Unveiling the Wedding Planning Insights of Brittany Murphy - Part 3

Kristina Stubblefield: [00:00:00] Welcome to part three, where Brittany and I dive deep into the sales process. We leave no detail unturned, ensuring that every aspect of your business feels like a luxury experience that clients will rave about for years to come. I want to share with you this clip from Brittany that perfectly sums up this episode.

The sales process actually begins long before we even think about it. It starts the moment we get engaged. When we start searching for resources online. If you're not there, if you're not prioritizing it, you're missing out on the start of the sales cycle. Wow, that quote right there really hits home. The information we share in this episode is straightforward and practical.

And if you just take the time to implement a few of the solutions we suggest during your slow [00:01:00] season or throughout the year, it will affect your sales.

Welcome to the WedPro Business Solutions Podcast. I'm your host, Kristina Stubblefield. We are back for part three of my energetic and information packed interview with bride to be and marketer of 10 years, Brittany Murphy, to discuss her less than desirable experience of searching for wedding vendors.

In part three, Brittany and I direct our attention to the sales process down to the smallest of details that can make it feel like a luxury experience your clients will talk about for years to come. I think this clip from Brittany summarizes this episode well. 

Brittany Murphy: The sales process starts before you are ever, ever thought of.

The minute we get engaged, the minute our hands go to the online world to find [00:02:00] resources. So if you were not there, if you're not prioritizing it, you were missing out on the beginning of the sales cycle. Wow. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Doesn't that say a lot? All the honest, raw, unfiltered information discussed in this episode is not rocket science.

And I can assure you, if you embrace the power of the pause during your slow season to implement just a couple of these solutions we offer, your sales will flourish. Now let's get started. 

Brittany Murphy: Whether you're new or old, just put yourself in the other seat. Pretend you're going to go buy something very expensive for yourself and see what that process looks like.

So walk to a car lot. Does that person tell you everything wrong? Great. Perfect. About that car. Does it kind of ask you looking for? Like good mileage, like older, newer, are they asking you those questions? Or are you getting the person's like, all right, what do you want? Red, black, white. do you like have a budget?

Did you bring cash? What are you doing today? Oh, this car. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That car's great, if that's the experience you got on that side of [00:03:00] it, then that's what your client was experiencing. Why would they ever refer you after that? Or why would they book with you in the first place? Probably buying a luxury item would probably be the most easy way for you to say, okay, you're right.

Something's wrong about my process. What do I need to change it to look like? Other than talking to some experts like Kristina or myself, and you're going to get the right advice and strategy immediately, go someplace nice and go buy something expensive. It's gotta be a couple of thousand at least and to see what that process is like.

You might find things that no one in your industry does that you're like, holy shit, I really liked that. For example, maybe a text confirmation after they book a zoom call with you. These are all automations. Again, reminder, these are not things you're actively doing every single day to make sure all these processes are in place.

It's a one time done freaking feature, my man. Have that little text that goes out. I'm so excited for your call, hey, here's the three things We'll cover and also here's the three things I'd love for you to kind of have prepared so we can cover all of that during our 30 minutes together, even little details like that.

That's a luxury experience. Like I have my trees had a tree removed my front [00:04:00] yard That's a couple thousand. Unfortunately, these things are not inexpensive at all For a tree company gave me a better experience than 99% of my vendors have so far. Yeah. And those guys, let's just be honest, they're not always on top of their stuff. It's a little more contractor style. It's not always all the niceties of. 

Kristina Stubblefield: They probably use the software though, I bet. 

Brittany Murphy: Oh, they do. At least they do. Yeah. They have something in place that made me say, okay, they're going to show up tomorrow for the estimate. Okay, cool. Here's the quote that got attached immediately.

Here's the follow up email four days later. Hey, have you thought about this? We know we could get you scheduled this time or this time. All these little things again, if you're clueless of where to start, start with this podcast, book a call with Kristina, get some shit done. If you don't or are too scared to do any of those things.

Go somewhere and just go through the process of buying something nice and seeing all the little things people do that make you feel warm and bubbly inside. And if you're not doing that, immediately figure out a way to incorporate it. That's more matches with your industry. So that way you can have that process streamlined.

I'm a pretty easy buyer. If you make me feel [00:05:00] comfortable, I ask more questions. If you don't. 

Kristina Stubblefield: So to unpackage that whole thing right there, this is why I knew this episode. Again, I'm going to say another reason is so important because we're not going back in time. We're not hopping in a time machine and going back to the way business was done five years ago.

The things that we're talking about is only going to accelerate in the digital age that we're moving into. More so than ever for these wedding professionals, 

Brittany Murphy: especially in this industry.

Kristina Stubblefield: Exactly. A lot of times your younger audiences, your younger buyers, they might not like to talk on the phone or they may prefer to do, but.

We're going with less and less communication, it seems like maybe I should say in person communication, which makes automations, [00:06:00] responses, any form of communication back as part of the process. More important, and this is one of those things that as a business owner, especially in the wedding industry to appeal, I've done a video before about wearing all these hats to take off every one of those hats and try to put yourself as a client.

It's very difficult, very difficult. And a lot of times having that outside person to just break down the process with you. a lot of times I just did another episode and then I was like, just whiteboarding documenting down. I tell people, get out a blank piece of paper and just start writing.

If you're a tech person, then great. Use a digital notepad or your tablet or whatever, whatever works for you. Get it down. And a lot of times reaching out and having someone help you set up software, set up automations, hell helping you define the [00:07:00] process. I've worked with so many different people.

One of them had 25 steps in their process. The first time around, we got it down to 10. Now, a year later, we're getting it down to three. All of this stuff that you've talked about is time. And energy, not only for the engaged couple, but for the business owner or the business team. Yes. And when you can save time and you can make more money.

A lot of times people just think, well, it's a software, it's X number of dollars a month or X number of dollars a year. And when you talked about, putting your pricing on the website, a lot of times people are. Yeah. I don't, Oh, I don't know. then what if my phone looks with me and my phone won't ring or I don't get my emails. Well, hell, if you don't respond to them, what does it matter? 

Brittany Murphy: Hell yes. 

Kristina Stubblefield: But the point of it is own your shit. If you're going to charge 5, 000 or 10, 000 and that's it, [00:08:00] I tell people, be confident in it. I'm here to tell you, I am probably one of the most unique marketer people out there when it comes to the wedding industry.

Why is that? Because I know things outside the wedding industry. I was a wedding professional in the business for seven years. I have a podcast and I work with engaged couples that I get to hear this kind of stuff. And I come back and share it with my audience, so I have the whole full spectrum, but you can hear it, you can listen, you can take notes, but if you don't take some kind of action.

Nothing changes and the stuff that you've described is not rocket science. And I can sound like I'm frustrated because I am. 

Brittany Murphy: Because we are

Kristina Stubblefield: I am, because there is great, terrific, amazing wedding professionals out there that are missing the boat. One event, 10 events, I don't know, 50 events. Because they're [00:09:00] dependent upon remembering in their mind.

And every one of my audience that's heard me before knows I'm a hundred percent transparent. I'm not good. I have to take down notes. I'm terrible at remembering things. I have to put things in my calendar. I am not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but if we don't do things, To change, God, Lord forbid mentioning that name, that, that word, if we don't adapt and evolve with the times.

You're going to be left out and what that means is you're not going to book as many events and then it's going to be to booking few events to and it's Unfortunate because there's a lot of great wedding professionals that have just started and there's a lot of great wedding professionals that's also been doing it a long time. But if you don't know about them online if their information's not out there if they're not visible They were not even in Your options to reach out to 'em.

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. And go back [00:10:00] to that main word you just said. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Evolve. 

Brittany Murphy: Evolve. Now Kristina gave you, sorry. I call you Christy Kristina. That's okay. Just gave you, I answered,all of it. Ok gave you a million reasons why you should do it. But one thing I feel like we did not mention just yet, Evolving. So not just your business, but your clientele is also evolving, right?

Every year. Every year. In the wedding industry. So I am in my young thirties now. Let's just say that maybe someone 10 years younger than me is looking, just got engaged. Now when, I guess this will date me a little bit, but I don't care. I was first given a cell phone, my junior. year of high school. They had come out like my freshman year when it was more acceptable for people to have cell phones.

And I was going to school downtown. So my mom was like, Hey, since you're riding the bus, coming downtown to my work office, let's make sure you have a cell phone. So I was getting used to it in high school. Now, someone who's 22 23 today. That means that they were in elementary school when cell phones were coming out, which means they grew up with the ability to [00:11:00] research anything at any fricking time.

We did not. So the joke is that people 10 years younger than them actually grew up and had it like the iPhone four come out of the womb, I think with them. Now the iPhone 14 comes out of the womb, I think with you with an upgrade, just the pay extra for that, the doctor's office. But that's the whole point.

More people are going to have more access to these resources. So if you're not providing those resources, they're never going to find you. And they're evolving, meaning they're only going to have more capability and more access to this. So if you're making it difficult for them, it's not that they're lazy.

It's that you're making it more jumping hazard than that your competitor did. And your competitor was able to sell them with all the things they needed quicker, which meant they went to them. And the sad part is we don't know if that competitor is better or worse than you. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Wedding professionals get very frustrated a lot of times because the younger.

Potentially younger, newer wedding professionals, they have a bigger online presence as of right now, even though someone else has been doing weddings for 15 or 20 years, they're [00:12:00] using the tools they are, they're out there. Whether you love Tiktok or not, you need to be on Tiktok. It is a platform, Tiktok and Instagram.

People are talking about, crazy, about wedding planning. But, first and foremost, Google. Whether you love Tiktok and Instagram or not, Google. And that's the thing is, change. And I really do like that evolve word better. Because, each year. It's a changeover in the wedding industry and, that is one thing that I do see a lot of wedding professionals miss out on.

I, a lot of times end up with very frustrated ones like, all right, look like, come on this time of year, I, I'm halfway through a year. I would have booked twice as many weddings. And then you start diving into the website, the online presence, the social media, the, this, that you're not on Tik TOK, those things.

And [00:13:00] you can just feel them radiating. It's different because it's not what we've grown up with, so to speak. And I think that's what makes a lot of times people very leery about the benefits and how the worldwide web search engine optimization systems, processes, automation, all of that can save you so much time.

Honestly, it can end up saving you money and making you a lot more money than. And then some of the cost , but they have to be shown that. That is one of the things that I will hope people can take from this episode is when you go back and you've listened to this episode, think to yourself, what did Brittany really ask for that was so out of the norm?

It wasn't common sense. Absolutely nothing you said stood out to me as, make it easy to contact me, [00:14:00] FAQ page. I say common sense, but because they have so many of those hats stacked on their head, they're the accountant, the social media manager, the this, the that, they're the one doing the services.

It's hard to get through all of that and really think to themselves as a potential client. And I hope this will just open them up just a little bit to considering some of this because just a few of these points can make a hell of a difference for your business, for your online presence. Not even all of them.

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. every little step can add up a percentage point to how many more people are going to choose you. So maybe the first step, they see everything on your website. Well, maybe eight out of 10 people who see it like it and they're willing to go to the next step with you. Maybe only so many will actually show up to that video call, but if you have more process in place to make sure they show up there, Hey, here's some things to check out to make sure we're still a good fit.

Maybe out of that five are really interested in it. And then you end up booking those three. Now that could be three, which is not a huge number, but that could be up from [00:15:00] one. Because now you had more people at each stage interested in where you were and what you were offering. Again, we're not always going to be a fit for everybody.

We have to understand that all this was said with that grain of salt that we had to make sure they're a good fit for us as we are a good fit for them. So you do want to narrow out prospects. You never know if I was asking more things and you're like, that's just on a client I'm willing to deal with, then you know that about me or whoever you're talking to now, but it's all those little stages that again, it's little tick marks that we're looking at not to just judge and grade you on.

And let me be honest about that. None of the brides like, I can't wait to see how long it's going to take all these DJs to email me back. None of us are saying that we're like, I hope this goes by quickly because I want to pick someone good and I want to pick them very quickly so I can get this done and feel happy and confident with it.

So any of the ones I talked to, who do you want back? Who do follow up? Who do say, Hey, when a quick zoom call or phone call will make you feel comfortable and they try to walk you through that. Well, I don't choosing someone who just kept me on that path. Hey, well, it makes sense for a phone call. Yeah, that sounds fine.

Okay. Can we do it tomorrow? Yeah. On the phone call. so what questions or concerns do you have about me that would make you not want [00:16:00] to book? none right now that I can think of, I've gotten some good referrals from you. You've answered all my questions. I think we're pretty good.

I said, I'll be honest. I'm waiting for one other person to this phone call with. And after that I'll make my decision hopefully within this week or next, I will get back with you. I said, because I understand you all get booked up quickly and I'm going with that person because again, other person I kind of talked to did the whole line dance thing a little bit.

So I was like, okay, weren't really listening. So you, even though I loved. That they were in business longer, they had more experience. They had more things that made me feel comfortable to make sure this is a good experienced vendor. I'm have a good quality relationship with, but the whole not listening thing completely derailed all of that.

So even if you're in business short time or long time, like opening your ears and just giving back what that person wants. We're literally telling you what we want. I don't think there's a bride. That's just stonewalling you. so just tell me about you and. I won't tell you anything about me.

Kristina Stubblefield: Everything you've come back to though, has to do with communication. that's the crazy part is all of that stuff that you just went through right there, one thing, communication. And I think that's, [00:17:00] everyone tries to make digital marketing, marketing nowadays, such this. Like an onion with all these different layers.

And sometimes we tend to think about some of the most common sense things, and I don't say that the people aren't smart, you just get in your own way, you get busy, you get used to your own pattern, you've said it, you've done it over and over again. And the next thing you know, years fly by and you haven't adapted, evolved, changed.

Nothing. 

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. And that's where we're, we all have to adapt through it. even like for our own marketing, like I'm now doing so many videos given, like we talk videos are impactful, but also I'm doing videos where I'm saying, Hey, thanks for booking your strategy session.

Here's what's next. And it's literally a 45 second video of me just saying, I'm a look at a, B and C and D. And what I'd love for you to prepare for this meeting is E F G, and please make sure you accept that calendar invite and I'll be there ready and waiting for you.[00:18:00] like I'm pretty telling them all these things and I'm not a person that wants to get on video.

Like I do not enjoy that. It took me 10 takes to get that 45 seconds. I'll be frank and honest with you. I was not good at recording that. I'm not good at it, but if I can do it. Anybody can do it. You're just talking to a screen and saying, Hey, this is what happens. If you need to have someone stand behind you so that phone's right here and it looks like I'm talking into your eyes, then do that.

Whatever makes you feel comfortable with it.

Kristina Stubblefield: There's an app that you can read a transcript off of it. I've even think it has a free version. We're back to tools. Like it doesn't have to be rocket science. 

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. And, the reason I'm adding those videos is because what I found out, all my competitors have them.

So again, I'm doing research on my own guys to see, Hey, what's going on my industry, what's working. And then I watched someone in my industry actually do a case study about we have higher, we have a 30% higher conversion. Now we've added videos to every step within our website. And I was like, shut up, bitch. I guess I'm making videos. 

Kristina Stubblefield: I'm going to be honest with you. I'm surprised it's not higher. Yeah. the open rates with emails that have video, people tend to say, I don't understand why people are [00:19:00] lazy and they don't want to read anymore. And I think that's a misconception, honestly, because like you said, you've got to rewind or I'm sorry, you've got to think people have grown up.

With phones in their hands or tablets or, different than maybe how we grew up or when it got introduced to us 

Brittany Murphy: and they're so used to a YouTuber having a camera in front of them 24 seven plaster to their hands. So they're really used to that aspect of it. So that's where again, you're speaking to what's working well for them.

I don't want to make videos, but I know my clients, what they're going to learn from my videos, It's more about me and it's not that they don't want to read. Hey, maybe they don't. I don't give a shit, but they want to learn more about me and who they're going to be partnering with. And that's exactly the same thing.

It's you videos. You talking. Yes, it's you. They're getting to know who the brand, the personality, everything is. So a quick idea I had. And honestly, this would probably save all you guys 10 more minutes of the day. When a bride sends you an email, go download the loom app extension on your Chrome wherever.

It really records the video for you on your computer and you could open up their [00:20:00] email, have your face on it, answer all their questions, and I get to know a little bit about you, how you respond. Did you read what I had to say? You answered all my questions. And now I know. How do you sound let's just say we're a DJ.

what's your DJ voice sound like? like I get to know, 

Kristina Stubblefield: wait, the no, like a dress factor. Oh my goodness, out the gate. 

Brittany Murphy: Immediately and the reason I'm in thrown out there is a, I'm doing it myself, which is why I'm trying to preach what I'm doing in my own business. But people are asking me sometimes technical questions or something that.

It's not easy to write out and I don't want them to misunderstand it. And maybe that's something for you as well. You could say this in three minutes succinct, succinctly, consistently, succinct. Well, or I 

Kristina Stubblefield: concisely concise. Is that what you're 

Brittany Murphy: after? Succinctly. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Okay. 

Brittany Murphy: The verb is not my word today. Well the tongue ties in here, but even that little aspect of it, let's just have that tongue tie on a video.

I did. I could laugh myself. Sorry guys. It's 5 p. m. I just want to send this video cause I'm still really excited to meet you tomorrow and I wanted you to get this before our 9 a. m. call tomorrow. 

Kristina Stubblefield: You're not perfect. 

Brittany Murphy: Oh my God. I'm not [00:21:00] perfect. I'm not expecting you to be perfect, but here's me still doing to show you.

I'm so excited to meet you. Those are what's fitting into it. And the reason I'm even mentioning that is because. If you don't like to type, if you don't feel like you have a great way of expressing yourself in the written form for whatever reason, but you know, you're a social person and you've done this for so long, then just record yourself answering a question, answering their questions in a video.

Now I get to know all the answers and I get to see a vibe from you. 

Kristina Stubblefield: And you don't have to have your hair done and makeup done. 

Brittany Murphy: Oh, I don't care what you look like. If you're excited to speak with me, that's all I give a shit about. Right. You saying, Oh my God, Brittany, thanks for reaching out. So excited, I'm available on your day. My style is like this. my pricing normally starts at this. If you're interested in what I have to say so far, again, these could all be automations. You just slap in some of these links into, but attached is my price sheet and my most recent work example. Boom, boom, boom.

If I got all of that from any of my vendors, I probably wouldn't have answered anybody back. I'll be very honest with you, Kristina. That sounds really sad and pathetic, but when you're trying [00:22:00] to manage and organize all these things, cause I don't have a coordinator, I'm in trying to do this myself when you're managing all those things.

If someone I could know, like, and trust and vibe with that quickly, what concerns do I have then you're going to have to, you're going to put concerns in front of me. You're going to have to fuck up. You're going to drop the ball. You're going to do something for me to get out of this good vibe with you.

For me to say, no, I don't feel good about this anymore because again, out of the gate, I liked what I saw on your website and then I reached out to you and you can make communicated back so quickly and so effectively with me that I understood exactly who I was talking to and it got me 10 times more excited.

So let's just say 30 DJs did respond back to me and one did that. Oh, that one's going to the finals. unless their pricing is ridiculous and it's not of your budget, but again, you probably should have done some research. They should all be somewhat near that. But that person might be a little bit out of it, but you're like, but they sound like they're really going to do a great job.

And the stress in me is already vanquishing away. Like I feel so comfortable and confident in this person. I haven't even paid any money to yet. Like [00:23:00] those are the things where you're going to have an easy process. You're going to have a great party celebration that day. And the best part is you're going to have raving fans afterwards.

When you're off boarding, them are going to tell you everything you need to know to replicate that over and over and over. And again, we need to evolve. That's why you need to offboard them. So asking them questions and I don't know what the best way is to, I'll be honest. It probably isn't the day of the wedding because we're busy as hell.

Probably not the week after because we're on the honeymoon, but I'm sure it's that couple weeks right after when we get back and we're like, Oh, this is so great. I'm so glad we did it. 

Kristina Stubblefield: You're still on that high, but it's enough that you've been respectful with the time. 

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. And it's the experience is still fresh enough in my head that I'm willing to give you all that advice.

And again, if you did right by me and I'm sure this works for 9. 9 out of 10 brides, if you did right by them, they're going to want to do right by you. So they're going to want to give you that feedback. I'm assuming most people listening to this might not be asking for that. So that's why you don't know what the feedback you need to be getting to work on your business effectively is.[00:24:00] 

We're telling you everything you could do on your own, but again, the cheat way. The cheap and the trick cheap way around this, ask your clients, like literally they're the ones who bought from you. Something about them was sold. You were able to sell. They hold the keys. They hold the keys to all the 

Kristina Stubblefield: information.

And to help you successfully market your business with the wording, the feedback they give you that's the keys right there to the next step in your own business. 

Brittany Murphy: Yes. And if you ask them questions about the very beginning of their process, which do I mean in your sales process. When you get to each step with them, ask 'em those questions of what was just previous on their mind.

So like on my intro sales call with these guys to learn more about their services, this is where you should ask, how'd you find out about me if they've not already said, just confirm those things because now you're going to find out more about your marketing. Mm-hmm. . And then when you close 'em and you offboard them, you're finding out 10 times more about your marketing.

But now you're having to wait a year out to get that information. 'cause you got, and they said, oh, I loved your FAQs. Although a question you didn't have was dah, dah. Boom, go to your [00:25:00] website within the next week or so while it's fresh on your head, input that it will take you five seconds, log in, type the question out, push, submit, enter.

Now it's there and now you're saving yourself time and you just got an answer that immediately you could fix. 

Kristina Stubblefield: The answers to so many things. Especially in the wedding industry lie in the clients. And truthfully, that's probably an accurate statement across all industries, but specifically in the wedding industry, because it is event driven.

And you're getting that feedback the wording they use. If you've made them feel comfortable enough, they're going to say it in a way that's probably not, well, you should do this or and that's back to that relationship you've built with the person.

But I tell people all of the time, about testimonials, about feedback, surveys, any of that kind of stuff holds the answers. Maybe to go to another phase of your business, to grow your business, [00:26:00] to simplify it or streamline it, there's really answers to every aspect of your business. It's just an asking the right questions.

To get some of those answers, honest answers. That's what I wanted to say about the wedding industry is I feel like you stand to get the most honest feedback because of the close relationships you have with your vendors and your engaged couples. 

Brittany Murphy: No one wants that day to go wrong. 

Kristina Stubblefield: So you didn't set out to spend all this time planning it for it to be a shit show for lack of a better word.

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. 

Kristina Stubblefield: So I hope it's not like that for anyone. Actually. Yes. you've shared a ton of valuable information. Seriously. I really do hope you'll come back to talk about, how things go, the off boarding or just to, it's nice to hear where you're at right now in this part of it.

Because I've done this with engaged [00:27:00] couples, but talking to other engaged couples, I have never done this from a aspect to get honest, raw, unfiltered, information to help wedding professionals right this second in their business. And I think that is such a valuable tool. They could use all of this as tools in this isn't something that necessarily we expect you to implement all 50 things that we've covered. To be honest with you, we may have covered more than that in this.

The thing about it is baby steps. This isn't, okay, I need to block off my calendar for a month and not do events to do this. It's baby steps. If you need help, reach out. Schedule a discovery call and let's figure out where the hell do you start? Maybe you want to make sense of all the information you have.

Maybe you do ask, your clients questions and for feedback, maybe you're not booking [00:28:00] events, but this is the feedback you're getting address that head on. It's not going to change by itself. That's the key here is taking those steps to make the changes so you can evolve. We're not going to slow down in the digital world.

I don't see that happening. And that's why I knew Brittany would have such great information since she just went through this, but she also understands the business and also how to explain it in a layman's terms, instead of coming in here and throwing out a bunch of lingo that people are like, Oh shit, I, I.

I need to do some of this stuff, but I don't know where to start. Yeah. What is this? what? And then you, your eyes have glazed over you've hit stopped. Cause Oh shit. I need to do some stuff in my business, but I don't understand any of this. And that's what I've always prided myself in is making sure.

I don't expect you to understand all the lingo or the terminology. Let's break it down to where you do [00:29:00] understand it. I'm not asking you to do something with it every day. Maybe you're going to have someone else do it for you, but having some kind of understanding is important as the business owner to know about your marketing and your business presence online.

Brittany Murphy: And I think maybe in this industry, we might get really sad when it is a slow season or we get happy cause it's some time off. But I think I watched one of your podcasts on The Ring The Bling And All The Things that was about pause, like when you're in those slow seasons, guys, this is when you need to repeat, pick out this podcast and listen to those two or three times, listen to it now.

But when you know, you're getting to that low part in your season, there's no reason that this should, that should not be the time you are blocking out all of the things you need to be doing. Everything we've suggested is turning, tacking away at those step by step. So maybe you don't get through all the 5, 000 things we mentioned before high season picks up again.

But you've already ticked some things off. And the funny thing.

Kristina Stubblefield: Make a list. Make a, having a plan. Getting your ideas [00:30:00] out, or okay, these things that we said, I want to take these ten, like a checklist, like you just said, because if not, you're going to forget. 

Brittany Murphy: Yep. Prioritize all of this. And things I think you can do very quickly, might be stuff you should put at the top of your list.

And one of those just might be the auto responder type of automa automize oh my gosh. Automations you can put on your Gmail. So therefore, So already when someone is reaching out to you, they're much more happy because they feel comfortable and confident. You're a real business. You're going to respond.

You're going to have that open communication channel with them. But after that. Yeah. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Update your Google listing. 

Brittany Murphy: Oh God. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Up current photos, videos, information. Look at what's out there. Like I'm so surprised how many people haven't Googled themselves. They do not know what's out there on the web. But updating your Google listing, Google loves Google and it is, it's the king of search engines.

I'm not taking anything away from anyone else. Like you said, a lot of times there wasn't information there, things were missing, there were holes and things. I think that [00:31:00] is one of the first things that should be somewhere at the top of your list. 

Brittany Murphy: What things are you missing that most likely they're going to be asking for?

And that's where you need to re listen to this again because I did mention quite a few of it, but it's really going back to that website stuff. what can we learn about you that's going to easily make us want to book that next step with you? Do you need to prioritize things you need to put back into your website?

And again, maybe the first thing you need to do is prioritize and gain feedback from some of your brides and grooms. And so that we 

Kristina Stubblefield: also other vendors, that is a nice thing about the industry. A lot of times people work with people week in and week out. You can also ask for feedback from not only engaged couples, but other vendors.

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. there's again, wealth of resource out there for where you can get this feedback. But once you get this feedback, don't internalize it too hard. These are most likely the things that they're like, well, these are just my first questions I would have had. Take that as you can. And again, maybe that needs to come back to getting a few feedback from a few multiple sources and then what the most you'll mention the most is obviously your first area of attack because everyone's having an issue with that [00:32:00] area.

Go after it and then work down ways from there. But that's where, not that I want to be a bitch, but a lot of these things we talked about are pretty simple to start to put in effect. So see what works. 

Kristina Stubblefield: That's the best news about this. 

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. 

Kristina Stubblefield: These aren't things that are wow. Like I need to really plan.

 I need to try to do this in the next couple of years for my business. It's not like that. But what you just said, make actionable steps and breathe strategic about it. If you don't like that word, like you said, put them in order of importance. What's the most important thing right now for you, your business? And attack 

Brittany Murphy: What's the most impactful. Exactly. and again, that's, it's not just marketing. That's every other aspect of your business. You're literally attacking it the exact same way. So play secret shopper on yourself, do whatever it takes to understand what those things are. just.

opportunities. SWOT, that's all it is. What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your business? Like go through that and things you're doing well, pat yourself on the back and move forward. But we had to focus more on the weaknesses and the opportunities we're missing out on.

Because again, [00:33:00] The sales process starts before you are ever, ever thought of the minute we get engaged, the minute our hands go to the online world to find resources. So if you were not there, if you're not prioritizing it, you were missing out on the beginning of the sales cycle. Again, we're just trying to help you figure out ways to prioritize it.

Maybe that might be something to focus on. So you can have a lead flow. You can have some people calling you, submitting contact forms. Do I have more budget to maybe do some of the automations and do some more type of things that can help you out. It is that slow build with it. But again, we don't know what your exact situation is.

So book a strategy if you need it, or just look at your shit. Where, if I look at this, are my questions not being answered and play dumb, play as if you are literally never done this before in your entire life. that's what you have to do. I do search engine optimization. No one knows what the fuck that is.

That's okay. I don't call it that all of our website. Do you need to rank higher? Do you need to get more phone calls? All the other verbs of what the real pain point is. So [00:34:00] even as a vendor of something in the wedding industry, what is our pain point? Name it, go after it because most likely your competitors are not doing that.

And so therefore you have a huge leg up again. I'm sure every industry is a little bit different with it, but if all other DJs in your city don't seem to listen to the brides when they had the phone call or email back or email back. when are the sales calls? You can ask for some feedback.

If you can get it, you'll learn. Cause I'm sure I mentioned, I'm very glad you emailed me back. I emailed quite a few people and no one did. I probably said something like that on one of the phone calls and I, and they were like, Oh, I'm so sorry about that. Yeah. it's just some people, since the pandemic don't do this or people's schedules are changed.

And I was like, great response. First off, he did not throw anybody under the bus. Absolutely. He just said, Oh yeah, stuff happens. I'm sorry to hear about that, but I'm very excited to work with you and kind of talk, made it more about 

Kristina Stubblefield: you than focusing on anything else. 100%. 

Brittany Murphy: But what we're trying to say, read between the lines, hopefully what he wrote down was my competitors are not emailing back quickly or they're not providing [00:35:00] blank.

Right? It down. These are areas. If you have it, you're more likely going to get those bookings, those phone calls because it's missing out and you're focusing on it and you're focusing on it. So I mean if you're a person that's more detailed, I mean I'll be honest, I'm not a detailed driven person. I'm forgetful as I'll get out, but I'm very intentional when I have to do something.

So when I was looking for venues, I typed in wedding venues, Louisville KY into Google and I opened up every fricking website of everything that happened on the first three pages because I was like, I don't know where I want to get married. Let's see the options. I went through all of them. So all the websites had pictures.

Okay, cool. Had a picture and I didn't like the place or didn't have any pictures. Boom, gone. You got 30 seconds of my time to see if you had any disinformation. If you didn't in my head, I already said, I already got two places. I pretty much I'm gone. Yeah. Boom. Like I'm not going to, consider a third of a, I want a third.

That's a good third. Like I want a good contender or I'm not going to waste my time going to a third or a fourth. You want to wow. Oh yeah. I want this to be done quickly, efficiently, and the best. [00:36:00] Results are possible and I could get with it. And so those are the things where if you don't provide that, if you're not there on those aspects, you don't know at what point they're already falling off the wagon.

It's, you're like, Brittany, but my clients don't email me back. I have all these prospects and I email them back immediately and no one emails back to me. I'm again, throw this back to you because what else were you providing them that maybe your competitors were doing 10 times better than you?

Maybe you responded the exact same hour. Great. Okay. But did they give them resources and you didn't, did they send them back to their previous work? Do they dig in? Do they have a website? Figure it out. Do they have? All those little things that can happen to it. Just yeah. Dig in to see what kind of works with it.

Because again, there are so many facets to this business and we get it. We work in marketing, which is one of the hat of a million that a business owner has to wear. But this is literally life and blood of your business. Because if you don't get new clients, if you don't get new business, then you don't really have much to sell.

So you have to take care of them. You have to get them in. So therefore you can do what you care more about. Which is usually the service itself. if you could get some of these automations in place, you [00:37:00] don't got to worry about sending these templates every single time they automatically send for you, or you go to canned responses, templates in Gmail boom, boom, done. 

Kristina Stubblefield: And they actually help you book more business. Yes. Save time, book more events. 

Brittany Murphy: I think that's a win-win combination is what they call it. 

Kristina Stubblefield: There you go. It's exactly it. And I feel like Brittany could be here for hours talking about that. And I think the biggest takeaway there is we're very passionate about marketing and if Brittany didn't give a shit, she wouldn't be here talking about this stuff.

She saw an opportunity as well to help wedding professionals because she saw, wow, this has been something I've been talking about for a while. You don't know what you don't know, but you have to be willing to make the changes and adjust with the times. Marketing is not staying the same.

Just like the wedding industry is not staying the same pandemic, no pandemic, just saying things are evolving and wedding professionals, some are [00:38:00] not. And ultimately what that ends up doing is affecting the engaged couples. It's limiting the options there are for vendors because they're not finding information.

If they're looking for video and it's not there, if they're looking for this, looking for that, sealing up some of those holes or those cracks in your foundation can make sure that you are found. But as we've talked about throughout this, you can also do things to drill down to your more ideal client, which just gives you back more time and helps you book more of the events that you want to book. for some that can be very scary for others. You'd need to put your pricing out there as far as not wasting your time because it can be a very big time suck if you don't put some kind of starting point, not your exact amount. But Brittany said this a few times throughout this, putting [00:39:00] a price that this is your starting that way.

If it's not in that person's budget, you're not wasting their time. They're not wasting your time. It's for both sides. So I hope that you all are able to dissect this episode, get actionable steps. And that's exactly what I hope you do is put them in order of importance and tackle them one by one. And honestly, if you just do a few of these, it's going to make a big impact, like Brittany said, and you will notice a difference, from your online presence, your leads, and essentially your sales with booking events.

Thank you. I really appreciate, you've spent a lot of time going over a lot of this information. I know you're going to come back in and so we can dive into this more. I've got mental notes that I want to have to go back over. So thank you. I really appreciate it. 

Brittany Murphy: I'm glad to be here. And so then I thought of wherever you post this comment, what questions you had from us [00:40:00] talking about this so we can cover it next time.

I know we talked about 50 huge different ideas. So if there's one that I thought it was 5, 000. I was trying to make it sound more reasonable by the end of it, if one of those 5, 000 things we talked about, if you do have a question, write that down, cause I would love to hone in some more things that we hear a few people really give feedback about.

Kristina Stubblefield: If you don't want to comment where it's out there publicly, all you have to do is just go and there is a button you can just click on the podcast website. You can a type your message. Guess what? If not, you can click the microphone and record your question. You can also reach out on social media. there's plenty of different ways, but the podcast website is one of the easiest ways.

Go to the web pro podcast. com. And again, Trying to make it as easy as possible for you to give feedback or ask questions. So thank you, Brittany. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for tuning in. I cannot wait to hear people's feedback. And remember, it can be good, bad, or indifferent.[00:41:00] Any feedback is welcome.

I cannot thank Brittany Murphy enough for just being herself. Authentic, raw, unfiltered, just given it to us straight her experience. We can all use this information and implement strategies and tips to be found easier online for those engaged couples when they're doing their research.

If you miss any part of this series, don't worry. You can always visit TheWedProPodcast. com or find them on your favorite podcast platform. If you're not already part of the free Facebook group, make sure to join today. Visit WedProSolutions.com for a link. I cannot wait to hear your feedback on this episode.

Make sure to find me on social media [00:42:00] at WedProSolutions and send me a DM. If you're not already part of the free Facebook group, just go to the website and you will find a link to join today. Thank you so much for tuning in and until next time everyone, keep working on your businesses.