It’s been an interesting few days around here at Sasha Souza Events…I’ve spent a few hours playing detective while also trying to get weddings implemented for the upcoming weekends. While I love what I do for a living, there is one aspect of it that I do not love… and that’s dealing with potential information requests that are a waste of time. Let me explain…
Today’s Sparkliatti Lesson is brought to you by the following New Client Inquiry we received on Monday, July 23. As you may suspect, it’s not from a potential bride but instead is from a wedding planner who has recently started her own business. Those of you who regularly read the blog know that we keep it very real around here… so this post isn’t meant to embarrass, but instead it’s meant to educate those of us who are new to the industry and serve as a reminder to those of us who have been “around the block”
There are many things wrong with this information request which is why we were suspicious from the beginning. But, the first thing we do on all info requests is our initial research into who the client is and if the story seems to match up. This is an easy Google search that anybody can do and we should all know by now that the internet is forever. You put it out there, it’s on a server SOMEWHERE. But in this case, we found information that she may be a planner who was working for a company that I’m familiar with, but we still didn’t know for sure, so we treated her just like a regular potential client. In the initial phone call, Mellysa spent about 40 minutes on the phone with her taking copious notes about her wedding including that they were engaged for 2 years, she is in advertising and marketing in the medical field, her “fiance” is in college studying to be an electrical engineer (who we found by the way on the internet and currently is WORKING as an electrical engineer)… Long story short, Mellysa sets up an appointment to talk to me so that we can try to figure out what is going on and either move forward with a new client or nip this behavior in the bud.
When I spoke to “T” two days later, I was still not 100% sold that she was not a planner. The demeanor of the phone call was way off and in 2 years of being engaged she told me she had “never thought about her wedding.” In fact, I spent much of the time talking and she didn’t ask many questions. The information she gave me continued to be false: her mother lives near Sonoma, They’re willing to now spend about $225k on the event for 100 guests…. she wants a relaxed, romantic, classic wedding….
The most maddening thing about this whole incident is that she never considered that she was actually wasting our time. I spent about 40 minutes on the phone with her as well. The cost to me and my business to respond to phony information requests is very real, here is what I figured:
Staff Time: $55
Long Distance Phone Calls: $10.50
Time Discussing the Request: $35
Internet Research: $35
The cost to my company: $135.00.
This type of shopping behavior is both lying and thieving. It takes time away from the clients who have already hired us which is very unfair to them as well. We figure we respond and talk to about 5 of these per month at the minimum. Just that alone would be $677.00 per month in lost productivity at the minimum. There is no respect from the planners who do this for those that they are shopping because if there was, they would call them and ask them to share. It’s then up to the planner to say YES or NO. Their decision has essentially been stolen from them because they are being mislead and taken down a path that costs them money.
I’m not saying that we’ve been above reproach because there was a time in my career when we did the exact same thing. But what I’ve learned is that by being a dishonest business person, I’m underserving myself and the people that I call my peers. I’m showing them no respect, no honor and I’m completely destroying my career in the process. So I stopped. I started not caring what other people charged, how they charged and what they were making… I started not caring how many weddings they had vs. how many I had. Because I knew that it was mostly puffed up numbers anyway. I started focusing on me, my business and my bottom line….guess what happened? I felt free. Free to charge what I felt I was worth and free to talk about it.
If you’ve seen me at speaking engagements I’m very frank about HOW I charge. Why? Because it may or may not apply to you. WHAT I charge doesn’t matter because what I do for that money is unique to my business. Clients hire us for what we have done, what they see on our site, and how we interact with them personally. That can’t be replicated by calling us on the phone to shop us.
But let me WARN you that if you do continue to this you’re going to get caught. Sooner or later.
As this posts today, I’ve scheduled another call with the planner because I am going to call her out… on the phone… in person. I’m not going to send her an email. But I will tell you how we actually “caught” her.
You see, she liked my business page on Facebook. From there, I clicked on her profile but it was pretty locked down… except for her cover photos & her profile name which was her “fiance’s last name” followed by her last name – meaning that she had given us her maiden name as her fiance’s last name {are you still on my bus?}. At first glance, I thought I was wrong because her cover photos are all NOTW biblical scriptures…but the last one was commented on by her “fiance” whose last name was actually the same as hers {ie her husband}. So, I clicked on his page and recently he had “liked” her business page. But because her name isn’t in it, we weren’t sure it was hers UNTIL the phone number matched the number she had given us. But the final, final, final piece was the opening date of her business and her actual name….
case closed – you’re busted.
If for some reason, anybody needs any CSI detective work done, let me know because I may have missed my calling in that area. Again, I’m not trying to publicly flog them at all and I wholeheartedly disagree with anybody who does publicly humiliate others who do this so, I’ve taken out all identifying information but it should serve as an example to other industry professionals that THIS IS NOT RIGHT! Don’t waste people’s valuable time with lies and deceit. Just as an industry we’ve taken up the cause of “wedding month services” vs. “wedding day services”, I think it’s time that as an industry we stand up against this behavior and vow not to treat our peers with disrespect. Whose with me??
To “T” and to “K” I hope you enjoyed the info I gave you…it really wasn’t worth anything because you’re not me nor is it any big secret about how I structure my business pricing…there are also copious lists of what event designers “do” and how they charge on the internet.
This lesson ends with one of my favorite sayings that I use frequently is by Oscar Wilde. It’s “Be Yourself. Everybody Else Is Already Taken” – every planner who considers shopping the competition should have this poster above their phone. Because maybe then they will consider being unique to their market, being themselves and not trying to be somebody else. And remember the internet is FOREVER….
(from all the way down under in Australia).
by svsouza
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