Let me see a show of hands from those of you who meet your clients at a local coffee shop, or deli? Now let me see a show of hands that have a quiet place like your studio, home, or rented meeting space? I am going to share with you our experience with both and how each location affected our meetings.
When we first started our company we had a space set up in our basement that had our “office”. It worked for us at the time as we both were working other jobs full time and this gave a way for us to work from home and still spend time with our family. Our first 2 years we spend meeting clients at area coffee shops, deli’s, bookstores, etc… We knew where all the Starbucks were in the Indianapolis Metro area.
To be honest, we hated ever minute of having to meet clients this way. It is very difficult to talk and listen as these places can get quite loud. I remember one time the mother of the bride got pretty upset as they couldn’t hear the video we were trying to show them on our laptop. I don’t think we ever booked a job on the spot in those situations.
You are probably asking why we didn’t set something up at our home to meet with clients. Partly because we live a good distance out in the country and our house is hard to find. The other part was we didn’t want a bunch of strangers in our home. We do know some in the industry locally that do have clients come to their home. Some have a space set up just for that reason, while others just meet at their kitchen table or living room. If you meet your clients in your home and have a nice place set up just for your client meetings, that is great! If you don’t have a designated place set up I encourage you to make a specific room your client meeting space – it will make you look that much more professional.
I have heard from clients that have met others at their homes and they said they didn’t seem very professional as they met in the living room and there were kids toys around and dinner cooking and they felt like they were intruding.
We found our current space a full year before we actually took the plunge and rented it. We knew it was the direction we wanted to go. Why you ask? Yearger Properties, who owns/manages the building, has several buildings around the Indianapolis Metro area. The rent for spaces starts at $300 and goes up depending on the size of the space. The cool thing, and what drew us in, was that we can reserve the conference room in any of the buildings 24/7. We inquired about just renting the conference rooms on an as needed basis, but it would be cheaper in the long run to just rent an office space and have the option to use the conference room in any of their 5 locations (soon to be 7).
Conference Room at Noblesville Office Suites
With our initial space in the building, we always met with clients in the conference room first. Then, if things were progressing to a potential booking, we would ask them if they would like to come see our “Studio” and view our work. We would then invite them in, put in some sample dvds and chat.
After moving into the space and meeting clients in the building we saw an increase in our bookings 500% in 1 year. After adding another work station, our little space became more and more cramped, so w moved into another space within the same building. This space is about double what we had, and we created an actual “client meeting area” within the office space.
part of our “Studio” where we meet clients and show our work
We don’t use the conference room very much anymore. We realized that our initial reason for picking this space was the convenience of multiple locations to meet, but to be honest, we have only used that option a few times. We meet with clients in our “Studio” 99% of the time.
We just recently learned of another option in our area for event professionals to meet their clients. It is called L’Evento. They have a library of event professionals and brides can meet with them, view their work, and get their contact info. As an event professional you pay a monthly fee, $85. -$162.
Some friends of ours, SB Childs Photography, belong to L’Evento and it is working well for them. Stefanie told me, “We feel like our clients trust us more. We used to feel like we had to sell ourselves in spite of our meeting location, but now, the building gives that trust, and the clients are sold as soon as they step in the door.” This is a great option if you want to save some money on space and still work from home, and many cities have similar arrangements. Ask around with other wedding professionals in your market to see if they’ve heard of one local to you.
Another option is to see if there are any local event professionals that would like to go in on a space together.
As wedding professionals, we need to portray and convey that we are professionals. If you invest in a great client meeting area, you will see an increase in bookings, and more bookings on the spot. We now close 95% of our deals after the first meeting in the studio versus 0% instantly in coffee shops. Overall, our percentage of bookings went from 50% to 95% after acquiring our current location.
Meeting with clients over coffee a the local coffee shop is fine after you have booked them. :->
Wishing you a great 2010 for your business. Hope to see you at the IN[FOCUS] Event January 18-20 in Austin.
Jennifer Moon
Northernlight Filmworks
