Are you struggling with clients who have champagne tastes on a beer budget? May Yeo Silvers dives into the common challenge of unrealistic client budgets in event planning, prompted by a controversial Instagram post that highlighted the mismatch between client budget expectations and the reality of event costs.
May argues that it’s unrealistic to expect clients to have an inherent understanding of the true costs in events. Instead, she suggests that it’s the event professionals’ responsibility to educate their clients, pushing back against the trend of outright rejecting inquiries with lower budgets.
To manage expectations effectively, May incorporates detailed pricing in her marketing materials to set clear expectations upfront. For those clients who still come with lower budgets, a detailed questionnaire is used to educate them on the spot, aligning expectations and fostering appreciation, which often leads to referrals.
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Quotes
• “There’s so many event planners and designers out there sharing on social media that they are frustrated that they got inquiries from potential clients, giving them a budget that is so unrealistic. This is what we call the champagne taste beer budget leads. They are so unrealistic about how much money they want to spend on the event based on the look that they want.” (02:41 | May Silvers)
• “I don’t expect my potential client to know how much it costs to do an event. And I also don’t expect my potential clients to do their own research, to talk to 10 million people, to call vendors to find out how much things cost… They come to me because they want to be able to not have to do all that themselves.” (06:29 | May Silvers)
• “What do I do in order to avoid wasting my time and energy on people who aren’t qualified, who do not have a realistic event budget? I talk about money all the time. I make their job easier. I make their research easier. Every single marketing piece that I am putting out there on my social media, on my website, or on my podcast, anything that my potential client is consuming or following me, I will take the opportunity to educate my potential clients. (06:57 | May Silvers)
• “You cannot expect your potential client to have a realistic budget because what is realistic for them is not realistic for you. You are the professional. You know how much things cost; they don’t.” (11:40 | May Silvers)
Links
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Connect with May at: [email protected]
Website: www.mayyeosilvers.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayyeosilvers/
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IG: www.instagram.com/mayyeosilvers
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FB private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/events4anyone
