Stop Selling: What to Do When a Couple Hesitates

🎙 Episode 68: Stop Selling: What to Do When a Couple Hesitates

If you keep getting ghosted after sales calls, you get "thank you so much, we'll be in touch” but then you never hear from them again - even when they clearly need your help - this episode is for you.

I’m walking you through a real-life client case study of a wedding planner who kept facing objections from a bride who seemed interested—but was actually hesitant, uncertain, and overwhelmed - and how to address Brides like this.

We’re talking about why objections are rarely about what couples say they’re about, how to stop rushing into your packages and pricing, and what actually happens when you step into your authority as the expert instead of acting like a salesperson trying to convince someone to book.

I’m also diving into the power of curiosity during consultations, how to uncover what’s really holding couples back, and why guiding someone toward clarity is far more effective than giving a sales pitch. Because most couples don’t need more information—they need someone who can help them see the bigger picture and make confident decisions.

If you’ve ever struggled with hesitant inquiries, ghosted leads, or couples who say they “need more time,” this episode will completely change the way you approach sales calls.

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🚀 Ready to stop second-guessing yourself on sales calls and start booking aligned couples with confidence?

Inside Wedding Pro Academy, I teach you how to lead consultations like an expert, handle objections naturally, communicate your value clearly, and build a wedding business that feels profitable, sustainable, and aligned. I only open enrollment a few times a year.

Learn more here 👉 https://weddingproacademy.com 💍

What is Wedding Pro Academy?

A Wedding Business Podcast - Tips and tricks to, grow and sustain a amazingly successful wedding business in a way that's is fun and gives you tons of freedom.

Nicole: 00:04

Welcome everyone to the Wedding Pro Academy Podcast. I'm Nicole, your host. I'm an expert in the wedding industry and I've personally built two 6 figure businesses from the ground up. I am obsessed with building businesses that make lots of money but do so in a way that also create luxurious amounts of freedom. So, if you're looking to build, grow, or scale a wedding business in a way that doesn't burn you out, and you'd love some guidance from someone who has done just that, this podcast is for you.

Nicole: 00:37

Each week I'll cover strategies, ideas, tips, and tricks that will give you your dream wedding business too. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Now let's dive in. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Wedding Pro Academy podcast.

Nicole: 00:57

Today we're gonna talk about objections. So when brides and grooms have objections, when you're on a sales call, what to do about it, how are you handling that? How can you do it better? Today's episode is titled Stop Selling! What to do when a couple hesitates.

Nicole: 01:23

Specifically, we're going to be going into how you need to look at the sales call in general, make the sale more easy and more natural and less pressure. And I'm specifically going to talk about a real life client example and what my client messed up on and what she could have done better. This is a real life client case from a client that I have who is a wedding planner and she faced repeated objections during a sales call with a bride. What happened during this sales call is that the bride contacted her as many brides do and she was just kind of like looking around just checking out what her options were just trying to get ideas she wasn't really sure and so she reached out probably to a bunch of wedding planners. And then my client who is a wedding planner called her back to set up a sales call.

Nicole: 02:31

My wedding planner client was going into this call with the, you know, the plan of trying to sell her one of her packages to try and get her to book her as a wedding planner. So she goes into this cell call thinking I'll just go over my packages she needs this she needs me right? And here's what happened she gave the bride all of her information like here's your options you can do a month of package, you can do a full planning package, you can do a partial package. Here's what they include. This one includes this many hours, this one includes this, this includes this, here's why you need it, and here's what it costs.

Nicole: 03:19

The bride got all of this information and was a little bit overwhelmed. She got the whole sales pitch. She got the price and she said thank you so much I need to think about it and to talk it over with my fiancee. I'll get back to you. My client says okay no problem but right there she lost the sale.

Nicole: 03:45

And why, why did this happen? So the mistake was that she went into this sales call with the whole, like, everything that she did during this call was about selling. She made it all about her, all about her packages, all about, you know, what was included in her packages, and she never got curious about what was really going on with this bride. So if she never gets curious about what's really going on with this bride, what her actual situation is, I'm not just talking about she needs a wedding planner, like we all know that. What is actually going on with her right now?

Nicole: 04:32

Where is she in the wedding planning process? What is her vision around this wedding? Is it actually possible? Can she help her? What are her needs?

Nicole: 04:43

How can she be of value to her? She never got curious about any of that so she wasn't able to address any objections. She didn't even have the objections come up She just got, you know, shafted right there. She got, Thanks so much, I'll think about it. Well that right there, you're done.

Nicole: 05:02

They got all the information, they're just seeing you as this wedding planner that can do this amount of time and hours they don't know why they need you. And the other part is if you're not getting curious you can't really guide her. So she couldn't talk to her she didn't have the opportunity to share with her how she could help her, what she could do for her. She didn't have the opportunity to show off her expertise. So when you get curious, here's what I mean by that.

Nicole: 05:36

If the bride were to give an objection like, oh, I don't know if we have enough money for that. Well, what does enough money mean? Like, I would have asked, well, what is your budget? What are you thinking that it's gonna cost? What are you looking to spend?

Nicole: 05:50

Get really curious about that because to her, enough money might mean $15,000 or it might mean $75,000. You don't know that. And the other part is you don't know what that includes. So you need to figure all of this stuff out you need to get really curious you know what are the things that she's worried about is she worried about the guest count and she's thinking she wants a big wedding but she doesn't know if she can afford it Is she worried about you know the fact that her parents want her to have this big wedding but maybe she secretly wants to have a small intimate one and she doesn't know how to pull this off. Is she worried about you know or is she thinking about that she wants to get married at this very specific venue and maybe she's actually never seen it in person so she doesn't know if it's good or not and you are the one that's going to help her understand this better.

Nicole: 06:47

If you're not getting curious about all the things, there's no way for you to guide her. There's no way for you to see if you're actually a good fit for her or not and there's no way for you to show her how you can help her with the value you know share with her value that you bring and how you can make her day special. And the other mistake that my client made is that she never stepped into her authority as a professional wedding planner in this industry she never got the chance to show off her expertise and to guide this bride. If she's not able to show off the value she brings the bride will never know it. What happens with brides and grooms when they come into a consult, they don't know what wedding planners actually do.

Nicole: 07:36

And I could do the say the same thing for wedding photographers, wedding officiants. They don't know all the ins and outs, all the details of what you do, how you are the one that is doing all these things behind the scenes that make everything so much easier, so much more special than help make it seamless, help her get into a place of ease and, you know, excitement instead of stress and anxiety and worry and fear and all that. You help her get there and there are very specific ways how, but if you aren't able to tell her about this and share with her why she needs you, you're really doing her a huge disservice because she does actually need you. And the sooner she books you, the more she is going to to get out of it. You know?

Nicole: 08:27

She's she needs you now. She doesn't need you a month before the wedding, but she doesn't know that. Right? And how would she? It makes perfect sense why she wouldn't know that.

Nicole: 08:37

She doesn't know that because she's never planned a wedding before. So what she thinks she needs is not what she actually needs and that is what you have to be able to share with her. But first you need to get really curious about where she's at then kind of guide her into what she needs and show her all of the things that you do that is gonna make her life, her the months leading up to her wedding so much better, so much easier, so much simpler, so much more fun, so much more exciting. How she's going to when she gets into that feeling of exciting, of ease, of trust, then she can relax. And only when she's in that state can she really enjoy her wedding.

Nicole: 09:22

Now how important is that to her? Probably hugely important right? And if she gets into that state of feeling relaxed, of feeling excited, of feeling confident that everything's going to work out exactly the way she wants that is all set up before the wedding. She needs to feel that before. She needs to know that she has a team behind her.

Nicole: 09:42

That's what you bring. Now if you can't talk about that and you can't sell that, then, you know, that's the part you need to work on. But the other thing, the an an other huge mistake that I see newer wedding planners, wedding photographers, wedding vendors make is that and the same thing with my client at this point was that she was making it all about her. So you're focusing more on you, your sale, your package, your booking, your hours, all the things you bring, all the reasons why they need you. Now if you can flip that and think about focusing on her instead everything changes for you.

Nicole: 10:27

Right? So you're not listening enough to her needs. You're not curious enough about where she's at, about what her situation is, about her experience right now, about her vision for what she wants. And if you're not making it about her and you're not more interested in her and you're not in the state of helping then you're in the state of selling which is only about you, they're gonna feel that. And that is a totally different energy And one that isn't doesn't make them feel cared for.

Nicole: 11:03

It doesn't make them feel like, you know, they have they're supported. And that's what they need. They need to feel supported. They need to feel trust. And you've heard this before, you know, a thousand times that if they don't trust you they're not going to pay you money they're not going to want to book you and when you get into this state of helping instead of selling and you create this kind of trust brides I'm telling you brides and grooms are going to want to work with you no matter what they're going to change their whole wedding plans to work with you because they feel like you genuinely get them they feel like you genuinely care they feel like they're supported by you and they feel like they need you.

Nicole: 11:48

They start to see all the value that you bring. That is more than just six hours on their wedding day. It's so much more than setting up chairs. It's more than, you know, playing music. Your value is in the the feeling they get to have when you are running their wedding.

Nicole: 12:11

The value you bring is in the experience that they get. It's in the the being able to let go of all the stress and worry and, like, having to take care of all these thousand details. That is the value. It's not the setup. It's not the amount of hours that you're there.

Nicole: 12:27

So you have to get really clear on this value and be able to talk about it. Now all of that said, it doesn't mean that every bride and groom are gonna be a good fit for you. You will figure this out when you get curious about them and you see, Oh, here are all the things they need. You can still help them even if they're not a good fit. You can still give them guidance and advice.

Nicole: 12:50

But if they're not a good fit then you know that's fine the right person will come but if they are a good fit then you got to be very on top of wanting to help them and show them why they need you because a lot of times the sooner they work with you the better off they're going to be you know the more help you can provide the easier their life is going to get the more fun they get to have in this process and weddings are supposed to be fun, not stressful and exhausting and overwhelming and full of fear and worry and all that. You take all of that out of it. But they're never going to know that if you don't show them. So that's what I have for you guys today on objections and sales and just looking at a sales call with a potential bride and groom in a different light. I have like a whole, you know, teaching on this in my wedding business masterclass because I think it's so important to booking weddings.

Nicole: 13:56

It's getting into this state of really helping and listening and guiding and being open to whatever it is that they bring you because a lot of times when brides and grooms come at you saying they want one thing they actually switch course completely once you talk to them and you realize oh they don't actually want that they just thought they wanted that because they saw something on Instagram and it looked cool they thought they wanted that venue but actually it's terrible for them they don't want that venue at all they don't actually want a 100 guests they actually want 20 oh my god they're perfect for me they're the exact perfect couple let me show them why and how I can help them how I can guide them. Getting to the root of what their dream day is like what their worries are what their concerns are what their stresses are that's the part that's so important and that's why you need to get curious and you need to get into this state of listening, of asking questions, of being open and really genuinely wanting to help them and I've said this before but just get into a state of being their best friend.

Nicole: 15:04

A best friend who happens to also be a wedding pro. Like that is the best state you can be in if you want to book a wedding. Alright guys hope you found this helpful. I will see you again next week. Have a great weekend!

Nicole: 15:19

Bye for now! Oh! Don't forget to check out weddingproacademy.com if you want to learn more stuff like this. We have a whole module on sales and sales calls and I give you a whole script but we go into detail about how to answer calls, to set up for it, what to focus on when you're in a call and the state you need be in when you're doing these calls in order to get more bookings and align with brides and grooms in a way that doesn't feel salesy, pushy, good. That's how it should feel because you are what they need and you are helping them.

Nicole: 15:58

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend I will see you again next week bye for now