How to plan your wedding venue showround process

Image by Becky Harley Photography

The aim of this blog is to help you review your existing venue showround process and create one from scratch if you don’t have one yet. 

We know that couples rarely book a venue without seeing it in person, and nothing can beat that feeling of seeing them soak it all in and hear their discussions as their vision and ideas all start falling into place in your venue. This is an important stage in your client’s journey (stage 4 Active Evaluation), and it’s all about making it personal and creating a connection. 

Preparing for a showround 

Touch base with them a couple of days before to confirm the appointment and make sure they have any directions they need. 

Make sure you the venue is ready, this means that any team members working on site know showrounds are taking place, lighting and heating is set to appropriate levels, light candles and play background music to help create atmosphere. Unlock any doors or gates before they arrive. 

You don’t need to have the venue fully set up, but good quality images on an iPad or printed on foam boards can help couples who struggle to visualise how to fill the space. 

Alongside this prepare any refreshments, make sure your iPad is charged if used for image galleries, and read over their enquiry and emails to remind yourself of any key bits of information that could help you build rapport by suggesting appropriate ideas and answering questions before they come up. 

During the showround 

Take it slowly, make sure you book each viewing with enough time for the couple to explore the venue alone as well as with you. Followed by time for refreshments and answering any questions if they wish. I recommend giving them the iPad when they walk through alone so that they can look at inspiration for each room. 

I recommend the initial tour follows the guests journey as if it were the wedding day to help them understand how the day will flow and what areas can be used for different parts of the day. When walking through the venue tell them your venues story, why and how it became a venue and anything unique that adds interest. 

This showround is all about creating a connection both with the venue and yourself. Engage with them, ask them all about how they met, the engagement, their vision for the day. They will feel valued and like you genuinely want to be part of their day as opposed to just trying to make a sale. I would also recommend having a list of questions or conversation prompts with you should you need it to help get the conversation flowing. 

During the last part of the appointment ask them the top 3 things they want for the day. Ask to see a Pinterest board if they have one so that you can help recommend suppliers with a similar style. You can also ask them about budgets at this stage to help with making suggestions on suppliers or package options. Finally, talk dates before the meeting is over, while they are unlikely to put a deposit down there and then, you can pencil in a date for a limited time such as two weeks to allow time for them to discuss it and you to follow up with any further information or quotes. 

Give them something physical to leave with, a well-designed brochure or information pack with further details and supplier brochures in.   

After the showround 

Follow up, send over any quotes, recommendations or links to your gallery. If they mentioned wanting to bring family members back before booking send over some dates to help get it booked in.  

Lastly, track the enquiry in your CRM, or if you don’t have one yet, use a spreadsheet. Knowing how many of your enquiries make it to showrounds, and then how many convert into bookings is such a powerful thing to know. This information means that you can analyse where changes or improvements can be made to your sales process to optimise conversions 

If you’re unsure about creating your venue showround process, or want to give it a refresh drop me a message and let’s talk about how I can help you, whether that’s a one hour boost call, a full day on site going over your processes, or signing up to work longer term with me.