335. The Brutal Truth About Why Your Bookings Are Down

You didn’t start your business to stay stuck. If you're ready to finally hit 6 or 7 figures WITHOUT burning out — book a call with our team → https://weddingproceo.com/application

If your bookings are down, I'm calling out the lie the wedding industry keeps telling you that you need more leads, a better Instagram, or a fancier website. 

In this episode, I'm breaking down the two exact places couples are falling out of your sales funnel and the simple shifts that turn inquiries into signed contracts. 

If you're tired of getting ghosted after consults and ready to stop blaming the economy, this one's for you.

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/why-wedding-bookings-are-down/

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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

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If your wedding business isn't booking the way you expected it to, it's easy to assume that the problem is marketing. Maybe you think you need more leads, more visibility, a better Instagram, a new website. Because that's what the wedding industry constantly tells you. Post more, improve your brand, make everything look beautiful, and couples will magically book you. But here's the brutal truth. Most wedding pros eventually learn. Your wedding business isn't struggling because couples can't find you. It's struggling because your inquiries aren't turning into bookings. Couples are discovering your work. They're filling out your inquiry form, and sometimes they're even getting on a consultation call but they still don't book. today we're gonna talk about the real reason why couples don't book. And what's actually happening between the decision to inquire and hiring You Before we get into the meat of this episode, let me make one thing crystal clear. The economy is not the reason your bookings are down. To be a business owner, you have to understand how to ebb and flow with any economy. You're gonna have high seasons where everything's going great and you're gonna have low seasons where it seems like nothing is gonna book. It is your job to understand the market and to understand the buyer, and to change your strategies as new generations come in. So I just wanted to get that out of the way because the number one thing that I hear all the time from Wedding Pros is the economy is bad. I can't book, and I'm sorry to tell you, but you're gonna struggle to keep a business alive if you constantly blame the economy. When bookings feel slow, the very first thing you're typically going to do is think you need more leads. Changing up the way that you're doing Instagram. Maybe you think you need a new website. You've gotta completely redo the SEO behind the scenes. But before you do any of that, the first thing you need to understand is are you getting enough leads and are they converting into consultations? Because most of the time when I'm working with a Wedding pro, they don't need more leads. They need to understand how to convert the ones they're getting. Focusing on the wrong part of your sales funnel can actually cause more harm than anything because now you just have more leads coming into a broken leaky funnel. Pouring more water into a bucket full of holes is never going to fill that bucket. It's just gonna create more leaks. The same thing is true with your sales funnel. You wanna make sure that you're focusing on the right piece of your sales funnel so that leads start to flow consistently from inquiry to booking instead of falling out in the middle. So if you are receiving inquiries, but you're still not able to get them to booking, we need to look at where they're falling out of your sales funnel. There's two different places. This could be either inquiry to consult or consult to booking. If they're inquiring, but you're not getting at least half 50% of all of your inquiries to book a consult. You have a leak there. If they're doing consults, but at least 70, ideally 80% of them are not booking, you have a leak in the way that you're handling your consult. It's imperative that you understand which of these two areas they're falling out of your funnel. Understanding your sales funnel is so important because a couple can love your work. They did love your work. If they inquired with you, you made the short list. They had hundreds of wedding pros to choose from. And think about it, as soon as they put on social media that they're engaged, they're being pummeled with ads and reels and carousels, all about what they need to do first to plan their wedding. You made the short list. You were the one that they reached out to. They loved something about you enough to say, I wanna know more about this vendor. And then nine times outta 10, you ghosted them. You didn't follow up consistently. You didn't send them your pricing, you didn't invite them to a consult. You sent a long proposal after your consult and confused them. Couples love your work. It is your job to take them all the way through the process to get them to that booking The reason it's so hard to actually know what's happening in your sales funnel is because you're not tracking it. And I see this way too often in my dms. A wedding pro drops in and says, my bookings are low. And the first question I ask is, how many leads do you get consistently every single month? And they're usually guessing and they'll say five to 10. Well, that's a wide range, right? And then when I ask, and how many of those do you book? They honestly have no idea. And that is the number one problem with understanding why couples are not booking you because you don't have the data to understand what's happening. Are you even getting enough inquiries? Are enough of those inquiries booking a consultation and are enough of those consultations turning into bookings? It's so easy to fix your sales funnel. When you track it. Every single lead gets tracked and then you can see where are they falling out. So think about it from your couple's perspective. They inquire, they're so excited to learn more about your business. Maybe they still don't have a clear idea on pricing. They wanna know a little bit more about you. They wanna understand more about your team, and they reach out. They wait. Three, four days to get an email from you and now they've moved on to someone else not getting back to them quickly. Remember, this generation, not only Gen Z, let's not blame it all on Gen Z, even younger millennials and, Hey, I'm a Gen X and I expect information quickly. It is the Amazon era. If I can't have something at my doorstep in four hours, I won't even buy it. So why would I wait three days just to get an email from you to tell me whether you're available for my wedding date or not? You need to be getting back to leads quickly. Speed to lead, create automations. This is one of the biggest speed bumps that wedding pros see when couples inquire and that they don't ever make it to a consultation. Follow up is key in this piece of your funnel. They inquire, but they're likely inquiring with a few people that made their shortlist. So who stays top of mind in their busy schedule is going to be the bird that gets the worm. You've got to be the one that not only reaches them first, so speed to lead, but you also have to follow up. If you send one email after a client inquires or maybe even two, you are going to lose them. They've inquired with multiple vendors. They have jobs, they have families, they have friends, they have lives that are busy, and so you have to be the one to stay top of mind to make it easy for them to book a consultation with you. This is imperative in your sales funnel. Systematizing this piece of your sales funnel is such a simple way to ensure that more leads are flowing through from inquiry to consultation. Number one. Automate the first email and don't make it a trash email. Way too often when I'm shopping students, I do an inquiry through their contact form and the first email I get is, thank you so much for your email. We'll get back to you within 48 to 72 hours, and I'm like, what was the point of filling my inbox with that email? That absolutely said nothing. Instead, Give them your pricing a little bit more about you and most important. A link to book a consultation with you. This is key because before you ever have to touch that lead, they're gonna have a link to the next step in your process. I also want you to make sure that you are automating your follow ups. Follow up via email with all of your automations, and then personally, you can mix in a text. 1, 2, 3 different texts to say, Hey Susie, you likely got an automated email from us earlier today, but I wanted to personally reach out and see if there's any questions I can answer for you. This personalized touch goes such a long way in converting inquiries into booking a consultation. So now let's talk about the second section of your funnel from the consult to the booking. And this one can feel the most frustrating because now you've spent 30, 45 minutes with a couple, you've gotten to know them, you've talked a lot about your business and how you can serve them, and you've really bonded. You thought, wow, loved that couple. I cannot wait to serve them at their wedding. And then. They ghost, they disappear. You never hear from them again, and that feels soul crushing. Most of the time. The reason this is happening is because you were so afraid to sell or to sound salesy in your consultation. You actually forgot to lead them to a decision. You left them feeling confused at the end of the consult even because they left not having any idea of the pricing or what you're actually including in your package, and now they have to wait two, three, maybe even four days to get your proposal because you need to take time to send it. This is killing your bookings. You must sell during your consultation. It is a sales conversation. They have a problem, they need your service. You believe you're the best one for it. Sell them on it. Do not be afraid to sound salesy. So let's sit here for a second because the general idea in the wedding industry of not wanting to sound salesy, not wanting to be pushy, not wanting to sound like a used car salesman is a cop out for not actually understanding how to lead your client to a decision. They came into this consultation knowing that they needed your service. You've made the short list. We talked about that you are one of a very few number of people that they could have chosen from, that they're actually spending time with and they want to make a decision. They have to make a decision. They have a long checklist of things that they need to book and do, and you can make that decision easier. You can get them to that check mark easier by simply leading them to a sale. Tell them what you're gonna provide, why it's important for the things that they're looking for, and why you are the best to do it, and then get that yes, say yes. Are we on the right page? Does this feel like what you're looking for? Yes. Okay, great for that service. Here's how much it's gonna cost. How does that feel for you? Is that within your budget? Let them tell you yes or no right there so that you can handle the objection. Do not let them leave without discussing if you have the right service for them. And if it's within their budget. That is the only way that you are gonna be able to handle all of their objections and know that they're not gonna ghost you later because you have perfected exactly what they're looking for. So what makes a couple decide to actually book? It is because you understood what exactly they are looking for for their wedding, and you described how your services fit their exact needs in their budget range. This is key because a lot of times what we see when we're auditing sales calls is the first thing that you, as the business owner or the sales person are doing, is talking about all of the things about your company, our history, why we have a great reputation, the kind of equipment that we bring our staff, the awards we've won. Here's the thing, no one cares. They do not care. They wanna know how you are gonna serve their needs. So you need to start all of your consultations with what are you looking for? What's been difficult, what would make for an amazing wedding day based on our service? Get really into what it is that they want for their wedding, and then tell them exactly how you will make that happen on their wedding day. Paint that picture for them. You at their wedding, creating the flawless service that they're looking for, and then walk them through what it looks like to actually book that and confirm it for their wedding day. if you're experiencing this where you have inquiries, but somehow they're still not making it to booking, I really want you to dig into your sales funnel. Figure out where those holes are in your funnel. Is it inquiry to consultation or is it consultation to booking? And then really look at your process. Maybe even have another vendor friend shop your process. Are you following up enough? Are you texting as part of your followup process? Are you leading them to a decision in your consultation? Are you walking them through exactly how you will serve them? That is the biggest key difference between successful wedding pros and wedding pros who just blame the economy because their bookings are down. Auditing Sales funnels is something our team does with our students every single day, inside of Wedding Pro, CEO, we're auditing sales funnels. We're watching sales calls. We're shopping our students to really find where the leaks are in their sales funnel. If that's something that you're looking for in your business and you want help to figure out where are your gaps, where are your leaks, I wanna invite you to book a free gap assessment with my team. We'll, spot the gaps and the leaks in your business and if we know we can help you fix those gaps and scale your business we'll walk through what it looks like to work with our team inside of Wedding Pro, CEO. if you took any value from this episode, comment and like, and share it everywhere. And if you're feeling super generous, please take two minutes to leave a five star review on whatever platform that you're listening on. Thanks so much, and I'll see you next time.