You get what you pay for … and sometimes a little bit more.

What do you tell price shoppers when they tell you they can hire somebody cheaper? Here’s what I’d show them if I were a DJ ( and they had a sense of humor).

While you’re here be sure to download a free copy of  “More Clients Now” by putting your email in the box to the right.

Are you failing your obligation to your client and to your business by being just an order taker? There’s something noble about upselling … it’s adding value to the event. Pat Aheasy has a great post on the subject.

Professional Event Production: Are You an Order Taker?.

Sometimes you have to cold-call. It’s not the most pleasant way to grow your business – but it’s often the fastest way to get leads on a small budget. It doesn’t have to wear you out if you do it correctly.

In olden times, alchemists tried to turn lead into gold, the more they tried the more they failed. Prospectors tried to find gold. The more dirt they dug, more more they succeeded.

If you have to make cold-calls, don’t try to turn lead into gold. Don’t try to convince everyone you call that they need your services. Trying to turn anyone into a qualified lead is like trying to turn lead into gold. It’s a waste of time.

Instead, use it as a way to discover qualified prospects. Be quick to end conversations with people who aren’t qualified ( if they are qualified, it means they have a problem your service can solve and they are looking for solutions) and be courteous to all. You’ll be able to revisit the same list over and over again if you don’t waste other people’s time trying to sell them something they’re not interested in.

Brian McGovern

An eye opening post today over at aPracticalWedding.com

What do brides think of the way the wedding business has changed in the last 50 years?  Here are some choice quotes from the blog…. this is a wealth of information for any wedding professional.

Maybe there’s a good opportunity to market your services to brides who don’t want to outdo Tina & Tony’s Wedding?

Listening to your clients wants, likes and dislikes is critical to a successful marketing plan for wedding professionals. Here’s what some of the market is saying about the wedding industry …

“the wedding industry has changed our societal perceptions of a ritual that is designed to unite two people in a sacred or secular rite, into something resembling a massive theatrical production.”

“my worst WIC experience was at Filene’s Running of the Brides when we got in line and all of the local wedding vendors hang out and bug you while you’re in line and you can’t go anywhere! No matter how much we said no, they kept pushing! It was awful.”

“I don’t think it is unreasonable to plan a wedding to take place the same year. I resent the industry and people treating my special day as something shabby or shameful.”

“The one thing that has been incredibly difficult in the planning process has been the feeling that it’s necessary to choose sides, to be entirely independent and DIY, or to subscribe to the WIC idea of what a wedding should be in full”

I encourage you to read the original post and all the eye-opening comments at http://www.apracticalwedding.com/2009/04/wedding-industrial-complex-as-it-were.html

Now, you know me. It’s my business to help wedding and event professionals make more money. I’m all about finding ways to attract more clients – and getting them to spend more with you.

What do you think? Are we the cause or the effect of the mega-wedding (trust me, it will be back in a few more quarters) ? Are lavish weddings bad? Are small weddings tacky?

Don't be a jerk!

High Pressure  & Low Returns

But on a more practical note …  are high-pressure sales tactics really the way to grow your business?

While pressuring and manipulating a young bride to overspend does bring in short-term profits -how does it affect your word of mouth marketing?

Are your pushy salespeople killing long-term loyalty for short term profits? Is that extra dollar worth a bad reputation?

Brian McGovern

Looking for more ways to promote your wedding planning or wedding services business? Today’s brides are online … and are overwhelmed by too many choices and poorly designed websites.

Some event planners tell me they love advertising on The Knot. Others tell me it’s a waste of time. How can that be?

Successful wedding businesses know how persuade brides to click on their links. The others do not.

The ones who succeed know how to convert clicks … into leads … into appointments … into contracts … into happy clients … and into word-of-mouth referrals.

The others throw up a confusing, wimpy website and blame the internet.

Please stop sending paid traffic to your crappy homepage. Build a custom landing page that targets your traffic.

Believe me, right now there are photographers, DJ’s, bands, florists, travel agents, bridal shops making a ton of money advertising on WeddingWire.com, The Knot.com, GetMarried.com and more.

If you have no sales conversion system in place – don’t waste your money. You need to optimize your site and create a lead generating system and not a static website.

Download Free Report

Want to learn more … download a free copy of More Clients Now. I’ll show you how to get started in the right direction … and give you 10 Free Breakthrough tools that will generate business.

Here’s The Knot … they just announced the launch of 75 new wedding websites. Check it out.

Ahead of Schedule, The Knot Continues to Grow Hyper-Localized Planning Sites and Dominate the Online Wedding Space

NEW YORK, NY (March 31, 2009) —The Knot Inc. (NASDAQ: KNOT) today announces the launch of the next 75 wedding websites in its growing portfolio of niche wedding destinations. In less than three months, The Knot has launched over 80 new planning sites, leveraging its vast content databases to offer the most robust local resources available for today’s couples tying the knot.

On these hyper-local sites, brides and grooms can browse for inspiration from more than 1,700 Real Wedding photos, get instant community feedback from other brides planning in the same locality, and immediately email thousands of wedding vendors who can help make their dream wedding a reality.

“At a time when the economy is pinching all advertising budgets, The Knot is focused on adding value for our local advertisers by maximizing their exposure online,” said David Liu, CEO of The Knot Inc.

The new sites are search-engine-optimized to appear in natural search results, offering brides and grooms the best tools for wedding-planning on the local level where other national brands are notably absent. The company anticipates it may have as many as 200 niche sites launched by the end of 2009.

About The Knot Inc.
The Knot, Inc. (NASDAQ: KNOT; www.theknot.com), is a leading lifestage media company. The Company’s flagship brand, The Knot, is the nation’s leading wedding resource, reaching well over a million engaged couples each year through the #1 wedding website TheKnot.com. Other products from The Knot include The Knot national and local magazines, The Knot books (published by Random House and Chronicle) and television programming bearing The Knot name (aired on the Style and Comcast Networks). The Company also owns WeddingChannel.com, the most visited wedding gift registry website.