Let's do a deep dive and talk about how to sell floral subscriptions. I wish I could sing. I wish I could play guitar and sing and just have that as a job, but probably like everything else the charm would wear off. And it's nothing like you think so alas we shall I'll keep these things as hobbies. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, not everything needs to be a money making endeavors.

For those of us who are on the endeavour of building a successful flower business, navigating the ins and outs of coordinating floral subscriptions might be a great idea, or it might not be something that you wanna offer in your business. And that's fine too. And it's definitely growing in popularity to be offering floral subscriptions. But I also know what it's like to go through the energy and effort and get so pumped. And you think you've just created the best idea on the planet.

And then you go through the tech and the setup, and then it's crickets. I'm like, why is nobody buying the greatest idea to ever hit my city? what am I missing out on? So I thought it could be really super helpful to talk through three tips, to help you reframe your approach, to selling floral subscriptions and really understanding that there is a right and a wrong way to approach your marketing strategy. And that is what really is the linchpin for being able to make sure that you have a successful floral business and that you really know that you need to focus on the marketing side of things, particularly when it comes to selling floral subscriptions.

This is a really helpful exercise because one of the best things you can do, and this is true, no matter what you offer in your business, no matter what kind of business you have, you can never spend too much time putting yourself in your customer's shoes.

It is impossible to embody your customer too much. And because we're a human beings with a human brain, our brain is going to offer up all of our self-doubt uncertainty and not good enoughness. And we're gonna miss out on some really valuable insights, which always come to the surface. When we can put ourselves in our customer's shoes, this is one of the greatest exercises that you can do.

It's why I'll tell you guys inside the flower boss bootcamp and put so much emphasis on that because it's also one of the best ways to get yourself out of your own way. Because this is what's so fun with zero qualifications, zero years in the industry, zero pieces of paper, you could show up and just call yourself a florist. Like it's kind of an insane proposition. If you think about it. And then the minute that you call yourself a florist people look at you.

Like you're the expert just by saying that one word it's so mind bending, isn't it like you could walk into a restaurant and just talk to the front of house staff and be like, I am a florist and they will immediately look at you and pass along to you, expert credentials. It's so fascinating how much we, as the human beings buy into our own bullshit. not being qualified and not being good enough. Like it's so crazy that literally there is no regulation in this industry.

No industry body is gonna come along and say, you can and cannot do that. It is totally self-made and it's so fascinating. And I find it so funny now to really think about like how much we get in our own way. like the human brain. Like, could somebody please could Ikea, could you please sit down and map out a user manual for this piece of machinery?

Because it would be so helpful. It would've been so helpful to really understand you have a human brain and the primitive part of your brain is programmed to keep you safe. Which means is going to identify everything as a fear situation. It has a negative bias and it is driven by efficiency. Like nothing has gone wrong. This is how you're programmed out of the box. like, it's so insane that we have this crazy piece of heavy machinery and you have no user manual.

Like what , how is this species still existing on the planet? How have we not, I don't know, tormented ourselves or completely died off already and maybe that's what's happening. And it's just taking such a long time that we're oblivious to it, but ALA it would be helpful. But now that we know, and now that we're starting to really start really seeing and understanding how the human brain functions and recognizing that we have a prefrontal cortex.

And just the fact that you have the ability to put yourself in your customer's shoes like that, that's even a saying in the English language, we have the ability to hypothetically think about what it's like to be another human being from a totally different perspective.

This is so trippy. Like it's not like dogs walk around and go, I wonder what that dog's thinking. No, they just walk around and greet each other by smelling each other's bums. so a very interesting species, interesting creatures that we are choosing to share our companionship life with , but let's get on topic. Kathleen, let us just get to the good stuff.

Okay. So why are we talking about floral subscriptions? One, they are definitely raising in popularity, right? And if it's something that you have had on your list, or it's something that you offer in your business, my guess is your brain is thinking that everybody else in your area is offering it and it's hugely competitive, or you might be a new designer, new business owner and going, Ooh, I wonder if I could build a business off of floral subscriptions.

So it'd be so great to be able to do that, but I wanna make sure that you, as the floral designer, you, as the creative entrepreneur really understands like the problems that you need to solve when you're selling floral subscriptions. So you might be a brand new designer, maybe you're going to flower school. Maybe you have no intention to go to flower school, but you know, you wanna build a flower business and floral subscriptions are something that you're interested in.

You might be a veteran business owner and thinking you want to level up your know how around floral subscriptions make them even better, make it even more efficient, make even more money, have even more recurring revenue. You might be somewhere in between. You might do some sort of regular service. That's similar to a subscription. You might do installations at a local hotel or restaurants or something where your clients order from you really, really regularly.

So we can think of floral subscriptions and we can take these principles and apply them in a multitude of situations. So in this podcast episode, I want to talk through three perspectives to embrace three thoughts, three strategies to really think through, just to set you up for success. And you can put this into work for your business right now, right? It doesn't need to be this Uber complicated. Oh my God, I need to start from scratch or I need to redo everything. Or I need to just completely rebrand and change everything, which is how most of us operate.

To really make this actionable and implementable, there's a lot of letters and challenges with the speaking of the English, but really giving you the tools and very specific guidance in terms of how to successfully sell floral subscriptions. Because one of the most challenging things around selling floral subscriptions is so much of the work needs to be done ahead of time.

It's true in a lot of cases within Flory, but so much of the marketing and the sales and the actual ordering and the technology and the, even all of the details need to be sorted out well before you actually get the money from the customer. And I don't want you to spend all of this time and energy getting the whole system set up and then feel like that was a total waste. When in actual fact, a couple of few like small tweaks can really help when it comes to selling and marketing floral subscriptions.

I'm also just thinking too, if you're a farmer florist and or you have some sort of CSA offering or some sort of weekly, you know, seasonal box or collection of goodies that you are selling to customers, this will be super helpful to you too, because it's really, really important that we think through the strategy because floral subscriptions are rising in popularity.

It can look like from the outside that it's a sure thing that it's super easy. And with some of the discussion around like creating residual recurring income, of course, for all of us as creative entrepreneurs, the idea of having a regular customer pay us automatically every week, every two weeks or every month feels like a dream come true and understanding.

I think one of the greatest benefits to our industry from COVID is that because so many more people are now working from home and are looking like there's a definite shift towards the simple pleasures of life, that it is very possible that now is the absolute, perfect time to launch floral subscriptions within your city or within your area, because there is, and there will always be a continuing awareness of the value of having flowers in your vicinity, right? We all know as floral designers, the power of flowers, like the absolute magic, emotional connection, and the experience of just being around flowers.

We know it part of what we get to do in our marketing and in our mission as floral designers is share that love and share that knowledge with the humans. So it might be that one of the ways that you come at marketing floral subscriptions is you get to be the leader and you get to be the educator on the benefit of having flowers in the workspace.

Whether that workspace is at home, whether that workspace is the dining table, kitchen counter, whether it is a reception vase, being the person to educate your clients on the value. And some of the amazing statistics that you can find when you Google things like the human connection to flowers, the healing properties of flowers, like there are so many amazing soundbites and tidbits that you could create. Cute little Instagram posts out of. You could write blog posts out of, and you could be the total authority, my friend, but it takes a slightly different perspective because it does take effort.

I think with the increasing appetite that our customers have around having more flowers around them and that connection to the simple pleasures of life and your desire as a business owner to have that recurring regular income, it can totally feel like a win-win like it's a match made in heaven. And I know from the outside, when we look at floral designers who are offering subscriptions, it feels so simple.

It's like, who wouldn't wanna have flowers delivered to the house regularly? It should be like a no brainer for our customers because you think it's a good idea. So then as we do, we get obsessed with our latest shining object. You go through the energy of effort of getting your online catalog sorted, and you sign up for the subscription option in the checkout and you get all the details going and you put your product together.

And then you're like, where are the orders? It's like literal silence. And you're like, I've put in all of this energy and effort. And I know that this is a good idea. Why isn't it working? Why isn't it working as well as I want it to. And I know for all of us, there's so much anxiety around like getting the offer up and getting the website sorted and the checkout process sorted.

You put all this energy and effort into it. And then the silence is like deafening. And then your brain goes to, I'm a failure. I'm not good enough. This is never gonna work. When an actual fact, it's just a couple of tweaks and a couple of really understanding, like the nuances of the marketing strategy to skyrocket your sales. So let's get into it, my friend and the first thing, and this is true for any part of floral design simplicity cells.

Our default thought process, our default drive is to make things really complicated as human beings, generally speaking, we're all very intelligent creatures. And our go to is to want to have lots of layers, lots of details, and lots of intricacy to what we're gonna offer our customers.

Particularly if we think through the world of floral subscriptions, the exact opposite is true because one of the most important things to remember is that you might be familiar with a concept of a floral subscription, but your customer isn't, they will understand the concept of subscription, but they will have questions around. What does that look like? Is that a weekly delivery, biweekly delivery? What kind of container does it come in? Do I need to supply my own container? What happens if I'm not home for the delivery? How much is this gonna cost? Do I have to sign a contract?

Do I have to commit to a certain window? Do I have colour options? What if I don't like scent? What if I want sent? What if I don't like bright colours? What if I only want bright colours? Every single one of those questions, , it's gonna go through every new customers head. So the reality is you will do your business, such an incredible service. If you can meet your customer where they're at and the less choice you give them, the more customers you will attract. One of the most dangerous things that you could do.

One of the reasons that people may not sign up for your floral subscription is that there's too much choice. There's too many options, too many variations, too many different choices. Overwhelm always leads to confusion. Confusion, always leads to no sale. That is the way that the humans work. And I vividly remember, this is also true, like being a kid back in blockbuster video, the good old days, my friends, but standing there trying to figure out like what movie to rent Could you like, it's absurd that those were sentences that we used to utter. Hey, do you wanna go to blockbuster and rent a movie

Guys. It was a different time. It was a different time, but that overwhelm happens to all of us. And most humans don't want to make so many decisions that you can actually do your business, a massive service. If you make a multitude of decisions, a multitude of assumptions, test them out and then continue to iterate and evolve. So I will tell you if you're offering floral subscriptions, I would limit it to two options, product, a product B. You could even just have one option. It's possible. My friends, it is very, very possible. So I will say really limit down your floral subscription offering, and don't give your clients too much choice.

So that leads to point number two, use your best guess, use your expertise, put yourself in your customers, shoes and make as many decisions as you can on behalf of your customers. This is why I'll say like, when you can identify your ideal client, putting yourself in your customers, shoes is so much easier because you will have written the narrative around like who they are, how they operate, then you can think through, okay.

So what are they looking for when it comes to floral subscription? And I know if I was buying a floral subscription, ease is a massive part of that process, which part of that is don't gimme too many choices. They are looking at you as the experts. Part of that is the decisions that you have made on their behalf. Really understanding that limiting the choices for your customers can actually be one of the best gifts that you give them.

I know initially that can sound a little bit counterintuitive because we think right, our human brain thinks the more choice we give the customers, the more customers we will get when an actual fact from a marketing and a sales perspective, the more we limit our customers options, the more sales we're going to get. And the reason that that works is twofold. One being able to free up your energy and effort to pour into marketing and I mean, pour into marketing.

And two, once you've got an active customer, the less decisions you can have them to make the more faster, the more faster, yeah, the more faster they're gonna get to the checkout process and put their credit card in the less clicks it takes to get the credit card information in the more likely they are gonna buy. Because if it's too drawn out too long after fill in too many boxes, I don't know the answer to that. I don't have that person's information.

They're gonna have the whole abandoned cart situation. So that means, and I will tell your brain, you get to decide, you get to make the decisions on behalf of your customers. And this is what I love because this idea of you get to pour your creative entrepreneurship onto the page. You get to make so many of these decisions before you even pick up your next bunch of flowers and you get to think through, okay, so what does my packaging look like?

What colour options am I gonna give them? Am I gonna give them a size option? What do I wanna do for the container? What do I wanna do for the actual delivery instructions? What's my communication to them. Like there are so many steps in this process, so helpful to sit down and I love, I am a huge fan of doing these things on pen and paper, instead of either fly by the seat of your pants and make it up as you go or doing it digitally because there's something that happens in your brain when you can actually pause and you're not gonna get distracted by opening another tab and looking to see what that person offers and what are all my packaging offers, but just doing that brain dump of what are all the steps in this process, what are all the questions I wanna have answered?

And then giving yourself permission to explore each one of those and making the best decision that you can with the information that you have on hand, knowing you can always change your mind in the future, but really paring down your offering and setting the rules and being clear in your communication to your customer about this is how this whole thing goes. And it's so helpful.

Because if we go back and we think about, okay, what is our customer thinking? They might be able to understand the premise of a floral subscription, but in that big, long list of questions that they have, they're gonna be wondering, do I need to have a container? What happens if I'm not home? Do I get a choice of colour, all of those questions? And you can start to answer all of that in the up front phase. And then what you get to do through that is really position your offering as the perfect solution for them.

So really understanding. And I know it can feel awkward and your brain is no doubt gonna jump into the fear and scarcity bubble, because you're going to want to not limit yourself. But it's one of the best things that you can do from a marketing and a sales point of view. And one of the single best things that you can do for your business is keep your offering super simple, get it out into the world, get it out into your customer's hands, get their feedback, implement their feedback and continue to make it better.

I love this concept of thinking we get to co-create our product and our service with our clients actually wanting to get their input, wanting to understand, okay, what is feeling a bit rough around the edges? What don't they like about this? Because here's the thing you get to ask for all of the input you get to ask for all of their feedback.

You don't have to action it. If you don't think it's the right thing for your business or the right thing for the florals or the right thing for the industry, but gathering their input is so valuable because it shows you their interpretation of your service. And it's something I used to be so afraid of like so scared to go to clients and customers and be like, Hey, can I get your thoughts? Because I assumed as we all do, they're just gonna tell me that I suck that seems to be the common theme here. Yeah.

Most customers don't say that to you. oh, it's so fun to be human. Isn't it. But understanding getting their input and really thinking you get to co-create your business with your clients just really shifts the dynamic and it's so helpful. It takes some of the fear out of going to your clients and asking for their input.

The third thing to know is I did a little bit of Googling to understand, like for people who are offering subscriptions, what is a typical churn rate? So that is of the percentage of customers that you have right now, how often, or what percentage is likely gonna turn over on a fairly frequent basis. So typically it sits around 40%. So that, that means that at any given time, if you have like a hundred clients, 40 of them are on the precipice of kind of ending their subscription.

So nothing has gone wrong. When somebody cancels their subscription, it's not a personal attack on you. It's not a threat to your life. It's not evidence of the fact that you're not good enough. It's not evidence of the fact that it's not a good idea. It is simply the math. And it's very possible that your ideal client might sign up for six months.

So that means that your ideal client might get a delivery once a month or once every fortnight for six months. What is so helpful to then think through is understanding the emphasis that you get to put on your marketing activities. So if there is an average churn rate of 40%, that means that you need to continue to find more customers and more clients to keep that regular revenue coming in the door.

I know for me that this idea of like, well, I'm gonna sell a floral subscription and it's such a great idea. It should just sell itself. And the exact opposite is true. And here's the thing. It is a genius idea. It is a great idea. The humans need flowers in their workspaces, particularly if they're working from home and particularly I think I'm just like, yes, they need the beauty and the joy and the love and the magnificence and the details and the living objects in their workspace.

But because it's brand new territory for all of your clients and customers, they're gonna have questions. They're gonna have doubt. They're gonna have some uncertainty around it. It's a very normal human experience. It's your job from a marketing and a sales point of view to meet them where they're at and make sure that you are the most helpful, the most straightforward we're here to make it simple and easy for you, because we want to make sure that as many humans on the planet have flowers in their workspace as humanly possible.

I always will go back to the she who is the most helpful wins so this idea of really understanding like, oh, okay, so my customers might feel really intimidated by this process. How could I simplify it? How could I make it really easy for them to understand this? How could I walk them through the process?

How could I give them tips and tricks and how could I communicate with them and how could I just make this the most easy, seamless process for them that they're not intimidated by at all? They're not overwhelmed by the decision. They're super clear on what's gonna happen. They're happy to sign up. Maybe we create a referral program. Maybe they get free subscriptions for every, I don't know, like you just get to make it up, but this idea of going, okay. So if at any point in time, if I have a hundred customers, or if I have 10 customers, if I have 10 customers at any point in time, four of them are about to cancel their subscription.

So I need to go out there and make sure I've streamlined my approach and that my systems are in place, that I can take that energy and that effort that I need to, to make sure that I have a steady stream of new clients signing up so that I can continue to keep that revenue happening, hit my sales, grow my profitability, and really shift my focus because the subscriptions don't sell themselves.

And like everything in Flory, the success of your business relies on the effectiveness of your marketing. This is so true for floral subscriptions. So much of the energy and effort needs to go in that upfront in that, Hey, I'm here to remind you that we offer this amazing service and here's how this process works. And here's the frequently asked questions and click here. And yes, you have these options and you have these options and this is what we'll do when you're not home for delivery, etc, etc, etc.

Most importantly, understanding that marketing and floral subscription, isn't really a set and forget a type of premise. It's not really something that sells itself. You have to do so much of the upfront, the organization, the sales and the offer and the systems and the tech and making sure that your production process is making sense.

And that you're really understanding, okay, how am I going to work through this and all the different times of the year? And what does my container look like? And what's the delivery experience. Like, there are a lot of logistics to think through before you even get that first customer sale. So I wanted to plant these seeds because it's really helpful. It's like, so disheartening.

When we go through these experiences of like, this is the best idea I've ever had, and then nobody's buying from you. like, oh, maybe it's not a good idea. No, it's just that you're like missing the mark, just like slightly off kilter when it comes to marketing and knowing it is a lot of upfront, it is a lot of making sure you've got the foundation sorted and the checkout processes working. That you've thought through all of the delivery logistics and the packaging and the containers and the seasonal availability and the communication to your clients.

Like there's a lot of touch points to think through. So going in with eyes wide open is so helpful because then you'll know, oh, okay. So once I've got it all sorted, I'm just beginning. Once I got the checkout process nailed, I'm just at the beginning of this process, as opposed to thinking, okay, my website's live. I'm done now. Where are my customers? , it's like flip the whole thing on its head.

And as always, I will tell you, come join us inside the flower boss bootcamp, and you'll get access to the floral subscription masterclass where I talk you through the exact strategy to follow some things, to think through in terms of logistics and design. Plus, we talk about marketing and sales and pricing, and I walk through the whole thing step by step. So that's in the study vault in the flower boss bootcamp, come join us.

It's so fun. It's so, so fun to be able to connect with you guys live and in person and talk about these things and being able to cater to all different kinds of floristry businesses. It's my jam because at the end of the day, at the end of the day, building a flower business off of subscriptions might be a great idea for you. It could be hugely profitable, totally lucrative. And if it is what you wanna be doing, just come join us inside the flower boss boot camp.

So you can have like the formula, the framework, the blueprint to follow to really set yourself up for success. If you already offer subscriptions and you're not meeting your sales target, or you want to increase your profitability, jump into the study vault, find the subscription masterclass and just make sure you're covering off all of these like basics to really level up, take it to the next level, my friends. Okay, let's go out there, make some money, have the most amazing day, get some sleep, drink some water, drive safe, my friends. And we'll talk to you again next week. Bye for now.