Wedding Business Solutions

More leads is not your goal!

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 11:22

Is more always better when it comes to leads? What would happen if you focused on quality over quantity, and spent more time following up with the inquiries you already have, rather than trying to get even more? In this episode, I challenge you to reconsider your goal: are you drowning in leads but struggling with conversion? I’ll hint at smarter ways to qualify inquiries, use technology for better follow-up, and look in the mirror before blaming your sources. What if better conversion—and not sheer volume—was actually the key to your success?

Listen to this new 9-minute episode for a practical perspective on how smarter follow-up and better conversion can help you get more business from the leads you’re already getting.

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/


Are you going to Wedding MBA? Use the promo code - Alan - to save $20 off your tickets, at www.WeddingMBA.com 

And don't worry, if you can't use your tickets this year, they're transferrable or you can hold them to use next year.

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

More Leads is not your goal. Yes, I’m talking about this one again. Listen to where we’re going. Hey, it’s Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast.

Yes, I’ve spoken about this before, but this keeps coming up again and again in conversations I’m having with people just like you around the world trying to do wedding and event businesses—or really any kind of business.

More leads should not be your goal. Leads are not sales. Leads are just filling up your inbox.

Leads are filling up your CRM or whatever system you’re using for that. Your goal is better conversion.

If you could focus your marketing better and get fewer leads—but they’re better—and follow up with those leads in a different way. Because this is the thing I’m hearing the most: what was working not that long ago isn’t working now with today’s couples, today’s clients, people in general.

So do you really want to fill your inbox with more and more leads, or do you want to have more phone calls, more appointments, more tours, more meetings—either in person or virtually—so you can talk to them about the results that only you can provide for them?

That should be your goal.

If you had to pick one thing to work on—and I know the last episode talked about getting started, not finishing, but getting started—if I were to challenge you today, the thing to get started on is looking at the leads you’re getting and saying, wait a minute, could I get fewer of these?

The people that I never should be talking to. Maybe it’s a price thing and you have no price on your website, no price in your ads, and you’re getting a lot of people reaching out who can’t afford you.

Or maybe you do have pricing, but it’s not so clear, so people don’t understand and they’re reaching out.

Or maybe the leads are coming through sources that don’t have pricing on them, like Pinterest or Instagram, where there’s no price there. They see a beautiful picture, read a great story, like the voice they’re hearing, and they reach out.

The way you follow up with them is really the key. It’s the conversion.

The lead has already proven to you that they’re interested. They’re starting the conversation. You’re not starting it.

They’re saying, “I like what I’ve seen, read, heard, watched, personally experienced,” whatever, “and I put you on this short list of people I’m reaching out to.”

You just have to do it better than them.

What’s that old story? If you’re in the forest with a bunch of people and a bear starts chasing you, you don’t have to run faster than the bear—you just have to run faster than the slowest person.

Here, you just have to be better than the handful they’ve reached out to. Not better than everybody. By the time they reach out, everybody isn’t a choice anymore. It’s only this small group.

So do you really want more and more and more leads?

Most of my clients, most of the people I talk to, are drowning in leads. Unless you’re brand new—and some of you are—more leads are just going to cause more problems, because it’s going to make it harder for you to follow up.

If there’s anything that’s going to give you better conversion, it’s better follow-up.

Can you use technology? Absolutely. Automations, AI—definitely ways to use technology. I’m using both.

If you inquire through my website, you’re going to get responses. But as soon as you respond to that response, that turns off and I have to pick up.

Then there’s something like Venue XAI, which I’ve talked about, where I’m consulting with them. We’ve trained that on my best practices and my books, where it will have the conversation for you. There are other systems out there, I’m sure, but this is one I’m consulting with.

You can definitely use technology for that.

But just imagine if you got fewer inquiries and followed up more times with them.

Think about a wet sponge. You squeeze it, you get water. You squeeze it again, you get water again, until there’s none left.

That’s a much better plan than trying to get more water on the sponge without being able to squeeze it again and again.

Some people don’t respond the first time, or the second, or the third, or the fourth, or the fifth, or the sixth, or the seventh, or the eighth. The people who keep following up are the ones who get those people.

Yes, there are fewer of them as time goes on, because more have made decisions. But the ones who haven’t—nobody else is reaching out at that point.

From our secret shopping, I can tell you the average number of follow-ups is just over two.

Over 50% give up after one response.

Getting out to four, five, six—whether through automation, AI, or doing it yourself—that’s how you get more business.

Just yesterday I got a response from someone who filled out my form months ago. They’re still getting emails from me. They got another email and responded. That could have been number five, six, seven.

I’ve had people respond on number eight. I’ve added nine and ten now.

That’s a better plan than trying to get more leads.

Following up with people who have already shown interest is a better use of your time than trying to get new people to show interest—because you’re already getting new people.

Do you need more of them? No.

You need to work the ones you have better. That’s the key.

This isn’t cold calling.

I did cold calling for 10 years—driving around, knocking on doors just like yours, trying to see if there was interest.

I was smart about it. I only knocked on the doors of wedding and event businesses. These were people who might want to advertise. I looked to see who was advertising in other magazines or places so I knew they were already investing in advertising.

But you weren’t expecting me. You didn’t ask me to come in. That’s cold calling.

I wish all I had to do all day was respond to people who had already shown interest. How much easier would that have been than driving 30,000 miles a year knocking on doors?

A lot easier.

So the easier thing is to invest the time, money, people, and technology in responding to the inquiries you already have—more and better—than throwing more money at TikTok, Instagram, and other places trying to get more leads.

Over the years I’ve helped so many people get more from the leads they’re already getting—whether from WeddingWire or other sources—just by responding differently.

If what you’re doing isn’t working, don’t blame the source. The source is doing its job: advertising.

This is coming from a guy who used to be VP of sales of the largest wedding website in the world. I’ve consulted with others around the world, and I published wedding magazines.

Advertising is not about the ad. It’s about the audience. That’s what you’re buying access to.

If you put lousy content in front of a good audience, don’t expect a good response.

If you’re getting leads from your website or other sources and they’re not responding well, your site or ad did its job—it got people to tell you they’re interested.

It’s like a relay race. The baton got handed to you. If you drop it, that’s on you, not on them.

Don’t blame your website.

Could it be your website’s fault? Yes—if you didn’t put the right photos or wording there, if you haven’t updated it, if you haven’t kept up with SEO or optimizing for AI, or adding fresh content.

All of that affects whether you even get the lead.

But if you got the lead, your site did its job with the tools it had at the time. Don’t blame it. Don’t blame WeddingWire, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook.

The first place to start when something isn’t working is to look in the mirror.

If it’s not working, it’s my fault. What can I do differently to get a different result? That’s the place to start.

So—more leads?

I don’t think that should be your goal.

Very few people I know need more leads. If everyone who reached out converted to a sale, could you even handle the work? Probably not.

I meet very few people where that’s the case.

If you’re getting a ton of leads and you can’t handle the work—dates are booked, you run out of people, equipment, inventory, whatever—stop looking for more leads.

You’re probably getting enough.

Pay attention to the leads you’re getting. Look at how you can get better conversion.

Can you use automation? Can you use AI? Can you use tools to help you respond better?

Just like the last episode said, the goal isn’t to finish—the goal is to get started.

Get started today working on better conversion, not on getting more leads.

You’re probably getting enough.

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:

©2026 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com


Head Shot

Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

Host