Most top wedding planner started their businesses with little experience and had to compete with more experience planner for brides. They got hired and thrived and so can you. In my Q&A today I offer tips on how you can do it.
Question
How do I get a bride to hire me when I don’t have much experience and she knows other planners with lots of experience? How do I stand out and win her over?
Answer
Brides definitely do value experience when it comes to hiring someone to help them plan their weddings. But this is not the only quality they look for in a planner. They also want someone who understands what they want, is an expert in the services they need, is honest and trustworthy and easy to work with.
Here are 8 tips that will help you win over brides when you are new:
1) Downplay your “newness”
While you don’t want to lie about your experience, don’t start your conversations, or your biography on your website, by saying you are brand new. And, of course, don’t fill your online and offline marketing with photos from your own wedding. Brides want to know that you have helped other brides plan their weddings. If you haven’t planned any but your own, you probably aren’t ready to start charging for your services.
2) Have a portfolio with photos and testimonials from past weddings
You can have these in an album or an iPad/tablet that you can bring to meetings with brides and also feature them on your website and blog.
3) Be highly visible online
This means you need a website or blog, Facebook page for your business, Twitter account, that you just use for your business, and a Pinterest business account. These need to be active accounts, in other words post to them a few times a week, if not daily.
4) Listen carefully when you meet with brides
When it comes to listening, you may have an advantage over more experienced wedding planners who often freely share their opinions based on their past experiences and don’t listen to a bride. Brides want to know that you understand them and what they want so listen closely to them and show support for their wedding vision.
5) Stay current on wedding trends
Brides read wedding blogs and bridal magazines, attend bridal fairs and watch wedding reality shows and you need to do the same so you can speak their language.
6) Have a network of wedding vendors you can rely on
Get to know vendors who you feel confident would be good partners whom you can trust to give your brides excellent service.
7) Know your niche and develop more skills to serve them
Study and take classes in hospitality, floral design, cake design, wedding and event design, photography and other wedding related topics to be able to offer more value to your brides.
8) Look, act and sound like a successful wedding planner
To get high-quality brides to hire you, you need to make it clear you have a wedding planning business and aren’t just planning weddings as a hobby.
Dress in business attire when you meet in person and make sure you are on time. Answer your phone in a professional manner and be sure there isn’t lot of background noise. Don’t use texting shorthand when you email a bride. Use an email address that contains your company name and isn’t from a free email account.
Get the business license that is required to run a business in your area, carry business insurance and have an attorney create a contract that you have all of your brides sign when they hire you. Not having a contract is an indication to a bride that you are new and inexperienced.
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.
