"The Preferred Vendor"

                                             “The Preferred Vendor”

 

Let me ask you a question.  Have you ever purchased a product or service and been so happy with it that you couldn’t wait to tell everyone you knew about it?  Of course you have.  Maybe it was your new phone or laptop.  Maybe it was a kitchen item, an oven or microwave perhaps.  Or maybe it was an interior decorator, painter or other home remodeling professional that completely exceeded your expectations and as a result, you’re still talking about it today and sharing the information with whomever will listen.

Well, that, my friends, is called a referral and it’s the way professionals have been doing and building their businesses for hundreds of years.  By the same token, if you’ve ever had a bad experience, you know as sure as you’re reading this that bad news travels a whole lot faster than good news does – and so it is when a person has a bad experience – be it a bad meal at a restaurant, a horrible stay at a hotel or resort or a rude cashier at the home improvement center, people hear about it fast!

And that brings me to the subject of this article – the wedding referral.  I want to start out by saying that as with all of my articles, this one is also meant to be informative, interesting and designed to make a point – to get you thinking and hopefully get you to see the business of weddings from another perspective.  And as always, it's unbiased advice, good for no matter what vendor you hire.

As a bride-to-be, you are focused on planning your event.  You want it to be perfect, flawless, memorable and hopefully fun.  You’re not thinking about the vendors that you are interviewing from a business standpoint – you’re not seeing the business the way we see the business – nor should you be.  After all, this wedding will hopefully be your only wedding, we on the other hand have multiple weddings every weekend – it’s our business.  With that said, let me get to the point of this post.

In the first two paragraphs, I’ve covered the definition of a referral.  Now let me describe what a “preferred vendor” is, because as you’ll soon see, a preferred vendor can be very different from a referral. 

One trend that many wedding facilities have gone to is putting out a bridal brochure.  In this brochure you’ll find ads varying in size from a business card size ad to full page advertising, with each vendor, from bridal salons, florists, photographers and disc jockeys, to bartenders and limo companies selling their wares.  Most of the time, these brochures are very nicely done with proper ad layout and a nice glossy finish, overall a very nice and professional looking product – and it should be because these ads usually cost the advertiser $500.00 and up!

That’s right, the vendors in that brochure were not put there out of the kindness of the wedding facilities heart – it’s not a simple referral, it’s a money maker for the company producing the brochure and the vendors who are featured PAID to be there.  So now you clearly see the difference between a professional referral and a preferred vendor referral.  One is given because of a job well done, a great reputation and professionalism, the other is what we in the business call “Pay-To-Play”.

 

Now does that mean that the vendors featured therein are not great vendors?  No, it does not.  Christy and I have participated in these brochures in the past and our reputation is rock solid – but what if some of the really great vendors choose not to participate in the advertising brochure?  It means that you are not going to hear about those vendors, you’re going to be told only about those who are participating in the program, the ones who ‘paid-to-play’.  I don’t know exactly when this trend caught on and I don’t know why the facilities that participate in these brochures are so fond of the brochure in the first place – what I do know is that as a bride or groom, in a sense, you are being cheated by not being given the names of some of the best entertainers and vendors that are out there.  We feel it's a little dishonest on the part of the facility and are opposed to the brochures overall.

 

Let’s be clear, however.  Some facilities will hand you a list of vendors that they absolutely love to work with, simply typed out on a sheet of paper, who did not pay a single dime and they sometimes refer to that list as a preferred vendor list – that’s different and it’s okay because now you know the difference.  If, however you are handed a superbly done, glossy brochure with advertising inside from the vendors, you know you are holding a listing of vendors that paid to be in it. It's a publication not merely a professional referral.

 

So why did I feel the need to write this article?  Well, recently, some of the best wedding facilities that we enjoyed working at have now gone to this system.  This system excludes any vendor who declines to participate and as a result you are not getting a list of the best – you are getting a list of those who paid!  Think about it, as an owner/operator of a wedding entertainment company, if I were to be charged $500.00 or more for every wedding facility that I wish to be “referred” at, I wouldn’t be able to afford to stay in business because I would be writing checks all year long just for the opportunity to have “preferred vendor” status.  This is also one of the reasons that wedding vendors prices have risen of the past decade – the vendor is passing this added cost on to YOU!

And to be honest, as an entertainer, I can tell you that in the 23 years that I have been doing this, I have only gotten one or two weddings from these “brochures” – bottom line, this type of advertising simply does not work for me. There is no return on my investment because my business comes primarily by word of mouth. And because we have been blessed with outstanding couples and outstanding performances over the years, our company sells itself – and for that we are grateful. I must say that being excluded from being referred to prospective clients because I chose not to be extorted really does bother me and its just not fair to the bride and groom who are shopping for the best they can find or afford. Of course the bigger companies can afford to do this all day long and it really hurts the little guys out there - I'm just trying to educate my clients and level the playing field here.

 

So to close, the best advice that I can give to a couple looking to begin their search for wedding vendors is this: when you are visiting the facilities and gathering information about pricing, food choices, vendor referrals, etc. – remember what I just taught you about ‘referral’ vs. ‘preferred vendor’, and come right out and ask them if the vendors in this brochure paid to be in it. If the answer is yes, *(and you already know that it is yes), then your next question should be: "Do you also have a list of the other vendors that chose not to participate that you have worked with in the past?"  I bet their jaw will hit the floor!   You will show that you are an educated couple and you may even be handed a list of outstanding entertainers who were smart enough to say no to extortion.  If they tell you they do not know any vendors who declined the brochure, they are lying to you!! If enough brides ask about this, the wedding brochure may even go the way of the dinosaur.

So, remember - not every wedding vendor can afford to, or wishes to, participate in costly advertising, especially when they don't need to.  I'm sharing this information to educate you, the client.  It's my way of getting the real story out there as to why weddings have gotten so unbelievably expensive and why some things in the business work the way they do.  Now that you know how the wedding brochure works, it's up to you to dig a little deeper and ask a few more questions that just may score you a fantastic vendor who won't have to pass the cost of his advertising on to you!!

As always, best wishes for a great wedding and check  back often for the next informative article.

 

 

Ron