If you want to attract more buyers and turn them into paying clients – you have to prove you are better than the competition. Agreed?

Now if YOU say you’re great, I may doubt it. If another person tells me you’re great, that’s more believable.  And if 10 or 20 people say you’re great?  I’m a believer!

You need to get testimonials that are believable.  A trustworthy testimonial includes the full name and photograph of the person giving you an endorsement. Luck for you, Facebook makes this really easy … in this video I’ll show you how to get your customers to join your Facebook Fan Page and leave a great review that will impress your prospective buyer.

If you happen to be reading this after Thanksgiving (or you’re not in the US) just send a nice card – maybe a “Thinking Of You” or “Thank You” card.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0MjvucW5J0

After last week’s video about turning dead leads into new opportunities I got a comment from Barry Friedman of the Raspyni Brothers. We traded a few emails and Barry was kind enough to record an interview with me … and you can listen to it right here.

In this 15 minute audio, Barry shares some really great ideas on how to build relationships with your clients.

As the saying goes, “people prefer to do business with people they know like and trust.”

In this brief interview, Barry shares how he keeps The Raspyni Brothers on the A List of top corporate event planners. He also shares:

• What free, easy to use time management tool he uses to help him stay on top of a very busy schedule while traveling all over the world.
• Why becoming a trusted business partner is essential.
• How to make your client look like a genius to their clients.
• A simple strategy for standing out and building relationships after a sale falls off.

It’s a quick interview – listen to it twice. There are some real gems in here.

[audio=http://brianmcgovern.com/Brian_Raspyni.mp3]

If you’re in the corporate event industry, you probably already know who the Raspyni Brothers are. They’ve appeared on major television shows and have done over 1000 corporate events for many of the Fortune 500. I’m a BIG FAN.

Take a peak at this promo video and you’ll see why they’re the top choice for planners who want a funny, visual, smart and corporate friendly act that will surprise and delight.

Website.

You know how I’m always screaming about having a good website? The Raspyni Brothers should be your role model. Their site is clean, well designed, fun and professional. It’s easy to get all your questions answered here. Check The Raspyni Brothers.

Raspyni Agent Friendly Website (no contact info) If your services are sold by a third-party, do yourself a favor and create a website that your clients can send their clients to.

Survey

Barry mentioned his double use of surveys that not only give him valuable feedback for his own team – he also shares participant feedback with his clients …. who can pass it on to their clients … and look like champs. Check out their survey.

Conclusion

Don’t think that just because you do a great job for clients that all you have to do is send out a Holiday card once a year and you’ll keep them coming back for more.  Even if you do an amazing job you still have to market yourself.

Is your business as amazing as the Raspyni Brother’s act? Even these super talented guys – who consistently get standing ovations -  know that marketing and sales is vital to their success.

Create a smart marketing system and take action!

Couldn’t you just scream? You chase after a potential new client with all your heart. You build up a great rapport with the prospective client – spent hours working on a proposal and everything looked just ducky – then BAM!

“We’ve decided to go with another company, but thanks.”

WHAT? Huh?

You’re outraged. You’re frustrated.

You try to negotiate; you try to outsell the competition, but still – NO SALE.

What do you do now? Do you rip up that lead and pound your head into the desk?

Please realize that the dead lead in your hand can be worth a ton of money to you – even if they don’t buy your services ever.

If you are throwing away your dead leads like most people would …. Please, I urge you to watch the video I posted up today.

It will show you the secret of the Send Off Strategy – a very simple, low-cost, low-cost way to transform dead leads into dollars.

What if you could take all your dead sales leads and turn them into a source of new clients with only the click of a mouse?  Here’s how you can turn that stack of not interested sales leads into a tidy pile of new accounts. It’s a simple strategy but one that pays off nicely.

When you’re a service professional you do everything you can to keep your business relationships alive.  To keep accounts pumping cash into your business you must always the looking for ways to provide value to others.

But sometimes business relationships end. Some die of natural causes; the client goes out of business, moves out of town or no longer needs your type of services. Others die a horrible death; they owe you money, you’ve gone to court and no matter what you’ll never do business with them again.

But there’s another type of relationship that lingers between the living account and the dead account – I call them zombie relationships – the undead.

With zombie relationships nothing happens. They’re not in the market for your services anytime soon but the relationship isn’t an acrimonious one. The last time you spoke to each other the client turned your offer down – but that’s all.

It’s important for you to bury the dead. You can’t afford to keep chasing leads that are not going to turn into sales. I’ve seen too many professional services providers waste countless hours trying to get blood out of a stone – instead of pursuing new opportunities.

Why do smart professionals waste their time like that? Many times it has to do with the comfort level of speaking to friendly prospects who never say “yes” instead of risking our egos and approaching strangers who might reject us. I regularly audit sales leads for my clients to make sure they aren’t wasting precious resources on leads that lead nowhere.

After you’ve determined that you’ve given a lead your very best but they’re just not going to buy its time to say goodbye. But before you shovel the dirt on them it’s only right to say a few words. Here are some words you can say that can create value from dead leads.

For example, let’s say you’re a caterer and you have spent considerable time in pursuing business from a bride to be. Even though you had built up a rapport and trust and even though the prospective client really liked what you had to offer – for some reason she went to your competition. (Maybe her mother-in-law forced her to use someone else or the yacht she rented only allowed her to use their exclusive caterer.)

Do you just rip that lead up and throw it in the garbage? I hope not. With all the talk about recycling I hope you consider recycling that lead. How?

First, the caterer must realize that the bride to be is still a valuable consumer to a number of event professionals. Secondly, the bride to be can still refer business to you.

Wouldn’t that bride be tickled pink to receive a valuable discount from one or more of your event industry associates? What if the caterer sent out a legitimately exciting discount coupon that offered an exceptional package for limos, photography, flowers and invitations. It would build tremendous goodwill with the bride and could potentially result in referral commissions from the other providers.

Next you could motivate the bride to be to refer business to you directly by giving her a remarkable incentive to do so. What if our caterer kept in touch with the bride and sent a sincere thank you along with a tangible expression of gratitude in the form of an irresistible offer?

Here’s how that might look, but let’s use a wedding DJ as an example this time.

A wedding DJ named Tony doesn’t get the gig for Donna’s wedding.  Not because Tony wears too much cologne and smells like Bloomingdale’s exhaust vents – no – Donna ended up getting married on that yacht that only permits their own guys to perform. Instead of Tony throwing away all the time and energy he put into developing a relationship with Donna, here’s the e-mail he could send…

Dear Donna,

Congratulations on your wedding!  The weather was perfect on Saturday and I was thinking of how useful the Hudson must have looked from that gorgeous yacht.  I bet it was a great evening.

Thanks so much for giving us a call back in May to discuss your wedding plans.  I’m really thankful for the time that you and Scott spent at my office and I know that my pal Jimmy at the limo company took good care of you.

To thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss your wedding with you I’d like to give you $50. If you book any of our services with us by December 31 of next year I’ll take $50 off of our regular fee. Please just use this code XYZ when you call to book your event and you’ll save $50!

Now odds are you won’t be getting married again by December 31!  So I’d like to extend this offer to any of your friends and family that may be planning a special occasion.  Just tell them to use code XYZ and I’ll take $50 off – and I’ll send you a check for $50 just for the referral!

Best wishes,

Tony

Now isn’t that a simple strategy?  As long as Tony treated Donna with care and professionalism back when she was a live lead, chances are she’ll appreciate the offer.  You are setting her up to be a champion to her friends and family by allowing her to offer value to them.

You may want to follow up with a separate e-mail for a coupon code that she can forward to friends.

I used this tactic in my business and believe me it works. If you end up getting one expert client because you took the time to thank your prospects and offer them some more value before you discarded them, is it worth it?

I challenge you to dig through your database this week and come up with a fantastic going away present for it your soon to be dead leads. The last time I checked sending an e-mail out didn’t cost a whole bunch of money. It’s just a matter of getting it done.

I could spend hours sharing sales strategies and marketing tactics with you but if you don’t take action on them it’s a waste of your time. Too many service professionals have lots of big ideas but unfortunately they lack the organizational discipline and know how to successfully execute on them.

When I worked with coaching and consulting clients might help them create sales strategies that day can easily execute. And then I make sure the client does the work that’s required. It’s sort of like being a personal trainer.

You know you should go for that walk or better yet that jog – but you don’t. You know you should be eating healthy – but you don’t.

It’s not just a matter of knowing what to do – it’s getting things done that produces results. I’ll be sharing more information about how I helped service professionals like you break through all the excuses and obstacles to create and execute on marketing plans that generate all the clients they’ll ever need.

You don’t have to be satisfied with your current marketing results. If you are not booked solid with highly profitable new projects and clients and you are still using the marketing strategies that got you here – nothing is going to change. You’re going to continue to struggle.

I look forward to working with many of you on a one-to-one basis in helping you create the business future of your dreams.

Getting leads from your website without spending any more money is a pretty good bargain, wouldn’t you say?

You went to the trouble and expense of getting a website – so why isn’t it generating dozens of qualified leads every week?

If a Tree Falls in the Forest …

If qualified buyers can’t find your site, it’s like it doesn’t exist. You have to get people to visit your site before it can start selling for you.

I’ve consulted and coached a number of catering business owners and they know how important the right ingredients are to a wonderful meal. But so many business owners forget to add four critical ingredients to their web marketing. Without these ingredients your website is just a waste of electrons.

AIDA. Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.

Attention! You have to have strategies in place the will drive eyeballs to your website. If you build it, they will not come, unless you have traffic attraction tactics in place. What are you doing to get those local buyers to your site?

Interest. I have seen some terrible websites out there. If you’re a photographer you can’t afford to have an ugly website. An accountant can have an ugly site – but not someone in the creative industries. Is your website design scaring away buyers?

Desire. Does your website create a strong urge in the buyer to pick up the phone and call you right away? Do you use sound psychological principles of persuasion – or did you let your website designer just put up something pretty? Your site has to sell.

Action! Does your website make an irresistible offer that compels people to connect with you right this very minute? It is so tempting for a buyer to click the back-button and leave your site. They may bookmark it but forget all about it – they may really like what they see and decide to keep looking anyway. You must get visitors to take action.

But it all starts with attention. Your site can’t generate leads until it generates traffic and you won’t get much qualified traffic if people can’t find you. Right?

A few weeks back I invited folks to get together and swap links to each other’s sites. The idea here is that more links (popularity) and better links (quality) will drive your site to the top of the search engines.

Just about 40 brave souls emailed me and agreed to swap emails and links with each other. It was a challenge for some, it was frustrating for others but in the end most of us did pretty well.

Here’s some of the feedback so far, with names and businesses withheld for privacy sake …

“Just wanted to tell you that you have moved me from nowhere to the first page on Google. What’s next?”

“I just checked… I went from the middle of page 14 to the bottom of page 1.”

“I just did and I’ve moved from “unfindable” on a basic search (so far down) to PAGE 2!!!!”

“I moved to the top of Google and Bing – and at the bottom of first page of Yahoo.” “I Googled (my category) and I’m nowhere to be found.  Am I doing something wrong?”

“Working for me too.  We moved from page 3 to page 1 for (our category). Bing and Yahoo still not picking up results though.”

A mixed bag of results… some skyrocketed to number 1 and others didn’t move.

Now, why did some do well and others not so well?

1. On Page Factors - your site is not set up correctly. Your content is not being indexed by the search engines because of some fundamental mistakes.
2. Off Page Factors – some markets are less competitive than others. If there are few sites competing with you for your keywords it’s easy to place on page one with only a handful of backlinks. In more competitive markets you need to do more.

I’ll show you what to do next to get your site ranked higher and keep it that way. (You may be on page 1 today and vanish unless you follow these instructions).

Next week I’m going to do a free podcast and answer all of your questions on Search Engine Marketing for Event Professional.

Since I have a large number of international readers, a teleconference is tough to schedule. I always end up leaving some folks out – so I will record the podcast and answer all of your tough questions on how to get more leads from your website.

Please use comment button below and send me some topics or questions you’d like to have me cover. As soon as the MP3 recording is done I will send it out via email to everyone. Sound good?

I know the folks who did the link project have some great questions and comments they want me to share with you. Just take a moment and send me a few thoughts now.

What do you need help with the most? Where are you getting stuck?

I look forward to helping us all make more money in the home stretch of 2009. Speak to you soon!

PS. In April I offered a free 30 minute coaching session and a whole bunch of people approached me for business coaching. I was overwhelmed by the amount of people who wanted to sign up – but in order to provide real support to my existing clients I had to turn people away.

Well, good news.

I am opening up a few coaching slots this month. This will be a very limited number of slots.  I am not opening the door wide – so if you are accepted for a free introductory coaching session that means I will have room for you.

If you are overwhelmed by marketing and sales and you need personal guidance to create and execute a smart plan of action, this may be what you need.

Some people don’t know what they should be doing or how to do it. Others know what they should do – but they’re just not doing it. My job will be to help you overcome procrastination, inertia, fear and confusion and get you booked solid fast.

If you’re interested please let me know right away. I’ll be making a formal announcement next week and if you want to get on the short list get in touch.

OK … so enter your question in the comment area below now!

One of the biggest reasons why event business owners fail to reach their income goals is because they stink at selling and marketing. Some have a bad attitude towards these critical success components and do a poor job at promoting themselves. Others recognize how important it is to market and sell well but they never get around to doing it often enough. And some just have lousy advertising, pathetic websites and zero sales ability.

Then there are a few who get it. They may never “enjoy” selling and marketing their services but they have systems in place to make sure this business-critical function is executed effectively on a regular basis.

Do you have a bad attitude toward selling and marketing? I’ve worked with a number of business professionals who had a tremendous fear of selling. The very idea of picking up a telephone and calling a stranger and asking that stranger to do business put them into a panic. The truth is – promoting your business by telephone is one of the fastest ways to grow your business.

If you pick up the phone and call your past clients on a regular basis you will make more money. If you pick up the phone and call potential business allies (those people who can refer business to you) on a regular basis you will make more money. If you pick up the phone and call those people you met at the Chamber of Commerce whose business cards are stacked in your desk drawer – you will make more money. No doubt about it.

Whether you’re a business to business professional like a corporate event planner or any personal service provider like a wedding planner or photographer – the telephone can and will make you more money than wasting hours tweaking your website.

So why aren’t you making more calls? What’s holding you back? Is it a lack of leads – or is it a lack of confidence?

Selling by telephone makes a lot of people think of telemarketing and telemarketing has a justifiably bad reputation. But when I use the telephone to promote one of my businesses I never come across as pushy, annoying or inappropriate. I never sound like I’m reading a script (that’s because I’m not). And when I network, market and sell by phone I enjoy myself.

What’s the secret? Was I born with the personality of a “born salesman”? No! Believe me when I started out in business I was terrified of making cold calls – I stunk at it! I would procrastinate all day if possible to try and avoid making those calls. I’d waste time calling the same friendly people who always said no instead of taking a risk and calling strangers that might make me feel stupid.

But then one day I met my mentor who showed me exactly how to use the phone to make professional introductions and have quality conversations that would lead to strong business relationships and sales.

If you were able to pick up the phone today and start building profitable relationships without feeling uncomfortable and actually enjoying the process, would you do it?

What are your biggest problems when it comes to promoting yourself using the phone? I’d love to hear back from you.

Please take a moment and leave a comment … I hope you’re making a ton of money this week! If not … pick up the phone!

I just read this article and had to share it with you. If you’re like me, you’re always looking for ways to grow your event business … and you hate to “sell.” And furthermore, you really hate cold-calling.  But, here a secret  for you … most of your competition hates it too and the few that do it, do it the wrong way.

There is a way to use the phone and sell more event services … without sounding like a bad telemarketer or cheesy cold-call-cowboy. Read on!

If you’re in the B2B side of the event business, the article below by Jill Konrath shows you how to prospect by telephone – without sounding like a telemarketer. I’m a big fan of Jill Konrath and I highly recommend her book, “Selling to Big Companies.”

If you’re in the social side of the event trade you can use these ideas too. This approach is adoptable. Use it to build strong relationships with key influencers like banquet managers, country club directors, hotel general managers, destination management companies, travel bureaus and so on.

Jill and I share the same philosophy about cold-calling. Don’t do it. Don’t call to sell anything … call to share valuable information and ways to help your prospect be more successful. Focus on building lasting relationships with the people who matter most to your business.

As Zig Ziglar said, “You can have anything in life you want, if you help enough other people get what they want.”

Last week I mentioned I share with you how I manage to keep in touch with thousands of prospects without costing myself a ton of time or money. Email is a great tool, but you can’t spam people. Make sure you only send valuable information and not a sales pitch.

To make sure I get my emails delivered automatically to thousands of people without getting lost in spam filters, I use and highly recommend Aweber.  That’s who I use to keep in touch. Click on the graphic below for my affiliate link and you’ll get a free test drive:

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Secrets to Achieving an 80% Close Rate

By Jill Konrath

Eric has been in show business for 15 years – the trade show business.  His company sells and customizes virtually any kind of display imaginable. Some of Eric’s customers have huge booths at the world’s biggest conventions. Others have portable pop-up exhibits for regional shows.

In a cut-throat market filled with competitors, Eric stands above the crowd with an amazing 80% close rate and minimal customer churn.

How does he do it?

“I’m not a salesperson,” says Eric. “I’m a consultant. My customers have a strong confidence level in my recommendations because I know what they want to accomplish. I understand their objectives. I know what they like and what works or doesn’t work for them.”

Eric’s relationship with his customers often begins years before they ever do business together. He calls his approach “long-term telemarketing” and it starts with targeted vertical marketing.

His prospects are other companies attending the very same trade shows as his clients. He checks them out on the web, learns what events they attend and about any major happenings in the organization. He finds out who makes decisions. Everything is entered into his contact management system.

Then Eric gives these companies a call. His befriends the receptionist, learns her name and uses it frequently. Being quite savvy, he even gets her email address – which gives him the company protocol. Next he e-mails these prospects to alert them to literature they’ll get from him shortly.

About a week later, he follows up. Eric introduces himself as a trade show consultant and tells the prospect, “My goal is to make my clients successful at trade shows.” He mentions he has customers who do similar shows, which always catches their interest. He engages them in a short non-threatening discussion. They talk about which events work best for them and other general ‘show talk.’

On these calls, Eric is NOT trying to sell any products or services. He’s working to establish a relationship.

And he’s learning a tremendous amount about their business in the process – which vendor they use, how old their systems are, what works for them and more. All this comes out in the discussion because Eric quietly asks for it. Everything is entered into his database.

Eric offers to keep in touch, to share information they may be interested in. His prospects graciously agree. He hasn’t tried to push or pitch them at all. No products mentioned; no meetings begged for – just an offer of assistance. Whether the prospect knows it or not, their relationship has begun.

Flash forward six months: Eric’s customers have just returned from a big show. He checks in right away to find out how things went: “How was attendance? Was it on par with last year? How did the promotion work? How effective were the graphics? How about the leads? What changes do we need to make? How was the overall experience of the show? How was the labor? ”

Of course, Eric’s customers love his attention and commitment to their success. They immediately begin planning for the next event because new needs are always uncovered. This is why he rarely loses a customer.

But what else does Eric do with what he learns? He immediately calls his targeted prospects who attended the very same show to share information about his survey.

“I’ve been surveying my clients who were also at the XYZ show. They said attendance dropped 10%. Did you experience that too?”

Prospects are interested. Eric’s been doing a survey – they could learn some valuable information. The discussion starts.

Eric shares other things he’s learned from his customer. They chat. Relaxed, the prospect opens up. Slowly, gently Eric slips in questions about how successful the show was for the prospect. He quietly asks additional questions triggered by his database notes. He learns more.

Soon the prospect is sharing his frustrations with the event or his display company. “That’s terrible. How could they do that?” empathizes Eric incredulously. He learns more; it goes in his database.

Eric finds out about the prospect’s upcoming shows and sets his contact management system to notify him 2-3 days after they’re over so he can follow up. When he phones, he asks more questions, willingly offers advice, helps solves simple problems, brainstorms possibilities and sends helpful material. He learns more; it goes in his database.

When Eric senses his prospect’s frustration level is high enough to warrant a change, he offers, “If you’re not happy, you can come to my showroom and we can do a free analysis. There’s no obligation. Let me see if I can help.”

Once Eric has prospects in his showroom he knows he pretty well has their business locked up. He just needs to keep his focus on their objectives, likes and dislikes, successes and failures. After all, these people trust him implicitly; they’ve had a relationship for months or years – even though it’s always been by phone.

It’s no wonder Eric has an 80% close rate!

Lessons Learned

1. A long-term, keep-in-touch telemarketing strategy has tremendous paybacks.

2. Conduct your own surveys. They’re excellent sales tools for existing customers and especially for your prospects.

3. Always focus on helping the customer. If they ever sense you’re out for yourself, you lose the relationship.

4. Contact management systems are a huge sales aid. Keep track of everything. Use your notes to trigger additional questions in future discussions. Have them notify you when it’s time for follow-up.

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She is a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings and association events.

For more articles like this, visit http://www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com . Get a free Sales Call Planning Guide ($19.95 value) when you sign up for the Selling to Big Companies e-newsletter.

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.

Want to book more events? Want to close more contracts for catering and event jobs?
You may think you need to “learn how to close” sales.
You’d be wrong.
The best thing you can do is stop trying to close sales and focus on helping other people. Forget those silly, outdated “closing techniques.”

Sales trainers love to teach them because sales people want to learn them. There’s lots of money to be made in selling “magic sales closing techniques.”

Snappy closing techniques give the desperate sales person the illusion of control.
Here’s my problem with closing techniques. They’re manipulative and transparently so.
If you try a closing technique on a senior executive, you make an ass of yourself.
If you use “closing techniques,” you obviously don’t respect your buyers. You don’t believe your product can be bought – it has to be shoved down the other guy’s throat.
If you use closing techniques, maybe you’re not too proud of what you do for a living.
Here’s how you close sales – help other people who come through your sales funnel. Don’t try to sell them. Let your sales process allow them to buy.
Your first step is to create a massive top to your sales funnel – to automatically attract qualified buyers – without cold calling and other labor intensive and outdated “prospecting techniques.”
With a strong lead attraction system in place, prospective clients will pre-sell themselves. All you have to do is help them decide which of your services will be the best fit.

Want more leads – fast – and without spending any money? Download a free copy of More Clients Now and discover how to attract buyers with 10 breakthrough online tools. They’re easy to use and can attract thousands of customers. Download it now.

With a good lead attraction and conversion system – you just take orders and cash the checks.
Isn’t that more fun than twisting arms?

“Working yourself to an early grave pushing hors d’oeuvres is no way to live.”

You can have a wildly successful event business – or you can have a money-sucking nightmare. The choice is yours.

Whether you are just starting a catering business or event company, or you’re an old pro and you’re not having any fun (or enough income) this article will show you 8 ways to not grow your business – and some tips to help you achieve the success you want.

Here’s my take on why so many in the live event business work long, crazy hours and have little to show for it (and that include you … caterers, event planners, wedding planners, photographers, designers, decorators, entertainment, event services … did I miss one?).

• Not Thinking Right

The number one reason why event people fail at business is that they think of themselves as “wedding planners,” “event planners,” “party planners” or “caterers” but not business people. Thinking this way limits your ability to grow your company. If marketing, sales and money management are not your first priority your business will struggle. You’ll lose business to your business-minded competition.

Your top priority must be building a business. If you lack the skills needed to promote and manage a growing company – you can either develop these skills or collaborate with someone who has them.

• Stuck in a Rut

Are you a hack? I see too many event people who get out of the gate strong with bold and creative ideas and a few years later stall out. They’re happy with just rehashing old and boring ideas.

Innovation is one the core qualities of a successful event business owner. Don’t be content with the ideas that worked five years ago. Always look for the bigger, better idea.

How do you find exciting new ideas that will thrill your clients and build your reputation? The very best in the event and catering business are active members of trade associations and attend trade shows and conferences.

ISES (International Special Events Society) and ICA (International Caterers Association) are two outstanding groups to consider joining. However, don’t just join – be an active participant and leader.

Attend trade shows like those sponsored by BizBash, Catersource / Event Solutions. Subscribe to outstanding publications like BizBash, Special Events, Events Online, Catersource and Event Solutions.

• No Systems

It’s so easy to spend your entire day handling urgent tasks – at the expense of important ones. Yes, balancing your checkbook, ordering supplies, inspecting event sites – these are urgent tasks that must be done. Just don’t let them steal all your time away from growing your business.

Building a steady stream of new leads and creating a client base is more important than ordering new linens for that party next week – but marketing tasks don’t seem as urgent. In addition, if you’re more comfortable ordering supplies than picking up the phone to cultivate a new lead … well, that’s just what you’re likely to do.

Realize that your primary mission as business owner (remember – stop thinking like an event planner or caterer) is to create new clients. To do that efficiently you need systems. Systems to attract new clients, systems to make existing clients happy and systems to make sure all the nitty-gritty details get done.

• Marketing

When you turn on the lights in the morning and discover your to-do list is twice as big as it was yesterday – you tend to work on the easiest or the most time-sensitive things first. Marketing and selling event services is neither easy or time-sensitive. Many event people hate selling and are clueless about marketing. Therefore, they put it off.

It’s not that they’re lazy. Caterers work crazy long days and event planners tackle impossible challenges every day (and nights and weekends). It’s just so easy to get caught up in the day to day stuff.

Here’s another smart thing to do. Learn how to use free online tools to market your business. Download your copy of my free e-book,  More Clients Now.

Schedule one hour a week to think about your marketing and don’t let anything stop you from keeping that scheduled appointment. Use that hour to develop your marketing plan and task lists. Make those task the first thing you do everyday and soon business will pick up.

Be careful what you wish for – you may just get it.

• Poorly Defined Goals

I know a caterer who achieved her goal of “make more money,” and she’s miserable for it. She works 12 hours a day, seven days a week. She’s overweight, grouchy and heading for a divorce. By accomplishing a shallow and ill-defined goal, she got what she wanted – but whole bunch more she didn’t want.

An intelligent goal is essential to the success of your marketing plan, and more importantly your life. A better goal would be, “make more money by creating business systems that allow me to delegate and outsource so I can work 4 days a week … have a 3 week vacation … and have the option to sell my catering company for $2 million in 5 years.” Yes, it’s a more ambitious goal – but one many event people would love to achieve.

• No Strategy

What is your marketing strategy? When I ask my workshop clients this question, they’ll list off the things they do; advertise, yellow page ad, ad in the local paper, post-card mailers and so on. These are tactics, not a strategy. What’s the difference? I’ll let Seth Godin tell you;

Here’s the difference: The right strategy makes any tactic work better. The right strategy puts less pressure on executing your tactics perfectly.

Here’s the obligatory January skiing analogy: Carving your turns better is a tactic. Choosing the right ski area in the first place is a strategy. Everyone skis better in Utah, it turns out.

If you are tired of hammering your head against the wall, if it feels like you never are good enough, or that you’re working way too hard, it doesn’t mean you’re a loser. It means you’ve got the wrong strategy.

It takes real guts to abandon a strategy, especially if you’ve gotten super good at the tactics. That’s precisely the reason that switching strategies is often such a good idea. Because your competition is afraid to.

I help my clients develop marketing plans by helping them create and articulate marketing strategies. I don’t believe you should rely on a consultant to hand you a marketing plan – your business is too personal and important to use a fill in the blanks plan.

It’s important for you to identify your worthy and meaningful short-term and long-term goals. Figure out the “why.” Why you are in the (event, hospitality, wedding, event, catering) business. Then build a plan that fulfills that bigger vision.

• Selling Skills

Do you hate selling? Do you dread the idea of picking up the phone to try to talk a stranger into booking an event? How about schmoozing with knuckleheads at networking and business card exchanges? Do you enjoy putting on a phony smile and hard-selling people into handing over a large deposit for a party?

I hope you hate doing those things – and I hope you don’t do them! What I described above is not professional selling – but sadly so many new event people think it’s the way to do it. The day I stopped trying to sell the old way and discovered how to help people buy was a happy one. But, it wasn’t until I learned how to market that business became fun. When you market right, you don’t waste anytime talking to people who aren’t already “sold” on you. Learn how to sell and market the right way.

• Financial Controls

The event and catering industry attracts many “non-financial” and “non-analytical” types of people. The industry tends to draw in creative and social personalities – but only those who have or develop analytical and executive skills survive as business owners.

If you hate doing the books and can’t stand the operational side of the business, find others who can do it for you. Partner, outsource and delegate – but never abdicate your financial controls

• Employee Management

You probably know one or two business owners who pay and treat their employees poorly. They don’t like or trust their own employees and the feeling is mutual. The workers only do what they’re told to do and only if their activity is closely monitored. Turnover is high and clients don’t stay for long either. When the boss isn’t around, nothing good gets done.

A toxic employee-employer relationship can make the event business a drudge instead of a joy.

Remember, your employees are more important to your long-term success than any client is. Hire the best, take care of them and they’ll treat your clients like gold.

Don’t be greedy. Pay your team well and you’ll grow faster and bigger. Moreover, you’ll enjoy what you do.

• Burnout

Burnout is a very big cause for failure in any business – and very easy to do in the catering / event business.

Take care of yourself. Stop trying to do everything yourself. Instead, create systems that allow you to delegate and outsource or simply do things more efficiently.

Set realistic goals that include all aspects of your life. Working yourself to an early grave pushing hors d’oeuvres is no way to live. Make sure your business plan includes your vision of a good life.

Did I miss any of the causes for a business to flop? Have you made any of these mistakes? I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment!