At the end of the gathering, people were continuing to chat and exchange business cards. A woman approached me and the gentlemen I was speaking with, to introduce herself.

She work for Jason’s Deli, an outstanding business that does a lot of catering for businesses. Jason’s, it turns out, has made the decision to go after less-formal rehearsal dinners and other social events connected with weddings, but not the reception, itself.

It struck me as quite smart. The calculation is that a significant number of people may opt out of a fancy and expensive rehearsal dinner at a restaurant. Instead, they’ll elect to have it a nice home (theirs or a family member) and enjoy stacks of pastrami, brisket, potato salad, pickles and the works.

Someone at Jason’s Deli is thinking, aggressively, and is going after new business. They don’t need to reinvent the company or add another division to make this happen. It’s still simply drop-off catering.

What are you, or what can you be doing to expand your opportunities? Don’t just hunker down. Spend a little time thinking creatively.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

This week, yet another mega-hotel opens in Las Vegas; The Cosmopolitan. It will likely be the last big hotel opening for quite a while, due to the glut of hotel room  inventory.

The Cosmopolitan has a struggle on its hands because it has no brand legacy and no customer base. It did work out a deal with Marriott to become part of their reservation system, and that should help. However, their brand image must begin from the ground up.

The Sunday papers were full of grand opening news. The article in the Las Vegas Sun is worth a read, particularly as it relates to brand image.

Most people reading this post already have an existing business (lucky you!). I would challenge you to do a little research to determine how your company is identified by your peers, as they are the likeliest source of sizzling qualified leads.

Start with an open ended question: When you think of ‘My Business,’ what comes to mind?

The responses will come in all shapes and sizes. Some will please you. Others may surprise you. Yet others may concern you.

• Do they clearly understand what you do?
• Do they envision you for certain bookings, but not others? Is this a correct perception or a misperception?
• Are you seen as expensive or exclusive, and is that correct?
• Does your business have an image or is it your personal image? Is that a problem?

Building a business identity from the ground up is a tough task, but at least one begins with a clean slate. Modifying an existing image that is ingrained in the mind of customers/peers is far tougher.

The place to start is understanding where you are in the minds of others.

It’s a good time of year to spend some time asking the questions. Don’t  you agree?

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

Sounds pretty good and is easy to remember. Looks fine on a post it note, a plaque or the back of a business card. I’ve never had a problem with hustle. That’s just hard work with style points. The challenging part is focus.

In attempting to intellectualize this process, I began searching for the opposite of focus. Something more definitive than unfocused.

What became obvious, almost instantly, is that there are counterpoints to a state of being focused.

Included in the competition are

• visual
• auditory
• mental
• tasks
• physical
• smell (could be included for some people)

Descriptors include such words as:

• Interruptions
• Distractions
• Conflicts
• Multi-Tasking >> Hypertasking
• Annoyances
• Roadblocks
• … add any number to your list

The conclusion for me leads to a simple, but challenging conclusion. In order to become focused, the first step is simplification and minimizing the distractions that muddy the waters.

I’ll report back… Are you experiencing any of these challenges? Care to share just one? Providing any solutions or reaching out for suggestions are both fine.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

I look at it in slightly different terms. It is not so much that ‘life is complicated’, but that the pace of change has reached, and surpassed, warp speed.

The simplest example that all of us can comprehend is product life cycles. Growing up, major changes in products took place about every five years. How, particularly with technology-based products, hardware is usually updated (significantly), annually. Software sees continual modifications, with major updates every six months.

Rip Van Winkle

This reality becomes challenging for people who like to study statistics and customer feedback. Both are important factors in shaping planning; however, if the study takes too long, the information becomes stale, and its value, questionable.

There are some obvious best practices that jump out at me. First, reviewing company statistics of all kinds should be done frequently, and tweaking marketing must be an going process, not a once-in-five-years event.

Otherwise, you wake up one day feeling like Rip Van Winkle and your competitors have left you for dead, at the side of the road.

Not a great prospect.

No excuses please…

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

Translation: “I know our company provides a superior service, but the bride was too clueless to understand that we’re worth it.”

Let’s start with the word, budget. I’m convince that the vast majority of the time, brides do not have money allotted for most wedding expenses in a truly thoughtful and rationale way. At the risk of sounding dismissive, I don’t accept most budget worksheets in publications, on websites, or elsewhere to provide accurate, helpful cost/price guidelines.

More likely there are one of two reasons that a business didn’t make the sale.

1) The salesperson did not make a convincing case that their company is sufficiently different/better, in a meaningful way, to justify spending (charging) more dollars to hire them.

2) The salesperson’s company does not actually provide a superior service; therefore making that case would be mostly smoke and mirrors.

There is a fine line between confidence, self-delusion, and arrogance. Being better or best is a function of perspective. It’s not an absolute. If you provide, what is in your mind, ‘additional value‘, but that added service is not important to the prospect, then your higher price is not justifiable.

Or, if you have communicated the additional value as a feature, rather than a benefit, then you likely have missed the sales connection.

Breaking down your sales approach or hiring a service to shop you and your competition may demonstrate some stark realities. It may make you squirm, and motivate you to reframe your sales communication.

That’s a better path than just believing your own B.S..

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority