Auditing Your Wedding Sales Journey

Let’s be honest: these tasks rarely reach the top of the priority pile, and ‘Auditing’ doesn’t necessarily get us all buoyed on the excitement stakes, but trust me, there is magic and treasure in doing this work.

So why is it important to audit your sales processes in this shoulder season between the end of the summer and the start of the fresh engagement season and the peak of enquiries in a few short weeks?

ONE

It’s amazing how much changes in a year (or more). It’s subtle as the weeks and months roll on, but your wedding offering and how you host weddings will adjust and alter over time, particularly if you’re a venue in the early years. The demands and expectations of your couples change and evolve, too – their wishes, priorities and the trends they embrace. And you want the way you sell to reflect that correctly. Ultimately, if we mirror and match our client’s needs and build a connection with them, they buy from us happily!

TWO

Those changes in a year aren’t just about client choices but about the landscape we work in, which is constantly shifting. Look at the developments in tech that exist now that didn’t or weren’t on our radar even a year ago (Threads? More awareness of AI and chatbots, to name just two). And how about our wider macro environment, both politically and economically? Where the landscape changes, you must ensure your sales processes resonate and work hard for you.

By taking a step back and keeping an open mind, we can uncover wrinkles in the system, gaps in the process and opportunities to present a more compelling and irresistible offer to our ideal wedding couples that lands with them and has them saying, ‘Where do we sign?’.

Put simply, attention to your sales processes and the customer sales journey reap the rewards for your results, profitability and bottom line.

As a business consultant dedicated heavily to supporting wedding venues to thrive, auditing and examining all the little but essential sales steps form a large part of my private consulting work. It’s work I’m passionate about because it works and drives business. But not everyone can hire a business consultant to be their fresh eyes and ears.

GETTING STUCK IN

How can you audit your own sales processes as a team and give them an uplift to support your 2024 success? How do you brainstorm in-house and find your wrinkles in the system and areas for development?

CARVE OUT THE TIME

First, give this the time it needs and book some proper time to focus on this as a project. It’s not a 10-minute task to fit in between meetings but one that needs focused time, such as a half day, with additional time booked to allow you to take action over 2-3 weeks afterwards, depending on what you uncover.

So how do you get auditing, and what do you ask yourself? I’m covering a few sample areas here – this is just a snapshot and by no means a complete version of a full sales process audit, which is available as a fully guided template from Kelly Chandler Consulting.

ENQUIRY STAGE

How does your enquiry email response measure up? Does it convey your USP succinctly and quickly and show your enthusiasm for hosting their wedding?

Where is your call to action on the enquiry response to guide the recipient towards what you want them to do next?

How many people have given you feedback on your enquiry response? If you don’t have the help of a consultant or trainer to guide you, share it with a good range of friends and industry colleagues – what does it tell them? What impression does it give them? And is that what you want?

What questions do couples often ask you before they move to a viewing? How can you answer those earlier in your sales process?  In some cases, those are objections/reasons for not booking – where can you handle those clearly and honestly?

VIEWING STAGE

How do couples book in for a viewing with you? Is this smooth and easy? What challenges do you have with this? What changes can you make to make this quicker and easier?

And delving into advice here, if you haven’t moved to offering couples to book their viewings via an online diary, you are likely losing a lot of interest. Young millennials and Gen Z are all about the ease and efficiency of tech in all aspects of their life. Even I, firmly Gen X, get annoyed if I can’t book an appointment for something online late at night when it suits me. Calendly and other online diary booking systems are highly recommended to build into your sales processes.

Back to the audit – How do you show couples the actual journey of the wedding day at your venue? And I mean the journey, not just the spaces?

How do you leave them with enough knowledge to know how it all works? Are there ways to make this easier for them?

ONBOARDING

How do you onboard a new couple and welcome them to the experience with your venue – are there opportunities here to streamline? Are there chances to do more?

YOUR ACTION PLAN

Now, auditing is all well and good, but you need to commit to what changes are a realistic priority, especially with engagement season just six weeks away. What 3 or 4 areas are you going to uplift and improve? What needs to happen and when, and by who in the team? Planning prompts are built into the guided workbook that I’ve designed to help you along the way and track action and successes. I do love an action plan with big goals sitting behind it!