Nurturing your dream team

I talk a lot about the importance of team collaboration and team spirit in running a successful wedding venue in the modern wedding market.  And my blog today is sticking to that theme, by giving you some inspiration for nurturing and securing the ongoing loyalty of your absolute dream wedding team.

So what do I mean by your dream team? I’m talking here not about your internal team (although they are vitally important too) but about your extended team of hard-working wedding professionals who make your venue come to life, make it sparkle, make it work and deliver the complete wedding picture.  Enter the florists, the production companies, the cake designers, the photographers and more.

How do you reward your loyal regular suppliers who go above and beyond for you and your clients every season?

I know the obvious answer is that you reward them with regular recommendations and client bookings (via the presence of your venue and it’s leading the way in the wedding planning journey) – it’s vital.  Yet how about extending a small thank you and ensuring those suppliers can continue to serve you as their businesses grow, are loyal to you and put you first amongst their commitments and their own industry recommendations?

In the months (such as November and January-March) outside of the crazy wedding season, how about laying on a small but valuable thank you event on a quiet weekday evening or daytime (dependent on your audience and location) and treating them to some of your venue’s hospitality?  A chance to socialise with your in-house team and hear about your latest projects and aims is almost certain to lead to business opportunities as you explore synergies further, as is a chance for them to see the venue in action outside of their usual “event set up” mode.

An extension of this would be to invest in an external speaker or two who would really interest your audience, increase their knowledge and give them an extra incentive to attend. In general, lots of wedding businesses are small owner-led enterprises and expert talks on things like ‘the latest in social media tips or ‘understanding SEO’ or a coach to talk ‘business goal setting for 2018’ would be incredibly valuable and so very much appreciated.

My new team member Gemma McGrath formerly of De Vere Group did just this in her venue. As she describes:

“Whether you’re working for a hotel giant or a small independently owned wedding venue, the fundamentals to a successful and united team are ultimately the same.

Investing an element of focus to the wedding professionals, which support you as a business, and collaborating your teams to demonstrate your goals as a venue is invaluable.

In the era in which we now live, most are aware of how significant the internet, social media and creating a virtual audience is. With this in mind, your wedding professionals are continuously busy perfecting and driving for their own results in this competitive environment and sometimes struggle to keep up with the demands of running a successful business.

By holding a networking event amongst your team, this isn’t only a great way to encourage them to share amongst themselves tips on their own individual successes, however also creates a stable platform to help build each other’s businesses.

By also including key speakers such as an SEO specialist, this will create some added value to benefit all, no matter which level they are working from. This will offer knowledge in simple and easily digestible chunks on how SEO works, how this can help grow audience awareness of their brand and most importantly will encourage your team members to link and work together to increase each others SEO’s, whilst demonstrating the importance of frequent posting, sharing and liking each other’s work to help enhance one another’s growth within the industry.”

Those who demonstrate a “give before gain” attitude win every time in the modern world of business and this is never truer than in the world of weddings.  What can your special place initiate to encourage and make the most of its best talent and their businesses?

If you’d like help hosting an exceptional event for your incredible dream team of suppliers, get in touch.

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The Italian Villa // Cancer Be Glammed // Etsy // Not On The High Street // Yegwed