329. This Sales Mistake Is Costing Your Wedding Business $120k/year

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CEO, if you’re tired of pouring your heart into consultations only to be ghosted after sending a proposal, you’re likely leaving six figures on the table by losing that vital emotional momentum. 

I’m showing you exactly how to double your close rate by reclaiming your power as the expert and leading couples to the sale right on the call. 

Stop being just another line item in a spreadsheet and start confidently closing the deals you’ve already earned.

The (FREE!)ASSUME Sales Training: 2x your wedding bookings in 30 days—step by step. Thousands of wedding pros have already used it to land more clients immediately! http://weddingproceo.com/freetrainingorg 

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/wedding-business-sales-mistake-proposals/

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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

Proposals are where deals go to die. If you're sending proposals after every sales call, you're probably cutting your close rate. In half and in the next 12 minutes, I'm gonna show you exactly why proposals kill sales and what to do instead. Because most wedding pros think proposals are professional. They think it gives couples time to think. They think it proves that they're not pushy. But all of this is so. Wrong. Proposals are the fastest way to lose the deal. You should have closed. And today I'm gonna show you why proposals drop your close rate from 40% to less than 20%. I'm gonna show you what actually happens after you send a proposal. Spoiler alert, they ghost you and the psychology behind why proposals give couples permission to say no. I'm also gonna tell you exactly what to say when someone asks you to send a proposal and how to close on the call so you never have to do so again. By the end of this you'll understand exactly why proposals are killing your sales and what to do instead. So here's the big idea. When couples are on a consultation call with you, they're at their highest emotional point. They're imagining their wedding day. They're picturing the perfect ceremony, they're connecting with you. They're building a relationship. In that moment, that's when buying decisions happen. The second you say, let me have you walk away and I'll send you a proposal, you kill the momentum and the deal dies quietly in their inbox. Here's what actually happens after you send that proposal. First they compare it. Your proposal gets opened next to three other proposals, and now you're not the expert guiding them, You're just another option in a spreadsheet. Then they start to overthink it. They start analyzing every line item. Do we really need this? Is this really worth it? Why is this more expensive than the other planner? Then they show it to everyone, their parents, their friends, the maid of honor, sometimes even other vendors, and every new opinion pulls them further away from the emotional connection that they had with you on the call. By the time they make a decision, they've forgotten why they were excited about booking you in the first place, and then they ghost. I've had so many students tell me this exact story. They'd send a proposal after every call, follow up five times, sometimes even 10, and they still get ghosted. Then they stopped sending proposals and they started closing on the call, and all of a sudden the ghosting disappeared. Not because the clients changed, but because the process changed. So let's break down the numbers. Our students who close on the calls close around 40% of their total leads, but when they send proposals, that drops to under 20%. That's less than half. So let's just work that math out. If you have 10 consultations every month and you close it, let's just say 20%, you're booking two clients. But if you closed those same calls at 40%, you'd book. Four clients. Now imagine that your average client spends $5,000 with you. That means that you're losing$10,000 a month, $10,000 a month. that's $120,000 a year left on the table. Not because your marketing is bad, not because your pricing is wrong, because your are sending a proposal instead of closing the sale during the consultation. And most wedding pros do this for one reason, because they're afraid. They're afraid of sounding pushy. They're afraid of asking for the sale. They're afraid of making people feel uncomfortable. But here's the truth, you need to hear. Sending proposals is costing you more money than almost any other mistake that you're making in your business. Because here's what's actually not being said. When you're afraid to sound pushy, when you send a proposal, you're giving away all of your power. When you're on a consultation call, you are in control. You're asking questions. You are uncovering their needs. You are presenting your solution. You are guiding the conversation. You are the expert. The second you send a proposal, the power shifts. Now they decide when they wanna respond. They decide if they're gonna respond at all. They decide whether to negotiate or just disappear, and suddenly you're refreshing your inbox every 30 minutes, wondering if they're ever gonna book. That energy. It's desperate and buyers can feel it. People don't buy from businesses that look like they're waiting for permission. They buy from confident leaders, from experts who know exactly what they can deliver on wedding day to make that couple's vision a reality, and they lead them to that sale. Now I know what you're thinking, but Brandee couples ask for proposals. Yeah, they do because they don't know what else to ask for. When you're sitting in a consultation and you are not leading them to the sale, you ask them, okay, so are you ready to book? It's so awkward. They don't know what else to do, so they ask for a proposal and you panic and you say, sure, I'll send that over tonight. Or even worse, you're the one that suggested the proposal in the first place. They're asking you questions, they're excited, they're ready to buy. I've seen this a hundred times when I'm reviewing sales calls for our students and then instead of leading them to the sale, instead of helping them to understand exactly what you're gonna deliver and how much that costs and what the next steps are to book you, you. Close it off and you say, I can get your proposal tonight or tomorrow, or however long it's gonna take you, but you close the door and you say, now they have to leave you and wait for you to send a six or eight page proposal to say what you could have just said right there, so that you could handle their objections. When someone asks for a proposal, what they're really saying is. I'm not ready to decide right now, your job is to find out why. Instead of offering a proposal, you can say something like, I can certainly send something over for you to review, but I'd love to answer whatever questions that you have now so that I can make sure that what we're proposing is a great fit for what you're actually looking for, and then start working backwards. What questions do they still have? Did they love the service that you're actually offering to them? Does it fit within the budget that they expected to spend? Is there something that you haven't talked about that they still have questions on? Now, something powerful happens. They have to tell you what's actually holding them back. Maybe it's the budget. Maybe they're comparing other vendors still. Maybe they need clarity about what you're actually gonna provide, but now you can handle that objection right there in the consultation. So instead of sending a proposal that you hope fits their needs and that you hope fits their budget. You hope will make them come back. You are gonna get the sale right there in the consultation. So if you're not gonna send a proposal after every sales call, what are you supposed to do instead? I know that you're wondering that CEO as you're sitting here listening. Let's talk about exactly what to do instead. After you talk through exactly the service that you're gonna deliver for them and how much that costs, you're going to handle their questions and assume the sale. So you don't say, so, do you wanna move forward? Because that's awkward and it gives them an exit. Instead, you lead, you say, perfect. Let me pull up our calendar and let's get your date secured, or. I am so excited to work with you guys. This wedding is gonna be epic. I'm gonna go ahead and send you the contract and payment link so we can get your date locked in and we'll get started on the planning. This is what we call the assume method. You operate under the assumption that they're booking because if the consultation went well and you got the mini yeses throughout the consultation. They probably are. And here's the key difference. Pushy sales, pressures people, but confident sales guide people, you're not forcing them into a decision, you're simply leading them to the next step. And there's a massive difference here. One of our students thought that she was assuming the sale because she would end every consult with, do you wanna move forward? And her close rate was about 18%. But once we started reviewing her sales calls and helped her tweak some of her messaging to lead into that Assume Method, her close rate jumped to 45%. This is more than double her close rate. It was the same service, the same pricing, the same market. It was just a different sales process. CEO, if you're listening to this, let's recap. Proposals, give couples permission to shop around, to overthink and to ghost you. And your close rate is typically half of what it would be if you closed during the consultations. Proposals shift the power dynamic from you to them, and when someone asks for a proposal, it's usually a sign that there's a question or concern that you need to address during the consultation. When you use the Assume method to confidently book them, you are going to increase your close rate typically by two x or more. Here's the hard truth. If you're sending proposals after every call, you are not closing as much as you could be. You're giving away your power, and you could be leaving six figures or more on the table if you want help building this sales process that actually closes clients on the call. That's exactly what we teach inside of Wedding Pro CEO. Our students learn how to run consultations that convert consistently without feeling pushy or awkward. they can watch sample sales calls that we, as the coaches have done, and they can also get their sales calls reviewed by our coaching team to really make sure that they're doing exactly what they need to do to close that client On the consultation every single time. If you wanna see if Wedding Pro CEO is the next right step for you in scaling your business, just click the link in the description and book a gap assessment call with our team. Our business consultants will look at your business, your sales process, and show you exactly where you're leaving money on the table and how to fix it. And if wedding Pro CEO is a great fit and we know that we can help you, we'll walk you through what that looks like. If not, you'll get some pieces of strategy that you can implement into your business. Right away. CEO, thank you so much for being here. If you loved this episode and you know that it can help another business owner that you know in the wedding industry, please share it with a friend. And if you're feeling extra generous, take two minutes to leave us a five star review on whatever platform that you're listening on. Our team appreciates it so much, CEO. I will see you next time.