Make More Money Series: How to Increase Profitability in Your Wedding Business (2 of 3)

The Wedding Pro CEO Podcast: Episode 180

With Brandee Gaar

Welcome to part two of the Make More Money series, and in this three part series we’re breaking down three different ways that you can make MORE money in your wedding business!! 

Couldn’t we all stand to make a little more money in our wedding business!?

BEFORE YOU CONTINUE: This is part two. If you have not yet listened to part one, to go back and listen to episode 179 where I talk all about how to WORK MORE to make more in your wedding business. I break down some really specific strategies on how to work more with intentionality to make more in your business. 

Today is part two of the Make More Money series, and we are talking all about how to CONVERT MORE in your business.

When I’m working with different wedding pros, so often what I hear is we don’t have enough sales!!!  or we need to increase our sales!!!

However, what’s actually more accurate is that they’re not converting enough leads in their business. Most wedding pros don’t know if they’re converting enough leads in their business because they’re not tracking the data.

Click HERE to download the free Inquiry Data Tracker I use for my business. 
Follow along and maximize your time invested in listening to this series!

To my CEOs interested in growing a real business they love, I want you to download my Inquiry Data Tracker.  Click or copy and paste https://weddingproceo.com/LEADCONVERSION into your browser for the free Inquiry Data Tracker.  Follow along and maximize your time invested in listening to this series.

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Maybe You Don’t Need More Leads.

If you’re not hitting your financial goals ask yourself, why?

Before you jump on social media and start, trying to drum up more leads and spend precious ad dollars… maybe the problem is that you aren’t converting the leads that you’re getting??

It really doesn’t matter how many more leads that you get if you’re not converting. Right? You’re just gonna burn yourself out.

So what I want to do is help you to understand, 1. how to track the data so that you know exactly how much you’re converting. And 2. help you to understand the data so you can fix your sales funnel.

If you have a hole in your funnel, that’s keeping you from converting your leads!

Okay, so let’s get into it.

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Gather Data

Step 1 of how to convert more leads is to gather the data! So I’m actually gonna give you the Inquiry Tracking Worksheet that I include in my accelerator course. All of my accelerator students get to use this, but I’m including it here for you for free so that you can track this data.

We are officially passed quarter one of 2023, and so I want you to download my inquiry data tracker. Okay? You can go to BRANDEEGAAR.COM/LEADCONVERSION Totally free!! Grab it. I’ll send you an email with the download so that you can download it and make a copy for your own business. And this is the tracker that I use in my business!!!

Now that we are officially past quarter one, I want you to input all, all of your leads from quarter. you’re going to input every single lead that came in the first quarter of 2023.

How many of those leads went to consult? And how many of those consults actually booked?

“This Data Inquiry Tracker is going to be able to help you to see the percentage. It’s going to automatically calculate the percentage that you are converting in each stage of your funnel. But you do have to input these numbers!”

Assess The Data

Once you have downloaded the tracker and you’ve input all of your inquiries for quarter one, the next step, step 2, is going to be to assess the data.

In the tracker, it’s gonna tell you the percentage for how many of your inquiries, book a consult, and then how many of those consults went to booking, and became a booked client. It’s gonna automatically calculate that percentage for you.

So here’s some benchmarks that I want you to try to hit.

The first one is, I want you to have about 50% of all of your inquiries, to book a consult with you. Let’s say you get 10 inquiries that come in for the month. I want at least five of those to book a consult with you.

That’s a 50% conversion from inquiry to consult. So you’re looking for a 50% conversion there.

The second number that we are looking for is that once they do a consult with you, I want at least 80% of those consults to go to contract and become a booked client. So that 80% is that benchmark for you.

Example: If 10 inquiries came in and five of them booked a consult with you, then I want four of those five to actually become booked clients.

And if you’re not hitting those numbers, listen, that’s okay!! The whole point of this data gathering is to know if you’re hitting those numbers or not.

I love when somebody gives me benchmarks because that will help me to really drive towards that goal.

“So I want you to assess your data here in step two. We’re looking for 50% of all of the inquiries to book a consult and 80% of those consults to become booked clients.”

Brandee Gaar

Not Hitting The Benchmarks?

So you’re looking at your data spreadsheet, you did the entire first quarter, and you’re like, Brandee, I am not hitting those numbers!!

Consider the following:

• Increase the amount of times you follow up. Follow up via email at least 5 times providing value not just asking them only to book now.
  
• Make sure your website copy and your social media, all really speaks to your ideal client! Change some copy or for the heavy lifting outsource to a pro!
  
• Share your pricing. If you aren’t sharing your pricing until after they inquire, this could be a big reason why people are falling off from inquiry to consult. You want to make sure that you’re sharing your pricing somewhere before they inquire either starting prices or a range of pricing on your website or on your Contact Us page. Make sure you share pricing before the consult!!!

“Are you using this time to get them to know, like, and trust you? Part of a consultation is really just confirming that they love you. You do not need to go through your bullet points. You don’t need to go through your checklist. You don’t need to do that. What I really want you to be focused on is, are you a great personality fit for them and them for you?” 

The Wedding Pro CEO Podcast #180

Make Changes Based On The Data

Step three is to make edits based on the data. Okay, so we got the data. We know we’re not quite hitting the benchmarks.

Now we understand why we’re not hitting the benchmarks, right? It’s either with our inquiry side or with our consultation side.

If your problem is that you don’t have a great follow up sequence, let’s implement a follow up sequence. We just wanna make sure that we’re staying at the top of their inbox.

The follow-ups don’t need to be, “Hey, do you want a book with us?” “Hey, do you wanna book with us?”

Nooooo!! Send them a planning tip. Send them your favorite current song, if you’re a DJ that’s packing the dance floor. If you’re a photographer, send them a blog about the five best photos to get with your bridesmaids. If you’re a planner, send them a sample timeline and then say, “Oh, and by the way, Book a consult with us today so we can save your date!” Right?

So it doesn’t have to be just sales, sales, sales!! Provide them information, pose yourself as the expert.

That follow up process can even more warm them up. That’s what we’re wanting to do. Warm them up and get them to know, like, and trust you. Be a warm lead so that they book a consult

“Wherever your sales funnel has a leak, let’s make those edits immediately and get those fixed so we can get your conversion rates up and we can make more money!”

Brandee Gaar

Do The Math!

Step four and the final step of this episode is to do the math. Collect the data, assess the data, make edits and repeat! It becomes just math, y’all.

You may think that you’ve gotta go out there and get this arbitrary number of leads. You’ve convinced yourself that you must run on this hamster wheel to get more leads, get more leads. No!! We are not running on a hamster wheel.

Remember we’re working more with intentionality. Our hustIe looks different!! Always know what the ROI (return on your investment) is.

It just comes down to math. If you hit these benchmarks, the 50% and the 80%, and you have 10 leads come in, in a month you will book four of those.

If you can keep your benchmarks at 50% and 80%, you will book four weddings from 10 inquiries. That’s just how the math works, right? 10 inquiries come in. 5 of them go to consult. 4 of those book. So you’ve got a 40% closing ratio overall.

Now you need to look at your financial goals for the month, and if you set your financial goals that you need to book, let’s say eight weddings every month, (I’m just throwing that # out there), then you know, you’ve got to get 20 inquiries in the door. If you need to book six weddings, you’ve gotta get 15 inquiries.

So I don’t want you to constantly be trying to drum up new inquiries. If you’re getting 20 inquiries, but only two weddings a month are booking, you don’t have an inquiry problem.

You don’t need to focus on more marketing or going out on social media. You need to keep up what you’re doing, you’re getting great number of inquiries, but you need to focus on converting more. 

FAQs

Q1. Why is it important to track the conversion rate in your wedding business?

Answer: Tracking the conversion rate in your wedding business is important because it allows you to see how effective your marketing and sales efforts are at turning inquires into paying clients that know like and trust you. By monitoring this metric, you can identify areas where you need to improve and make changes to your strategy to increase your conversion rate and ultimately grow your business.

Q2. What is the Inquiry Data Tracker?

The Inquiry Data Tracker is a tool used by my company Blush by Brandee Gaar and wedding professionals in the CEO Accelerator to keep track of all the inquiries they receive from potential clients. It helps them to asses the data from lead to booking client. It also helps the wedding pro to stay organized, maximize their follow-up efforts, and ensure that leads are nurtured well.

Q3. What benchmarks should wedding pros aim for when it comes to lead conversion?

I recommend 50% and 80%. 50% of your inquiries going to booking a consult. 80% of consults going to contract. If you can keep your benchmarks at 50% and 80%, you will book four weddings from 10 inquiries.

Q4. What should you do if you’re not hitting the benchmarks for lead conversion in your business?

Listen to the podcast! 🙂 Some strategies include optimizing your website and landing pages, improving your follow-up processes, refining your pricing and packaging, and focusing on building strong relationships with potential clients. It’s important to track your progress and make adjustments as needed to continue improving your conversion rate over time.

Listen Now to Episode 180 of the Wedding Pro CEO Podcast, How to Make More Money Series: Convert More!

The link is above or listen and subscribe to the Podcast where you listen to podcasts!

DM me on Instagram or post your thoughts in the facebook group! (links are below)

Bye for now!!! 🙂

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