259. Stop Discounting. How to Charge What You're Worth Confidently

Welcome to the Wedding Pro CEO podcast, the podcast to help you grow and scale your profitable wedding business. I'm your host Brandee Gaar. And today we're digging into all the things surrounding high ticket clients. Now let's be clear before we start that this is not. Everyone's market, right? Some of you might be like, Hey, Brandee, I really love working with DIY clients or a more budget conscious client. And that is totally fine.

Even if you're in a more cost effective niche in your market, you still want to make sure that you're charging appropriately and that you feel really confident about what you're charging so that you're charging not just what you're worth, but what it takes to profitably run your business and ensure that you're making a salary from it. So I didn't want you to get into this episode and be like, ah, Brandee, I don't know that I want to work with luxury. That's not what we're talking about here.

Not everybody has to work with. Luxury, but you do have to make sure that you're confidently charging and selling enough money to run your business effectively and sustainably.

First of all, let's talk about your mindset because everything starts with your mindset. and you guys may know, I talk about this on the show a lot, I'm really not much of a mindset girly though. I feel like I might have become one over the years, but I don't want you to skip this step. I tend to skip the woo and I'm like, just tell me how to do it. Like tell me the ABC, right? But really importantly is you believing In the service that you're selling. And so often we don't get there.

Like I see this time and time again, when I'm working with pros inside of our programs is they're like, Hey, I jumped my pricing from 4, 000 to 6, 000, but I haven't closed a single sale. And I think I raised it too much. And I'm like, well, why did you raise it and what brought you there and how did you change your marketing because of it? And how have you changed your sales because of it? And they don't have really any answers to that. They just heard that they should make more money.

Or they weren't converting already at 4, 000 and they were like, well, maybe if I sell at 6, 000, then I'll be able to pay my bills. Right? So you don't want to just throw a dart at a number, but you really want to work on your mindset. You don't want to just throw a dart at a number. We really want to.

Understand how much it costs you to service each of your packages, how many hours go into them, all the costs that go into that service, which I know so many of us are like, I don't have that much overhead. You do. You have softwares, you have insurances, you have licensing, you have staff. There's lots of different things that you have to pay for as a business owner. And that all adds up.

So once you understand your pricing and you know, okay, this is the price that I need to charge to make sure that I'm making a salary and I'm being paid. I'm not working for free. And that my business is continuing to be profitable. Once you understand all of that, you will much more confidently sell and you have to really know, okay, what I have is what this client is looking for.

That's why understanding their pain points is so pivotal as well, because If your client is looking for you to bring them expertise and great vendors to work with, or really understand how to pack the dance floor, or they love your way of storytelling in your videos or in your photography, that's something that they're looking for. That's something they want for their wedding that they desire. So that's a pain point for them.

And so you being able to really adequately sell to them and help them to understand this is your pain point and here's how I solve it will really get you in that mindset of being like, I know that I'm the best for you. I might not be the best photographer for everyone, right? Let's just be honest, but I am the best photographer for you and here's why.

And so that mindset of really knowing what you deliver, what you bring to the table and how you can solve the pain points of your couples is going to be so key in selling this higher ticket.

Okay, so number two is that you really want to present yourself as the premium option. And this really comes into play with your marketing, right? Really feeling confident about who you are. And again, you guys, I feel like I can't quit saying knowing who you serve, who do you serve? And then stand out to them. No one, no one in any marketplace is looking for vanilla. no, person that's willing to pay for a premium service is going to pay for someone who's vanilla. They want exclusivity.

They want to feel important. They want to know that you understand exactly what they need. And that has to come through in your marketing, in your marketing. You want to speak directly to your ideal couple. You don't just want to be like, we plan weddings that are flawless. No kidding. So does every planner that's trying to market, right? But what is the experience of working with you, you, your brand, your team? What is that experience like? How is it different from other people?

How do you make your couples feel special? Once they sign on with you, what are the things that are part of your process that no one else in your market does that has to come through in your marketing. And some of that can come through with testimonials from past clients. This is why it's so important to gather testimonials so that couples can see what past couples have had to say, It also comes through and helping them to see what it's like to work with you. Really.

A lot of what they see is just the finished product, right? They might see that you have a packed dance floor, or, you know, if you have videos reels showing that they might see your beautiful photos or your beautiful video. But at the end of the day, what does it look like from day one? If they sign on with you, what's that entire process look like? And how is it different? That's positioning yourself as that premium brand. And it's really going to make people like.

I have to work with this person. And the reason that this is important is because so often our couples are researching us well before they even get engaged. couples are following vendors for months sometimes before they ever get engaged. They're watching what you're doing. They're seeing how you interact. And so helping them to really see who you are and why you're different is going to be massively important in your marketing.

Okay. Now let's talk about lead quality because not all leads are created equally. I think we all know this and I'm going to take this back to putting pricing on your website. You guys, I cannot say this enough. I feel like I literally scream it from the rooftops on Tik Tok, on Instagram, here on the podcast. put pricing on your website. Now, what I hear people say a lot to me, wedding pros will say, well, if I put pricing on my website, that means that I'll be a commodity.

They could just compare me to everybody else. False. That means that they can self identify, right? We don't want a hundred leads when only two of them can afford us. And it makes you feel good. Cause you're like, I got a hundred leads last month. Well, what's your conversion rate? If your conversion rate on those is low because they had no idea what your pricing was until they inquired, or even until they got on a sales call, you're not even getting quality leads. You're getting junk leads.

We want to provide as much information as we can up front in our marketing, in our website, in our sales copy, In our sales funnel, we want to provide as much of that information in advance as we can. So that by the time a lead gets on a consultation with us, we know that they are well qualified. we know that they can afford us. We know that they like us. We know that they understand a lot about our brand. And so it's really your sales consult becomes just a matter of closing them.

Now, while you might get less leads. By doing this, by presenting all of that information up front, the leads you're getting are going to be much higher quality and much more likely to close costing you less time in just working junk garbage leads.

And that really takes us into the next step, which is owning your sales consult. My favorite thing to teach on is how to confidently close a sales consult. And the reason for that is because y'all, so many of us in the wedding industry lead with a servant's heart. And I don't want you to stop doing that, but you're so afraid to sound pushy or to sound salesy that you don't sell at all. And you leave your couple's confused They're kind of like, well, was I supposed to buy on here?

Am I supposed to go back and think about it? When am I supposed to contact you? Are you going to contact me? And what happens is they might be meeting with three or four people in your category. And the very next person confidently closes them during the consult. And guess what? You get ghosted. Why? Cause they feel bad to tell you that they went with someone else. You need to confidently close yourself.

Sales calls because if you're doing the marketing, if you're doing the lead qualifying ahead of time, if you're showing people who you are and why you are the cost that you are, you're like really putting forward that unique brand. It's going to be no problem to close them on this sales call. You're going to be able to assume that sale right away at the end of the call. And I love working with our pros inside of the accelerator, really helping them to understand this assume method.

Assuming the close. And if you want to learn more about the assume method, we're going to put a link to my free training. I have a completely free training that I do on the assume method. It's my method of closing your consultations every single time, free training, less than 60 minutes. You can pop down into the show notes below and watch it and really understand how I teach wedding pros to confidently close their sales every single time during a consult.

and the last piece of all of this to really help you to sell that higher ticket client, that premium client is going to be to deliver an unmatched experience, to deliver on what you promised. And the reason for this, listen, wedding pros, we are only as good as our last wedding. Let's be real about that. You have to deliver what you promised. You have to deliver a premium quality service if you want to charge premium rates.

And the reason for this is because all of those reviews are going to start to add up, right? Like we want to be able to say to our clients, this is what it's like to work with us. This is what you're going to get when you work with us. And then we want to be able to show them testimonials from past clients that fully back that up. But if you're not delivering that premium service, if you're not delivering that, unmatched quality.

Your reviews aren't going to match up and there's going to start to be this kind of, Hmm, I'm not so sure about this pro because the reviews don't match what they promise, right? So it's so important that what you promise that you deliver on and you even exceed that so that your clients can't wait to rave about you to other couples who are looking to book you.

Okay, CEOs, now you know how to close those higher ticket clients, and I want you to start really working on these strategies to make sure that you can charge that highest tier in your market. I want you to be the leader, the thought leader, the price leader in your market, whatever that is. If you're in a budget category, great. Then go to the highest end of that budget category, lead the market, be the one everyone else in your market wants to be the one everyone else is chasing.

Same thing if you're in the luxury market, let's take that up a level. How are we really drawing in those high ticket ideal clients? That's what I want from you CEOs. And I'm so excited to see you put some of these strategies into play.

If you learned something from this episode, I would love it if you would share it on your stories and tag me so that we can get more and more wedding pros to get this podcast into their ears so that we can start to really impact so many wedding pros in the industry and change the way that the wedding industry is doing business. Thank you so much for being here, CEOs, and I will see you next time.