Preparing Your Business for Engagement Season with Alan Berg – E141

Welcome everybody to the wedding songs podcast. I am Matt Campbell today We’re going to be talking about the engagement season and prepping your business for it and to help me along with this today We have Mr. Alan Berg. He’s better known as the global speaking fellow one of four 44 in the world, certified speaking fellow, and executive Bourbon steward.

We’ll get to that in a minute. Sales trainer, business consultant, wedding business solutions, podcast host, and the author of at least 11 books, probably some, getting ready too. Welcome to the show, Alan Berg, Matt. Thank you so much. you’ve been on my podcast and it’s time for me to come on here.

So I appreciate you inviting me. I love the topic and, you’re the expert that can help everybody prep their business for what’s going on right now. But before we get to that, I just want to ask you one icebreaker question. And that is, we all know you love bourbons and you have one from every state in the U.S. Why bourbons and not beer, wine, vodka, and whatnot? It was, bourbon because in 2015, I did not drink whiskey and I was given a bottle of Buffalo Trace with the bottle signed by the master distiller when I spoke in Louisville, Kentucky for the Louisville wedding network. And since it was a gift I took it home and I opened it and I said, Well, I’m not a whiskey guy but let me taste this.

And I tasted it and it was. I liked it better than other whiskeys I had had, and I realized it wasn’t that I didn’t like whiskey, it was that I hadn’t had a whiskey I liked. So it was bourbon, and for those that don’t know, bourbon tends to be sweeter than other whiskeys because it has to be at least 51 percent corn, and if you think about corn syrup and all those things that we use for sweeteners, It’s a little bit sweeter.

And that started me down the path, kind of like I remember starting on wine. It was white Zinfandel, you know, a sweet pink wine came to a white wine came to a dryer white wine became a red wine and down the line there. So I’ve now expanded to all different things. But for me, for bourbon, I like the sweetness balanced with the other flavors that you get from it.

But I do drink scotch and I do drink Irish whiskey and I do drink Canadian whiskey. And a fun fact, American single malt whiskey was just officially by the government officially designated as an official designation of whiskey. So there is such a thing if it says American single malt on the label, that is a legal definition now, whereas Small batch.

If you see a small batch on a bottle, there’s no legal definition. So for a big distiller, a small batch could be, you know, 10, 000 bottles, 50, 000 bottles. when we blend whiskeys, our small batches are six to 10 bottles. So that’s, that’s, that’s pretty small compared to most others there, but we’re just having fun with it.

I was given an article that said, there’s a bourbon in every state. So that made me think, how many have I ever owned? And I had owned 26 at that point, including DC. I said, well, I’m halfway there. Let’s go the rest of the way. And I did accomplish getting a whiskey from every state bourbon for most.

They do make bourbon in every state, but for some of them, you’d rather have a blend because just cause they make it doesn’t mean you want to drink it. Before we go any further, why don’t you explain who you are to our listeners? Sure. I started in the wedding and event industry over 30 years ago, selling wedding advertising because my friend bought a wedding magazine.

it was a new industry for me. I had never done cold calling. I had never done outside sales. It was, straight commission, no, no salary, no draw. My wife was pregnant. So you better start working. Otherwise, you know, you can’t pay for the bills. And for five years, I did that. And then we published two wedding magazines for five years, the franchise wanted me to work for them.

So I sold them back. And then they knew a startup at the time called the Knot, which was a startup. Bought our company. I ended up being at the not for 11 years. I was a regional sales director, and vice president of sales. I was the main sales trainer internally and externally. I was the main speaker. Then when I left the not in 2011, started my own business speaking, consulting, and sales training.

I had also written my first book at that point. I am up to 11 now. I’m thinking about the next one, none of the works yet, Matt, but I’m thinking about the next one. And, I’ve just been helping wedding and event businesses. Do more business, profit more, and have more fun doing it because our industry, as you know, is filled with creative people and creative people don’t necessarily make good salespeople because it’s a different kind of skill.

And once you understand that it’s a different skill. You could work on that skill. And that’s what I do I help people who need to sell because let’s face it. If you’re a DJ, if you’re a photographer, if you’re whoever you have to sell it, if you want to be able to do it. And, I did one of my podcasts about if you love doing it more than selling it, you’re in good company.

Right. And that’s what it is. I mean, how many people do you and I know that are just so talented, but some of them struggle in their business because. It’s a different skill and it doesn’t necessarily come naturally to you. That is a great transition into what we’re talking about today. And that is getting ready for engagement season because it is business.

This is when a majority of couples get engaged. And just so those people who may not know it’s Thanksgiving. Valentine’s Day. So it’s happening right now. This is being recorded right before Christmas Day and Hanukkah. So what are some common mistakes that you would say wedding professionals make during this season that they should avoid?

The first thing is not taking this opportunity when you’re not doing events. To get your business set up for it. So reviewing certain things. So reviewing your website, is it sending the right message? Do I have updated testimonials I can put on there? Do I have new photos I can put on there? Is the information even correct?

a mutual friend of ours, Brian Lawrence, and I just co-wrote a book from browsing to booking websites and SEO strategies for winning an event pros, and, we’re One of my chapters is, when’s the last time, if ever you’ve actually read all the words on your website, I mean, actually read it. I don’t mean scan it.

I mean, read it. And what a lot of people are doing is taking the words, putting ’em into chat, GPT or Cllaude or something, and saying, freshen this up for a Gen Y, Gen Z audience. Right. For today’s audience. And you’re taking the text you put up there 3, 5, 8, 10 years ago, and you’re, and you’re saying, make this fresher.

Don’t change my words. Just freshen it up for this audience. So that’s the first thing. The next is looking at your advertising. Are you sending the right message there? Do you have updated reviews on the Knot, Wedding Wire on Yelp, Google on whatever, and are you responding to the reviews? Great time to be asking for reviews.

Great time to be responding to reviews. So that when the next person comes, they’re going to see not only you got a great review, but that you responded well. And now you feel even better. I actually, I just got a new car and I, the salesman said, Hey, you know, we have a contest going about reviews. I know how important it is that day.

I posted a five-star on Google today. Two days later, I got a response from the business and it was a personal response. So I feel even better about that dealership than I did already to give them a good review. So that’s the next thing you want to be doing is saying, do I have enough new reviews?

Because the things that matter are obviously the number of reviews. You don’t want to have. Single digits. You want to be double digits or better. You want to have a good score. It doesn’t have to be a perfect 5. 0, but a good high score. The recency of the review matters. You wouldn’t care what you did two years ago.

We care what you did two months ago and then responding. Those are the things that matter. So now you can, I can ask for more reviews just because you’ve asked a couple before. Doesn’t mean they wouldn’t do it now just because they didn’t do it. Maybe they have time now because they have downtime to respond to those reviews.

So people not only hear their voice, they hear your voice. That’s a great thing to be doing now as well. And then the next thing is, how are you going to respond to the inquiries that are coming if they’ve started to come already or will be coming in, because we know with a cycle right the first thing they tend to do is the venue maybe the venue, the caterer, the dress photographer is going to be in there.

And then, you know, entertainment might come a little bit later. If your service, if you’re listening, it’s a different service. Maybe you won’t get the crush in January, or February, maybe your crush will come in March and April, right? As they’re looking in there, how are you responding to the inquiries? Are you following certain things that I’ve spoken about a lot written about, you know, are you keeping it to one screen on their phone?

Are you making it clear when they scan what they’re what it’s about? Are you asking one question at the end that is not asking for a phone call? Because if you want to get ghosted, ask for a phone call. And why do I say this? Gen Y, Gen Z, right? Gen Y is phone-averse. Gen Z is even more phone-averse. So, are you making it so that you can have a conversation with them so that they’ll want to get on the phone because they don’t want to get on the phone or they would have called you?

Maybe if you get a phone call, it’s probably a mother or somebody helping. They definitely don’t want to get on the phone and try to combat that. I think every business is, is finding that. But one, one thing that you said too, is the first people that. That is booked. I think this time right now is talking to the venues, talking to the wedding planners.

Cause as you said, they’re one of the first that’s booked. If you’re on their radar, if you’re not one of those two, then get on their radar. And, now is the perfect time, to take them out to lunch, do, do whatever you need to do. Cause, make this time valuable. Yeah. Yeah. I just had a DJ up in South Dakota and he bought copies of my caterer venue edition of Shut Up and Sell More to give to venues because if they sell more, who are they going to refer?

They’re going to refer him. So he bought, he has copies for planners and copies for caterers and venues because they’re up the food chain from him and he’ll look up and say, who gets booked before me? If they can refer me, that’s the way to go. Awesome. What KPIs, I know we say key performance indicators, and what should businesses monitor to ensure they are maximizing their opportunities?

Right. Opportunity is a great word there. The biggest opportunity that everybody listening has, and this includes you and me, Matt, is people that have made an inquiry but haven’t yet said no, because if they said, yes, we’ve moved forward. But if you have heard nothing, how do you know they’ve booked or not booked?

so what here’s what you want to be looking if you could measure all of this and very few people I’ve ever met in the industry are measuring all of this. But if I wave my magic mouse, this is what I want to see. So how many inquiries you’re getting and from what sources? Right. So you should be able to pretty easily say I’ve gotten these inquiries from these sources.

How many of those people that you responded to never got back to you? So they ghosted you from that point on. So you responded, never got back to you. The next thing is how many of the people that did respond Ghosted you after that and you never got to the next point to get to the conversation. How many people did you get to the conversation?

Actually you’re continuing the conversation because they started the conversation. So you’re continuing. So inquiries, conversations, how many of those people did you get to the phone call, the meeting, whatever it is that you’re trying to do. If you’re a venue, listening, a tour or whatever, how many of those people then ghosted you?

Right. And then how many of those people did you actually sell? So it’s all of these benchmarks. Cause I think of it like a relay race, right? When the inquiry is made, it’s because the baton got handed to you from where, from your ads, from your website, from your socials, from whatever, right? The baton got hands.

Like now the race is on. Here’s my baton, right? So now the race is on and it got handed to you. So what happens? If somebody drops the baton in a, in relay race the race is over. So I’ve had conversations actually today and yesterday with two DJs who, they’re just going to say they’re probably digital immigrants like me.

Right. You and I have a little frost going on. You got more frost than I do. You do have more hair, but you got really well for it. But a digital immigrant just means that the technologies of today weren’t around when we started. It doesn’t mean we don’t like technology. I love technology, right? I’m using my wireless mic here at all.

I love technology. It just wasn’t there, right? I might’ve still had a beeper when I started selling wedding advertising. I might’ve. So these guys are, are still trying to, I need to get them on the phone. I need to get them on the phone. I said, okay, yeah, but you’re rushing it. You’re rushing the process here.

They’re living in the past to do that. So if we look at the biggest opportunity, and this is what I challenge all my audiences. And when I do sales training, and when I do masterminds, I was just with a group the other day and I said, okay, the first thing I want you to do. Is go back to everybody that you didn’t hear.

No, and ask him one more time. And if you get some of them, go back to the people who didn’t say no again and ask them one more time. I did this yesterday. I was sitting and I went back into my inquiries and I looked at conversations that just never went anywhere or started and stopped and I sent them another email again.

And this morning somebody responded to tell me, Hey, you know, we’re good now. I said, great. I’ve gotten closure on that, which is what I’m looking for. So what I would challenge everybody here is, do you know, first of all, the KPIs, do you know how many inquiries you’ve actually gotten Matt? I don’t know about you, but I think everybody I know doesn’t need more inquiries.

They need better conversion. So do you actually know how many inquiries you got? Now, don’t be fooled by the number of inquiries. Because they’re not all created equal. So if you got a lot of inquiries from one source, but you’re also then looking down the line and saying, I’m also getting ghosted by those people.

Maybe it wasn’t good quality leads, or maybe I need to respond differently to those leads that I do to leads through my website or through the not or through social or whatever. Maybe you need to, you know, cause what do they know on your website? Theoretically, they know more than they would know on any other site.

Maybe, maybe I haven’t seen your website, so I don’t know, but maybe they do. Maybe not. Right. So if I’m getting ghosted more by one source, instead of blaming the source, say, okay, let me try something different instead of one size fits all. And if I still try all different things and it doesn’t work, okay, maybe it is that way.

Or maybe I need to talk to some other people that are doing that. Maybe they’re doing something different than I am. Maybe they’re doing something that I wouldn’t even think of in terms of how to respond because I always say if something’s not working, I have to look in the mirror to find the problem, right?

I don’t blame the site, the source, whatever. If it’s not working, I have to say, let me start with me and say, let me try something different. This person I was talking to yesterday, right? With just really all the questions that he was asking me. I’m like, it’s not 1997 anymore or even 2007. You have to do things differently and clearly, it would be easier for them if they would just get on the phone.

But the reality is they’re not going to do that. So, I have conversations all the time through text messages, Facebook messages through Instagram messages. through WhatsApp. and sometimes we do get on the phone. Sometimes we do get on zoom and other times we just have a conversation through our fingers.

Those are all fantastic points. I’m sure everybody’s taking notes from what you just said there. I’m just going to hit on one to say, I think it’s about 10 percent more effort to get a new customer than trying to Turn somebody that’s already in your system. I think that that’s what you’re really getting to go back.

I’m surprised. That’s only 10%. I would think it’d be even harder to get a new lead, right? Then to work a lead. You already got it, you already paid for that lead. Think about that, Matt, right? You paid for that lead through your website, because whatever you did through the not through wedding wear through Zola, through social media, through Google ad, And the people give up too soon.

Right? So we do a lot of secret shopping. We’ve shopped over 500 companies between last year and this year, 17 percent of the companies never replied at all. Zero. I did have my assistant reshop them just in case there was a technical issue. Cause I did have that happen to my website. It broke for a couple of months.

I didn’t even know it until somebody told me. and now on the first of every month. My calendar pops up and it says, check the contact form. And if I haven’t gotten the lead that week, I literally fill out the form, make sure it goes into my CRM, make sure I get the email and that the system is working.

So 17 percent never replied of the ones that did only 46 to 48 percent try a second time, meaning over 50 percent send one message and then they’re done. So then 46 to 48 percent try twice, only about a third, we’ll try three times. It goes down to 25 percent or less, well, four times, and then it drops off.

By the time you get to five times over 80 percent of the people that have gotten inquiries. Have given up. So I teach people to go at least five times, if not more, because you’re in rarefied air there, right? Less than 20 percent of the people are following up, which means most of your competitors, are done, right?

I prefer personalized responses, but I also use automation. So if you go to my website, fill out my contact form, you check what you’re interested in. It starts a series of six, which is soon going to be seven or eight. Messages because again, I said, I want to get more than five. So mine is already six and it would be seven or eight, except it’s a new system.

And I haven’t figured out how to do it yet, but they’ll get set up for seven or eight. And. The payment one more time because I want to get it like I did today. I got a no, but I’m okay with that because the no was closure.

So when you’re talking to these business owners and you are crafting those messages, is there something in particular that really resonates with the engaged couples that get those sales?

Yeah, you have to understand with Gen Y and Gen Z, it needs to be conversational. It needs to not feel like this formal structured message we used to send out that your ninth-grade English teacher is looking over your shoulder going, well, Mr. Campbell, that’s not correct at all. So it needs to fit on one screen of a phone because they’re not going to read.

They’re going to scan, which we all do. This isn’t a Gen Y thing, a Gen Z thing. We all scan. It needs to end. With one question, because if you don’t ask a question, it’s not implied. It’s not expected that you’re getting a response. So when you end with, I look forward to hearing back from you, that’s a statement.

That’s not a question. You need to end with a question. The question should not be, when do you want to have a phone call? So let’s just start there. The question should start as a low commitment so that you ease them in. If you think about fishing, you know, you throw the line out with the bait. Oh, great.

They bid on it. You don’t pull the fish in. You’ll give it a little line. You let it work a little bit. So the first thing you want to do is ask an easy question that they will answer one that they don’t think you’re prying one that they realize you need the information. This is where a lot of people make a mistake: their contact form asks too many things.

And when you ask too many questions. First of all, you’re getting fewer inquiries and you don’t even realize it because people are looking at your form and going. Oh, hell no. I’m not filling that out. Right. And that’s the first thing. I was looking at a form just yesterday and it required, that it’s a company in Mexico.

So they do destination wedding stuff. So they required the phone number, which is already going to have fewer people fill it out. They require the city where you live. You want to know that you will ask that. You don’t need to know that for them to fill out the form.

You can ask that question. you don’t need to know the guest count yet. You don’t need to know a start time and an end time and all this kind of stuff. What you really need to know is their name and their email. That’s all you need to know. Make the phone number not required. And Mark Chapman has been on my podcast a few times.

He said, he puts in the phone field, put your phone number if you prefer texting. And that’s what it says on mine as well. you want to have a box that says. Tell me more about your event or tell me more about your wedding. Don’t just say questions or comments. Encourage them to say something. That’s all you need to know.

So that’s the first thing is to shorten up your contact form because you’re probably getting fewer inquiries. Then you even realize and then you want to ask easy questions such as, have you already reserved your venue? Are you still working on that? Are you having both your ceremony and reception at the same venue?

How many guests do you expect to attend? By the way, these are one at a time, one in an email. This is a conversation, not an interrogation. Okay. So one question, because if you’ve ever sent someone an email with three questions, they only answered one it’s because they scanned, looked at the last question, answered it, and didn’t even read the rest of the message.

So we want to make it on one screen, ending with one question. And then I want to throw a bone at people here. Cause I have people that I can hear them twitching that you can’t ask for a phone call put a PS after your name. So you’ll sign it, Matt. After that PS, if you would like to have a phone call or a Zoom call, Click here if you do a Calendly or something or just respond to this message and let me know.

And now if that’s what they want, I had that happen to me. Somebody came back, and said, Hey, can we have a phone call? Absolutely. We got on the phone. There you go. I did sales training a few weeks ago, right? So the best tip is to keep it on one screen. Don’t ask for that high commitment right away.

End it with one question. And then when they respond, Say something. So if they come back and say, yes, we’ve reserved our venue. It’s the XYZ house gardens. Okay. Go back and say, Oh, I’m so glad you said that because we work there all the time. I hope you’re working with Debbie. Cause she’s fantastic. Right.

And then ask another question. That’s low commitment. After a couple of back and forths, you could say, Oh, I already have some ideas on how to make your wedding or event. If it’s not a wedding. Amazing. I’d love to hear some of yours as well. Can I give you a quick call now or is later today better? So you do that after a little bit.

That’s the fishing. I gave you a line and now I’m going to tug just a little bit. And if they come back and say, Hey, no email’s better for me. Text is better for me or whatever. Fantastic. We’ll just go that way then. Cause I am just as comfortable having that conversation through my fingertips as I am on the phone.

Would I prefer the phone? Of course. When I prefer Zoom. Yes. I want to see your face. If I can’t, I’m still going to have the conversation. mind is asking the question for a DJ, what type of vibe would you like for your wedding? Cause then you know, You’re getting that question answered to say, okay, is the couple a right fit for me as well?

If they could respond, I just want a Spotify playlist or whatever it may be. They may not be a good match for your company. So if you can ask that noncommittal, then you’re getting that question answered in the beginning. But I wouldn’t ask that first. And here’s why. Because coming at it from your perspective in a DJ’s perspective, what kind of vibe is an easy question to answer?

Because your brain is already thinking that way coming at it as as someone who may not be of that same type of thinking, they may not be able to articulate what that is. And for example, you’ve heard me talk about my two sons. They’re both Gen Y and one is very left brain. One’s very right brain. So what kind of vibe do you want?

They may not have the language to explain what that means until you have a conversation and say, okay, well, you know, you’re looking for this or this, this is a great way. By the way, if somebody is noncommittal to you, instead of saying, what do you want? And they go, I don’t know. You say, okay, well, are you looking, if you’re thinking about your event, is it like a rave or is it like a snoozer?

Right? I wouldn’t go there, but yeah. But, now, now they can say, okay, well, it’s more like this than this. Kind of like the eye doctor, right? One or two, one or two, right? So you, that helps you narrow it down. But when you ask what’s the vibe you’re looking for, or what’s your theme or what’s your vision, not everybody can answer that.

So don’t ask that first, but you could say at some point, do you already have an idea of what kind of vibe you want for your wedding and they come back and they might say, Don’t really know what to say great. Well, what we do is help couples like you figure that out. So what’s the right thing, right? So I get to answer that again, as opposed to just what’s the vibe.

I don’t know. So do you already have no idea of what the vibe you want the theme you want the vision you have? Or would you like our help in setting up the perfect one for your event? To me, that’s a different way to ask the question. I would ask it that way. Golden nuggets.

 So what are some top tips for converting inquiries into bookings during this critical period? So a great thing to be doing now is getting in the habit of replying more when you get ghosted because when you get busy, that’s going to fall by the wayside. And that’s the worst thing you can do because it, when, if you don’t respond to inquire as well when you’re busy, then you slow down.

If you do, when you’re busy, you may never slow down. Right? So, thinking about your process, getting your process ready for how many times you’re going to follow up. And then, the cadence of that. So for me, the cadence is rto espond as quickly as you can, because we know that about half of couples say they choose the first one who responds.

And if you think about it for yourself, It’s kind of the same thing, right? You do inquire with three or four or five businesses. The first one that gets back to you, you’re having a conversation with already and the other ones haven’t even gotten back to you, right? I bought a car recently and I, you know, you do stuff online, you immediately going to get emails and stuff.

And I got emails from two different dealers and I responded and those are the ones we went to, right? And the first guy was nice. And I said, listen, It was two different brands owned by the same people. I said, we went, we test-drove. I said we’re going down the street to your sister company here. just be perfectly clear with you.

And I got an email today from the manager of that first dealership. And I said, listen, the guy was great. We just chose a different car. I also posted a five-star review. The second guy, because he said this is important anyway. So first one right away, if you don’t hear back, I want you to try again the next day.

Now, for those of you that just said out loud, aren’t I being too aggressive? No, you’re not being too aggressive because who started this? They started this, you didn’t start this and you as the customer, your inbox has their message and then 72 others right above it by, by the next morning, and you just put yourself at the top of the inbox.

I like to blame the spam filter. hi, Matt. Just making sure this made it through to you yesterday. Here you go. Same message. Don’t overthink it. If you still don’t hear back, I like to try. A different method because if you’re only emailing and they are going to spam, send them five more messages. They’re going to go to spam, right?

So a phone call, messaging, if you, if you can get to them on a messaging service, texting something else, just in case, like I have somebody right now, I went to Facebook messenger and sent her a message because I’ve sent a bunch of emails. I haven’t heard back. So I want to find out, Hey, are you okay?

And. Are you getting my messages? Because maybe, maybe they’re not right. Maybe they’re just not making it through. So by day three or four, if you haven’t already tried a different method, I would do that. Some people, by the way, are texting immediately. They send an email and send the text to say, I sent you an email.

If you don’t see a check spam, then you can wait a few days and try again. And this is very simple. You want to get the yes or the no. So this is where you just send one sentence. Hi Matt, are you still looking for a creative DJ to make your wedding memorable? One sentence. That’s it. Do not write anything after that except your name.

And there you go. And that’s kind of what I’ve done with my clients. You know, my prospects, I should say, where I’m sending them another email again. Now, are you still looking? You still don’t hear back. Maybe you want to wait a few days or a week. Now, you’re certainly into the second week, at least by now.

And then you can try something. This is where I like to try some humor, you know, something fun with the subject line. So what’s one I’ve done recently, subject line, did the wind die down? And it said, hi, Matt, you reached out about having me help you with. Whatever I haven’t heard back and only imagine it’s one of these reasons.

Bullet point number one, you’ve chosen another DJ, if that’s the case, just let me know. Bullet number two, you’re so glad I reached out because you still like to talk about having us bring great music and entertainment to your wedding. Bullet number three, you want to speak, but you’re busy, want me to reach out next week.

And bullet number four, you went windsurfing on Lake Mead and the wind died down. You need me to call the Coast Guard. Something fun like that. You still haven’t heard back. You can go even further. Try that single sentence again. Are you still looking for a creative DJ or something like that? I’ve also had people do, the subject line.

Did you, did you decide to elope inside? Hi, Matt, you reached out about having this spring entertainment to your wedding, haven’t heard back and only imagine you, you decided to skip the wedding, you went right to the honeymoon and you’re warming your toes on a sandy beach, drinking a cool drink with a small umbrella.

If that’s not the case, would you still like to have us help you bring fun and Great entertainment to your wedding? And that has worked and just keep going. I did a workshop in Vegas, just recently before Wedding MBA. And there was a guy there, a DJ, DJ Merrick. Merrick has come to a workshop of mine twice before.

And the first time he came, he would follow up once or twice and he was done. We secret-shopped him and others before this workshop, and he followed up 10 times, and a week or two after the workshop, he messaged me to say, I just booked somebody because of the 7th message. So again, if you’re giving up too soon, focus your efforts on the, leads you’re getting and get your systems down so that you can follow up and follow up whether they’re automated or not, get your systems down so that when you’re busy, these are going to go through and you’re going to be converting more of these leads, the leads you’re already getting.

The leads are already paying for exactly that. I want to switch gears before we end here. And I want to just get your advice on businesses looking to differentiate themselves in a saturated market. What tips would you give to them? This is a big thing because too many people are selling what they do, but not why you should choose them.

What I mean by that is if I go from the DJ website, the DJ website, the DJ website, or any category, and I take the name off. It’s so generic that there’s nothing special about what you’re selling. Now that doesn’t mean your site doesn’t look good and doesn’t have great photos and stuff like that, but there’s so much we’re selling what we do when what we should be selling is why people choose us for the results that only we can provide.

And that’s the difference. You’re not selling services. You’re not selling products. So if you’re a DJ, you’re not selling DJ services or MC or lighting or a photo booth or special effects. You’re selling you providing results through those services and products. So you want to promote that more and where that’s found really is in your reviews, because the difference between branding and your brand is your brand.

Is what people say about you after they have done experience what you do. Branding would be like my logo. It’s not really in the picture here, but here’s my logo is my logo over my shoulder. There are my books over my shoulder. This is branding, right? But your brand is what people say about you. So yes, your website should look modern fresh, and current.

But the messaging should be about the results that you can provide for someone, not the results anybody could provide. So ask yourself this. If I go to a page on your website, and if I take your name off, could I put another DJ’s name on there and everything there applies to them? And if the answer is yes.

That’s not unique. And that’s where you’re not standing out. So you should have four things on your website and on your marketing. You should have photos that show the results of doing business with you. And that’s not your speakers and it’s not your lights and it’s not your DJ booth and all that.

They’re important things, but that’s not what people are buying. Okay. You should have text that talks to them about the results you can provide for them. So it should be your wedding, your corporate event, your mitzvah, your Quince, your whatever, your guests, you having a great time, not we do this, we do this, we do this, we do this, we do this.

They care more about their experience than your experience. And then the third thing is the social proof, which is, which is, Bye. Everything that’s unique about you is in your reviews, but don’t put them on a page someplace on your site because nobody’s going to go there on every page. You want to have short testimonials, single sentences, like speed bumps, I call them that are pulled from all the great things people have said about you, but they speak to the results about you.

They talk about the results they’ve gotten from you specifically, and those are unique because other people have good reviews. They’re not your good reviews. And by the way, if you add attribution of, the person’s name, you can do first names if you want. If you put the venue name, the city, and state, it can help your SEO, because now you get to say Las Vegas and Henderson and Green Valley and, you know, And all these other places or wherever you are.

And then the fourth is a call to action, which is telling them what to do. And this is not once on the page, as I scroll down the page, I need another short testimonial, I need another call to action, another short testimony, another call to action. Cause I can’t see the rest of the page. I can only see that part.

So I shouldn’t scroll more than twice on my phone before there’s another call to action, or you’re not going to convert as much as I need to. So that’s another thing to be doing now. Talking about results. So if you want to stand out in a crowded market photos, great. Now you can be in the photo, but my favorite photos of DJs are from behind the DJ showing the packed dance floor.

Right. And you can be turned into the camera. Like, Hey, you know, I made this happen, right? That’s basically what you’re saying here. it’s my website is a picture of behind me at the Wedding MBA stage. So that it’s not about me. It’s about the audience. I want you to make it about them. Right. And then the text, I call this the U test.

Search the page. If you’re on a Mac, go command F you’re on a PC. I think it’s all def little fine box that comes up, type U Y O U and it’ll highlight on the page, how many times. You’ve said the word you and your whatever, it’ll give you a number. If that number isn’t big enough, then you’re not speaking to them.

If it shows up all over the place, cause it’ll highlight it. If it shows up all over the place, you know, like, like chicken box, then you’ve done a good job because you’re speaking to them about the results. And I wouldn’t even have to read the words on the page. I can feel it just by looking at that. And then.

Where’s the social proof? Are your testimonials at the bottom of the page scrolling through, or are there single lines throughout where I have to read them as I go further down? And then is there a call to action, or does it just say, call us or Contact us, but doesn’t tell me why? So if you would like to have this kind of fun at your wedding or your event, you want to call us, email us, contact us to check availability, get a price quote, and to get started.

That’s a call to action. And then buttons there. All fantastic tips, Alan. Just to kind of close things out a little bit. Is there something that we missed that you want to share today?

You know, I said it before, but I’ll say it again. If there’s one thing that you can do right now that you can do immediately, it’s just follow up with the people that you’ve never heard back from. And just one more time, So anybody that ghosted you from the beginning or anybody that started to, and then ghosted you, but you didn’t hear, no, just go back.

I had a sir, Richie Steadman, who started me on my podcast in Utah. And he obviously had to listen to all my podcasts because he was my producer at the time. And one weekend he listened to an episode I did on following up and he’s like, man, I’m really bad at this, but I’m going to try it. So he went back to months’ worth of leads months.

And booked five weddings. Booked five, right? And every one of those couples apologized to him for not having gotten back to him because, I had final exams, we were buying a house, somebody got sick, you know, whatever it is. And if there’s one thing that you can do that could have the biggest impact, I would do that.

Just send that one sentence. Are you still looking for a fun DJ to make your wedding great? Are you still looking for a creative DJ to make your wedding memorable? Something like that. Not just that you’re still looking for a DJ, that’s transactional. So talk about results, results-based. Just do that, right?

Just, just do that because that, you know, my favorite phrase, if you don’t ask, the answer is always no. That’s right. So to close things out, where can listeners connect with you and find out more about you? Alanberg. com a L a N B E R G. com. I have a shop there shop Alanberg. com with my books. And if you use the coupon code podcast, you can get free shipping on me on anything and everything on there.

My podcast is Wedding Business Solutions. There’s also a link for my website there as well. It’s on YouTube, on Apple, and on Spotify. It’s it’s everywhere. And, I, I do private consulting. I do speaking. I do masterminds. If you have an association that would want me to speak, I do that as well. And, yeah, and then you see on my podcast, you can hear Matt Campbell.

And I also want to say about the book that you did with Brian Lawrence about optimizing your website and your sales process to make sure you go check that out. It’s going to set you on your way to the new year. Great. Thanks, everybody for listening and have a great day.