Looking for an insider's guide to the wedding florist enquiry process? Here's our exact approach.
If you're a wedding florist, your enquiry process is one of the most valuable assets in your business.
Quite literally, that process is worth money.
As per my usual approach, I'm here to bust through the secrecy and give you a run down on our EXACT approach to navigating wedding enquiries. Yep! Yep and more yep!
How I Created Our Wedding Florist Enquiry Process
When I first started as a baby florist, I fell into the trap of thinking that I had to do fancy proposals, custom quotes and face-to-face consults.
I think with my very first wedding enquiry, it took me more than a week to get her a quote. That was after the hour-long consultation. I spent hours on that proposal, trying to make it look at fancy and legit.
Man oh man, I'm so surprised she stuck around but since that experience, I have learned SO much about how to effortlessly navigate wedding enquiries.
The key to figuring it out? I paid attention to what wasn't working.
In 2018, I remember looking back at my calendar and seeing how many hours I had spent on consults. My close rate was disastrous and I was wasting hours every single week meeting with prospective clients...which got me $0.
Talk about a waste of time (for me and the people who didn't book with me).
But that year was also revolutionary in my business.
I could see how much time I was wasting on these enquiries and in-depth consults.
I just knew there had to be a better way.
But, instead of trying to follow the traditions of our industry, I put my blinders on. I decided to create my own way. From scratch.
I literally threw out everything I thought I had to do and got focused on creating a system that was easy for me and super efficient for my clients.
Why? Cause I knew I had to shake things up. I couldn't afford to waste so much energy on non-money-making activities. It was, quite literally, the definition of inefficient.
So, I went through the process of completely overhauling our wedding florist enquiry process. And yeah, I kinda have broken every rule in the book.
Jumping right into the myth-busting bit...I don't use fancy proposals. I don't do custom quotes. I don't do consultations. And I don't use expensive software solutions.
I keep it bare bones.
Why? It allows me to focus on what matters most to my clients – being quick and being helpful. And, I can sort through new enquiries in a matter of minutes, rather than days (or weeks).
Wedding Florist Enquiry Process – Here's Our Exact Approach
Here you go. This is the step-by-step summary of our approach.
Inside Flower Boss Academy I go through this in itty bitty detail and I give you all of my templates + shortcuts. So, if you wanna get my exact approach and shortcut your progress, come join us today.
Let's start at the very very very beginning...well before the client even contacts you.
- Share helpful tips in your marketing. Yep. BEFORE the client even enquires, be open with your guidance and share your wisdom. Do this on social media, your website and anywhere where your clients might be on the lookout for a wedding florist.
- Be proactive about talking $$$. This is the fastest way to get rid of the budget clients. The first solution I created was a simple blog post that gave a breakdown of key price points (i.e. $2K, $5K, $10K, $20K). I later then discovered a free WordPress plugin that allowed me to create an online calculator. (That was an awesome innovation for us and our clients!)
- On your enquiry form, ask them two seemingly unexpected questions (1) what is your budget and (2) what are you looking for in a floral design team. This gets the money piece on the table early and it changes the dynamic of the relationship (less "master > servent" and more "partnership")
- After they respond, send them a template email with a few points of personalisation and point them to (a) the budget blog post or online calculator and (b) your top 10 tips for wedding flowers. Also, make it clear what the next step you want them to take if they're happy to continue.
- At the bottom of this email, point them to an online form (a Google Doc is good enough). In this form, ask them to give you all the info you'd traditionally get in a consultation (yes, this form will be long!)
- Based on what they have supplied in their Q&A, put together a very simple email with two pricing options (a) their wishlist and (b) your recommendation based on their budget. No matter what your client's budget is, their wish list will always cost them more (that's why it's called a wish list!). They will love that you're giving them both solutions. It gives them a helpful point of view and valuable insight to make an informed decision.
- After a little back and forth, (no doubt, they'll have questions) wait until they say the magic words "How do I go about booking you in?" That's when you jump into doing up the formal quote, getting the contract together and adding in your notes.
- The client pays 25% to secure your team for the date. And shazaam...another beautiful client booked!
My goal in sharing the above process is to give you an idea of what's possible when it comes to navigating new wedding enquiries. But know that it's not the only way to make it happen.
No matter what you end up doing with your wedding florist enquiry process, just know that you get to create a system that works for you. Lean into your strengths and create a system that is easy for you and helps you get to the goal of booking one in four enquiries (without wasting hours and hours of your time or your client's time).
If you wanna dig into this even more and get more juicy tips from me, I'm passing along more helpful insights in this week's podcast episode – Optimise Your Wedding Enquiry Process – 3 Quick Wins
Inside This Week's Podcast Episode You'll Learn:
✓ My best lessons learned from navigating more than 2,500 enquiries
✓ My best shortcuts for optimising your enquiry process
✓ Three common mistakes many florists make when they're navigating new enquiries
✓ Super simple solutions for dealing with price shoppers and budget brides
Listen to the full episode here
Full Episode Transcript
Enjoy the Show?
- Don’t miss an episode, follow on Spotify and subscribe via Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher
- Leave a review in Apple Podcasts
- Come join us inside Flower Boss Academy
