Unveiling the Wedding Planning Insights of Brittany Murphy - Part 2

[00:00:00] Get ready for an in depth discussion on communication in part two. Brittany and I share valuable insights on setting expectations and implementing effective systems and processes. Trust me, by implementing just a few of the strategies we discuss, you'll gain a competitive advantage in your industry.

One key lesson I learned from this interview segment is that every wedding client It is more than just a transaction. It's about building a genuine working relationship. As a wedding vendor, it's your responsibility to make it personal. Tune into this episode and take your business to the next level. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Welcome to the WedPro Business Solutions Podcast. I'm your host, Kristina Stubblefield. We are back for part two of my dynamic interview with Bride to be and Marketer, Brittany Murphy to discuss her less than desirable [00:01:00] experience of searching for wedding vendors. In part two, Brittany and I dive deep into Communication, Setting Expectations, and the Systems and Processes you can easily put in place.

I can pretty much guarantee you a direct advantage over your competition just by listening and implementing a few of the things we discussed in this episode. Now, let's get started with this one. Well, this has been a hot topic with video testimonials. I've said it many times, their goal, to capture the emotion someone explaining their experience is just different than the written word.

Now, I love when people say to me, yes, but if it's a video, then what if a person wants to read it? Newsflash! Guess what? You can have it transcribed. 

Brittany Murphy: Is that what closed captions are? 

Kristina Stubblefield: You can have closed captions. You can have it transcribed to put in a blog post. 

Brittany Murphy: Wow. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Where you can actually use it as quotes.[00:02:00] And it's just that little pushback. Ooh, video testimonials. And this has been going on for a few years. And that's why I specifically, we partnered with a company to do a video testimonial software. To make it so easy that here's a link they go to, they can record it on their phone, tablet, laptop, it doesn't matter.

And then guess what? They hit the submit button. They don't have to send it in Google Drive, Dropbox, it's too big to email. All those hurdles are withdrawn out of the whole equation. The best part is the business owner can click approve. And then guess what? It's on their website. 

Brittany Murphy: It's magic. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Those then can be used as social media posts on your Google listing.

There's so many different ways to repurpose that but until people hear it talked about a few times. Oh, it doesn't have to be this ginormous task, or I don't really know, I'm scared of technology. I don't really know. There's so many tools out there to utilize that [00:03:00] the power of those video testimonials can be not just one booking. It can be booking for years to come. 

Brittany Murphy: Oh yeah. Again, a bride's video testimonial from five years ago could. It's not like your services have gone down in five years would be my expectation. So if someone's that happy, then five years, you should be even more honed in, which means you have even more excited clients now.

So you do want them to be current, but just as you say, they will speak for years and they'll speak volumes because it's still an exact example of someone who went exactly through your process. And this is how they felt afterwards. It all feeds into it. So I'd like to touch on something you just said.

You mentioned a word that is one of my favorite words of all tools, and it's And the reason I want to go after tools is because one thing I was ranting to Kristina about before we filmed this is when I did do some search and I did get some recommendations as well, I probably did something maybe that she would go to Tisca, but who knows, I sent out an email to 30 different DJs.

Kristina Stubblefield: Oh, I remember you talking, [00:04:00] Oh, this is a, this is like pushing a button for me. Yeah. Go ahead with your story. 

Brittany Murphy: So I'm sorry if I'm going to throw a few more cuss words in here, but this is after someone's done a search, they might've loved what they've seen enough to send you out something to get some interest in it.

Kristina Stubblefield: And you send it out to 30. 

Brittany Murphy: So I had 30 emails and I customized each one of them. So I just want to go ahead and say this was on a mass email where I bcc'd everybody on it. And just. 

Kristina Stubblefield: I know you heard back from every one of them. 

Brittany Murphy: Yes. Actually 31 responded back to me. It was crazy. 

Kristina Stubblefield: No, pay very, very close attention to her actual answer. 

Brittany Murphy: No. So that would be a multiplier of five. I only had six of my 30 DJs respond to me. Now, some people might say, well, when did you send these out? Is this high time in October on a Saturday? Yeah, no, one's going to respond to you, Brittany. I didn't do it then. I did give my guys enough time to respond to me. This was over a course of 90 days. Only six fully responded to me.

Of those six, half were already booked. You know why? Because the guys that responded quickly always get booked first. [00:05:00] So I was not surprised that the guys who did respond were good people who had some process or some tool in place to say, Hey, I'm either available or not available. And here are the next steps of how I would like to start this conversation with you.

Or on the flip side, I'm unavailable here are my top four recommendations of other DJs in this area I'd recommend for you. So what's on your mind, Christy? And I can see something boiling. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Actually you hit on like four or five podcast episodes I've just put out. I have over the past several months come to realize.

I don't know if I'm ready to completely accept it yet. How many wedding professionals work out of their email inbox? They don't have a CRM system, they don't have a business system. The list goes on and on. And the reason I'm mentioning this is because tools, automations, everyone's scared of that A word.

And it's okay, but there are people like me out there to help you implement them. Or there's other people, it doesn't have to be me. That you could at least gotten a response. [00:06:00] Thank you for emailing, thank you for your interest, thank you for inquiring and said if you're emailing us on Friday through Sunday we're probably at events, but we will get back to you in two to three days. You would have gotten some kind of response and the problem becomes when you work out of your email inbox the weekend's happened, you're exhausted, you don't probably do anything on Mondays, and, oh, well, you've gotten quite a few emails, well, you didn't make it back through all of them.

Even if people did respond to a few of the inquiries, where if that was in a system, you would know you had X number of leads, and there hadn't been shit done on them. And here is why this is such a pain point for me, because. It's communication. That's really what it boils down to, is simple communication.

It is like returning a phone call, returning a text message, or an email. And that's what makes it so frustrating for me, with my background, is technology is there [00:07:00] to be like an assistant, these tools and these softwares for those out there that are solopreneurs or have a small team, it is to be there to help assist you.

That's just one of the topics that you hit on for me. And I feel like customer service, lead follow up. So many times people are focused on advertising. I need to run ads. I've got to book more events. The truth of the matter is, if you get your business together a little bit, okay, maybe more than a little bit, you probably are missing out on events along the way.

Because I call it foundation, just like your website, that business solution that's there, and there's different ones out there. The worst part about it is most of them are pretty dang affordable, very affordable in my opinion, from a technology standpoint. 

Brittany Murphy: One thing you could do within the next 24 hours, it'll take you literally five seconds.

A lot of people use Gmail, go into your settings, turn on an automated responder to always be on no matter what. So that way it just says: Thanks, I received your [00:08:00] email, I'm in the office between the hours of X and X and I'll respond to you within 24 to 48 hours. I got none of those. And to me, that's the simplest thing, I literally just gave you the script guys, go copy and paste this from what you hear, put it in your Gmail now. 

Kristina Stubblefield: It's so funny you said that because I actually did a podcast episode on autoresponder, like not even having technology like this is an initial start point for busy wedding season. Like a lot of people are overwhelmed. It's usually in any email, no matter what email server you have, there is usually some kind of, some call it a vacation, some call it an autoresponder. It's probably already in what you're using. So I'm so glad you said that. 

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. But those are all the little things that feed into customer experience. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Communication. 

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. If you think about that's again, our first actual interaction with you, our first one was your website. That's where we got a good sense of, do we like you enough to play the game to get to know you to see if this is going to be a good fit for both parties to take the next step to take the even step to reach out to you.

I had to check you out first. So [00:09:00] again, that's why I wanted to start with a search. I didn't talk. I emailed 30 guys, probably not all 30 were great, but at that point I was desperate. I had no one respond back from the first 10. So that's why I went down the rabbit hole of 30 guys, let's just, I'm not crazy too much, but that's how the system worked for me as I was going, Oh shit, is no one available?

And I was doing this a full year out. So my wedding's June of next year in 2023. And I was looking at this end of May, early June which can be sometimes a bit busy time for Kentucky. So I understood, Hey, I'm going to send all these out. I'm going to give me some time to get responses because I know guys are busy.

Maybe this is what they do on the weekends and they have a full time 40 hour work job, which is absolutely fine with me. I just want to know that you're legit. That's all it comes down to. So even those automated responders to say, Hey, these are my hours. And it could be completely respectful of I only will respond back to emails between the hours of 5 and 7 PM on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays.

That's okay, because you accept you set up expectations for me. I'm okay with that because now I actually have. Oh, 

Kristina Stubblefield: I have something to go off. 

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. Versus [00:10:00] waiting 90 days and hearing back from only six by that point. Like the six one came in at day 90. Oh yeah. We're open on your date. Do you think I want you now? You shouldn't even respond, like at that point just please don't ever respond to me again. Please don't ever do this in your practice. 

Kristina Stubblefield: And here's the deal, you've just said the customer experience starts before you've ever talked to them. If you let that long of time pass by, even if they were the best recommended and you had a great vibe with them, probably somewhere in the back of your mind is what, is this how the communication's going to go? 

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. You start to build up more fear. So as an example, even after I purchased from a vendor, they weren't really good on email. They finally told me, Hey, I'm better with text. My range about that tell me that at the very beginning. I have no problem with that. Set the expectation of how you want to be communicated with because again, the word bridezilla was made for some reason and it's most likely because we're all going crazy because there's a million details we have to create.

I did not know this. Okay. It's been three decades. Did not know any of this and now I'm coming [00:11:00] into it. Even if I have some experience, I feel somewhat calm and comfortable, I have enough time and leeway. If nothing you're doing is helping me progress through that path and you're only bringing me more anxiety, then that bride's not going to choose you.

Because any anxiety before choosing to book you or before the date, even after they've booked you, is really going to give them anxiety on the day of. And now you're not going to set yourself up to get a good testimonial, a good review, because now they were maybe hopefully everything goes okay, I think they like me, I think they'll listen to my wishes.

Who wants their bride to say that none of us, if I was a vendor on that side, I would never want a client of mine to feel that way. And as a bride on this side, I never want to feel that way. 

Kristina Stubblefield: And what we've talked about, I have not heard you say anything that's like, gosh, like she's really asking a lot. Like honestly, you're talking bare minimum. That's the only thing I've heard you really talk about. 

Brittany Murphy: And luckily I had enough girlfriends or brides before to say, Hey, just so you know, they're always busy as well. I know you, I know these guys get busy. I've been warned from people in the industry, Hey, they get busy around certain times. Just give them time. But you'll figure it like you'll get through [00:12:00] it. 

Kristina Stubblefield: But if you're thinking this, there's gotta be another 10 people out there thinking this at least. 

Brittany Murphy: Yeah.

Kristina Stubblefield: Actually it's probably many more than that. You're giving people that are listening or watching this right now a direct advantage to their competitors.

Brittany Murphy: Yes. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Hey, communicate back. Hey, set some expectations for me to go off of. It's probably going to put you pretty high up. 

Brittany Murphy: If you were one of 30, I emailed and all he wrote back was "Hi", you'd be automatically in the number seven spot. You beat out over two thirds of the audience just because you said "Hi".

And that was all you wrote back given that'd be a really weird email. But that's how low the bar is set on some of these things. So again, I'll be honest, mine's not a really expensive wedding and in our area, there aren't huge expensive weddings all the time. So I feel like I'm in the normal average budget.

Most people have. So when it comes to that, if I'm in the average person, I have not said, Hey, I only have 10 for this DJ service. Are you free on June 3rd? I didn't do any of that. I said, Hey, I love your style. I saw some videos, what's you're pricing. Are you free? Are you available? Then what's your pricing? What's the process [00:13:00] look like? Can we schedule a call and going through there? And the fact that I was trying to make it so simple and that's what hurt my feelings the most is all like. And I made it bullet point, not a novel, but I said, Hey, here's how I found you, here's what I like about you. I'm complimenting you and you can't respond back to me. That's almost like I feel like I was back in the dating world is what it felt like. And at this point in the stage, we are not dating anymore. Guys, you are looking for committed relationships with your clients.

Kristina Stubblefield: And that's what it is. It's more than just a transaction. 

Brittany Murphy: Yes. 

Kristina Stubblefield: It is a working relationship. And I say to people all the time, the wedding industry is completely different. You're working with clients not one day, not just the wedding day, potentially 12, 18 plus months in advance I knew this was going to be a good one.

So I know you've mentioned DJs. I'm going to probably assume just cause we're not pinning it on them. This probably happened in other categories as well. Other vendor types. 

Brittany Murphy: Yes. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Okay. 

Brittany Murphy: Unfortunately. 

Kristina Stubblefield: That was just your really good example. 

Brittany Murphy: That was just a really good example of a numbers game where I knew that, Hey, I [00:14:00] know I'm casting out a huge net.

I knew that some of these guys are probably already taken because some of them are referrals. And so I understood that, Hey, I'm a, it's a summer wedding, it's a summer wedding. I'm going to send a mass. Mass email out that are all customized to make sure, Hey, I get a good fit because I'm going to do this as quickly as possible.

Kristina Stubblefield: You're on the other end of this. So you knew I'm not just going to copy and paste or BCC people. You went above and beyond because you had done your research to actually show some kind of interest in their business. So , is this what I, would we say, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but multiple other industry, multiple other categories or kind of all of them.

Brittany Murphy: Multiple. So rental is another one I could kind of throw under the bus. There are some good ones here in town, but a majority of them, it's been, a couple of weeks since I'm sitting, cause I only message five. There's really not too many rental companies here in town. There were people who it was a couple of weeks since I heard back from, and I had to send a follow up.

Hey, did you ever get that quote together for me? I'm kind of ready to move forward with someone ASAP. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a right here. Now [00:15:00] do you think your brides going to be happy when they have to remind you when they're basically saying, here's my money, take it. And you are not making it easy for them to shove their money in your face to take whatever services you're offering.

Those added up to me. That was where, all right, I do this for my job. I queue with my clients. I know life gets busy, but also if I'm literally saying, where can I send this money? Like where does this check it mailed to and you were taking weeks to respond to me. That's not good. That's really not good.

And the other half of it, I did pick someone, they were great. The only thing say about that is your followup after the sales closed is just as vital. I ended up mailing a check. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Oh wait, you mean just not the signed contract? I need to do something else. 

Brittany Murphy: I know this is like really earth shattering content right here, but guys, guess what?

That process never. Ends. Why? It's part of the client journey and you want to stay experience and you want to stay in business. You want happy people and 

Kristina Stubblefield: communication. We're back to that word again. 

Brittany Murphy: Yes. And I think again, something that I'll relate 

Kristina Stubblefield: wait, you were saying you wanted to know that they had received your deposit.

Brittany Murphy: [00:16:00] Oh yes sorry, I sent an email out, said, Hey, I mailed everything. It's got a copy of the contract, it has a check in it. Can you please confirm when you receive this? Because in my world, I don't know I'm booked for this until you respond back. Yes, to me. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Because most of the time it says signed contract deposit paid. 

Brittany Murphy: And that's all I get. And I don't know anything else, no one says they're excited to work with you. No one says anything like that to make you excited. As well. And I know if you do just rentals, you might not think table cloths, napkins, chairs are fun. It's a really creative industry. You might not think that, but guess what? Some of us really do. And some of us are like, yeah, I can't wait to pick out these colors. This is really neat. We're so excited. For this day to happen. 

Kristina Stubblefield: But design, I hear a lot about that now, honestly, more so than the, than in years past, like this whole, I don't want to say theme, but this whole design, I'm obviously not in the design world.

If my husband was on this, he'd say, why are you even talking about this topic? But you hear more about it with the tablecloths, [00:17:00] the napkins, the charger 

Brittany Murphy: the flowers

Kristina Stubblefield: Just all coming together and not, I hate to say helter skelter, but, and to hear you say like you're excited, no matter if it's the most exciting thing for someone else or not for people's wedding day, it's everything that the envelopes, the, probably the return.

Whether it be a stamp or label, or if the envelopes printed on and if you're in that category, attention to detail and the customer service, just because you're in one category or another, in my opinion. It's all important. 

Brittany Murphy: It is. And these are all things we can throw back to that really crazy a word automation. Now a quick thing. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Thank God, you didn't say assume you had worried there. 

Brittany Murphy: I was thinking a lot of other words, but when I landed on was automations and I'll throw myself on the bus. I have templates for almost everything I do within my sales process and one template I have. It's one of my longer [00:18:00] ones.

It's right after someone says, yes, they're going to move forward with us. It is a step by step bullet point process of what they need to do with all the attachments. But guess what? The first sentence says after high blank, we are so, so excited to work with you and start building your blank, whatever that might be, their website, their marketing presence, their strategy.

The first thing I tell them is the one thing marketing team and myself are so excited to have you as one of our newest clients. We're. Here's the next steps. 

Kristina Stubblefield: You feel the love. 

Brittany Murphy: I feel the love. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Your client, you want them to feel the love. 

Brittany Murphy: Because they are excited. Because here's the thing on the bride's side.

They are excited as a client. They've made a decision. That's also something they're celebrating. Not just, whew, I picked a great venue. I picked a great rental company. I picked a great whatever. It's also like. Oh, I could cross it off my checklist. 

Kristina Stubblefield: And it's a way to keep that momentum, that excitement flowing for an engaged couple.

Yeah. And I call this an onboarding process. And a lot of times I use onboarding and offboarding. And [00:19:00] recently I had someone brave enough and would never share who they are or anything. Say to me, listen, I get that an onboarding and offboarding process. It's important. I've heard you say it multiple times, but I need to ask something.

Please don't think differently of me. I don't know exactly what you mean. And I was like, first of all, I'm somebody you can ask. There are no dumb questions. I always say that to people about things. You don't know what you don't know. You do not know what you don't know. But to have the courage to say something to me, it was actually even in person, but it made me think this person's thinking it.

The rest, most time people won't even ask. They'll try to either Google like you mentioned or try to figure out what I'm saying. And then I was like, okay, like that's, the process of bringing in a new client into your business. And my point in sharing this is as wedding professionals 16 years,

Sometimes you can start to take some wording and some things with the process for [00:20:00] granted. And the thing about the wedding industry. It's a lot of times fresh people every year. It's not like they've come and grown along with you for the last few years. They're new in this. When I work with people on video, I remind them, you're saying this because you've said it for the past 10 or 12 years.

The person hearing this could be hearing it for the very first time. And I'm guilty of speaking way too fast and, it's something I've had to personally work on because a lot of times when I'm sharing tips or information. I'm just so used to saying the word sometimes I've found I wasn't even finishing the full sentence, just letting it roll off.

And I think wedding professionals have great intentions. I don't think that they're like, well, I'm just, because if you're a wedding vendor, you really got to love what you do. And I would say the same about the marketing business. It's not something that you just kind of skirt by it really isn't it's [00:21:00] ever changing even the wedding industry is and I feel like Wedding professionals deserve better for themselves and their business.

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. And I think even if you're successful, if you have been in the industry for quite a bit, maybe you're taking for granted your new bookings. Like maybe it's the little things you used to do, which built your business up so much and now it's well, we're just known around town, so you stopped doing it.

Well, slowly over time, you're going to see is maybe I don't recommend you to my friends who haven't been married yet. Because, yeah, they were fine. They showed up. But, yeah, they were fine. Fine is one of the worst F words ever invented. And that's not what you want someone to describe your business.

Yeah, they showed up. They put the cake up. Did they talk to me beforehand? No. I may have had to call them about five times the day before to make sure they were still coming tomorrow. But other than that, no, the taste was, the cake was great. But, all those words, it's any part of that process where now they might be regretting the purchase afterwards.

And if you think about it, client conflict is going to take us 10 times longer to resolve than just keeping a client happy.

Kristina Stubblefield: We could just do that two sentences [00:22:00] and that be the podcast episode, what you just said there. I'm throwing this back up. It's like talking to people about a marketing plan. Every year. Doesn't mean you duplicate what you did last year or the year before. I've been in business for 10 or 15 years.

I'm just going to keep doing the same thing. If that works for you, kudos because it's definitely changing out there, but Evaluating your workflow, your process of bringing new clients in your process of a client exiting your business. And I don't want it when I say that people, you become close most of the time with people because you've worked with them for a while.

You're part of their day. And I'm happy to say that clients I've worked with. They become friends with their past couples and things like that. And I'm glad that is a great relationship and it does not hurt to evaluate your templates, your canned emails or your templated emails, your workflow.

Your [00:23:00] business anything does not hurt to review it and i'm not sitting here because I think it's different for every business So I don't want to say you should only review it once a year. Yeah, i'm not giving that response So don't say that I said that But you should review it no matter how long you've been in business.

I think that's really important and that can help refresh not only your engaged couples or your new clients momentum, but it can also rejuvenate something in yourself with your business. 

Brittany Murphy: And if you ask for that feedback from your clients, you'll know where you drop the ball. If they're honest with you again, 

Kristina Stubblefield: if you didn't drop the ball, where you can refine exactly your process, exactly there.

I always say constructive criticism. Like I want to know, tell me you're not going to hurt my feelings. That's what makes us who we are. That's what helps us continually grow as a person, as a business. But I think a lot of times people shut the door on that. Don't even give it an option. Cause they don't want to hear [00:24:00] it and that is so important in, I hate using the word leveling up, but being a better version of yourself for your next clients.

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. And the last thing a bride wants to feel is feeling as if she's shopping for a car. When she's shopping for vendors and the, and maybe that's something I want to get into next, but the actual sales calls with your prospects, with your new brides or newly engaged couples, that's a huge portion as well.

That's going to come to your marketing and come to your advantage as much as possible. 

Kristina Stubblefield: I got a question, but was most of those phone calls, were they zooms? Were they in person? 

Brittany Murphy: Most were zooms. And I was absolutely happy with that because most of them wanted to schedule them in the evening. And for me, Hey, I'm logging off work. I can log on to your zoom. 

Kristina Stubblefield: But did you like that? Being able to 

Brittany Murphy: I loved it

being able 

Kristina Stubblefield: to see them versus that phone call?

Brittany Murphy: I loved it. Cause with my videographer, he was able to show me one of his most recent videos. Cause I said, Hey, I'd still love to see that five to seven one. If you don't have your website, could you shoot me an example?

He said, well, let's just watch it now. And I was like. Perfect. I got to watch in real time. And I always listen to this. I'm not going to say who any of my [00:25:00] vendors are because they might think I'm crazy bitch before they get to see me on June.

Kristina Stubblefield: But don't worry, she's coming back for a part two or three. She might not know that yet, but yes. 

Brittany Murphy: But don't worry I'm fine. We're gonna have a great time on that.

Kristina Stubblefield: But drinks on the recap one though. Definitely. We'll. Do a little something, something at that one. 

Brittany Murphy: Hell yes. And the reason 

Kristina Stubblefield: you heard her say, she's coming back. 

Brittany Murphy: Yes. Don't worry, guys. I'll be back. We'll have a, every time I rant, we're just going to take a swig but back to my videographer, I'd really love to praise him about something as yes, it was a zoom call, which absolutely fine to me.

We've all gone through the pandemic. It feels just as normal and natural. We can get the things we need out efficient. I'm fine with that. I'm a very time structured person. I'm not the perfectly most organized person, but I love that structure to things outside of fun and play. So we got to watch this video.

And I said, okay, well, in my head, I'm like. Dang, I kind of would rather just watch this in my own time and also I could have my fiance here to watch it. But I'm so glad he did that with me because what I actually witnessed is his face in the corner and he smiled and I [00:26:00] got to watch him. He was watching it with you.

He was watching it with me and I watched him smile at certain parts. That was the reason I booked with him. I could see passion, I could see everything I wanted a videographer photographer to think of his work when it comes to my time, I wanted all that experience with it. And so, I watched the video, obviously, but I was kind of checking back to see and I was like, it really looks like you love that video.

Are you proud of it? And he was like, yeah, he's like, of course, there's things I would fix about it. I'm a perfectionist. I said, yeah. I get that. But are you proud of it? He was like, yeah, I think I captured a beautiful day. And I was like, I agree. I'm not trying to fight you on it. I just want to get your opinion on it because I didn't tell him that you smiled so much at this, it made me feel comfortable that you actually have a passion for your business. Now, if he's listening to this podcast, you know why now, or if you have an outboarding meeting, you'll find offboarding, you'll find out as well, but it's little things like that, that yes, we can still get it within the zoom. I did phone calls with DJs.

That was absolutely fine as well, I was a person, I just want to speak with you, whether phone, whether visually, just [00:27:00] understand how you talk back to me. That was really all I was looking for. And when I mean talking back to me. I'm a specify. I wanted you to treat me like I wasn't on one of the next five brides you had a call with that day.

Kristina Stubblefield: Like at the license branch when they call your number. 

Brittany Murphy: Oh God. Yes. I don't want any of that, and a few things, some of them started with, which is not a great way to start. You need to ask me questions to get me excited about my wedding, excited about working with you, excited about this part of the music or the flowers or the photography.

Get me excited about that part of it. Now, starting your questions off because this used to be old sale tactics, but how important is this to you? If you could rank all of the things you have to book, where would you rank your venue? Now I understand the point of this question is to understand, are you willing to pay for their services?

I get it. I've heard multiple questions form different ways. Out of 10, how would you rank how aggressive you're going to be at purchasing this? Or you want to make sure that you get the best of that. It's fine to ask me questions like that, but that one specifically is [00:28:00] so salesy and things of that nature are so salesy because here's the thing.

If you actually put your information, your process, your pricing, your FAQ, all of this bullshit on your website and yes, I'm calling bullshit because you may think it is, but to us it's all the BS we need every time to make a decision because we're looking for the stuff. We know there's fluff in it. Just.

Get to the shit. I just want to know the shit. Sorry. Love it. But that's why I want to get down to. So if your sales tactics, when you're on that first phone call with them is to go over all those things and just try to price them to figure out what they are. Well, if you had that information on there, they shouldn't have set the phone call with you in the first place because they don't know you're starting at.

Maybe a price point that's out of their range or they would already know, okay, it starts at a price point that's in my range. What all can you include that would might mean me expand this a bit more or maybe things work. This is my range. I just won't do the extra stuff. You're selling upselling because I just need these foundational services.

They're perfect match for me. You can get all that information without having to ask them those super salesy questions. So that's one thing when you're getting towards that end of the process, really closing them on it. Get to [00:29:00] know them and answer their questions and make sure these questions are here on the website first.

So that way you can just clarify On that call versus going through all of the same 10 questions that you asked. So had my photographer sent me maybe an email the day before, Hey, excited for our call tomorrow to talk over, your wedding day, here's some good things just to look at before our phone call.

So you already, so you have better questions to ask me if maybe you didn't have any off the top of your head right now. And I could go to his FAQ page. I could say, all right, what do I own? What's included? What's maybe not included. What's the pricing packages look like? Where has he been? How long has he been around?

Cause if you listen, every bride listens to a million YouTube videos, there's a million people out there podcast. Here's all the top 20 questions to ask venues, DJ, photographer, videographer, makeup, hair were bombarded by those. So the more you can, like, we're going to probably ask you those.

You're probably have some brides who. Don't have an Excel sheet like me going through these to make sure they for remember to do this because I'm forgetful as fuck. So I'm going through all these questions, but what I loved is the few I [00:30:00] talked to, I looked at their website and I prefilled all this question, so I didn't ask them how long you've been doing this because it didn't matter.

I had the answer. My question more is, what do you love about doing this? What's your favorite part about the wedding day? How do you get your people up and dancing and moving? What's your strategy? Things that maybe they couldn't answer on a website, but now I can get into details.

Kristina Stubblefield: You were looking for that connection that you all were going to be able to vibe together. Did they listen to you? Did they truly hear what you were wanting? You wanted to be, make sure you were heard and how they responded. 

Brittany Murphy: And that's how we make a decision because what we feel good that no lie can trust, that's exact same thing.

So quick example for the very few DJs that actually responded that were available. I had, I think I had two that had phone calls with both were awesome. Whoever I picked was going to be great. A third one I talked to, this is what I'm going to run into the bus. One of the very first things I said to them was, this is going to be super traditional.

So just so you know, we're both in our thirties. We kind of just want to have fun and make it more of our own versus [00:31:00] sticking to all the normal sentiments everybody does. So with that, I said, one thing I do know as well that I've been to a weddings that I absolutely hate and so does my fiance is we do not like many of your line dance songs that you normally hear to get people up and dancing.

I was like, if we have to have one, the wobble is the only one I'll agree to. I said, but the cha cha slide, the electric slide, I was like, 

Kristina Stubblefield: no chicken dance?

Brittany Murphy: The chicken. Oh my God. I've been to a wedding where that chicken dance. Yes. Any of those, I said, that's not our vibe. That's not us. And so I said, okay, well, 10 minutes later after talking, I got to my question of, Hey, I saw some videos, you'd really have a rocking party, but how do you get them?

Like, what are your strategies to get them to a rocking party? He's like, Oh, line dances. I was like, okay. I said, well, As I said earlier, like it will literally set my fiance on fire if he hears a cha cha slide and I've grown up with it since the sixth grade. I've heard it every year on the year. I could sing that song to Kristina now without any help to the lyrics.

That's how well I know it. I know exactly how to do the peanut, like every dance move with it. I grew up with that song. I'm tired of that song. I don't want to hear [00:32:00] that song anymore. It makes me cringe to hear it. So I said, I'm just going to remind you again. I don't like that. I said, so I'm sure there's probably other brides like this.

I hope so. Are there any other strategies you'd recommend or is that end all be all? He's like, well, I guess there's other things I could do. And so the way that was said, yes, made it seem to me, you didn't listen to what I wanted. And I guess I maybe don't fit what your vibe is, which is fine. Our vibes don't match.

We're probably not a good fit. But to me, the initial reason I didn't feel like we vibed is because you didn't even hear the thing I spent two minutes talking about at the very beginning. Hey, this is the only, like we could probably pay anything. Like we're not huge country fans, but we love all generations of music.

And we just really don't like line dances because I've taken him to a few weddings and that's the only time where he's I don't like these at all. I've never been into this type of music. So if we could not have that at our wedding, that's my only request. And I said, done. 

Kristina Stubblefield: It's your day. 

Brittany Murphy: It's our day.

And if you don't, if there's certain songs you don't want and you need to feel comfortable that will be respected. Yes. 

And so I know when [00:33:00] you go through questionnaires and your process onboarding with these clients, you're going to hone in, refine things they want, things they don't want. But again, these are all the things in marketing that are going to get your person to buy from you.

Kristina Stubblefield: Turn your ears on. Cause like you just said, you went through not 30 seconds, not three seconds, two minutes of why no line dances and it sounds like to me just observing, they just spit back out an answer that they've said multiple times. 

Brittany Murphy: And that's where I think when we do things, yeah, almost 10 years, I've been doing this.

I have to watch what I say every year because it changes. The terminology changes, who I'm talking to changes, what they call it changes. So all those things aside, if you're pre programmed to just say the exact same thing every single time, I'm not going to feel like this is going to be custom to me. And again, You might not customize all of this, but we have to feel as if it is.

You could be offering dress shopping. It's a boutique. We sell wedding dresses. It's the exact same experience for everybody. No matter what your preferences, we have a huge range of assortment. [00:34:00] That's great. That's fine. That's dandy, but I'm greeted. With a personal person who treats me like I'm 18. 

Kristina Stubblefield: If you have an appointment, maybe they know your name.

Brittany Murphy: Yeah, they know my name. They know what I'm looking for. They reached out to me beforehand, said, Hey, do you have a Pinterest board you'd like to share with us so we can see what your style is? All those things preemptively before I got to that call. Now, whether that assistant chose to look at all that stuff before I got there.

That's something you internally manage, but that process made me so much more excited to go in there and to do it. So just as if my DJ, when I get to that meeting a month out, it says, all right, guys let's look through all these songs, hone them in. Where are you feeling? I have my note again, no line dances.

All right. You said wobble was a maybe though. And, but again, the way you're saying it to me says I'm listening to you and maybe took notes. They took notes. I remember you. I give a shit about how you feel about this. And then lastly, but not leastly, let's just say for line dances. You know that is a winner every time, 10 you're going to get a party started because you can actually have a line dance because you know for sure as a DJ, that's what gets people's butts out of their chairs and onto the [00:35:00] dance floor.

Here's what you can do instead. Tell me how you do what you do in a way that works. So maybe that DJ could have said, all right, and he said the wobble was the only one you're like, okay, ish with. Hear me out. What about this? I started for one minute max and I roll that into a good mix up to September by earth, wind and fire where everybody's loves that song and starts to dance.

I'll put a good beat with the back with it. So we'll get them up. But once I see some bodies are up, I'll get it moved to the next one pretty quickly. What would you think about that now you're actually giving me an opinion? I get to say in this, Oh my God, yeah, that sounds, that sounds awesome. Do it man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You've sold me on your, like again, so I might want you to customize it, but now you're at least telling me you've heard me out, but still tell me why your way is going to work better because you've done this a million times more than I have. 

Kristina Stubblefield: And they know what you want your result to be is people having a good time up dancing. They've listened to that's really what you want, but you'd prefer no line dances. 

Brittany Murphy: Exactly. Just as I'm here with Kristina today bitching about what your [00:36:00] marketing needs to look like, it's because I've done this for 10 fricking years. I know what your marketing needs to look like. I've never DJ'd a wedding.

I'd love to. That sounds really fun. Really cool. I love music, but I've never done it. So I'm looking to you for advice, knowledge, and a game plan. And if what I'm coming to you with, it's going to be an epic failure or, Hey, we can do it that way. But usually what I see is it takes about 15 minutes then for people to really get up.

We're about 10 songs in, now it's right nine o'clock. And I know you want the party started because it's sunset. What I think might work a little bit better is if I could do it in this way. What do you think? I'm going to go with your plan because options you give me options and again 

Kristina Stubblefield: you've showcased your expertise and saying, you're not saying, no, that's not going to work.

You're just saying, I've heard you, but let's kind of talk this through. 

Brittany Murphy: Exactly. Cause I'm sure I would say I'm not a broadzilla. Let's just say day before I probably will turn into one because it all just, that rapture comes out of everybody. Right. I've been enough weddings. I can say that happens, my girlfriends know that they're a little bit of a nutcase. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Oh, it sounds like you've been pretty detailed. I always [00:37:00] say to people like life happens, there's usually some things that happen, but that vendor team and if you're using professionals, a lot of times they've seen stuff before, so things happen and you might not even hear about it until a week later or someone in the wedding party mentions it to you, hopefully not at the night of, but maybe the next day or something and that's great.

Things are going to happen, but. It's awesome. If you don't know about it or it doesn't affect your event, so to speak. Yeah. But nothing I've heard out of your mouth to me has screams bridezilla or anything. Now we'll find out at the recap, but. 

Brittany Murphy: Yes. But that's what I'm trying to say is you might have some brides who are very adamant about what they want, but if you can present it and how it works best, because again, you're the expert at this, there's a reason we're coming to you and we're not just going and buying a Bose sound system and plugging it up and putting our iPod to it.

No. We want an experience. We want a party. We want a club like atmosphere or whatever you're going for. So again, we might have demands that does not [00:38:00] mean you just have to say, okay, I'll do them. I would rather you push back a little bit and say, well, this is what I've seen. So now I'm like, okay, he hears me.

He's going to do close to what I feel comfortable with, but he's going to do in a way that's going to be most effective for the party and for everybody else to have fun. Cause yes, this is me, my fiance's day. This is what we're paying for. But we're inviting all of our closest friends and family and for my fiance, all of his friends and family are coming from another country. So I want the best, less stressed day as possible. So we can 

Kristina Stubblefield: enjoy 

Brittany Murphy: enjoy. So we can spend this time with everyone coming out of the country and out of town to hang out with us for this week. That's what it's about. So again, now I feel even more confident because you know your shit well enough.

You're saying, Hey, Brittany, listen, I knew one line dance. It's going to be the wobble. Cause that's your least hated of all of them. I'm gonna get in and out girl, you ain't going to notice it. And I bet five bucks, your booty's going to be dancing when you hear it because I'm going to mix it in so well, it's going to be really, it's, it, we're not going to go back to it a lot, but it's just a way I know I'm gonna get the party started.

And if that fails, I have through their strategies after that, get the party popping. So don't worry. I had [00:39:00] this taken care of you. And again, now it's like, Oh, there's no need for me to be a bridezilla. You're going to take care of what I'm paying you good money to do. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Yeah they got you

Brittany Murphy: dresses off, they got me. I can just have a day, get dressed. Hair and nails done and just enjoy the day and that's kind of where again from the very first thing I see about you What's your website say about it? I'm already determining how I feel about you to the final sales call and I'm if I'm a huge extroverted person in every personality test which means I can read a lot about how people are thinking which is why every time I see Kristina barely wear her eyeballs.

I'm like, ooh something hit She's ready to say something and get a good point out for these guys because I can tell it hit something on her I can read that so when I see those things of I'm just in their cog in the wheel, or I'm just in their person about your Excel spreadsheet. If you even have that, or you just finally respond to the email on the person you're talking to, I don't feel any organization behind it.

All those things could completely derail all of my research to say, Oh my God, I can't wait to work with this person. So again, every little point from the minute someone gets engaged. Which [00:40:00] is all of your presence online to the very end when they're physically talking to you, all of that as a sales cycle and all of that incorporates marketing, your marketing, yourself, your services, how you're different and what's going to take that bride to say, Oh my God, this was the best day ever because literally things might go wrong, but it was fine.

The people played their part to take care of what they needed to do. That's at the end where Bridezilla is only created probably because no one responds to emails. No one said their check got deposited. Like I should not hear from my bank first before you, that you cashed my 2, 000 check ever. I don't care what industry you're in.

I don't care if that was the first two grand deposit down on the 50 grand total investment of the venue. All of these steps, all of that communication and say, okay, they're on top of their shit. And I'm on top of mine, which makes me again, just build that trust the entire way down. It's just a sad, sad journey.

I feel like I've kind of gone through this where some vendors have been phenomenal, but I'm seeing overall arching similar issues. I kind of see with all my own clients who are in the home services, no one expects a plumber to have a really good social media, which I agree. But again, [00:41:00] even my plumbers have something on there that shows a recent project or a recent review to showcase, Hey, I'm in business.

These are the things my clients have to say about me and I'm going to do. The best by you that I humanly can, and you're going to absolutely love the unfinished product. That's the sales cycle. And that's all we want to hear. Just make us feel comfortable because that's where I joke. The bridezilla term comes from.

We're crazy because we're uncomfortable and we don't have control and not to get the control. Meaning you have to put all the pieces in the right place. And everybody needs to line up at two, one 59, not two o'clock that's late. But it's more of, okay, I can pass and delegate this control to this person, to this entity, and they're going to take care of everything.

That's crossing off my list. And that for me is where that calm sense of, ha, I'm so excited about this day now because I'm partnering with some people who I hope are going to be my friends afterwards. I know we're not going to grab a beer afterwards, but Hey, my vendors, you want to grab a beer? I'm happy to grab a beer and audit your website for you.

And then see Kristina, get all those automations put into place. But that's the whole concept. We want to, we really want to enjoy our day and we are, I want to build a relationship. Like I want [00:42:00] my DJ, my photographer, like I want everybody to love me. Because I give a shit about them as well. Like I picked you because I like you.

I picked my videographer because I saw him smiling at his video. You give a shit. I like you. I don't even know anything else. That's literally it. You take passion. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Part two did not disappoint. And I'm telling you what, you do not want to miss part three. We are talking about all kinds of tips and strategies throughout this whole three part series.

Special thanks to Brittany for just being raw herself in her emotions and sharing amazing information for wedding professionals. So don't miss part three. Again, if you have not joined the free Facebook group, just go to the website, wedprosolutions. com and click on the link until next time. Take care.