Helloooo blog fam! It’s a joy to resume blogging for the money year 2023! Oh yes, you got that right– 2023 is the money year and today, I’d be letting you one vital secret to attracting premium clients.
Wondering why you need premium clients? Well, it is because premium clients are clients who understand your value and don’t mind paying extra for it.
The caveat however is: People can’t see your value if you don’t show them. And you can only show-case what you’re proud of, right?
Which is why the secret sauce to attracting premium clients is to become so good by honing your skills.
“What skills ?” you may ask. Well, skills that differentiate you from the crowd and the growing number of event planners on instagram.
I know for a fact that honing my own skills has differentiated me from the crowd. My event planning services are not cheap, but they’re affordable & worth-the-investment to the client who chooses to hire me and when they choose me? I go above & beyond the call of duty to give them- not only the best, but the best of every vendor I bring on board their project because I will demand it by all means.
This is also why I am not surprised by the excellent feedback that we get. I work really hard for them, I give & give extra and they always get more than they expected or hoped for.
However, I didn’t become really good & confident in a day. It was a gradual effort but it didn’t happen on its own and I also didn’t get the information I needed on google. I honed my skills intentionally by investing time & money into my growth till I began to see the changes I desired, and then it grew past my event business and flowed into Planners Hack– this beautiful community I am proud to be in, with you.
I am going to give it to you straight today: If there’s any required skill which you need in your business and you don’t do well at, It’s time to hone that skill.
Let’s get into 3 main skills we’ve found that can change the game of your business
Communication skills: this looks very simple and it can be easily overlooked and underestimated. However, if you master effective communication skills, you’ll be able turn potential clients into clients… and clients into loyal ambassadors of your brand. How can you do this ?
1. Communicate your services succinctly & beautifully in your planning package.
Think of the usual questions you get when you send it & answer them ahead of time to aid clarity. For example;
Does your package price apply to 2-day weddings the way it does to 1 day weddings? – communicate that
Do you charge extra for some areas/location? -communicate that
How many % deposit do you require as booking? – include it in your package.
Now let’s move away from Planning Packages to your planning contract.
Your planning contract should have every info they’d ever need during the planning process.
How can you know every question a client will most likely ask? The fact is, by paying attention to questions your current clients are asking, you will be able to tell and subsequently improve your contracts with the answers.
Few years ago, a client of mine sent me a message on WhatsApp and because it was the wedding day of another client, I was busy and I couldn’t check/respond to it. I also noticed that she was checking our status on Instagram and I assumed she should understand that it was a busy day.
Well she didn’t, and I woke up the next day to a long message from her, explaining how annoyed she was that I couldn’t even spare some minutes to respond to her request. I apologized, things turned out fine but the situation showed me a crack that needed to be addressed. So I added a new section to my planning contract called “lead planners note” and addressed this situation amongst other things:
Effective communication is a game-changing skill for your business & a major pointer to honing this skill is listening to your customer, to what they are saying and what they aren’t. Do this & see how it changes the game for you!
If you however like shortcuts or you’re just starting out but you want to start well, I’d strongly advise you to check out our “SOFT LIFE BUNDLE”. It is a document template for event planners. All the documents put together in this bundle, are products of my years of experience. They are fine tuned through the many questions my clients have asked over the years, functional to the core and beautifully done to capture the attention of your client(s).
Don’t take my word for it though, check what other planners are saying about it-
2. Meticulousness.
This is something that a lot of customers are looking out for and although, they may not know how to describe it, they recgonize & appreciate when they see it.
Being meticulous is crossing your t’s and dotting your i’s. It is everything & not leaving room for doubts/uncertainty in your clients’ mind.
One thing has helped me deliver “meticulousness” as a skill is treating events like projects with milestones and drawing unique EVENT TIMELINES per event.
A document that states week by week every activity that will be done towards the execution of the event. The reaction I get from clients whenever we send them a detailed timeline for their event never gets old.
And luckily we have an affordable short course that details how an event timeline can be done.
Get the Timeline course here: https://plannershackhq.com/courses/
See this testimonial:
If an editable timeline template is what you’d like though, the template is also included in the SOFT LIFE BUNDLE
3. Design skills.
OH YES, this is a buga type of skill, that completely sets you apart from the crowd. Being able to design moodboards that depicts your clients desires is a game changer. And designing moodboard is my genius zone and so there’s a course to help you finetune this as well
Check out The moodboard course here
https://plannershackhq.com/courses/moodboard-pro/
Check out a testimonial about the moodboard course
If you’re not the “do a course type”, the SOFT LIFE BUNDLE is for you. It has two (2) editable moodboard templates in it. See what the templates look like here.
4. Emotional intelligence: this is a skill everyone needs- not just event planners. Emotional intelligence (otherwise known as emotional quotient or EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.
It’s the key to building stronger relationships with clients. Here are some resources we compiled for you to Better understand how to use emotional intelligence as an entrepreneur.
Do make good use of them:
4 traits of event planners with high emotional intelligence
Why Emotional Intelligence Is Important For An Event Planner
HOW EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE MAKES YOU BETTER
And that’a a WRAP !. There are many more skills you can gain knowledge in, but I believe starting with these 4 will give you wings to fly in your business.
One last tip: Don’t be a reader alone! Be a doer!
PS. Let’s go over the helpful products mentioned above. Shall we?
And SOFT LIFE BUNDLE for the soft life Planner’s who loves editable template
What part of this post resonated with you? Let us know this in the comment section! It would mean the world to us!
This Audit guide would allow you to strategically fine-tune your event planning business and processes. You get to figure out what you’re doing right and what can be improved on.
