| Author | Sharon Hill |
| Title | Become a Top Wedding Planner - 7 Things You Must Do Before You Meet With a Potential Client |
| Category | Working with Clients |
| Article |
When you are a new wedding planner, you’ll want to do everything you can to impress potential clients. Here are 7 things you can do to assure that you make a good first impression. 1) Know the Answers to Tough Questions Be ready for the potential client to ask you about your experience, education, services and packages, and your willingness to reduce your rates. 2) Create or Update Your Portfolio Your portfolio should contain recent photographs of the weddings you have planned, samples of any wedding favors you designed, timelines and worksheets that you use to keep organized, and testimonials from past clients. 3) Dress Professionally No matter how you think the potential client might be dressed when they meet you, you need to look like a professional. This means being well-groomed and dressed in business attire. 4) Be Prepared to Take Notes Make sure you bring a pad of paper, pens and pencils, a calendar, and calculator with you. There is nothing worse than having to ask your potential clients for a pen or searching through your purse or pockets to find piece of paper. 5) Be Familiar with the Meeting Location If you didn’t select the location and have never been there, you might want to do a trial run. At the location, determine the best place within the room to sit and have a private meeting. 6) Allow Ample Travel Time Being late gives a very bad impression. Calculate how long it will take you to get to the venue and leave ample time in case there is a problem with traffic. Plan to arrive early, not right on time, so you are not rushing and stressed at the last minute. 7) Make Sure You Are In a Good Frame of Mind This is important and often not mentioned. You must make sure that you are in a calm and confident state of mind when you go to a meeting. If you argued with someone earlier in the day, have been disorganized and rushed, or spent the day thinking about how badly your day is going, it’s going to show. Put yourself in a positive state of mind before your meeting and you are more likely to do well. Don’t forget to have a plan of how you would like the meeting to end. Some wedding planners bring a contract with them to the meeting. Others like to go back to their offices, write a detailed contract and send it later. Also decide what you will say and do if the potential client is not ready to make a commitment or is just not the right client for you. Whatever the outcome, make sure you act professionally, even if this meeting doesn’t end in a sale, you could get a referral from it in the future. If you would like to learn more about becoming a top wedding planner, I invite you to claim your Free Instant Access to my Special Report “7 Steps to Becoming a Top Wedding Planner” when you visit http://www.HowToBecomeaTopWeddingPlanner.com. |
| About the Author | Sharon Hill is a wedding and event planner, event consultant and author. She has been planning events for over 18 years and now she also helps people realize their dreams of becoming top wedding planners. |
