325. The Reason Your Lead Flow Is Unpredictable (And How to Fix It)

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Stop leaving your revenue to chance and start building a lead generation strategy that actually works while you're busy on-site at weddings. 

This episode of the Wedding Pro CEO podcast breaks down the four organic channels you need to create a predictable flow of 10–20 qualified inquiries every month—without spending a dime on ads. 

It’s time to ditch the "hope and pray" method, stop overworking for under-market prices, and finally build the profitable, sustainable business you deserve at https://www.weddingproceo.com.

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A favorite book of mine: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz 

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

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https://weddingproceo.com/predictable-lead-flow-wedding-pros/

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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

If you can't predict where your next 10 clients are coming from, you don't have a lead generation strategy, you have a prayer. And while I believe in the power of prayer, it is not a business strategy. Most wedding pros are at the mercy of random referrals, paying for garbage leads from listing sites, or posting on Instagram and hoping someone reaches out. Your revenue is unpredictable and unpredictability is what's keeping you stuck and underpaid, burnt out, and overworked. But today we fix that. Most wedding pros have zero control over their lead flow, which means you can't plan your revenue, you can't hire a team, you can't raise prices, you can't take vacation without completely panicking, and so you're operating in survival mode. I know this all too well, and I see it with hundreds of our students when first come into the program. On today's episode, here's what we're covering. What consistent lead flow actually looks like in real numbers. The multi-channel organic strategy that generates 10 to 20 qualified leads per month without running ads. Why transparent pricing pre-qualifies your dream clients? And the one hour per week social media strategy that generates six figures. All of this is how we take control of our revenue instead of hoping and praying. by the end of this video, you'll know exactly what you need to do to create predictable lead generation. So let's get into it. First off, what does consistent lead flow actually look like? Well, first of all, I wanna encourage you to stop saying I want more inquiries. This makes me absolutely crazy because it's vague. So when wedding pros drop into my dms and they're like, Hey, I need more leads, I'm like. Okay, but how many more? How many did you get last month? How many do you need to hit your revenue numbers? And the answer is always, I don't know, but I don't get enough. And that is simply not a way to actually measure the scalability of your business. Here's the actual numbers. You want to be getting 10 to 20 qualified leads per month minimum. This is important because this is how we're gonna hit that six figures on 10 to 20 qualified leads per month. We want 50% of those, so 50% of every lead that comes into your business to actually book a consult with you. And then we wanna close. 40% of all of the leads that we're getting, right? So this is two to four new bookings per month. If your average package is$5,000, you can do the math. That's 10 to $20,000 in new revenue every single month. Do you see how we're reverse engineering, how we're gonna hit that six figures to get to six figures per year, we need to be hitting. Eight to $10,000 per month. So we just reverse engineer how many leads do we need to get based on our conversion rate. And then now it's our job to go get those leads. You guys, over a year, we are talking about more than six figures. We're talking about 120,000 plus in revenue. And that's the difference between a hobby business and a real business. If you're not hitting these numbers, you don't have a lead problem, you have a strategy problem, and that's what we need to fix. The next thing we wanna talk about is what qualified actually means, right? We say, I'm getting this many leads, but are they even qualified to work with you? So qualified means that they can afford you. They align with your values and they're ready to book, they're ready to buy. They're not just shopping around, they're not just gathering information. And this is really, really common in the wedding industry because as soon as they get engaged, they wanna start in that gathering stage, which totally understandable, but that's not necessarily a qualified lead this month to purchase. We want qualified leads who are ready to buy, Not we'll let you know later. Why does this predictability in how many leads you're gonna get every single month actually even matter? Now, that's kind of a silly question, right? Because all of us would say, oh, I would love to be able to know how many leads I'm gonna get next month. But the reality is so few of us actually put in the work to know how many leads we're gonna get every single month, or how many leads we need to hit our revenue goals, right? When your lead flow is predictable, you can hire with confidence because you know what's coming up in your business, how much revenue's coming in. You can raise prices because you start to see, oh, I'm actually converting more and more. Let me start to increase prices so that we don't get too overwhelmed with events, right? You can plan your revenue, you can stop living, booking to booking. We've had students go from two to three random inquiries per month to 12 to 15 consistent inquiries. Their revenue doubled and nothing magical happened. They simply learned a skill of how to predict consistent. Lead flow, and here's the mindset shift that needs to happen. I want you to stop accepting inconsistency as normal. This happens too often where we think, well, I guess I just have to do a bunch of things, throw spaghetti at the wall and hope enough leads come in. But lead generation is a learnable skill. It's not random, it's not chance. It is a learnable skill so that you can have predictable income. In our programs, we are very passionate about using only organic social media. So we do not do paid ads. To be honest, paid ads have proven to not be super effective in the wedding industry. Now I have friends in the industry who do paid ads, and I know that there are areas that this can work. But in my business and what I teach, we strictly go on organic. So when we're working with our students inside of our programs, we are focused on organic. Marketing. Let me say this louder. You do not need paid ads to hit six figures in your business. You do need consistency in four main channels working together. This is gonna be Instagram. Networking your website and strategic referrals. When all of these work together, your leads just start to compound. I always think about it like a snowball at first. It takes forever to get started, right? You've gotta get it so that it can actually get into that ball. I live in Florida, so imagine how much I actually know about snow, but I'm visualizing this, right? So we're creating this tiny little snowball. And then the more you add to it, the more you add to it, the bigger it gets. Right? You're compounding it. You're never dependent on just one source. And this is so, so important because often I see that wedding pros are completely dependent on referrals and a lot of us take a lot of pride in this. Myself included, I used to tout that I was solely referral based, and I remember actually saying to people, Instagram doesn't matter. Social media, I don't really need it because we get so many referrals. The problem with being solely referral based is that at any point, someone can move, someone can change properties, right? A new person comes in and then all of a sudden you are completely out of control with how that lead source dries up. I want to always be in control of my lead flow, and I learned this through the school of hard knocks, and I want to help you skip that journey. So I'm not saying that referrals are a bad thing, they're actually a great thing. Referrals are amazing and we want you to have those, but we. Also wanna have additional revenue sources. So we wanna be found in search and A.I. search. We want to make sure that we're being found on Instagram, on on TikTok. We wanna make sure that we're networking and constantly building up our partnership base. The one that trips the most people up is the Instagram strategy. So let's talk about that for a second. I want to encourage you to not overthink this. You already know that you need to be posting. You need to be showing up on stories. But the real juice is in your engagement, and this is a 15 minute strategy that you can do every single day. I encourage our students to get up and before you ever open your inbox to really focus on the marketing of your business. And this looks like spending 15 minutes every single day, cozied up on your couch, in your bed, wherever you wanna do it, on your phone and simply engaging with other accounts in your market. That's other vendors, other venues engaging like real engagement, not just putting a cute emoji and saying beautiful work, but actually engaging with their content. Either sharing their stories sharing one of their posts or actually giving a thoughtful comment from your business page, this is important not only because it builds that relational aspect within your marketplace with other vendors, but it also helps because let's say for instance, you're a planner and you engage on photographers posts, right? You, you engage on their content quite often. Well, once a couple books that photographer, they start to see your name over and over again. They're going to come to your page to learn more about you. It's how the funnel works. This is a free way, this is an easy way to get your consistent leads up from Instagram, from social media every single day. And it, it takes no work, right? So we really wanna be focused on this engagement strategy 15 minutes a day, in addition to your posting and your stories that you're doing. This also means that if you have a social media company that you've outsourced your social media to, that's great. I love that for you. But you or someone in your company should be the one doing engagement for your company because it's so simple and it creates you being super real about your business. now let's talk about website optimization, This one is very, very simple. The really cool thing about your website is that you can set it and kind of forget it. You obviously wanna make sure that you're updating it a few times per year, checking in, making sure that everything looks good. But for the most part, it doesn't need to be fed like social media does. Your website should. Clearly say who you serve. And as simple as that sounds, and as silly as it sounds,'cause you're like, right, duh. Of course it should say that you would not believe how many wedding pro websites we audit that do not have this on there. So first page, right when you open it up, it should say who and where you serve. So who you serve. Where you serve them, right? So this is massively important. It should be right there. As soon as you open your website, it should show pricing transparency. And if you wanna know more about how passionate I am on this, we have so many episodes on it, but I talk about pricing transparency all the time. You need to have some sort of a ballpark pricing on your website so that clients can self-select in or out. You need to have strong calls to action. So throughout your site, you wanna constantly be saying. Book a consultation, book a consultation. Guys do not get creative with this. I know that we tend to wanna be like, what are all the fun ways that I can get them to my contact page? Absolutely not. Book a consultation, drive them, book a consultation, book a discovery call, whatever you call your initial meeting. Book that here, right? Not inquire, not whatever. Book a consultation, book a discovery call, and send them straight to your scheduler so that they can book a call. And then we wanna be optimized with basic SEO. I think a lot of times we get so overwhelmed with what is the perfect SEO that I should have, and I'm a big fan of SEO. I love it. I am absolutely a believer in SEO, but in the beginning. When you're just trying to get it all right. Basic SEO, who you serve and where you serve them, are the most massive, important keywords you should have on your website. Your website should generate inquiries. While you sleep. Okay? So we wanna do these things. We wanna set it and we wanna forget about it for six to eight months, right? We don't need to be doing it every single day. Get your website optimized and then let's move on. The next one is strategic referrals. I want you guys to hear me clearly on this because I don't want my words to be taken out of context. I. Love referrals. They are by far the easiest bookings, right? When you see a lead come in from a referral, most of the time you are going to book it. However, I just don't want it to be your only lead source. Remember, in this episode, we're talking about diversifying your leads because that's how you're going to get that consistent lead flow that you are in control of, So strategic referrals is one of those four spokes, but it's not the only one. So how do we get more referrals? Well, number one, we're gonna create a system, so we wanna email past clients. I love creating a very simple automated funnel that can go out after weddings for the next 12 months. Just to stay top of mind with your clients. You can give them tips on like hosting their first dinner party or how to change their name or, how to create. Photo album, how to keep their photos, like all of these different things that they need to know after they get married. You can have some fun with it, like date nights that they can do in your area, but we wanna stay top of mind because guess what? Your best referral source are clients that you just did because they loved you and they also have friends that are at the same age to get married. So we want to stay top of mind. The other thing we wanna do is we wanna nurture vendor relationships. So Erica Jankowski, she's our marketing coach inside of Wedding Pro, CEO. She actually has a vendor newsletter that she does. So she's an entertainer here in the Orlando market. And she has a newsletter that she sends out once a month to vendors just kind of talking about things that are going on in the marketplace, little tips and strategies, All kinds of things that vendors would wanna know and want to read, and it's a great way for her to stay top of mind with other vendors in the marketplace. She also shares a little bit about what type of events that she's doing that month and what venues that she's working in. It's a lot of fun to read. Staying top of mind with vendors in your marketplace and venues in your marketplace can increase your leads quite significantly. And you guys having this as part of your just monthly strategy is so key to keeping those referrals churning. And again, all four of our lead sources, we want to make sure that we're consistently churning so that it's always bringing in leads predictably, And the last of our funnels is networking. Now this one I feel like is so overlooked. We all know that networking is important. A lot of us go to networking events quite frequently, but we do not put enough power and strategy behind these networking events, right? They come into your inbox, you get invited to them, you're like, sure, I'll go to that one, i'm available. Sure, I'll go to that one. And then the day comes, you're busy, you're tired, it's raining outside, it's cold, whatever. And you're like, I don't wanna go. So you either skip it or you go with a bad attitude. And you guys, I'm saying this from the perspective of like, this is me. Okay? I, love and hate networking events. Like I love it once I'm there, but going, I'm like, oh, I do not wanna leave my house. I don't wanna have to put on real pants. I don't wanna have to do the back of my hair. My hair's always done like in the front 'cause I'm on video. But the reality is it's so, so important, to the health of our business. It's so important to build those relationships. It's so important to be known. And again, create that consistency in the referrals that are coming in and the partnerships that you're creating. There's such a high ROI on networking, but only if it's done right. So let's talk about this. Most wedding pros go to events and they hand out business cards and kind of hope, and then they go home and they're like, oh, that networking event wasn't worth it. I wasted that time. But that's not a strategy. So here's the difference in what this can look like. One, we wanna have a pre-event strategy. Okay? So I know you guys are listening to this and you're like, Brandee, it's not that serious. But it so is. Before I go to a networking event, I wanna know what attendees are gonna be there. Now a lot of networkers will go ahead and send this out ahead of time anyway to all of the attendees, but a lot of times you might have to ask as well, and I always ask. If they have an attendee list before we go, I wanna know who's gonna be there, what their companies are. I wanna research some of the people and see like, who do I wanna meet? And then I'm gonna identify key people that I want to meet there. Okay, so three to five companies that I want to meet that I know that we would be great partners or that I at least want to find out if we would be right, like I've seen them. I love their work. I wanna know more about them. I'm not just gonna walk into the room and be like, Hmm, let's see who's here. Absolutely not. My time is so precious, as is yours. My time's not more, more valuable than yours, all of us, need to be treating our time so, so valuably. And to do this, you need to understand that every minute that you spend not with your family or not doing just something fun that you love, should be spent strategically building your business. So when I go to a networking event and I take time to get ready to put on real pants, to put on makeup, to do my hair, to go, and then spend hours there and then drive home. I want to make sure that I'm gonna get the highest ROI from that event, So I'm researching the attendees, I'm identifying who I wanna meet, and then I'm gonna prepare how I'm gonna add value to them. And I think that this is a really big deal. Last week I was actually at a local workshop where I was teaching a group of vendors in our local market and a DJ came up to me, he's newer in our industry, and he said, you know, I really don't understand how to do networking events well because I go and I feel like everybody there already has a click, and I get overwhelmed and I don't really know how to fit in, and then I leave and I feel defeated by it. And I was like, okay, I love that he asked me that and I wanna share with you guys as well. I'm gonna tell you a little story. My very, very first networking event, gosh, 18 years ago now, I was a baby, in the wedding industry, was so overwhelming. I felt this so much, and here's why. I used to work for a major hotel brand. I opened that property right out of college, and I was well networked in that brand because our philosophy in that brand was we needed to be out in the marketplace. So they spent a ton of time and energy and money in allowing us to go network and I was young and hungry, so I was at like every networking event. I knew everybody in town on the corporate side. So when I left that hotel to start blush, I assumed I would know a ton of people, and so I went to my first networking event and you guys, it didn't even cross my mind that I wouldn't know anyone. It didn't even literally cross my mind. I was like, I know tons of people. I know how to network. Like this is so great. I walked into that networking event, okay? My 25-year-old self, like so confident. I walked in. I will never forget that room that I walked into. I walked into the back. There was probably a hundred people there already. Everybody's up talking and everyone had their own clicks already. And I freaked out. I turned around, went to the bathroom, cried like, not boo-hoo, but like tears in my eyes, right? And I stood there and I was like. I don't know what to do. Like I cannot do this. I cannot just walk back into that room. But I stood there and I was like. I just quit my very well paying job and my husband backed me on this, like he supported me so much and now I'm just gonna cry and walk out, or I'm never gonna come to a networking event again. Like my business depends on me doing hard things. And so I walked up to a group of people. I got myself together. I walked up to a group of people and I said, hi, my name's Brandee. I'm a new wedding planner. I'm excited to meet you. And I started asking them questions about them. How long have you been in the industry? What made you get into the industry? What's your ideal client? What type of venues do you love shooting in? What type of venues do you love working in? Ask people about themselves, they love talking about themselves, and it makes you seem, and hopefully you are genuinely interested in what they're doing. This is how you prepare to add value. And also if you can't tell, this was before I had my pre networking strategy because I had no strategy at the time and I walked in cold. I didn't know who I was gonna meet. One of the other things, and this I did do at that networking event, and I've done a lot. Since then is I often will also ask the organizer if they would mind introducing me to one of the people that I'm looking to meet. So if I go and I know that I wanna meet X, Y, Z photographer, then I'm gonna ask the organizer when I get there, when I register, I'm gonna say, Hey, I'm looking for X, Y, Z photographer. Are they here yet? And they can say, yeah, absolutely, they're right there. I would say, would you mind introducing me? Like, I hate to just walk up to them cold. Because the organizers know the people and their job is to make sure you get the most value from that networking event. So you'll wanna come back. So ask them for a warm introduction. It makes it so much easier than just walking up show group of people. So this is important. You guys do not wing it. That is not a strategy. You cannot go to a networking event. Just winging it. Okay, so you're at the networking event. You did your pre-event strategy, you're meeting the people, you're asking the questions. Now what, right? So you leave the networking event, guys go home, be exhausted. That's okay. But the next day, so within 24 hours, we wanna follow up with the people that we made a connection with. So we don't wanna just wing that either. We wanna follow up and say, it could be an Instagram dm, it could be an email, it could be a quick text if you have their number. Nothing serious and not a pitch. So I'm gonna say something like, Hey, it was really great to meet you last night. I loved learning about your dog, or I loved hearing about your first wedding, whatever it is that you talked about. I hope that we get an opportunity to work together in the future. Here's my contact information. I just followed you on Instagram, right? Really, really simple. Personalized message, offer value. Stay in touch. That's it. We don't have to over complicate it. It doesn't have to be that difficult. But why does this work? Because vendors send qualified clients, they send trust transferred leads, and they have a higher close rate on referrals. Vendor referrals typically close somewhere between 60 and 70%. Think about this for a second. Okay? If a vendor starts referring you 2, 3, 4, 5 clients, it is very likely you're gonna book those weddings and they already know your ideal client because you've talked about it at the networker. You asked them, what's your ideal client? What are the kind of clients that you love working with? They're likely gonna ask you too, and then they're gonna send those type of clients your way. Okay? If you even book one additional client every single month from a referral, from a partnership, a relationship that you made at a networker, and your average client is $5,000, think about that. That's $60,000 a year that you just added to your bottom line. So let's recap. Consistent lead flow means 10 to 25 qualified inquiries per month, and you generate that organically through Instagram, networking, website optimization, and strategic referrals. Networking. Done right books five to 10 clients per month. And transparent pricing doubles your close rate. Add in your strategic Instagram engagement strategy that we talked about, and now you are generating six figures. If you aren't getting consistent leads, it's not your market and it's not the economy. It is your strategy. And strategy is learnable. Once you learn how to control your lead flow, you control your business, you control your revenue, and you're able to see how much is coming in every single month. If you're listening to this and you're like, Brandee, I am so tired of inconsistent leads and I wanna know more about how to do this, if you want that roadmap to predictable revenue, I want you to book a gap assessment with our team. These are free virtual calls where it, we'll look at your current lead sources, your marketing, your numbers, and your close rate, and we're gonna show you exactly what's missing. You can head to the link in the description below, or go to wedding pro ceo.com/application and let's get you. Predictable, consistent lead flow so you can stop stressing about where your next booking is coming from. And listen, CEO, if you're listening to this and you're like, this helped me so much, please make sure that you're subscribed on whatever platform that you're listening on. And if you're feeling extra generous, I would love it if you would share this with another wedding pro who needs to hear this message. Thanks so much for being here, and I'll see you next time.