Like many wedding planners, you may be offering free consultations to attract new brides. Here are tips on how to get brides to hire you after your time together.
Question
I’m new and I’ve been offering free consultations to brides to get them to hire me, but I haven’t gotten any clients. Isn’t this how other wedding planners get brides?
Answer
It doesn’t happen every time but yes, many wedding planners do get clients after a free consultation. It could be that they’re doing something that you haven’t thought of yet in order to get brides to hire them.
Here are 5 things they do that helps a free consultation turn into a sale:
1) They don’t offer every bride a free consultation
You don’t need to offer a free consultation to every bride who finds you. Have a short discussion and determine if she is someone who might be a good client for you before you invest the time in a consultation.
2) They prepare in advance
Don’t “wing it” on free calls. Have a set of questions you want a bride to answer about herself and her wedding and, of course, have an idea of what you want to say about yourself and your services. You want to help a bride see that you are the wedding planner she should hire.
3) They limit their calls to 20 minutes
A free consultation should not be more than 20 minutes. If you are well prepared, this is the perfect length of time. Understand that you should not be planning a bride’s wedding during this consultation, you should be spending the time finding out if you’re a good match then getting her to hire you.
4) They make a good impression
Always act like a professional. This consultation is a way for brides to get to know you. Help them recognize that you are organized, easy to work with, honest and the wedding planner with the expertise that they need.
5) They know how to end the consultation
Your goal is to get a bride to hire you at the end of the consultation. Five minutes before your time is up, ask the bride if she has any questions and address any concerns she has. Then review what you have covered and ask her if she is ready to have you start planning her wedding. If she is, proceed with an agreement and get a deposit. If she is not, find out if she needs more information from you and schedule a time for a quick follow up. Make sure that follow up doesn’t become another free consultation!
When you offer free consultations, you’ll get some brides who are just looking for free advice so don’t be discouraged if some brides don’t hire you. Consider those consultations as opportunities to learn more about what brides want and need.
And if you have a pressing question about starting or running your wedding planning business, you can send me an email at [email protected]. I will answer them on this blog or in my ezine, “Wedding Planner Tips,” which you can subscribe to here.
