally, he was like, fine. He dropped in my DMs. I'll do it. And I'm like, Okay, I mean, whatever, I want what's better for you, right? And so finally he was like, I sent out every contract I sent out was immediately signed and proposals are still pending because they don't want to review them. They don't have time, right? Same thing here. I have to say again how, well, Brandee's method of closing a sale works. This is so important. They end with, Oh, okay. Like, where do I sign? Give me the, give me the email. Give me the contract, right? Same thing here. Like this one I think is so fun. This is a bar company, which is really unique, right? Like we don't have a ton of bar companies. I know there's a few in here, but she was like, I just changed the verbiage at the end. Like that's all I had to do. And I was like, you're a bar company. You're already selling a product. Like it's not just send the contract. What are you sending a proposal about? So it's just so great to see it work. It does work. And I'm telling you guys, if you adapt your strategies, you will win. I've seen it hundreds of times, hundreds of times. And I just want you to try it. Just try it. I would love it if you guys would drop into my DMs and tell me, Oh, I thought my Instagram handle was here. It's not. Okay. I'm at Brandee Gaar on Instagram and I love DMs by the way. Like My favorite thing is voice DMs except for the last two weeks. And so you can get my squeaky voice DMs. Um, but I want, I'm at Brandee Gaar. If you try it, please text me. Please DM me and say like, I tried it. It worked. Or I tried it and I fumbled my words, but I'm going to try it again. Right? Because it is a little bit weird at first. It's different. But I had promised you guys in the beginning that I would give you my 60 seconds. Figure email funnel, this is that consideration piece. So this is the same funnel I give to all of my students. It not only has the emails that I want you to use, but it also tells you when to text and what to say. So that's a whole different presentation on texting and how important it is in your funnel. But um, it does tell you when to text in your funnel and what to say. And so this is a really great way to move them through that consideration phase so that you can try this assume method on as many people as possible. So, okay, you guys. I'm open for questions. I'm going to take a drink of water, but who has questions? No questions. Hi. Hey. So, for the consultation, do you really push them to get on Zoom? Because I've had some where like, oh, can Yeah, I do phone calls. I don't prefer it. Um, we, we do them and I think it's obviously I'm going to take them however they want. In reality, we also do text consults. So I think it's meet them where they are. And, um, yeah, that's on the phone. I think you can still hear their language though. Right? Like if I was in the hallway, you'd still hear me like inflect my voice and like, be excited, still talk to them. Like it's your friend calling on the phone. Yeah. Makes sense to me. For the clients that you're directly meeting with, what about the clients that are coming to you through a planner? Mm-hmm . And they, and sometimes the planner wants that proposal. Mm-hmm . What does that look like when you don't get to actually like sell directly to the client and you're selling more, almost. Yeah, so at that point, the planner is your client. And, um, I would do what the planner asks. Um, not, I'm a planner, so that's obviously super biased, but my job is to make my client's job as easy as possible. I think it's definitely, like, it won't bother me if a, if a, if a, talking to a photographer, and if the photographer said, hey, I'd love to know a little bit more about your client so and like what the timeline looks like, you know, so I can make sure I give you the best package. And if I say, well I still want a proposal, I would say, that's totally fine, I, but I want to um show you the best package that I think and tell you why and then I can certainly send you the other ones as well. The difference is when you're working with. The end couple, they're, this is not, they're uneducated in weddings, right? I don't want to say they're uneducated, but they're uneducated in planning a wedding because they've never done it before. All they know is what's on TikTok, right? But a planner hopefully has quite a bit of education in what they do. And so I think it is different in how you present that information to them. They're just trying to get all of it so they can discern what's best for their client. And I think that's totally fine to have a conversation about it, but I do think you're selling to a totally different. Level of education, right? I also, I will just tip for, I, this is my own bias, but I cannot stand it when a vendor asks me like, tell me the love story of your client. I'm like, no, I'm a planner. Like if they want to meet with you, you can ask them their love story. But right now I just need the details. Like I've already chosen you. I need you to just give me the stuff I need, right? And so like, I do think it's important for you to know who you're selling to. And if the planner's reaching out, the planner's your client. They're not the one signing the contract and I'm aware of that, but they, they have the client's ear. It's our job to make the best choices for our clients. Um, so I would respect what the planner's asking for, but certainly if you can say, I'd just love to point you to the best direction, um, but I can give you the rest as well. It is tough. I know it's tough for you guys that are like, but honestly, I mean, I, I guess on one hand, I think it's tough. And on another hand, I think like, it's kind of like fishing in a tiny little pond. Like if the planners come to you and said, Hey, I'd love your information because my client's interested. That's like, it's pretty sold. It's much more sold than a cold lead. So I would treat it that way. I'd be like, Hey, thanks so much for considering me. What can I do to make your job easier? Like, what can I give you? You know, different kinds of stuff. How do you handle follow ups after your consults? If, if, you know, usually like after a consult we've had recently, they say, well, I need to get my fiance. I need to talk to my fiance or my parents are paying for it. I have to talk to them. Are you, Following up with them consistently? Do you follow up with them on a schedule? Do you get to a point where if they don't respond to you, you just kind of like archive it as like it's not going to happen? Like how do you suggest dealing with like the ghosting after the consult? Yeah, that's a great question. So he was asking how do you deal with ghosting after the consult if they didn't sign the contract during the consult, right? And when I say sign the contract during the consult, I don't sit there and watch them sign it. I do tell him like I'm sending it to you. Um, but I think that's a great question cause it does happen, right? Of course. There's people that are like, Oh, I'm gonna talk to my fiance or have these other meetings and I just want to be respectful. The first thing I would do is make sure you have a followup date. So what we do is we'll say, Oh, that's totally fine. I'll follow up. You'll follow up with you in a couple of days. Don't worry about it. No, that's not definitive, right? I want you to say, okay, that's no problem. When do you think that you'll be able to connect with your fiance? Right? Like do you, are you guys together this weekend? Um, would it work for me to follow up with you? Say Tuesday, like Tuesday. for you and like get an appointment on the schedule. It doesn't even have to be a phone call. You can just say, I'll just shoot you a text, um, or we can jump in the call. However, it kind of plays out, but get a definitive time. It helps you too, because honestly, if you just say like, okay, no problem. Let me know, or I'll follow up. You have no idea what sometime means to them, right? Or like, um, They could be in the very beginning stages of their planning, especially for a videographer. Sometimes, well, no, you guys are usually last. I'm sorry, but like you're closer to the end, but they could still, it's always a videographers are always a, if there's money left over, right? I get that pain point. And so they might be still waiting for some contracts to come in or whatever. So I ask, I want to know like, what's your deciding factor or if your fiance loved it too, is it a yes from you? Like, does it feel good? Do you feel like this, you know, or is there something that I missed in talking about? Are there any questions that your fiance might have? You know, something like that. So I always want to do that. And then in the follow ups, one of the reasons I am passionate, Mark and I are both very passionate about texting. It's, um, it's, it's not, it's not even negotiable anymore. Like it's not even negotiable. You must text in your sales funnel. You have to. So. The reason that I think that's so important, though, is because it sets the tone for after. If they don't book during the consult, I can drop into Jenny's text messages and say, Hey, Jenny, I know that you said that you were talking to Mike this weekend. I just wanted to follow up and see if you guys were ready to go ahead and move forward. Right. I want to, I want to just check in on that. Right? So it helps a little bit because emails just get buried. And to be honest, I have a Gen Zer, she does not know how to use email. It's so painful. It's so painful. And they just don't, they don't check email that much. So if I can get into their texts, even if they tell you no, the, at least they respond most of the time. And then you had the last question, which was, Oh, do you archive them at a certain point? Okay. I am torn on this. I have a team and we have a sales manager. And so no, she's not allowed to archive them till they physically tell her no, or their wedding day has passed. I am also aware. I've been a solopreneur, had a very small team where I was doing the sales. That's not realistic for everybody. So I think make your own decision, but that's also why it's so important to ask them during that consult. Like, when are you planning on making this decision? Because if you're in the beginning stages, if you're a photographer, venue planner, if you're looking for honestly, even entertainment, you're likely getting booked towards the beginning and they're still just trying to get their ducks in a row. Like they're overwhelmed. They just put down a 15, 000 deposit on the venue. They're like, I know I need to book these other vendors, but I don't have the money. They don't want to say that. Right. So ask the question, when do you think that you're planning to make a final decision on this? Right. Because if they say, honestly, we're just kind of figuring out who we want to work with right now. And we're really not planning on making this decision till the very end. The end of March. Well, that sucks. I might not be available, right? But you don't say that part, but you would say like, okay, that's no problem. So you want to know, okay, I'm not going to dump them out of my system till at least then. Right. Um, so, but if you have the capacity, my answer is you never archive them till their wedding day has passed or they've told you no. They reached out to you. You're not cool calling them. Never. No. And that's actually how you get it back. That's a great question. I'm so glad that you asked that because that's actually how you get the contract back. So. When I send the contract, I do, like, when we're kind of just kind of towards the end, like, I'll say, like, I'm going to send the contract over, and they're like, I'm so excited, it's going to be so fun. I always say, like, quick caveat, like, just so you know, you want to make sure you do that quickly, because we don't hold your date until the signed contract and the retainer is back. And I want to make sure that you get, you guys get this date on our calendar, right? And I think that that's really important, because they kind of assume if they did a consultation with you, that. You owe them first right of refusal. And I'm like, I don't like, you're not, you're probably not even going to respond to me if you leave this room. So I don't owe you holding my date, holding your date. Right. So obviously you say it much nicer than that, but I do let them know that it's not held until we have that retainer on file. Uh, to the point of your followup with them until they have their way. Yeah. Uh, what's your regularity on that and what's your methods for, yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Say they left the consultation and didn't sign yet. Right. So first I'm going to follow up with them when they told me to. So even if it's two weeks, I'm going to wait two weeks out of respect. That's when they told me. Right. Um, and then from there, this is how I do it. There's lots of ways to do it, but, um, even our system does remind us like, Hey, it's time to do your second follow up. It's time to do your third follow up. I just don't have time to be interrupted that many times during the day. It's frustrating. And you're like, ugh. So I personally, when I was doing sales every Friday morning, It was on my calendar. I spent an hour typically and I would go through every lead that needed to move to the next follow up. And then I would just look at it and go, okay, this person needs a third follow up. What was the last communication with them? And when I'm writing my communication, I say whether I text them or whether I email them so I know. Um, and then I'll just, I literally just sit on my couch usually and cause you're getting ready for a wedding or something and you're just like, okay, I'm going to sit here and follow up with all the leads to the other reason I really like it on Fridays is because they're going into the weekend, which they typically have more time. Right? And so I'm like, great. And if they just respond that they're ready for a contract, that's a pretty easy thing to do at a wedding or to have your assistant do, right? It's not like you have to like nurture them anymore. You're just trying to find out yes or no. Um, so that's why I like Fridays, but that's my personal cadence. I think it's helpful if you can set one or two hour blocks on your calendars to everyone at once, just easier. I have a question about, I know everything you said sounds awesome. What if you're a company that like. Doesn't send full pricing right away. Maybe just starting when you have better opportunity to sell If they if you get them on a call You know, like let's say they have your full pricing and they don't book a call right away You kind of like showed your full hand instead of like maybe starting pricing and selling Yeah, no, I think starting pricing is totally fine or a range of investment before they totally get on the call. Yeah, I think that's totally fine. The big thing is that we want them to have an understanding of what your price range is. Because, you know, there's nothing more frustrating than getting on a call with somebody and you're starting price is 2, 500 and they're like, my budget's 800. And you're like, But they didn't know, you know, they don't know. So giving them a starting pricing or an investment guide is really helpful. And then one of the things I tell my students as well, we were actually talking about this earlier, was, um, you know, I, I'm big on marketing. You guys saw in the top of the funnel, right? So a lot of times I'm teaching you how to take people from Instagram directly to your link in bio to book a consult. That's a really powerful tool. Big deal. But they won't have seen your pricing yet. And people are always like, well, they never even looked at my pricing. Well, they didn't go read your whole website, you know? So on, when they go to book a consultation with you, we have a link at the bottom or a little check box they have to check. And it says, our minimum investment is Blank. This is in alignment with my budget and they have to click it or they can't confirm the appointment. So that's a really easy way just to either say my minimum investment is, or the average investment of our couples, right? If you're a photographer, a lot of photographers do not like to put their starting pricing, which I totally get because you're starting pricing, pricing is a six hour package and it's like, no one wants it. You don't want them to book the six hour package and eight is the most average. Well, then say the average investment of our couples is 5, 400. This is in alignment with my budget. If they don't click it, they can't confirm the appointment. And that's okay, right? Like I'm like, I'd rather have two killer consults that are going to close than 10 that never even saw your pricing and wasted your time. Right? So that's why that's there. But because if you're taking people, Not through your website. And honestly, even if people go to your website, they don't always read. That's okay. I don't read websites. Am I okay, Jordan, or one more? One more question. Okay. No, we don't do any in person consults anymore. Um, but in zoom, you know, like any of my students in here know, I'm fairly animated on zoom as well, right? Like you're always seeing my arms flying. And so I, I think it's important to use your body language. And then same thing, like one of the questions up here was a call, phone call. And then again, we do text consults. It's about making sure they can hear your excitement in whatever platform you're on. So if you're on zoom. I mean, I can't really do the body language here, right? But you can be like, Oh my gosh, what? That's so exciting. Like you can kind of lean into the camera, lean back from the camera. Or if they say something like. I'm Brandee Gaar, and I'm here to talk to you about how you can be a great sales manager. I'm Brandee Gaar, and I'm here to talk to you about how you can be a great sales manager. Just like it. Just like it. And I will say with like a text consult, there's either, there's two kinds of couples that come in through a text consult, either one that has already been watching you for a long time and they're like, I don't need a consult. I already want to book them. Right. So they do a text consult. It's 15 minutes max. And they're like, send me a contract. That's the best. Or it's somebody who's so cold. They don't want to get on the phone with you, which is totally fine too. You didn't waste my time. I can text you while I'm making dinner. Right. I can text you while I'm doing something else. But with the text consult, we do the same thing. Like we try to get to know them a little bit. Like we're like, How'd you pick your venue? You know, how'd you guys meet? Um, our sales manager is really good at making a connection point and she has a lot of pictures in her phone that she doesn't mind sharing of like her dog or, um, like where she's from in Maryland. So she tries to connect and she'll be like, Oh, this is my golden shepherd. I don't know what kind of dog she has, but like, she's loves her dog. Um, and so like, she'll try to connect with them before moving into it. So it's always just about the genuine connection and that's what you're trying to do, no matter what platform it is. my time is up. You guys were gonna go have cocktails. I'll be there. So if you have more questions, let me know

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Brandee Gaar

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