The Floral Hustle

  📍 Hello, flower friends. This is Jen and you are listening to the Floral Hustle podcast. Today I want to talk about pre-qualifying customers. I've ran into it a couple times now that I've had people message me on Instagram. I've had one of my coaching clients we're talking about it, um, because like they're meeting with.

Anybody who is interested in their services, and I do not waste time with people that I don't really think are fully qualified by me through my qualification process of exposing them to my pricing, asking them the questions, so I know that this is the wedding that I want. Looking at their Pinterest board, their budget, their venue, all of those aspects.

I need to make sure that they are a qualified customer for me to want to do business with them before I will meet with them. And I have ran into it recently that I have had people, they're saying, you know, I'm getting ghosted. And then I start talking about their process and they're literally right away.

Setting up that appointment and not doing a bunch of due diligence beforehand, that they know that this client is somebody that they would wanna do business with, that knows up their pricing structures about what their pricing is at, has a good idea if they can afford them. So how do I pre-qualify people for one, when that inquiry comes over?

If someone does not completely fill out all of the dropdowns, I will ask them in my initial response. So my initial response is, hi. Thank you so much for your email inquiry. It looks like you have a wedding at an amazing venue, and I'm excited to hear more. I did not say I was available. I said I'm excited to learn more, especially when they don't answer all my questions because my guard is already up, because they are being too much of a jackass to go and fill out form.

When they're inquiring to do business with someone, I personally take time to fill those things out because I want that end person to know as much as possible because it benefits me for them to really understand my situation. I get they might not know some of those answers. And then it's my job to try to funnel that information out because I think they do know, or they have an inkling, and usually it is around budget.

So in that response, I am, I would love to hear more details about your day. Your venue is amazing. I'm complimenting them on their choices. Then I am saying, how many bridesmaids. Do you have, or how big is your wedding party? Depending on how you would like to phrase it. Outside of personal flowers, are you looking for centerpieces?

And then if you are looking for centerpieces, what is your approximate guest count? So then I'm asking them approximately how many people, because if it's a venue I've been to before, Or I have Google skills. I can look at a photo and I can count the number of chairs and I can figure out about how many chairs to tables to their guest count.

So I get a table count for their wedding. But then I will also say, what is your wedding color? Can you please share your Pinterest board link or three images that really speak? To your floral vision. I wanna see if I actually wanna do their work, the work with that wedding. If it is a baby's breath in mason jars, I'm probably gonna be like, you know what?

When they respond and send me their baby's breath mason jar Pinterest board, you know what? In looking at that day and what you're needing for it, I don't think our studio can take that on because it doesn't want to. And I am fully in my right to say, That I, I don't want to take on their wedding because that is my choice, but how I tell them can be delivered delicately.

Then I also will say, I understand that you left the budget section, uh, blank, and I know you might not currently have an idea of your budget. But in my experience, it's usually 10 to 15% of your overall wedding budget, and so I'm educating them. That was before, and I do pop this in. That was before Pinterest was a very big thing and showed all these huge Pinterest worthy moments and ceilings full of flowers.

So that was a budget for your basic needs. Uh, that 10 to 15%. So I'm just explaining where that budget could be. And I said, most couples, you know, have a hard time because they don't understand what flowers cost. So please see my brochure attached. And in that brochure it has stuff about me, it has some information about my urban flower farm, and it has.

My two service offerings a la carte and full service, and then I'm breaking down the differences and I'm also giving two different slides. One is the path to work with us or the process with full service and the process with a la carte so they understand what timelines look like and our interaction points look like for the two offerings.

Then I'd say I would love to, um, you know, get the, uh, questions answered on these items so I could really understand the scope of your event and the vision that you have for your event. And see if I could come any, uh, up with something to marry all those ideas together. Or, you know, something in closing that says like, give me this information and I'm gonna look at it.

And then I'm going to hopefully have suggestions for you. But normally what I'm asking for at that time, I get their response back and then we go into, okay, questions for myself. They finally, usually do spit out a budget. Is that budget even remotely realistic? And so that's a starting point. Looking at their budget.

I have an idea. Here's their bridal party. Here is their guest count. And if somebody is super unrealistic, cuz normally at this point when after you've asked them a bunch of questions, In my experience, they usually throw up about their wedding and what they really want, because you are inviting them in, you're inviting them into a conversation and they're talking about themself, their favorite subject.

So this would be amazing for them to just throw up on you about every detail of their wedding, and that normally happens at this point because you are acting interested, you need to act interested. Brides, couples, they wanna do business with people that love their concepts, their ideas, their vision. They get excited that somebody else is excited about their wedding, which, why wouldn't they?

Because when they're talking to the DJ who jams out every weekend, he might not have enthusiasm about jamming out at their event. It might not, but, or he might be that guy that's like, The party like is always bumping with him, even Wednesday at one o'clock in the afternoon when they're having a consult and meeting him.

So they love energy. And so through this process, even through your words, you want to be delivering energy that you are interested in their event, their ideas, their concepts. So from here we are going to say, okay, in looking at this preliminary information, if. They did not answer your questions. Again, I will give them one more opportunity.

I do not mess around with people I feel. I feel it's disrespectful when somebody asks you direct questions if you only answer one or two of them and skip the rest. I love couples who respond to each line item. That person cares about your time. That person is more engaged in your process, and usually to me it's more qualified because they're more involved and they seem to care more about actually interacting with you in a way that matters.

From there, if they don't answer all my questions, then I'm saying thank you for all of your. Answers to my questions I see that you missed, and I literally will cut and paste them back into the email underneath where I just typed and say, it would be really helpful if I had the information for the two below bullet points.

And then at that point, if they don't answer it and just say, you know what, without all this information, it's really hard for me to understand the scope of your event. And if it's something that my studio can take on, You were too much of an idiot for me to wanna do business with you. So with that, I then will, uh, if they do answer all my questions nicely and I'm getting good information that is of value so I can go back into, because most weddings you should be able to back into.

Okay. If my bride bouquets are 2 25, my bridesmaid bouquets are 1 25, they have eight bridesmaids, but their budget and they're telling me they want something for their ceremony. That's also another question I ask. Um, what is your vision for your ceremony? And then they usually will say, oh, we're gonna be standing.

And especially if it's a venue I'm familiar with, I will like in my initial response, write out. At your venue, let's just say one of my favorite venues here in Minneapolis is the machine shop. Uh, I will say most of my weddings I've done there are either having it on the main floor and we're doing a room flip, or they're having it on in the balcony area above.

And then, you know, having your cocktail hour and then going down for the dinner. So which option are you and what are you hoping to have behind you? If I'm familiar, I'm calling out those details because I'm calling attention to the, I already know how this works. I have been here, I've seen, I. Things happen at this venue and understand them more because with understanding is comfort delivered.

So I am ha I'm dropping all of these seeds of confidence for this couple showing them because I'm, I'm not saying, oh yeah, I've been at your venue a million times and I know all these things about it. I'm subtly dropping those items. Into key areas that are just like, here's a little seed planted. Hey, I'm familiar with your venue, and these are the two ceremony options that I'm normally seeing.

Which are you doing? Are you doing a room flip? Because then I understand the scope that I'm gonna have to come back at five o'clock and making sure that fits if I have another wedding. And then I'm also saying that I have done this ceremony option. And I've done one of my arches down here. I've done one of my arches there, whatever it is.

So you can show them that. You can even provide solutions for a backdrop because what if they haven't thought of doing a ceremony arch? What if they haven't thought of, you know, what that backdrop is going to be? And so you've said, I've done this and I can offer you solutions. So then you've looked at it, okay, this person has sent me all of this information.

They've given me a $4,000 budget. They have 20 tables, they have four bridesmaids. They have a ceremony that they're wanting. It's simple. Is this something that is going to be work? And also looking at their Pinterest board that my studio wants to do. Is this something that I would want posted on social media?

Is this something that I would want my name of my studio behind and I would wanna do, do work like this again? So I think about those things before I say, yes, let's have a video chat because I wanna make sure that I am totally bought in. I don't like going into Wedding Weave going, oh shit, I don't really wanna do this wedding.

I don't want to. Feel dread about any wedding. So if this person by this point is acting like an A-hole in any way, I'm gonna tell them that our studio's unavailable for this scope of an event. Event. They could even say it's tiny and I don't care cuz you're letting them down easy after you've learned more.

Also like if it has a, a flip or something, you need to find those details Al before I will fully say that I'm available for something, cuz I need to understand what you need me to do. Then if they have a budget that you can work with, if it's work that you want to do. Then we can get to, you know what, I love all of this information that you've shared with me, and I would love to hear more and be able to kind of go through some ideas and concepts that I have in my head.

After hearing about your vision, I would love to set up a quick video chat so we can go over some of the details and I can develop a full proposal for you. I've given them, Hey, I have ideas. I have concepts for your wedding based on your initial vision. So I am coming as a creative to you with ideas. You better have some ideas though.

You need to have some thought process Going into this and having one of my easy go-to. Is literally having my carefully thought out rental packages that I have that are items that literally feed into each other and I can pair with each other, and everything just is cohesive because I've designed it as, as such.

And so those are my ideas. Like that could be, one idea is my, I have these amazing rentals that are super elegant and they kind of coincide with each other. We could do some bud bases with some taper candle holders here. We could do a clear glass low vase here with some elegant ribbed votives, and then we could transition that into a tall hand tied centerpiece, uh, that is asymmetrical with your, you know, you're making.

Something that you've done already, but you're putting it in in kind of a package for them to make it easy for them to do business with you. And it looks like you've just magically thought of these ideas, even though this is fundamentally how your business works. So I then ask them, Hey, I love all of this.

I would love to set up this video chat and then develop that full proposal. So to this point, I have asked them a ton of questions. I have deemed that this is a wedding that I would want behind my studio name, that I would love and be excited to execute the week of the wedding. The person's conduct is not giving me any red flags, that they are a crazy person, and if there have been red flags, Then I am proceeding with more caution, and I'm normally going to make sure that my quote is, according to the craziness, I will go and mark up items if I feel this person is going to be very complicated and a lot of work, because I know it's going to take a lot of my time just dealing with them in the interim.

I can tell when there's that person. And I can mark it up accordingly so that I'm not having to deal with feeling that I'm not getting paid my value because this person has ate up 65 emails of my time. So that's how I pre-qualify somebody. I'm asking all the questions before I'm getting with them. And from this point, if you have a intake form, You know, some type of form to send them to get the number of whatever you can easily have that sent to them before your video consultation.

I personally do not want to meet people in person cuz I feel that it's not needed anymore. I can be just as lovable and cuddly and to the point on a Zoom, Google Meet or FaceTime. And so as a business practice, I am trying to do all my consults virtually because I just think it's more efficient for all parties.

If someone is pressing me to meet in person, I will explain to them. I run a studio out of my home and my studio is my garage. So it's not really a set up, uh, meeting space, but if you want to come see some rentals or something like that, I definitely am open to that. But I make sure that they are aware that I'm running a business out of my home that is a separate, dedicated space.

It is not diminishing the fact that I run a home base studio, and if somebody's gonna have a problem with that, like they're also not my client. I hope this was helpful. Do not have a form that will let someone book a call with you for anything. You have more value and you should value your time to not be meeting with people who don't have an idea of your pricing.

And if you are wondering about the brochure I mentioned episode one of the podcast is Stop being Ghosted. Implementing this process into your consultation and customer journey is going to stop getting ghosted. I've been ghosted, I think, like one time this year, and I don't really like the person, so I wasn't very time timely with getting my quote out to them.

My quote was higher because I knew that they were a pain in the butt. I had all the feels of this person is not my person. And I treated as such, so they never responded after. And I did follow up with two emails afterwards because I wanted to act like I was at least trying, cuz they were a referral, but they weren't my human.

So they ghost through me, which I don't care. I separate myself from that result that if they don't like what I prepared, I'm not letting it hurt my feelings either. So if you are getting ghosted right now, Ask yourself these questions. Are you providing some initial privacy guidance? Are you acting like you care, like you are an expert?

Like you deliver all of your whole interaction as a total flower boss? The energy in your emails, the energy during your consultation, the energy during your whole transaction with that person, or interactions with that person. Is there, is there flower boss energy that they're like, oh my God, you should meet my florist.

Like she, I want, this is what I would want people to say. Like, I just love, she came up with all these ideas. And she's kind of a total badass, which I love. And she just came up with these amazing flower concepts and her proposal was so beautiful. It just made me feel my wedding flowers and I am so confident that, um, my flowers are gonna be awesome.

That's the the feeling that I want people to have when they are done with. Our initial interactions, our video consult and my proposal, I want them to be like, this is my florist, this is my human, and I am providing an experience with that person so that I am getting that result. So think about that result.

What do you want that person to say about you to their friend? What do you want them to say to their fiance? When they get your proposal back and they have another proposal, how do you wanna differentiate yourself? Because that is what's going to stop from you getting ghosted, making sure you are delivering an experience, unlike other flos, that you have the enthusiasm about their event, that they're like, this person gets me and loves my wedding.

Because that it, it can happen. I actually, last year I lost a, a wedding because literally, and I'm saying literally again because when I got this proposal, I, I was floored. She was explaining all of this mad, crazy detail she did, and it was a. Uh, a two culture wedding, which I love cultural weddings, that is my jam, but it was a dual culture, so they were having a two different types of ceremonies that worked.

Cultural ceremonies, which complicated a lot of different things and added a lot of expense because they, they have two wedding ceremonies and two different wear wedding ceremony setups, and then a very large wedding. And she took stock illustrations of all of these flowers that don't exist in the real world and mocked all these things up, and it looked like a kindergartner did it, and I just couldn't get over how bad and how she was like so dedicated to this vision of what she created in Canva, like a kindergartner.

And later on it was a wedding planner that referred her and when she was showing me these things and sharing her screen, I don't, I like, I was a little like off my game that day. I think it wa had been a long day. This was an evening consult. I think my kids were kind of being terroristic people, so I just was kind of having a day and then this woman is showing me this shit sandwich of a wedding.

So I, I kind of showed a shit sandwich energy and later she told the wedding planner she wanted to go with this other florist, even though she was more expensive than me because she was, uh, excited about her shit. Sandwich wedding. So I think about that every time that a wedding is a little bit off of what I normally want to attract, and I'm like, Am I coming to this wedding because I'm not excited about something, or I'm even contemplating if I wanna do this wedding or what I wanna say to the client in response to their questions because I don't want another bride or couple.

To say what she said because I could not put a poker face on with how fundamentally, fundamentally disjointed what her ideal wedding was from what my ideal work is. And so also just think about that. Am I delivering that value, that experience that I want? And especially when someone ghosts you step back.

Disconnect from and just say, okay, did I give them pricing guidance before? Yes or no, did I? And if, if they respond and like I feel that it was a fast response and I really wonder, I will even ask in my response. I just wanted to make sure that you had a time, had time to review my brochure, which included pricing guidance so you understand my basic costs.

So if somebody is really super fast on responses, I will make sure that I am acknowledging with them that they, they read it. So do they have a, a basic understanding of what I cost as a business. Okay. Check. Did that, how is the communication? Is it timely? Was it something that like all my emails were on point in a timely fashion, asked good questions, answered all their questions.

I literally have gone through when I've not gone gotten a wedding For some reason, I. I've gone through and I've looked at the interactions and I've made sure, okay, I wanna make sure I answered all of their questions. So was I really on point with serving them and not serving me? So did I serve them? And I'll look through that communication.

Okay? Yep. I feel like I was really on point. How was my energy? How was my proposal energy? How did, when somebody would open this, how would they feel? And so I'm doing a postmortem or a summary recap of that whole experience because threading and feeling like I'm taking fire and I'm drowning here in this boat is not helpful going inward.

Searching deep into, okay, what didn't go well in this? What could be better? And asking, especially asking your, your previous clients, like, what really stuck out to them and why did they do business with your, why did they choose you? And capitalizing on those responses and that part. That is really sticking out to people.

That's the energy you want to grab onto. You don't wanna grab onto, maybe this person was just a butthead and is, is not a great communicator, maybe isn't a great human being and really wasn't your human to begin with then okay. Like my proposal, it was just, okay, how could I make it better This, like what would I change?

Asking yourself all these questions instead of just dwelling that this crappy thing happened and you're just feeling it over and over and over again because you're beating yourself up. How can you change the dynamic? I hope this episode was helpful. I truly believe that you can stop being ghosted by you changing your behavior, upping your communication skills with your couples.

Presenting yourself in true, authentic fashion, and that is showing up on social media. That's how you're showing up in your emails, that's how you're showing up in your proposals, what work you agree to all those things. You can change getting ghosted. I have coached clients to do that exact thing, and I know you can do that same thing.

So even record yourself. Record like in Zoom. Like, just say, oh, I accidentally hit the record buttons. Sorry. Um, is that a big deal? Like otherwise I have to like restart it? I think so. Watch your energy and then afterwards show it to your partner. What do you like, this is my consult. Like what do you think of that?

What do you think of like the energy, the interactions, how the person is responding to me. The like just ask for feedback. From somebody who loves you because they're going to be honest with you. At least I hope they would be. And then you can also, watching yourself is so introspective. Okay, God, I didn't, now I was coming across like that.

I need to work on that. It's not, I, I doesn't feel good when I watch this and I want my consults to feel really good. I hope you have an amazing day flower friend. You can stop being ghosted now by changing your behavior, and I hope that you take action steps on working that. I hope that you really pre-qualify your customers and so you do not waste your time because it is valuable.

Time is your currency. Of course, we wanna get ma paid money, but wasting time is also equally as valuable because that's time away from your family, away from. Everything. And that is so critical. So 📍 have an amazing day, flower friend, and thank you so much for listening.