321. Your Sales Funnel is BLEEDING Cash

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If you feel like you’re working around the clock only to watch leads slip through your fingers, we need to talk. 

This week, I’m breaking down how to stop letting your automated "systems" act as a barrier to your profit and how to start leading your sales with the confidence and connection your premium services deserve. 

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A favorite book of mine: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz 

https://amzn.to/4lbqZFw

Another favorite book of mine: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell 

https://amzn.to/3ITKLb4

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EPISODE SHOW NOTES BLOG & MORE:

https://weddingproceo.com/sales-funnel-bleeding-cash/

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Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Wedding Pro CEO Podcast. If you find these strategies helpful, make sure to share this episode with your fellow wedding pros. And remember, in the world of weddings, it's all about building genuine relationships and showcasing your best work. Until next time, keep shining, CEOs!

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Transcript

1:01

Let me say this as clearly as possible. If your sales funnel is just automated emails with a booking link, you don't have a sales funnel, you have a digital suggestion box, and it's literally bleeding cash because automation without human follow-up is not strategy. It's literally avoidance, dressed up as systems. You didn't build a funnel, you built a passive hope machine, it's so frustrating to watch so many wedding pros go through this loss of leads, and they drop into my dms and they're like, I don't know what's wrong with my sales funnel. And when I start asking questions, we realize a human is not involved at all. Here's the lie that the wedding industry is telling you. You set up email automations and just let the funnel do the work. It's passive. As long as it's all automated, the sales are just gonna come in. And that sounds sexy, and it feels scalable, and it looks professional. But here's the reality. Automated emails do not sell premium services. They filter for sure, they warm the leads, they educate, but they do not do the closing. And this is where so many wedding pros are failing, especially in high trust, high investment services like weddings, events, planning, production, design, coordination, all of the things that we do in the wedding industry. People don't buy transformation from a link. They buy it from confidence, clarity, and connection. So if your sales funnel never gets human, it's literally never gonna yield you a profit. So here's the shift we're talking about today. Your funnel is not your strategy. It's simply the system to help you get there. Sales is actually what happens when you, as the human being step into it, not when you wait to see if they book, not when you let the automation just run and do its thing, and certainly not. When you say, if they're serious, they'll schedule. Absolutely not. You are simply being lazy with your sales and the sales of your business are the number one thing that drive everything else. If you don't have sales, you're gonna cease to have a business in a few months. So this is where you need to spend time in your business. I see this over and over and over again, where CEOs, business owners come into my dms and they're like, I just don't have time for sales. I haven't done follow ups in three weeks. Everything else is taking more time. And I'm like, what could possibly be more important in your business than sales? Because you will not have a business if you don't have sales. So you as the business owner or someone on your team, a human from your team that is responsible for sales, needs to be stepping into your sales funnel. You cannot simply let an automation run. If your clients are confused, overwhelmed, busy, scared to invest, uncertain or distracted, they simply won't take the next step. Not because they're un- qualified, but because no one led them there. if you're wondering why so many people inquire with you, but never make it to a consult or never actually book, this episode is for you. This is what an actual revenue generating sales funnel looks like. So step one, we're gonna send that automated email with a booking link. Yes, I want you to have this, so do not hear me say in this episode that I don't want you to have automated emails. If you've ever listened to any of my teachings, you know I'm obsessed with automations. They help you to be better at what you're doing. They help you to get information in front of your leads much more quickly, right? So I'm not telling you to turn that off. Your very first step in your sales funnel should be an automated email that goes out within seconds of them inquiring, and that email should have a link to book a call with you. Yes, automation matters. So I want you to send the email, send the info, send the link in that first automated email. But this is exposure. This is getting the information in front of them. This is not conversion. Okay? So step two is where you as the human being, need to. Step into the funnel you get that automated email off to them, which is so handy because that email can go out no matter what you're doing. If you're in a meeting, if you're on a call, if you're busy with doing other things in your business, if you're at an actual wedding, that email can go out to that lead and give them all the information that they need to make that next step without you doing anything. However, a lot of people will not take that next step. Simply from the automated email, and this is where you're gonna step in. In that same day that the inquiry comes in, you're gonna see that you got an inquiry. Yay. So exciting. And maybe four or five hours later, at this point, you've already got the automated email off to them, which is wonderful. Now you're gonna step in with a personal text. When I say text, I actually mean a text that goes to their phone. So I know so many of you are hearing this and you're like, I don't wanna text, I don't wanna get them in the habit of that. But welcome to 2026. It is absolutely necessary for you to add texting into your sales funnel. And here's what we're not gonna do. This is a personal text, okay? A personal text. So what? It's not. It's not a robot message. It's not just circling back. It's not. Let me know if you have any questions. It's a real human message that sounds like it's coming from a human, so please do not just copy the email that you already sent them and paste that into a text. That's not what we're doing either. Okay? Here's what this might sound like. Hey Susie, this is Brandee Gaar from Blush and I just saw your inquiry come through. I'm super excited to learn more about your big day. You probably already got an automated email from us earlier today with pricing and a little bit more about us, but I just wanted to reach out personally and see if there's any questions I can answer for you. That's simple. It's nothing to overthink. It's a personal message from you. You say your name, the company that you're with, you let them know they already got an automated email and here's why. Because often that automated email goes to spam. So we wanna make sure that they got it because it's got a lot of information on it that they might want. Scott, your pricing, your booking link, right? So we're gonna check to see that they actually got it. A lot of times this is also gonna yield them responding. Oh, hey, I got it, but I just haven't had a chance to look at it yet. No problem. Or they might have a question that they wanna ask you before actually making the commitment to book a consult. This opens so many doors it humanizes your business so that you're more than a logo, more than an automation. This is what we're looking for here, so we wanna keep this text super personal. The purpose of this text message, this first text message is to signal leadership, to signal personality, to signal trust, because now they're like, whoa, this person's actually reaching out to me one-on-one. Professionalism as well, asking if they have any questions that you can answer, and it's also making them a priority. And all of these things make a client that much more warm in your sales funnel. Okay. Step three of your sales funnel is for your automated emails to continue, right? So we're not gonna text them every single day. We're not gonna make you run around like a rabbit chasing its tail. We're not gonna do that. We want to be smart about the way that we're putting this human interaction into our sales funnel. So we sent that first text and now we're just gonna let our funnel run, right? Our funnel is gonna nurture our funnel is gonna remind them that we exist and our funnel is gonna continue to educate them about what we do. But again, your automated funnel is your supporting role, not your closing role. So that's where we move into step four. If they still have not booked a call, as they get somewhere around seven to 10 days in your funnel, you're just gonna text again and you're just simply gonna check in. You wanna clarify or guide? You don't wanna put pressure, okay? We're not gonna pressure them. We're not gonna chase, we're not gonna be desperate. We're simply leading them to the next step in the process because, sales is leadership. And This text is simply to figure out where they are in the process. Right? So a quick, Hey Suzy, this is Brandee Gaar from Blush. I know that you inquired with us about a week ago. I wanted to just check to see if you're ready to go ahead and get your planner booked or to go ahead and get your DJ checked off of your to-do list. Right? Or if you're ready to book a consultation so we can chat all about your vision for your photographs, for your big day. Right? We're just doing a quick check-in, but we also want to set what that standard is so we don't just wanna say, Hey, I wanted to check in. We wanna say, are you still looking to book your planner? Are you still looking to get book? My DJ checked off my to-do list. Right? Like lead them to the next step because we want them to understand this is why you inquired because you need something and I can help you solve that. Right? So it's not just, Hey, I'm checking in. It's leading them to the next step in the decision. Right? If they respond and they say something like, oh hey, thank you so much for following up. I'd love to go ahead and get a consult on the books. Drop the link in the text. Do not send them back that email, okay? Do not send them back to the email. We never wanna take them off the platform that they're responding on. So if they respond to you via text, be prepared to link your packages or be prepared to link your booking link right there. The goal is to get them to a consultation from this entire process. Okay? Now this is a part that matters more than most business owners think, and this is a caveat to the process. During this entire episode so far we've been talking about what to do to get people to book a call, right? But the whole point of interjecting you as a human into your sales process is so by the time that you get a couple in front of you at a consultation, they are so ready to buy. They're like 80 to 90% already ready to buy, and they're just honestly coming to make sure that you're not some crazy person. Right? So the consultation, we want them so warm. By the time that they get to the consultation that they are ready to sign on the dotted line. It's literally just a formality at this point. So how do we do that? Well, even when somebody does book from your link, right? So either through the text messages that you've been sending or through your automated emails or honestly just straight from your website, when a consultation books with you consult and you see it already on your calendar. So many wedding pros think, oh great, I have a consult next Tuesday. They go about their business, and this is causing a gap in your process because now that person thinks they're doing business with a robot, right? They've booked a consultation with you. You're handy, automated reminders go out via your scheduler, but no one has actually put a human connection there. And so this is what I want you to think about. Your sales process is not done here. When someone books a call with you, this is the highest intent moment in your entire sales funnel prior to them actually signing a contract. And so this is what we want to send a personal text, right? So we're gonna let the automations also run because those reminders are so handy. That's why we pay for a scheduler. But we wanna send something simple like,"Hey Susie, I just saw that you scheduled a call with us and I'm so excited to learn more about your wedding next week. I looked over all of your information so far and I can't wait to hear more about your vision. I'll see you next Tuesday." Or sometimes I'll even end with, "If you have any questions before our call next Tuesday, feel free to shoot them to me here. Otherwise, I'll see you then. Have a great week." Right? So it's just a simple humanizing of your brand. This one small message does a few really powerful things. Number one, it's confirming you're a real human, right? So it's not just a logo. Number two, it's gonna lower their guard so that they're not coming into it thinking, oh, I'm just gonna be sold to, they're actually coming in ready for a conversation because you sound excited about their vision for their wedding, right? You sound as excited as they are. Number three, it builds trust before you ever get on a consultation. So whether that's Zoom or FaceTime, or even in person, it's building that trust before you ever get there. It's also personalizing the experience and warming up their lead. This is going to dramatically increase your close rate, which is exactly what we want from your sales funnel, right? So now when they show up to the call, you're not a stranger. You're already a human that they feel connected to.' cause here's the thing that I want you to hear in this episode. People don't buy from funnels and automations. They buy from people who make them feel seen, understood, and confident. That's literal sales psychology. It's leadership and it's how premium services are sold. Remember that in the wedding industry we are selling an emotional purchase. Most of us are selling a service. Very few of us have an actual product, though some of us do. It's a very emotional industry, and most of our clients are one-time clients. They are not repeat, they don't already have that trust built up with you. And to be honest, they're pretty unsure of what they're even doing as they're buying. So you have to be the one that's leading and it takes so much more human interaction to help them understand that they're able to trust you before they ever get to that consultation. Here's the thing. If your funnel requires zero human interaction, it's literally gonna produce zero premium conversions because scalability without connection equals volume, and it doesn't equal value. High level businesses don't automate relationships. They systematize leadership and inside Wedding Pro, CEO, we see this constantly. Business owners come in spending money on CRMs, on funnels, on automations, on software, on email sequences, but they're still losing tens of thousands of dollars in revenue and not converting the leads they're getting because no one on their team is owning the sales process. There's no follow up, there's no leadership, there's no process, there's no conversion strategy. There's literally just a bunch of vibes and links, Here's the standard I want for you instead. Okay. Automation equals efficiency. Humans equal conversion. Process equals scale and leadership equals revenue. You need all four. Not one, not two, not. Ah, the funnel will handle it. I have a million other things to do. If you remember nothing else from this episode, CEO, lean in, close and hear me. Funnels do not close deals. People do. Systems are meant to support your sales, but they're not meant to replace you. If your funnel is running and your bookings aren't coming in consistently. If your emails are sending, but your calendar is still empty, and if your automation is working, but your revenue isn't growing, your funnel isn't broken, your sales strategy is simply missing you. And that's exactly what we fix inside of Wedding Pro, CEO. Our coaching team works directly with our students to help see where the gaps are in your funnel, where are you losing them, where are you literally bleeding cash out of your sales funnel, what can we do to close those gaps up so that as leads come in, they're literally flowing consistently through your funnel to a close. And this is the key. This is it. There's no secret, magic wand that we have inside of Wedding Pro CEO. It's simply our coaches who have so much experience in this industry growing multiple six figure businesses, that we are able to take a look at your business from the outside in and see just where the holes are, where you're not closing. Little tweaks that you can do and strategies that we have to help you understand how to consistently move leads through your funnel to get them in the door and get them to become a paying client. This is what we do. We're gonna show you where your funnel is leaking. We're gonna show you where revenue is being lost, what to automate, what to humanize, what to systematize, and how to turn your funnel into a real sales-engine. So that you scale that business to the business you've always dreamed of. We don't create a hope strategy. We don't do passive pipelines. We create revenue systems. And so what I want you to do is if you're listening to this episode and you're like, oh my gosh, this is me. Like I get leads sort of, they're not consistent. When I do get them, they don't really make it to a consult. Some of them I book, some of them I don't. It's kind of a hot mess. I want you to go to the link in the description below And book a Gap assessment with my team. These are completely free. Our team is gonna assess your business and help you to see exactly what strategies would move the needle forward. if we feel like you would be a great fit to join Wedding Pro, CEO, we're gonna talk to you about that as well so that our coaching team can come alongside you so that you can make this year, the year that you two or three x the revenue in your business. CEO. Let's stop the bleeding. And if you listen to this episode and you're like, I absolutely loved this Brandee, I want to hear more like this. I would love it if you would share this episode with a friend or share on your story and tag me so that I can say thank you. And if you're feeling super generous, CEO, I would be so appreciative if you would take two minutes to leave a five star review for the podcast on whatever platform that you're listening on. Thank you so much for being here, and I'll see you next week.