Talking about Budget with Potential Clients

Stop reading if you’re 100% confident asking potential clients how much they want to spend on your services.

And I’m not talking about “asking” through a field on your contact form. In fact, for 98% of wedding pros I wouldn’t recommend doing it that way. It won’t just slow unqualified inquiries from coming in, it’ll filter out even those who can afford your services and are a great fit for your brand.

Why?

Because most people don’t have a clue how much your services cost.

Remember, they’ve likely never bought what you sell.

And even if they know how much it costs, they probably don’t know why it costs that much. It’s your job as the marketer and salesperson for your brand to share why. Why you’re a good value. Why you may be more expensive than the others they’ve seen – and why you’re absolutely worth it.

And that’s why you want to get as many prequalified couples on the phone as possible. To form that connection, help them uncover their real needs, and build interest in your services. Because ultimately, couples will pay more for services they desire more (and less for those they want less).

You could ask potential clients super direct questions like, “How much money do you have in the bank?” Or “What is your net worth?” Or “How much annual discretionary income do you have?” After all, these would be effective at getting the information you really want: “Do you have enough money to spend on my services?”.

But those questions would likely turn off a customer. And besides, even a millionaire won’t spend a few thousand dollars on your services – or a few hundred more than your competitor – if they don’t know why it’s worth it.

If you ask a millionaire (or a regular Joe) how much they want to spend, they’ll tell you, “As little as I have to for the quality of services I expect.” I don’t know anyone who wants to pay more than that.

It’s far more useful to ask questions like where they are getting married and how many people they are expecting if you want to estimate what they should expect to spend on your services.

That’s what we’re really after when we talk about budget with potential clients. And it’s why I recommend a “starting at” price on your website and/or in your inquiry response to prequalify them for the discovery call where you can have a proper conversation about what they want and how much it’s likely to cost.

If you want to know more about how to prequalify couples with your website before they hit your inbox, read about that here.

If you want to hear my three go-to questions when talking about the budget with potential clients on a discovery call, check out the latest (short) episode on my podcast, Own Your Business.

You’ll learn:

• Why couples can’t/don’t/won’t answer early questions about budget accurately

• The step-by-step on how to bring up budget

• The crucial question to ask before you ask how much they have to spend on your services

Hope you check out the Podcast (and book more of those millionaires).