Issue 57

FUNCTION VENUES
TRADE SECRETS
Pricing Myths Busted
£ £ £
Kelly Chandler tells it straight. If you’re doing any of these
things as the pathway to success, think again!
GETTY IMAGES
MYTH ONE - Keeping back the pricing
If you’ve been subscribing to the school of
tempt them in, wow them, make them fall in
love with your venue and then hit them with
your pricing, then this needs a rethink. I’ve
been talking about the need for transparent
and upfront pricing for wedding venues
for several years now and never has the
customer needed or demanded it more.
Quite simply, young (and increasingly
Gen Z wedding couples) are making their
shortlisting decisions from websites, social
media and what you put out there simply and
honestly. If you’re making it hard for them to
get a starting point understanding of what
their wedding with you will cost, then you’re
less and less likely to make their shortlist and
get their enquiry or convert it further.
And ‘hard’, by the way, means even asking
them for an email address – Gen Z are
increasingly valuing privacy and anonymity
and want to review what you’ve got before
raising their hands and revealing themselves.
MYTH TWO - Having multiple pricing/package
options
While having more than one package is often
good advice, it’s not the only way to run a
successful venue business. High/mid/low
season, shoulder season, midweek/weekend
pricing is all well and good.
Offering variable pricing for different
dates can often by the right option for some
venues, particularly where volume and filling
max dates is the key driver but it’s not the
only way to success. Looking first at business
goals and your desired business model
then setting pricing accordingly comes first
alongside not overcomplicating things for the
couple.
MYTH THREE - Intently mirroring competitor
venues
By all means follow along and make
comparisons (everyone does it) but don’t
assume that what your competitor does is
the right thing or that it is working for them.
Also, don’t fall into the trap of looking local
only – look broader and wider, your couples
often will be.
Venues are not like for like in any way
shape or form. Having worked on site with
hundreds of venues I know this for sure, and
couples know it too. Even if they are price
motivated and want to be in control of their
budget, there is much more to their decision.
BONUS INSIGHT
I often see team members, their managers
and leaders making pricing decisions based
on a lack of confidence in their worth and
value. When I say worth, that can be as a
venue but also as an individual person or
team. Our own money story and views on
money (conscious and unconscious) very
much comes into play here too. As a trained
NLP and mindset coach this is an area that
I work on with clients to support change in
perception for greater confidence in pricing
and selling.
If you’re curious and would like to know
more about working with me – whether
it’s realistic pricing and package reviewing
for your venue or working deeper on your
confidence around pricing – I’d love to talk.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kelly Chandler Wedding
Consulting is a wellestablished
diversificationinto-
weddings consultancy
helping the teams behind
unique venues to thrive in
the modern wedding market.
Kelly supports clients in a very
bespoke way, consulting to help them create
their best wedding offering, find their niche
ideal wedding clients, sell more effectively,
streamline systems and grow sustainably.
www.kellychandlerconsulting.co.uk
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