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Ask Get Savvy: Getting your brides to commit

Business16-May-2023

Maria Musgrove-Wethey and Christine Skilton, co-founders of bridal coaching service Get Savvy, answer your top questions from Bridal Week London and discuss their new bootcamp.

With our 40 years combined experience running successful boutiques, we are bridal “Lifers” who have come to the same conclusion that many owners feel isolated with nowhere to go for support to fix their problems.

Many owners start in business because of a passion for all things wedding-related, have binge-watched every episode of “Say Yes to the Dress” or simply adore wedding gowns. The truth is, this passion simply isn’t enough to run a successful bridal business.

Success is more than just getting gowns, uploading a website, posting on Instagram and selling a few dresses. Whether you’re a “Wannabe”, “Newbie” or a “Bridal Lifer” there is always something to learn or re-learn: and that’s where Get Savvy and the Business Success Path comes in.

We have identified 3 key areas when it comes to running a successful bridal business – customer attraction, sales conversion and business management. We help you create your Business Success Path which leads to more appointments, more sales and more money. After all, that’s why we’re in business!

Since Christine and Maria launched Get Savvy 4 years ago, they’ve developed three ways for bridal retailers to find the support they need.

Get Savvy Membership

If you want to get connected with like-minded bridal boutique owners then join our membership group. It’s on line and offers weekly catch ups and tutorials along with a resource bank of checklists and training videos.

Think of it as “Samaritan Support” for stressed bridal retailers! Struggles with seamstresses, staff and suppliers to a cancelled wedding with the fiancé claiming custody of the dress have all been shared and aired within the sanctity of the group! We believe that a problem shared is a problem halved.

Get Savvy Coaching

If you need some personalised one to-one-business support, then this is for you.

Since 2019 we’ve helped start ups from County Cavan to California where we’ve advised on shop layout, suppliers, systems, staffing and social media.

Other new business owners have found “A Day in the Life” of a bridal boutique invaluable where we’ve taken a deep dive into business management from stock control to systems, systems and even more systems.

Website reviews, social media audits, setting up Google ads campaigns and sessions on how to get the most out of Bridal Live have all been provided to both new and experienced businesses.

Get Savvy Courses

Our in house and on line sales courses have helped boutiques throughout the UK and Europe to increase sales conversions over the last 9 years. It gives all the tools and techniques to connect and build trust from opening the door to closing the sale.

New for 2023 we have our Getting More Appointments the Get Savvy Way Bootcamp. This is in response to one of the most frequently asked questions at the Business Advice Clinics at Bridal Week London, which was:

Q: How do I get more appointments?

A: Some retailers confided that they had, literally, empty diaries for the month. Others were frustrated with no shows or last minute cancellations.

Along with checking the phone line, Wifi and Bridal live on an hourly basis the most common answer to “What do you do about it?” was
“I post more on social media”. Many confessed to the Friday post fictitiously announcing “Saturday slots unexpectedly available” which rarely results in more appointments but simply screams “D for Desperate” to both brides and your competition!

We concluded that all the owners we spoke to recognised that they needed to take action but weren’t certain what to do or who to go to get help as marketing isn’t their superpower.

Understandable with the daily deluge of unsolicited emails promising SEO packages reviewing key words to miraculously get your website on Google’s first page, increase traffic and revenue. Not to mention social media specialists with their coded acronyms CRO, CPC, CTR etc with the guarantee to drive more brides to you and with the result to drive you crazy with confusion!

At Bridal Week London, we introduced the BEE method to Get More Appointments The Get Savvy Way. In the next couple of months we will launch our Bootcamp resulting in boutiques having a Get More Appointments Blueprint.

Q: How do we get the brides to commit?

A: Boutiques with good appointment diaries were still struggling to get brides to commit.

We’ll all recognise this Saturday sales scenario for sure. She’s been there for two hours, tried on a dozen dresses, loves them all, finds “The One”, Mum has shed tears, her sister has been Facetimed in Oz, her best friend hasn’t stopped grinning and she’s even said “Yes to the Dress”. And just when you think you’re home and dry she says “I couldn’t possibly buy today as it’s too soon, I need to sleep on it, go to more shops, bring back more people etc, etc” (you can fill in the blanks yourself).

We concluded that it’s very easy to blame the brides for not committing rather than looking at our sales processes. As appointments are hard to come by then it can be tempting to welcome all brides and not qualify them.

The Customer Attraction part of our Business Success Path helps to pinpoint your ideal customer, where you can find her and how you can stand out in a saturated, competitive market. This will be covered in depth in the new Bootcamp offer coming soon.

Get Savvy’s sales training stresses the importance of the Pre Sell and finding out as much about your bride before she comes in so that you can anticipate what her reasons might be for not buying today. This is our Block & Crush technique which once mastered will help to move her from “Yes to the Dress but not today” to “Yes I’m buying this dress TODAY”.

Just as social attitudes to marriage have changed with a huge decline in weddings over the last 50 years (480k in 1972 and 253k in 2019) and post-Covid brides’ shopping habits have changed so we must change or get left behind.

As Richard Nixon said, “Defeat doesn’t finish a man – quit does. A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits”.

Find Out More

Regular Bridal Buyer contributors Maria Musgrove-Wethey and Christine Skilton teamed up in 2019 to share their 40+ years of experience in bridal retailing. Get Savvy's goal is to help boutique owners grow a successful and profitable business, aiding with sales and financial planning, to marketing and social media.