Boosting Your Site Tour Success Rate: Tips for Wowing Potential Couples

Last time, I talked about the importance of knowing your Site Tour Success Rate.

As I mentioned, I believe you should be completing the sale in at least 50% of your site tours. And your goal should be an 80% success rate.

Why?
Because your site tour is your best chance to wow potential couples. You AND your venue get to work together to show up and show out. You have the couple in front of you. If you ask the right questions, their words and their body language will tell you all you need to know to make the sale.

Here are 3 things you can do if your Site Tour Success Rate is below 50%:

1) Make sure your pricing is clear and available to the couple before they come out.
There is no bigger waste of time than doing a whole tour and only then finding out that the couple just doesn’t have the budget to make it work.

2) Make sure the right person is doing the site tours.
This is a big one, y’all. Often, not enough attention is given to who does the tour. I’ve even had venues say, “Whoever is on-site handles it. We all know where the barn is and how to open it for the couple.”

Um, what?
Opening the door to the venue is the least of your worries! Your site tour should be a choreographed dance—making sure you aren’t just “letting them see the property” but telling a story of their event. The right person should be able to ask great questions to first find out what kind of event the couple wants and then highlight the areas and features of the venue that will make that happen.

And hear me say this: the person doing the site tour needs to be intuitive. They need to READ THE PEOPLE. They need to be able to spot the little moments where a bride gets excited or where a MOB is hesitant. They need to pick up on cues and seamlessly lead the conversation in the direction it should go. The site tour-er needs to know when to talk and, sometimes even more, when to step away and give the couple or the family space.

3) After the tour, have some drinks and snacks ready for the couple to nosh on while you talk details.
This seems obvious, but you’d be amazed at how often it’s missed. This small sign of hospitality sets the tone for what can otherwise be a stressful conversation. If you can make sure it’s a delightful spread made by the chef who also makes your food, even better!

There’s a lot that goes into this and I’ll be talking about more in upcoming posts. Because it’s that important.

Great site touring is a skill and it should be highly, highly valued. It’s about way more than who knows where the keys are.

TO DO FOR YOU:

Are you doing the 3 things above really well with each tour? Look honestly at that and decide on 1–2 improvements you could make to this critical part of your business.