Real Flower Business

Education and Business Training for Floral Designers.

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Why you don’t want to book every customer

Pro tip: You don’t want to book every customer! You only want to book the right customers.

When I was first starting out in my business, I thought the goal was to book every client….no matter what it took!

  • Lower the price on a few things to meet the budget? Sure.
  • Meet at a super inconvenient time for me? Sounds great!
  • Schedule a second call to go over “all the things” before you decide to work with me? Um, OK!

Whatever reassurance a customer needed to be persuaded that I was the right florist for the job, that’s what I’d do!

But over time, with experience and concerted efforts to dive deeper into who my ideal customers actually are, I’ve come to realize that I don’t want to book every customer!….not by a long shot. I only want to book the right customers for me.

Who’s “the right customer”?

Well, it’s someone who doesn’t need to be convinced that I’m the right choice because she can already feel that I’m the right choice from her preliminary experience with my company and my brand.

I set the rules to clearly communicate the steps in our booking process, so neither one of us invests too much time before we’ve decided we’re a good match.

I share how I’ve perfected this process over the past 16 years in my courses for wedding florists: How To Write Proposals That Sell  and my Wedding Workflow pdfs show you how to spend less time before booking a client and how to lay out the steps for clients to follow from the initial inquiry to post-wedding day follow-up, click here to read more about my courses.

It takes a lot of work to learn how to speak directly to the heart of your ideal clients.

By tapping into who my clients really are and what they really care about, I’m able to reach them on a deeper level and develop a level of trust before we even speak.

I’ve streamlined my proposal process so that I’m not “giving away all the details”, yet I still provide enough detail that a client can trust that we’re on the same page.

It may not happen over night, but with time and practice, the booking process starts to take shape and you’ll be able to prequalify clients before investing too much time.

You can find all my downloadable pdfs here!

Keep doing beautiful work, floralpreneurs!

With love from me to you,

Alison

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What to do if customers are ghosting

Hey floralpreneurs!

I’ve seen an influx of florists asking about “ghosting” in my Facebook group. Particularly the question, “What can I do to fix this?”

If you, too, are experiencing customers who “disappear” without a word, check out today’s video where I talk about 2 reasons this may be happening plus 4 tips to help you correct this problem in my live chat on “Closing the sale”.

Click to watch if you’re getting ghosted:

Find a list of downloadable pdfs HERE.

The slow fade.

Every florist can relate to your frustration when a customer just walks away! You’re not alone.

At this point in my business I have an excellent pre-qualification process. I think instead of just “weeding out” price shoppers, prequalification serves as a form of “customer service” by letting potential clients know some important details before we move forward:

#1. My requested minimum for THEIR event (if it’s further away, the minimum is more, for example, if there are 8 bridesmaids, it’s more than if you have 2 bridesmaids, etc.),

#2. That our first contact is via phone consultation,

#3. I will provide them some preliminary details and a quote and THEN THEY CAN BOOK OR NOT, but we’re not going further down this road (with multiple revisions, meetings, etc.) unless we’re on the same page at this point regarding price, style and trust….and a deposit.

Now, that said, I really do feel your pain; it’s not easy to “start from scratch” each season as we do in the wedding industry. No “repeat business” from last year’s couples makes what we do in the wedding biz very uniquely, stressful and we must be resilient when faced with rejection. Which is easier said than done sometimes.

But here’s how I see it, anyone who’s price shopping and doesn’t choose you, is a GOOD loss. You don’t want that customer….OK, maybe you just need “any customers” at some point, but in the long run, the price shopper isn’t a “type of customer” you can truly try to court and make loyal to you/your brand.

Your ideal customer (not necessarily “high-end” or “luxury customers”, but YOUR customers, the ones who want the work that you enjoy doing!) have to “find you” because you show up for them in a way that’s clear and obvious to them.

As I always say, we have to speak directly to their hearts so they can find us….and what happens on the flip-side is that these price shoppers start to realize that we are not talking to them.

They “weed themselves out” because they can feel your honesty, your quality, your vibe, and they want you. Not “just anyone”.

You’re not “the cheapest”; you have something more to give…and they feel that.

Your businesses depends upon understanding what your customers need, then, you serve it up on a silver platter, and if it’s “not for them”, they know it…..just as much as we do.

But for your ideal clients, the clients who LOVE you and are excited to work with you, THEY GET IT. They get you. They want what you do. They don’t need convincing because you’ve already shown them WHO YOU ARE.

This is the work I do on-the-daily….and what I teach in The Art of Good Business….and it IS a long game…..

But it was only a few years ago when I was “doing my art of good biz work” and I was just not booking as many weddings as I needed. And I was bummed. And kinda stunned. ‘Cause I was working SO HARD. And putting SO MUCH out there…..yet a friend of mine who wasn’t “doing all the things” and wasn’t trying so hard, well, she was booking GREAT gigs, easily…..her customers loved her. And I was at the same junction you seem to be now; “WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?”

“Oh nothing”, my friend assured me. “You’re great. You’re doing everything right”…..but I insisted, “No. You’re booking. I’m not. I’m working hard to express myself (blogging, revamped website, and doing some of my best design work), but I must be doing something wrong.”

So I used this “less than busy enough” time to “do even more work” and in the end, the season was “OK, not great”…..BUT THE NEXT YEAR was my BEST season yet. The season after that, even better, Last year, best so far…..

That season I was down, well, I lost my mojo or my vibe was not jiving with the clients I wanted or I was trying too hard….because despite my best efforts, and I mean really, deep rooted best efforts, people weren’t digging me.

All this is to say, you’re smart to ask “What can I do to fix this?” Because it is up to you to fix everything around here! This is your dream, your biz, your struggle….and your ideal customer to attract and wow and attract again, and again, and again.

Keep working. Keep looking for holes, clues, signs, signals, mis-communications that you can fix.

Keeping the faith in the off-season is hard when we’re not booking. Keep moving forward.

Keep doing beautiful work.

xo. -Alison

Definition of ‘Ghosted’ (via Huffington Post).

The term “ghosting“ (sometimes known as the “slow fade”) refers to the anecdotally pervasive act where one dater ends a relationship by simply disappearing. The ghost does not give an explanation of any sort, leaving the ghosted wondering where he or she went wrong.

Find a FULL LIST of course offerings HERE.

 

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Tips for Prequalifying Clients

How do you prequalify clients?

It took me several years of building my floral design business before I felt like I finally started to hone in on my pre-qualification process.

Not every customer can be my customer.

OK, I’d heard that before, but I really, really wanted more customers! How was I supposed to ignore perfectly decent customers in pursuit of only the right ones? (This felt risky.)

Well, it wasn’t “easy” and it did take some practice, but I spent the new few years zeroing-in on the clients that I really wanted to work with and soon, I had a calendar that was 90% filled with “my ideal customers”.

(OK, I totally made up that number….maybe it was 88%?….maybe 95%….I didn’t do the math, but my customers rocked. I was psyched with almost every single client.)

It took me years, but now I understand that attracting the right customers to my business is not about mass appeal; it’s about niche appeal.

So what’s unique about you?

That’s what’s marketable about you/your brand.

If we want to attract “better gigs”, we must show our ideal customers who we are.

Click to watch: Prequalifying Clients, Live from Facebook.

Prequalifying is a form of customer service.

Save yourself time and save clients time, too, by identifying early-on that you’re just not the right fit.

Make prequalifying part of your workflow.

Successful business owners don’t waste time in unnecessary meetings.

CEO’s say No to things that don’t fit the vision.

Prequalify.

We must be in love with our brand if we want customers to love it, too.

I know so much about my potential clients, even the ones who don’t book me, because their inquiry forms tell me a lot of important details about who they are….beyond just “we’re planning a wedding”.

My pre-qualification process feels like customer service.

It’s worth taking the time to get to know my ideal clients so I can more easily attract them AND more easily identify the clients who won’t be “ideal” for my company.

Remember: Ideal customers don’t need convincing. They already dig you.

Thanks for reading & watching!

With love from me to you,

Alison

Click for more:

What I’m obsessed with in my business right now.

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My first podcast interview

Floralpreneurs sometimes ask me if I’ll ever do a podcast and while I have no plans to start my own podcast I am happy to share my first podcast interview with Gina of From The Ground Up Floral. You can listen right HERE.

You can find the podcast on iTunes. Look for “From the ground up floral podcast” and subscribe to future episodes as well! I hope you’ll make some time to listen! http://www.fromthegroundupfloral.com/podcast/archives/2017/9-2

Here are some of the things we talk about in her podcast:

  • How I got started in the floral industry;
  • How do you make money as a home-based floral business?;
  • Industry standards on pricing;
  • Lessons from my best-worst boss;
  • A misconception I used to have about “ideal clients”;
  • The Art of Good Business (which begins Oct. 2! Doors close Sept. 30th!);
  • Gina mentions that one of her favorite videos about the consequences of “adding one extra rose” (see below);
  • Should a newer designer charge less?;
  • Quoting on the spot;
  • Why grocery stores are losing out by not using Flower Math!
Here’s the video Gina mentioned in the interview:

Thanks to Gina for inviting me to your podcast!

xo. -A

Read more about The Art Of Good Business HERE. (The doors close THIS SATURDAY at 7pm Eastern time. Don’t wait. Join me today!)

 

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What happens after you meet a bride?

A floralpreneur submitted this question in my Facebook group:

Q: What is your workflow after meeting a bride? Do you give them an estimate or a detailed proposal?

She went onto say: Right now after meeting with a bride we figure up what flowers we are using and recipes and build our proposals. I am always calling getting prices on flowers for whatever month it is unless it is something I already have an idea about. It is so time consuming! Are we going about this all wrong?

Well, if it’s taking more time than you’re willing to commit before booking then the answers is YES!

I designed a FREE e-mail course “How To Book More Weddings More Quickly” which you can get today to share some of my best booking tips.

As a floralpreneur it’s essential to streamline your workflow and create processes that are easy to follow, accommodating to potential clients and also allow you to take complete control over the booking process, planning process and beyond.

Over the past 15 years I’ve developed my proposal writing process so that I’m spending no more than 2 hours on the pre-qualification, consultation and proposal writing process.

I do not create recipes before booking an event. If I’ve “never made something like this before” I will create some recipes to determine a stem count and possibly bounce ideas off of another floral designer, but I don’t create a recipe for every single bouquet and centerpiece before I get a commitment from the client.

Here’s why….

I’ve set some minimums on each piece which I can use as a jumping off point when I create a quote.

A professional florist should be able to determine the baseline price for a bouquet based on an inspiration photo and their own pricing experience.

Do your centerpieces start at $75? $95? $125?….what is your starting point? What’s your “average”? What’s your “premium” price?

When you’re unsure about pricing, you must do the math! Will you use 12 roses, 6 callas and 5 dahlias? Can you make it with 9 roses, 5 callas and 3 dahlias? What’s the price difference in each of these designs? What price will you quote to THIS client for THEIR desired look? What does it cost to achieve their ideal outcome?

It’s so important to “think like a flower shop”, as I always say, and think of flowers in retail dollars. Yes, it may take time to learn the “average wholesale cost of snapdragons in August”, but it’s not hard to remember that snapdragons are usually $3 retail or $2.50 or $4….what do you SELL it for? That’s the number to focus on.

Moral of the story….

Your time is valuable and so are your design ideas, which is why you have to create processes that allow you to provide potential clients with enough information that they can easily choose you, but not so much information that feel like you’re giving away too many ideas to a client who’s “shopping around” and may decide to just take your ideas somewhere else. (Speaking of which, have you seen my post on O.P.P? check it out here.)

Grab my FREE e-mail course “How To Book More Weddings More Quickly” here!