Wedding Business Solutions

Are you ever going to change the way you respond to inquiries?

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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Are you ever going to change the way you respond to inquiries?

Are you still responding to inquiries the same way you did years ago? Have you ever wondered if pushing for that phone call or venue tour might be costing you leads? In this episode, I share insights from secret shopping over 750 wedding businesses and ask: What would happen if you slowed down, adapted to digital natives, and made it easier for couples to respond? I’ll talk through new ways to keep the conversation going, how to avoid getting ghosted, and why asking the right question—at the right time—makes all the difference.

Listen to this new 9-minute episode for practical tips on changing your inquiry responses, adapting to today’s couples, and improving your lead conversions.

If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com 

Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com  

View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/


Coming to Wedding MBA this year? Join me for a brand new workshop, before the conference starts. Can't make that? Come to Charlotte NC on Dec. 3rd for a Mastermind Day. Visit www.MastermindDay.com for information and tickets on upcoming events.

I'm Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you'd like to suggest other topics for "The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast" please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

Are you ever going to change the way you respond to inquiries? Listen to this episode. See where I'm going. Hey, it's Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. We've now Secret shopped over 750 businesses in the last couple of years. And it still amazes me that the new shopping that we're doing now, I see people doing the same thing they were doing two years ago, three years ago, five years ago. And one of the things that I've spoken about this on the podcast, but, and pardon me if I'm on my soapbox, but I'm trying to help you here. If you're trying to force them right away to have a phone call or come in for a tour to your venue and you're getting ghosted, that could be a big reason why if someone makes an inquiry and does not ask for a phone call, a zoom call or a tour, some people are still going to say yes to you.

And that fools you into thinking that's the right thing to do. But it's a high commitment to action for someone to get on a phone, especially someone who is a digital native. And you may or may not be a digital native. I'm a digital immigrant. Doesn't mean I don't like technology. I love technology. It just wasn't here. A lot of this that we're using now wasn't here when I started doing this decades ago.

Right. So I still see people not ending their messages, their emails with a question, and you're wondering why they're not responding. You didn't ask a question or burying the question. You ask a question, then you keep writing. Or your question is, when do you want to have a phone call? Or when do you want to come for a tour? And you know, it's just think about it as a consumer, right? When you make an inquiry, you're starting a conversation and you need the other person to continue that conversation using a similar tone, using a style that fits with you. Right. So know your audience. And the problem that I've said, I said this before, it's an observation.

It's not a problem. The observation is many people in the wedding and event industry, when they start, you're closer to the age of the people that you're working with, Right. Your couples are about that age. So right now the average couple is about 30, right. So you might have started, you might be in your 20s, you might be in your 30s. That's a very common place for people to start in the industry. Sure. Some People get in later, but that's common.

So you know how to talk to these people because they're like you. And then every year we get older, they don't. Right. It's just, it's a fact. It's not fair maybe, but it's a fact. Right. In the decades that I've been doing this, couples have gotten about five years older. It's not fair.

I get decades older, they get five years older. But it's true. So we have to adapt to them. So what used to work doesn't necessarily work. And I see, I keep seeing this and I'm going to keep doing this as long as I can to help you convert more of the leads you're getting. Because it is so hard to get an inquiry. Think about what it took to get that inquiry, the money and the time it also took you making it past hurdle after hurdle after hurdle. First you have to be where they were looking.

Then you have to be presenting yourself in a way that attracts them. Compare in with all the other things going around, right? All the other thumbnail photos, everybody else in your market or category or everybody else's social posts and all this other noise, you got their attention. They click to find out more. They liked what they saw or read or watched or heard and then they make an inquiry. It takes a lot on hurdles to get to that point. You don't want to blow it at that point by rushing the process. Is slowing it down a problem? The only problem is it's going to take more time and this is where automation can help you. I've spoken about this before with AI.

If you didn't hear the episode I did, what is it? A few weeks ago with Abeda El Samna on what are AI agents and how should you be using them? Right. So this. Some things where technology can actually help you do the follow up that you don't have the time to do or don't even want to do. I know a lot of people would do it, but they just, it's just a slog for them to have to do this. Responding to new inquiries and follow up with the old inquiries. I get it, I get it. I'm in the same boat. I don't get nearly as many inquiries as you do and I have to follow up.

That's why I've instituted automations. Eventually for my business. There'll be AI in there, right? The AI right now that Abed was talking about and I've been consulting on is for venues, right. So. But we've trained that AI to respond in a way that's going to take that conversation slower. Yeah, it's going to ask for the tour, for the venue, but it'll do it in a PS initially, and then later it'll ask for it in the message. But it's going to make it an afterthought, not the main part, because it's going to continue the conversation that the couple started. Remember, when you get an inquiry, that couple, that company, that person has started a conversation, you need to continue.

And just like in a real conversation, if you. Immediately, if someone called you, I just imagine the phone actually rang and they called you and they said, hi, we'd like to get some information. You say, great, when did you want to come in? They're like, whoa, I'm not ready to come in. I want to find out a little bit more first. Right? You can do that in real time on the phone. You can do that in email and text, in WhatsApp and Facebook messenger, the Not Messenger, Wedding wire messenger, what Weddings, online messenger, everybody. Any of them. You can do that.

You just have to have that slower back and forth and earn the right for the trust to have that higher commitment there. But I. I'm seeing the same things again and again, and I don't know if it's because, you know, you just get into a habit and it's hard to break the habit. It would be easier for you if they would just get on the phone or come in or have that Zoom call. I know that. Right. Why are you still rushing for that? I don't know. And I know that for a lot of people, because it works some of the time you think that's the right thing to do and it's them, it's not you.

When it doesn't work. When I always say, just like in the books, Good to Great and Built to Last by Jim Collins, right? When the. When you have a problem, you look in the mirror to find the problem. You don't blame the customers, you don't blame your employees. You look at yourself, you're the boss. You look in the mirror and you say, I'm the problem. I need to change what I'm doing. And that's why I've adopted using AI.

When I was an AI resistor, I wasn't using Automations on my website for the longest time for responding to inquiries. And I do so many other tools like the 1Password app, right? I resist. I heard people saying, you know, it's more Secure. Use the 1Password app, don't use the same password everywhere like I did and everybody else did, and I finally use it. It's so much easier because I can't remember my passwords. I don't have to. I have to remember one, it remembers the rest of them. And I could have some crazy long password to really secure and I don't have to remember it.

So these are tools, right? We have to adapt, we have to change post Covid. It's just, it's different. And things that used to work don't work anymore. So 750, you know, secret shopping. Actually, I think we're even more than that now. But I'm still seeing the same thing I was seeing years ago, and it didn't work that well then. It's not working even less now. So try something different, right? But just continue the conversation that they've started.

Don't rush the process. End every message with one question in its own paragraph, an easy question. Make it easy for them to respond, and then give them a reason that they want to get on the phone, get on the zoom, or come in for the tour. Not you rushing to. Hey, you wanted to get pricing information, you have to come in. You want to find out more, you have to come in. It wouldn't work for most of you listening. It's not working for a lot of customers either.

There's a better way. And sure, I've written about it and why are they ghosting me and stop selling and help them buy and all that, so. But I really want to get you guys to convert more because eventually you could put me out of a job if you could convert more leads and close more sales without me. I think I'm pretty secure for a while. So thanks for listening. And don't forget, ask Alan anything, my AI alter ego. If you had a question, just go to whatwoodalansay.com use the coupon code. Podcast starts at only 10 bucks a month.

You can ask me anything. Thanks.

I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or you can  text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com


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Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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