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Struggling to turn your floral design talent into a profitable, scalable, and stress-free business? Welcome to The Floral CEO® Podcast—the ultimate audio destination for wedding and event florists, flower-shop owners, and creative entrepreneurs who want to book bigger budgets, price with confidence, and lead like a true CEO.
Hosted by Jeni Becht, award-winning wedding florist, event designer, and floral business coach with 25 + years in the industry, each weekly episode dives into:
Profitable pricing strategies: markup formulas and minimums fine-tuned for weddings & events
Magnetic marketing & local-SEO hacks: social posts, blogs, and Google tricks that attract high-budget couples and planners
High-converting sales funnels: inquiry replies, proposals, and follow-up scripts that turn curious leads into dream clients
Streamlined systems & smart outsourcing: workflows, templates, and hiring tips that free you from the design bench
CEO mindset & sustainable growth: leadership habits and eco-friendly practices that keep both you and your business flourishing
Jeni pairs real-world success stories with actionable strategies you can implement today, so you’ll spend less time hustling and more time designing breathtaking bouquets, installations, and arrangements.
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Turn your passion for flowers into the six-figure floral business you deserve—one episode at a time.
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Hello, flower friends. This is Jen, and I have had a ton of sales strategy discussions lately. And, like a lot because I think when, you know, at this point in the year, inquiries usually slow down a little bit. And normally, in my experience, like the crazies come out because often when people are planning so far out, they are planning, every single penny that they are spending.
So we're getting either people really early in the game that have no idea how much you cost, what your, what flowers cost in general. Like they're just clueless because there is no guide to flower pricing that realistically makes sense anywhere. So with that, we need to be solution providers because sometime s- like somewhere along the way, a lot of us has decided that being good at sales means that we're being pushy or gross, or that if we follow up, we're being annoying.
If I recommend something more expensive, I'm upselling them and they're gonna think I'm gross. And if I ask them to book, I'm putting pressure on them and that feels like shit What if sales is just helping someone make a decision, and that's it? You're helping them. Our job is serving. We are a service job.
So we are providing solutions. We are providing something that they need. So we first need to stop thinking that our job is solely to convince somebody, and that if that exact thing doesn't happen how we think it is, it's failure. And this is one of the biggest mindset shifts, because when we get an inquiry, and I've, I've seen, I've coached the florists that are like, "Oh my God."
I mean, it happened today, you guys. "This person is on crack." But they don't wanna turn away a lead, and they don't wanna tell somebody they're on crack, basically. And they, you know, often you're so floored on somebody you feel is being so dumb and so unrealistic that you're just, like, trying to figure out how to make the unworkable work.
And it, it sometimes is our job just to be like, "This isn't the right fit." It's sometimes our job to be the stepping stone of educating, providing solutions, and they're not always going to be the solutions that person wants, you guys. We are not selling unicorns, sunshine, rainbows. We are needing to be realistic, because in this world, like I, I even today, you guys it's just, this is so crazy to me.
Somebody sends me a lead, and they are having a wedding at a venue that from my understanding from looking at their website quite some time ago, it's probably 12 to $15,000 to rent the venue And they are having a fusion wedding, which a fusion wedding is usually like a culture marrying someone traditional Christian or traditional American wedding if you wanna call it that.
So this is a Hindu person who is marrying a Catholic or something like that I think they said. So they're having a fusion wedding, so they're having a normal, Christian ceremony on wedding day, and the day before they're having a Sangeet, which the Sangeet is a party the day before. And with that, they're bringing like the Hindu/Indian elements into the night before, but they're gonna have it more traditional.
So she sends me, you know, this, these pictures that are dark and moody yumminess. So since I do so much color and I rock dark and moody, and this jewel tone moody palette is my jam, I very confidently respond, and of course they didn't include their budget. I know some educators think you shouldn't ask, but I'm glad that I asked because this person was smoking crack, you guys.
They literally were inviting, she said 225 to 250, and then 'cause I go and ask questions, my job is to ask questions so I can best serve them. My job is not to fit a square peg in a round hole. It's not meant to go there. Sometimes we have to realign. Sometimes they need to realign. Sometimes we need to realign them into what they want isn't possible.
Sometimes we just have to think creative and out of the box. So going in, this person said that their budget was 2,000 to $2,500 for the Christian day. Granted, this is the day that they have five bridesmaids, a bridal bouquet. They need six boutonnieres and they also need ceremony pedestals, four of them, and then they need centerpieces.
The math is not mathing with that. So it's my job, because she likely has no idea. She said a bunch of complimentary things about how she likes my flowers, she likes the feel of it, all the things. But I need to tell her that, "Hey, here is general guidelines." So I went into serving. My job is now, I don't care if she doesn't book me at this point, because I don't want her $2,000 unrealistic booking, because I'm not going to make any money on that and neither would you.
So it's my job to educate her. So I went in and I attached my brochure. My brochure includes my two service offerings and my starting at pricing. In this brochure and starting at pricing, I am explaining to her that she can go in and look and get an idea in general of what some of these, prices would start at.
That's why it's starting at pricing, and then she can do some mathing. So I explained to her that the... You know, I said, "I know this is probably a new experience, and honestly, there isn't any guidebook out there that tells you what wedding flowers should cost. So I just wanna share with you some basic information to hopefully help guide you in this process."
So traditionally, before, and I even m- be- I'm funny about this, you guys. Before we were hanging flowers from the ceiling and we were having meadows of flowers grow out of the ground like you were getting married in a garden in the middle of a concrete building Flowers traditionally were 10 to 15% of a couple's overall budget.
So I'm already doing the math that her venue alone is 12 to $15,000. That's not including her catering, you guys. That's not including any of that. So even if she got a shitty caterer, and she got a shitty DJ, and all the shitties of the shitty, she's at least getting married at that venue at least 40 to 50 Gs in.
So at a minimum, she needs to be probably at 4 to $5,000 at minimum, and this was, is with us having to change course on what she actually can get. So then I went and explained to her just to share a little bit more, you shared with me your bride bouquet. You need a bride bouquet, five bridesmaids, six boutonnieres, and just with those items, if I go off of my a la carte flowers...
So my a la carte flowers, they can go and buy dark and moody off of that. She's not gonna dictate, specific flowers or anything like that, but there's dark and moody available there. So I... That is a solution. Just that alone, if we get smaller sized bouquets, we're around $850.
So at that point, we have ate up almost, if we go with the higher end, over 30... You know, a third of your budget. Then taxes are going to take 10% of your budget, and then we need to deliver it, set it up, potentially tear it down depending on what's involved. And so all of those things add up, and if you take a look, you can get some general ideas on centerpiece pricing as well.
But I would l- I'd be happy to meet with you and happy to go over your options, and I for sure h- know some creative ways that we can help keep this as reasonable as possible. But I feel like right now, 2,000 to $2,500 is gonna be very hard to accomplish. I mean, we can put one bud vase on her tables, and we could do something super lame.
But I said, "In spirit of your photos and how beautiful they were, I just wanna be realistic, 'cause I also want you to be happy." So I was honest, and I was telling her her budget, her baby, is ugly. But I would rather do that and be the person who helped educate her, even if that's for somebody else, than wasting, hours of my time emailing back and forth, then going and meeting with her, and then going and doing an estimate, and then having this be way out of her budget anyways.
So I wanna make sure, are we a right fit? Can I solve what they need? Is their re- budget realistic, which is a no, and do they value what I have to offer? Can I execute this profitably? Yes, I could execute that and lose money. I could make her wedding happen and lose money. Why would we do that? And as florists, we often get excited by somebody's inspiration or adding something like that to our portfolio or going to a certain venue or doing something like that, and then at that point we drop our panties and we wanna just give away the farm to get the wedding.
And then at the end when we're tired, and we've busted our booty all week, and we've made no money, we're upset So we, our goal of sales con- conversations in general is not always yes. Our goal is clarity. And sometimes that s- the right sales on- outcome from that is going to be, "Yes, let's book. I wanna work with you."
But sometimes that also is, this probably is not the right fit. So the next thing is that in this process, we need to let ego out the window I, even after as much as I've done this, as much experience I have with sales, I... If you guys have listened to the podcast part of my background is I spent 17 years in the automotive and advertising sale w- sales world.
So I sold cars. That is a tough job, and I sold cars through some of... Some very tricky times. I was selling cars in 9/11 when the, the economy basically fell apart. I was actually at, 'cause this is just reflective of, of recently I was at work and didn't know that what happened, and walked into the service lounge where people were getting their car serviced, and that's how I even found out about what had happened, because it was on the TV in the waiting room.
so I had that experience. And then you know, I worked my way up to being a sales manager there and, training sales people. And then when I left and I spent 10 years in advertising to car dealers, and you guys, car dealers, they're like professional sales people, and I sold to them. So it was all about how to pitch them, how to make sure that they see value in you, because you are the expert coming in.
They are not marketing experts. So then I learned marketing and how... Then I, I had a team of 15 people to... Reporting to me, and so then I'm managing personalities and, and different selling styles and just all these things. And the biggest thing that I learned is I can't make this about me. I can't be wondering, "Do they like me?
Am I talking too much? Do they think I'm expensive? Am I good enough for these people?" Meanwhile, the client is likely thinking, "Can she understand what I want? Will this be beautiful and what I have been dreaming about since I was a little girl? Can I trust this person that they're actually going to show up?"
Because everybody thinks that the online world can be a scam. "Is this going to be easy, or is this person gonna turn into a crazy person? How much this is going to cost?" So shift the focus back to them. The fastest way to feel less salesy is stop making the conversation about yourself. You wanna know okay, I, one of my, my big questions is, you know, when they're telling me what their vision is, and then I hear what their budget, and they're seriously in misalignment I ask a very honest question.
I'm like, "Is your budget more important or your floral vision?" Because I wanna lean in to what's most important to you. But I also wanna provide you with solutions, because this, e- especially if I talk with a person and I know that they have met with several florists, I wanna be like, "What didn't work with all these other florists?"
And then I'll even try to be a little funny. I think humor in sales is really necessary. I'm like, "This must be... This sounds painful, 'cause you've met with seven florists. Something's gotta be going wrong. Tell me how I can help you." So it is better to be, like, not going in and be like, "So tell me about your wedding."
It is better to be strategic in those conversations because you're gonna get real answers. What are the three things you care about most when you come to your wedding day from a visual perspective? When your guests walk into the reception, how do you want them to feel? Where do you want the floral to be the most impactful?
What are you okay with keeping super simple? Have you thought about your overall floral investment, not just thinking about the flowers themself? There's taxes service fees, tear down. I wanna make sure that number that you gave me is your all-in number, your out-the-door number, because in Minnesota, like, sales tax pretty much takes 10%, so if they tell me 400...
$4,000 or 5,000, I need to take 500, and I need to make them... It's my job to make them aware of that because that's a big chunk. That is a, a big chunk that just disappears, and in their perception, that's going towards the flowers, and that should be adding value. That's just money we're paying the government that has nothing to do with us, but they don't understand that 'cause they don't live that every day like we do, you guys.
So what made you reach out to me specifically? Have you talked with other florists yet? And you guys, I wanna have you just think deep in your heart, are you afraid to even a- ask that? Are you afraid to ask, "Have you met with other florists?" Would you be even more scared scared you're shaking in your, your panties?
Because it... I push them and be like, "What went wrong?" Are you afraid to ask those hard questions? Because that is not being salesy. You are trying to figure out how you can help this person. And then what would make this feel like a really successful experience for you? The person asking the best questions, for one, usually controls the conversation without ever feeling like they are not in the lead.
So like, when you're asking questions, you're not just the one talking. When somebody's being talked to and talked at, that never feels good in a sales situation. You want that back and forth. You want them to almost be like, "This person really gives a shit. They really care. I love how passionate they are.
I love how they're coming up with solutions." Then we need to really listen to the problems underneath the flowers. They may say, "I want lots of flowers." But the actual problem is their venue sucks. Their venue is a blank canvas. It might be even they hate the color of the venue's walls. Or they went to a wedding, they walked in the room, and it felt so blah, and they're so worried that their guests are going to have that same feeling.
They might have, like, a mom that is talking at them, telling what their wedding should be like. They could be saying they're overwhelmed. They don't know how much to spend. They don't know what their budget should be. That is where you become valuable. You are not just selling hydrangeas, you guys. You are solving the bigger design problem.
People rarely buy a thing. They buy what they believe the thing will do for them All right, then we need to talk about upselling and just making recommendations. I often will get a coaching client who will send me a proposal, and they think that they need to quote exactly what this person is asking for.
If you knew, because this is what your zone of genius is, designing, creating flowers, that is your job. This person doesn't know. They have just seen pretty pictures. You might be able to make a change in a design that would seriously elevate. At one of the Installation Rockstar workshops that I host every March here in Minnesota, we had this really cool fluted wood table, and the walls at the venue I always have this workshop at, it's Essence Event Center in St.
Paul, Minnesota, has these really cool nooks. And they're almost, like, in the walls of the historic building. They, like, kind of recess back. And we actually, we built this really cool cake installation, and we put flowers in the nooks behind it. There is no way a client would have ever brought that exact picture, because I thought of that picture.
I was staring at the wall thinking about this installation and go, "What would bring this to next level is if we incorporated the venue walls." So then we put a low Lomi dish in one of them, and then we put a bigger one, and then on top of it we put one on the floor. We made this dimensional, amazing cake thing that it w- I mean, I think Minnesota Bride featured it.
It was just, like, so fricking cool, you guys. It had orchids. I try to come up with next level design things that get you also to think, like, how you could up the game, because that bride, there was no way if somebody came to me with that cake, they would've ever thought of putting that floor piece, like, in front of it.
We put some floating candles on the floor to add some romance. We put the things in the wall, and that upgrade was 📍 probably a $600 upgrade because we had orchids in all the things in it. Just a couple orchids to really add some splash. And yeah that would've been an amazing upgrade.
But if we don't talk about it and we only do what the client is showing us, for one we wanna do fun things, so sometimes those fun things, we need to be funded. So we need to ask and figure out... And sometimes I'll even after I'm done with the consultation and I'm thinking creatively okay, what would...
I want w- a wedding... One thing at every wedding I do has to be fun. I don't wanna do boring shit anymore. So if I do that, what would that look like? How can I make this wedding fun? And sometimes I- if it's so boring that I just see no glimmer of hope, then I'm not even gonna be available that day. I want something to be so much cooler, and so even if it takes me robbing money from doing cocktail flowers to do that, I would rather do that.
So how we, come up with these ideas is a totally separate process, and I've actually done podcast episodes solely on ideating ideas, how to pitch those ideas, how to sell in levels. But we need to get over the fact that recommending stuff or, fine-tuning somebody's vision, that in no way is salesy.
That is you being an expert. Selling is not always adding more. Sometimes good sales is reallocating the money they already planned to spend, telling them how to spend more strategically. And an expert isn't just taking an order. An expert is making a recommendation. They're coming to us because we are experts.
If they want to order take, they can order shit off of, some Flower Moxie, whatever or, you know, one of those companies that just will send them their shit in a box, because we are artists, and we get paid accordingly for being artists, and we also want to do fun things in that process. The next thing, to stop feeling like a used car salesman, we need to stop apologizing for the price.
I know that flowers have gotten more expensive. But you can absolutely tank your energy and then tank your sales call, your consultation's energy if all you talk about is how expensive things are, because then they're gonna feel like you're expensive, not that flowers are expensive. You're expensive. And so if we go in, and let's just say- You have that client that maybe told you they have a $5,000 budget, and you went into that consultation, because I have done this.
I've gone into the consultation thinking that I am going to have to tell them if they are not flexible in their budget, I'm gonna propose to them different ideas of how we can get to their budget. Because I can pretty much know in looking at somebody's vision board and then getting those details, if I don't know that ahead of the consultation, I'm gonna figure that out really easy in the consultation.
And I try to have that discussion then. But if they seem like, "Let's just see where it is," because you've probably heard that. "Let's just see where it comes in." But you know that they have now planted the $5,000 seed, and your estimate is coming in at 8,750 Well, the, there, you might as well address the elephant in the room is my thought, and I'm not going to apologize for that price.
This is what they told me they have wanted, and this is what it costs. So here is a couple things. You can just shut up, and you can see what they say. But I always like to be like, depending on the exact client, I will do one of two things if I know that they just said, "Let's just see where it lands." I will...
I say, "You know what? I, um, as we discussed..." Because I've already discussed this with them. "We... This is coming in over the target floral budget that you shared with me. I do have some very creative ways that I feel that we could get closer to your target budget if that is something that you're really set on.
But I wanted to give you your estimate based on your full vision of your day with me making sure that I feel like when you walk in, you're gonna go, 'This is stunning.'" So I'm also now complimenting all of their decisions, all the things that they came in with. I've used words descriptive that you're gonna think this is stunning.
This is absolutely gonna be stunning. But if we need to dial it down, I have a handful of ideas that I'd love to share with you if you're interested. So I didn't throw out the ideas, because I don't know if she's going to say no. But if I know already that this person has told me 5,000, and I have already told them that this is not going to happen, and they're like I just wanna see where it is," but I already know that 5,000 is the number, and they are s- on drugs by thinking that this is a good use of our time to find out that this is 6,500.
So I also then will go in and provide the solution ahead of time. In looking at your budget, if we really need to get down to the $5,000 like we discussed, there are multiple ways to do that. Here is what I would do. Option one, instead of having six tall centerpieces, I would drop that number down to four, and then change those to bud vase centerpieces.
Save, let's just say, $500, okay? I would make bridesmaid bouquets slightly smaller. Save, because you got nine bridesmaids there, woman, save $400. Reduce candles on head table down by 30%. Save $500, whatever it is. So come up with ideas and just share with them the concrete number that they will save in making that decision.
I literally have had people email me back and say, "This looks great. I'll take option one and three," and they've still at that point agreed to a higher budget than they originally did. But they felt like they won. And part of sales is everybody wins. So they won because they obviously feel like they saved some money from the original estimate, and there are people that just need to feel like that as well
Next thing is we need to stop objecting to our own prices before the client does. So that's why I ask so many questions a- about understanding their budget, understanding where their budget came from, understanding what they want covered with that budget. And so that's why with that option one, that I had already, like, lightly and they just really wanted to see, because they just have no idea how much it's gonna cost.
That's why I just threw it out there. And it's not my, uh, job to tell them that they don't have, 7,500, 8,500 when they've told me 5. When they said they really don't know, and they just need to talk to their mom, and they just ... But they don't really know, but this is really what they want. And, you know, we have made this over-the-top, gorgeous, amazing, stunning
And they're looking at our proposal, and they're visualizing their wedding. And they're like, "Oh my God, I love this girl." Like, "She just seems like she gets me," and all the things. So stop objecting to your own price unless you know. Unless you have ... You're really good at asking those strategic questions.
And the thing is, I'm not gonna object to my own price. I'm going to object to their budget. My price is what it is. I can adjust my price because I'm taking away items or reducing service levels. I'm not going to change my cost structure. So it's not my price that I'm objecting to, it's what items they inevitably will end up with
The next thing that is very strategic. When I asked the question earlier is your floral budget or your floral vision more important? I'm just quiet
It's not my job to answer them. Or if I tell someone this is the pri- the starting at price for a simple broken arch is $1,250 because it's simple, boring-ass greenery shit
I am not going to panic when they were like, "But we can make it cheaper." Okay, you try. You try. That would be great. That would be amazing if you can figure that out. In my experience it's, it actually uses a surprising amount of product. We don't need to start going into that. Stop. I don't need to defend.
I'm just gonna be quiet. And so if I say the price, I don't want to be the florist that all of a sudden says wait, I can make it cheaper." No, you, you shouldn't. Silence doesn't automatically mean rejection. Silence could be like, "I have no idea what to say. This is shocking." I mean, as a customer, this could be shocking to them.
They might have no idea. So we need to stop talking ourself out of the, that we're defending our price point. We're defending what we do. We're defending our service. We are not doing that. So you just... Quiet is okay, you guys. All right, the next point that I think that often feels gross, which it shouldn't, because we are service-based business people, is follow-up is feels gross.
Follow-up is annoying. A follow-up email does not mean go, "Please book me, book me, book me. Please love me, love me, love me, love me." We don't need to do that. It means, "Hey, I wanted to make sure that you received everything. Do you have any additional questions? Are there any areas you'd like to adjust? Would it be helpful if we hopped on a quick call to review the proposal?"
And I think we need to really dive into, like, stop saying no on behalf of people who haven't said no yet. If they tell you no, great, but silence does not automatically mean that. Silence could mean that something happened, that they've been really busy. Half of the world is running around overwhelmed, and wedding planning is very overwhelming.
A, a lot of younger people have, you know, it, like, this is just really stressful. Wedding planning is really stressful, and often people who are stressed out, and they're planning something that doesn't necessarily need to be done right now, they shut down. They shut tuning everything out, or maybe they just genuinely had a busy f- couple fucking weeks or busy week.
That doesn't mean they're automatically telling you no. That just means that you need to follow up. And don't be like, "Hey, I haven't heard from you, so I'm guessing you went in a different direction." N- not a great thing to say. What we should be saying is setting this timeframe up from the get-go. "Hey, If you f- sen- Especially if, like, you feel like somebody is shopping multiple florists, potentially is flaky or kind of an idiot, I will give them a timeline. So I will tell them, "From when I send the proposal..." I, at the end of every consultation, I give them next steps. "So here's the next step.
I'm going to send you a proposal. In that proposal it's going to break everything down, and you're gonna be able to review all the different po- points in the wedding that we've discussed today. And then if that looks good to you, I'm happy to send over the contract and you can return that with the retainer, and that retainer is actually used towards your total in the end.
I hold the date for you and put your name on it for 10 days. At 10 days, because we are in heavy booking season right now," like my inbox is blowing up, "and I wanna make sure that if you're moving it into a different direction or you still can't make a decision, that if somebody else is interested in that date, because we take a limited amount of bookings, that I open that date back up.
So at 10 days, I'm releasing that date."
You then have told them that you're already following up with them, and now you can follow up with deadlines. You could put that deadline in your email, you could put that deadline on your proposal, whatever you wanna do. So you can follow up in three days, "Hey, I just wanted to make sure that you received the proposal, and see if you had any questions."
At five days, you can be like, "I haven't heard from you, and I sent a follow-up email. I'm guessing you're just busy. But please let me know if you have any questions. I'm holding the date for another five days, but after that I open the date up." Then at day eight, you could be sending an- another one, "Hey, it's me again.
Sorry to pester you, but I actually had someone inquire on your date, and you have two days l- more on the hold for your date. But if you went into a different direction I'd love to be able to just move for- m- move forward with the other client because they have a pretty large wedding, and I only have so much capacity that weekend."
Or you can say, "The date's expiring, and I've gotten a lot of emails this week." And so sometimes that person needs the push to get off their ass because sometimes people just suck at making decisions. We cannot just dump our proposal in their inbox and expect it's just going to sell themself. Being a good salesperson comes in layers, and we're selling from when they hit our inbox.
You're selling yourself, why they should book you, why you're different, why they should be doing business with you. And then that doesn't stop when we send them a proposal. We need to keep telling them why they should be choosing you, and that follow-up is accordingly. So telling them about our strategy behind things, sharing why we went and maybe proposed something some way.
I often will even, put in there, "I really... I know how important the ceremony is to you, and I put some I was dreaming about your wedding, and I put some more thought into the ceremony, and I did come up with an idea that if you're interested, I would be happy to go in and share those ideas with you."
Even saying you have more ideas sometimes will get somebody to reply to you. That is a strategy. Recommending things being consultative. Everything isn't about price. It's about serving. And context can create value. Another thing that I think we really focus on is price objections are not always really the price.
When someone says, "This is way more than I wanted to spend," you do not e- need to immediately say that I need to give away the farm. We can ask, "Totally understand. Where were you hoping that this would la- land?" Or, "Where were you hoping this would, be finalized around? And then, what part of the proposal feels most important to protect?
What would you be okay with simplifying?" Now you're problem-solving. Just like I talked about, like, options A, B, or C to reduce the price, that wasn't me discounting. That was me explaining to them, here is a way that you can save money because you've shared how abundantly clear your budget is important.
An o- objection is not always really a rejection. Sometimes it's an invitation to keep the conversation going and to come up with solutions. And confidence I don't know if you guys can hear, I have mad confidence in this process because I have done it so much. I ha- am an expert at my process. So confidence comes from having a process.
When you have no process, sales can feel extremely awkward. And when every inquiry goes through inquiry to qualifying to a consultation to a recommendation to a proposal to follow up to a decision, and that is a process, you do not have to reinvent yourself every time. You just know what happens next.
This is your process. This is your floral CEO process, that I'm taking them down this customer journey. This is my process, and I ain't coloring outside of the lines because I know that it never usually serves me well. And then you get that confidence. You can hear that confidence in my voice because I am confident.
I'm going to be able to solve that person's solution. Or you know what? I am going to be able to repel the person that I don't want to Because somebody might not like my m- style, how I approach things. Maybe they don't like, after they met me, that I have a full sleeve tattoo. Maybe they don't like that I have a facial piercing.
Maybe they don't like that v- I don't know, the how I said something, or... I mean, whatever it is, I am not meant for everybody. But my confidence and coming across as a confident business woman is going to serve me nine times out of 10. So I don't want to focus on the one person that might not necessarily...
One person out of, like, 50, who might not have liked my approach. Which I had somebody actually not want to go down my process. And I met with them, and I actually... The only reason why I met with them is because they were a referral from a planner. The r- planner even warned me, which is never good, you guys, that she was a little odd.
And I am not here to hear about the whimsical, magical feeling about getting married at a fucking barn. I just... No. I... She wanted me, and very 'cause of course, I always ask for feedback when somebody says they're going in a different direction, and she said she didn't like my approach because I didn't ask her about how she wanted to feel on her wedding day.
And I didn't ask her about how magical that she wanted this barn to appear with fairy lights, you guys. I hear the word fairy lights and I want to run. I n- I am okay, because I, I probably actually every time that woman's w- name would hit my inbox would cringe. I am okay with not booking that person, because I am not going to invest an epic amount of time.
She had like a really, like a $3,000 budget. I really don't want to invest that much time and that much coddling in somebody with such a low budget. And I know that doesn't feel like a low budget to her, but in the realm of where I'm at, that's low budget to me, and I can't spend a lot of time and resources hand-holding.
That's why I have a process And that process works out so much better than having to serve every single crazy person out there. If they don't wanna be going through my process, or they want me to have sunshine and rainbows and unicorns I'm all about dreaming and dreaming big for their wedding, but I don't wanna talk about the feeling when we're talking about $3,000.
We're talking about a barn that is literally an hour and a half away from my house on the other side of the Twin Cities that the photographer, in my opinion, sucked. The only thing I loved about it was the wedding planner. Also she had Harry Potter inspo on her thing, which could be cool, but WTF, you guys.
Like, this person was crazy. And she was like, "I have never been in a consultation that somebody had asked me, like, more questions." And I'm like, "I asked you a ton of questions, and I'm sorry that you took it that way, but I was trying to figure out how best to serve you and your budget based on your Pinterest board.
Well, you should've been asking me about every single p- Pinterest image and what I liked about it." She had 50 images on her Pinterest board, and she can go sell crazy somebody... somewhere else because I... The planner actually told me who she booked, and I was just like, "Good for her. That is crazy, and I'm not signing up for crazy, neither y- should you."
That's why sales processes are so great, because you want to serve the masses and not the small percentage of crazies. Good sales should feel like service. This should be something that is helping them get clear, prioritize, understand options, avoid mistakes, spend money intentionally, create what they actually want, feel confident in hiring you.
If you genuinely believe your service can help someone, it's not manipulative It, you're serving them because you're helping them buy what you have to offer. And maybe sales gets gross when you are trying to get something from somebody. It feels completely different when you're trying to create the right outcome for someone.
So I talk about the Floral CEO Mastermind a lot on this podcast because I know that I am selling you guys, I would love for you to be in my Mastermind because I know how I feel confident. I know that my process and all of the tools and resources, and I know that you're going to be supported and have someone in your corner like you never have.
And then I'm giving you all these tools, all these processes to support you, and plus access to me whenever you need help. I know that you will be successful. I don't feel like I am being salesy because I know that I, the person who signs up for that program, I am going to serve them to my utmost capacity to help make them successful.
I'm not here to just take their money and not get them results. I am here to serve them and make them the best business owner, the best badass, the happiest they could p- possibly be because something could just be in their way, some limiting belief, some whatever, that they don't deserve to make money.
They don't you know, whatever it is. They don't deserve to make money. They don't deserve to have success. They are destined to have $35 bud vases. They are destined to have low-budget weddings. I don't believe any of that. I believe your destiny is written by you, and I wanna support you in doing that.
But I say that with passion, I say that with love and conviction, and you can have that same thing, and I do that same thing because I generally know that I am going to deliver. I don't write checks that I can't cash And going into every sales discussion like that will make you more successful. And if you know you can deliver, you're gonna feel good about it and not feel like a used car salesman.
And I am going to say I don't think there's anything wrong with being a used car salesman. I think some of them are smarmy assholes, but there are genuinely good people, and I have many friends that are in the, the automotive sales world. So it's not that it's negative, but we can bring that same strategy of this is what we do.
We are salespeople. It's hard to believe when we think we're florists that we're salespeople. We are salespeople in our business. So this simple framework, ask, listen, recommend, and invite. Ask and understand what they actually want. Listen and ask questions frankly to hear their priorities and the problems underneath the request.
Recommend using the expertise instead of simply taking an order.
I had this example recommend. One of my mastermind girls got a proposal today, and the bride everywhere put, no roses." I've had this exact same thing said to me several times, and I will push back because roses are cheap, come in a lot of good colors, especially with this color palette. And is it roses, or is it would you like garden roses, ruffly roses, spray roses?
Like, let's just be really clear what roses we don't like. That's our expertise, but we need to ask the right questions. And then we need to invite by clearly asking them to take the next step. That's why at the end of every consultation, I walk them down the path of what's next. So clearly ask them to take that next step You can do this without being pushy, without being douchey.
Your job is not to convince everyone. Your job is to help the right person decide. Good sales is good service. Stop objecting to your own damn prices before the client does. Thank you so much for listening, flower friend. Go out, sell some shit. Be successful. Live, like, the business of your dreams is based foundationally on sales.
You can make the prettiest flowers, you guys, but without selling them, it's gonna be really hard to be successful. Thanks so much for listening, flower friend, and you have an amazing flower-filled day