Podcast

When our daughter, Lauryn, was planning her wedding, we found out why couples say their biggest struggle is getting vendors to return their communications, and we only needed a venue!

I kind of had an idea about it, because I’ve had couples book over and over saying we were the only ones who responded, but I didn’t actually know what it felt like, and my mind was blown.

It’s not something that makes sense to me as a professional and a business owner, but I do have an idea of a few things that might prompt vendors to not feel like they need to answer.

1. The date the couple is asking for in the initial contact isn’t available.

2. The couple doesn’t feel like a good fit at the initial contact.

3. Either busy or filters make the contacts get missed.

FIRST of all… respond quickly, no matter their request. Get ahead of your competitors that do respond.

1. If the date isn’t available, reply back anyway! They may be flexible than they appear, or you might be able to refer them to someone else in your network who you’ve partnered up with. They will do the same for you when a couple comes to them and they’re booked. It’s literally one of the best ways to fill both of your calendars.

OR… they keep shopping around and don’t get a response from anyone and THEN decide to be more flexible for their date.

Either way, they’ll love you for responding and it just might get you a referral to one of their friends getting married in the future for it.

2. If they don’t seem like a good fit, reply back anyway. For example, you’re a photog, they’re asking for senior portraits and you only do weddings. Refer back to what we just went over about sending them to someone else in your network who does senior portraits. Connect with them well, you know as well as I do how fast time goes by and they’ll be looking for their wedding before we know it.

3. Keep a close eye on all the ways they could connect. Check your email spam, and your filtered FB messenger and IG DM requests. Reply back even if it has been a minute since they initially reached out, be honest, you never know, they might still be looking, especially knowing that so many never respond, and maybe aren’t looking in these places for inquiries.

Here’s your hot tip… follow up! As we know, couples are equally guilty of not responding. Keep following up until they either tell you to stop or that they’ve gone in another direction. Of course be cool about it, and send that last follow up as a kind of “release” to them.

Of course I’ve got an awesome tool that goes right along with this, it’s our bonus that teaches you how to get responses back to your communications with your couples, complete with an email template.

You can get it by joining our VIP membership, The Vendors Circle. As a listener to this podcast, you get your first month for 50% off when you use this link: https://www.bridepath.com/offers/2f5Mc8ES?coupon_code=TRIAL5

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