As it turns out, it's simpler and quicker to get a lead than we thought. Of course it's important to focus on your marketing. You may have read an article we put up recently with Florist 2.0 about techniques we used to leave a wedding show with 100 consultations. At the wedding show this past weekend, we were trying several new techniques to see how they affected our pipeline of new customers. The most impressive change though wasn't even planned.
Here's the tip:
Don't try to schedule a consultation, ask for their information, or even just hope that they reach out. We simply said, "Would you like for us to check if we're still open for your date?"
It worked like a charm! They immediately opened up to give us their information. I had been turned down several times when it came to the call-to-action with a bride, but once I started using this technique, I was successful every single time. We didn't consult a calendar either. We just filled out the "Check my date" form on our website and said that our office staff would check back with them in a day or two.
The funniest part is that this is the EXACT same technique we used on our website. See that article here. For every bride, we were able to get her wedding date, name, fiancé name, email, phone number, and even asked about her budget (though, we got few solid budgets). We simply pulled up the website on our phone and that's how we gathered the information. The other great point is that this already worked with how we currently process online inquiries.
Here's why we think it works:
When you are scheduling brides for consultations, it requires them to look at their schedule as well as the schedule of all the others who are coming with them. There's definitely a positive to this: you get more solid leads. However, you're missing out on the many who don't want to do that. You're asking them to do work just like the other 100 vendors at the show. With this technique, you're letting them know that you can start the process and they just have to wait for you to contact them.
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Once you have a client consultation scheduled, you can use Curate and book more brides on the spot! Schedule a consultation with the Curate team to learn more.
