Wedding Business Solutions

What are you doing to fill holes in your calendar?

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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What are you doing to fill holes in your calendar?

Do you know how to fill last-minute cancellations or unbooked dates? Are discounts necessary to attract last-minute bookings, or is there a better way? In this episode, I discuss strategies to attract couples booking closer to their event date and share how to market these openings effectively without sounding desperate.

Listen to this new 6-minute episode for tips on marketing unbooked dates and adding value without resorting to discounts.

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 


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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:

©2024 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

What are you doing to fill holes in your calendar that are coming up closer? Hi, it's Alan Berg. Thanks for coming to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. This is another ask me anything suggestion, this time from Ripley, who I've known and worked with for quite a while. So thank you for the suggestion here. And what they write is we know that vendors are usually booked twelve to 18 months ahead of time. What strategy do you recommend to fill holes due to cancellations are never booked in your calendar when you're two to six months out? I've let my local planners know, but unless a couple of venue closes, I don't think I will hear from them. Just don't know what the best way to reaching these couples and do I need to offer a discount? So two questions over there, which is how do you reach people? And this is not just for weddings. This could be for corporate events and other things. 


How do you fill the holes in your calendar that either because of a cancellation or because you just never booked that date and they're coming up short term? So it's actually a timely thing here. Ripley. So thank you for asking this. I've been hearing from a lot of people that for weddings, couples are waiting later to book closer to the event. So that's actually good news for you that people are thinking of doing that. This is partly because of the COVID hangover. It's partly because of something called the wedding gap, which is people that didn't get to meet during COVID therefore they didn't get engaged, therefore they're not getting married. And then other people just coming off of that and thinking, hey, we just want to get this done sooner. 


Or planning, planning, planning, planning, planning. And now we just decided we want to do this. Now we don't want to wait twelve months, 18 months, like typical. So some of this comes down to marketing. And let me address two things here. Should you be offering a discount if somebody's booking you two months, four months, six months out? In your mind you're like, do whatever I have to do to book this date. But think about this. If somebody is booking six months out, they're also in a position where they're going to have trouble finding vendors and venues and all the things that they need for their event, whether it's a wedding, a corporate event, or whatever. 


So if it's a popular date still and as a whole in your calendar, somebody comes to you and they're interested, I don't think that you need to discount. I to try to fill that you certainly don't want to be, you know, sounding desperate because, you know, sharks smell blood in the water and they'll take you for everything that you're willing to give there. So I think you talk about the results that you can do, and you try to close that sale just like you should do, whether it's six months, 18 months, 24 months out, you should try to close that sale now. But do you have to give them an incentive? I don't think so. I always prefer added value as opposed to discounts. If you did want to make them an incentive, what else can you give them that's going to not cost you that much, but have a value for them and the experience for them and their guests? I always prefer that to discounting because every dollar you discount without taking something of value back is profit you're giving away, and we don't want to give away profit. So let's, let's just start with that. So how do you market that? I think you just have to be known. 


I've seen venues that have put on their calendar, hey, we still have 2024 dates of. We only have four. Here they are. Right. In your case, Ripley, I know you don't do that many events compared to some of my clients who do many times more events than you do. But I don't think that matters. I don't think people would know that if you say, hey, we still have four dates available in 2024, that's putting out there. You know what? If you want to move to this year from next year, you have that opportunity to do so. 


You should be in a good position versus your competitors in that they're probably booked on some of those dates that you're available. And if somebody is willing to do that date or wants that month, I think you become sometimes the only choice. Should you be discounting when you're the only choice? I don't think so. So put it right on your website. We still have 2024 dates available. Here they are. Here's the three dates or whatever. I wouldn't put up that you have, you know, 28 dates available in 2024. 


That sounds a little bit like nobody wants to book you, but if it's a handful, if you want to put a handful at a time, that's okay. And then if somebody comes in, you could then tell them about other dates, but you want to attract them by saying, hey, we still have some. If you feel you want to do an incentive on top of that, can you do added value? Not everybody can. Not everybody has something they can add, but can you do added value? And sometimes that added value is an intangible, like more time. If you charge for overtime or charge for coming in early or things like that, you can give that because there's still a dollar value you can associate with that. If there are services that you can do or products that would be sitting on the shelf that you can throw in. Again, doesn't cost you. Dollar for dollar has an intrinsic value. 


And you can say, here you go. I have a client who will do that. Not in terms of putting the dates up, but telling people if you book on their first appointment, when you come in, you get all these extra things and they're putting it right on the website and they're telling people that right upfront. I would even when you make the appointment, say, bring your credit card or your checkbook with you or your zelle or your venmo or whatever you take, because if you book, if you decide we're the right fit, you're going to get these incentives if you book us when you come in that day. So you're letting people know. And I think the transparency here is what, what I'm really bringing this down to Ripley is I think put it on your website, put it out there in your marketing, put it in your social ads and the other things that you're doing. And I, maybe the person that sees it isn't the one, but they might tell somebody else, hey, you're still looking for a date in 2024. This venue, this vendor, whatever, I just saw that they still have it there. 


I would balance that with the great reviews that you guys have. So they're not, you're not looking desperate. You're just saying, hey, just want to let you know that this is available. So thanks for the ask me anything suggestion. I encourage rest of you, if you want to ask me anything, might become something I put at the end of an episode or might be a full episode like this. Go to podcast, allenburg.com and just click the button right over there on that page and you can make your suggestion there. And thanks for listening. See you on the next episode.


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.

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©2024 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com


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Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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