5 Ways to Vet New Vendors. It's scary inviting new businesses into your professional life. It is hard to know who to trust. Today I am sharing 5 tips on how to vet new vendors that you can introduce to your clients with confidence.
How to Vet New Vendors
Inviting new vendors into your business can be scary. It's difficult to know who to trust, and it can be scary to give your clients over to a team that you have not worked with in the past. In this podcast, I am sharing 5 tips for how to vet new vendors and determine whether or not you feel comfortable introducing them to your clients.
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YOUTUBE TIPS
*Grow Your Wedding Planning Business*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_66F9DDLtg
*Three Tips to Starting Your Own Wedding Planning Business*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EaFGc-dOxs
*Wedding Planner Masterclass Review*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WnUZVlcyNo
*How to Attract High-End Clients to Your Wedding Business*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WnUZVlcyNo
*How to Survive a Recession & Come Out Stronger*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrk1r9oxxrw
*Should You Expand Your Wedding Planning Business*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXAy6vzHkyk
*Top 10 Apps Your Wedding Business Needs*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0oQarH2BE0
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how do you vet
a new vendor how do you know if it is
safe to invite another business
into yours to invite them into your
professional life to invite them to
engage
with your clients in many ways working
with a new vendor
is like going on a first date it can go
really well
or it can be really awful and so today
we are going to talk about how
you can vet potential new
vendors to make sure that they are right
fit for you
and for your clients hello my friends
welcome back my name is andrea eppolito
and we are here today celebrating life
luxury and above all
else love if you are new to the channel
and you are a lover of all things
weddings events
lifestyle business thank you so much for
being here i'm glad that you found us
and i would love to have you subscribe
if you are a follower and you have been
with me for years thank you for being a
part of my community
thank you for giving me the honor and
the privilege of inviting me into your
business
and your life and i hope to give you
some great information today
about vendors so i have said
i don't i don't make anything i
i don't make bouquets i don't i don't
take pictures i don't cook food i don't
serve food i don't set the table
my job is as as a visionary as a
designer
as an artist is to find
the right vendor the right creative at
the right time
and put them with the right client so
that we can bring forth something
that didn't exist before and when you
see
that wedding planners work with the same
people over and over again
yes we do now why do we do that it's
because we have
a level of trust we have a shorthand
there's this dance
that perfects over time in terms of
how we move around each other in a space
how we communicate
what they expect from me what i expect
from them
and yet today one of the things that
we're finding
as we recover from covid and we move
into
a much more dynamic industry is
the fact that many of us are being
tasked with working
with new teams this could be because
your go-to photographer isn't available
it could be because your go-to venue
is booked there could be a million
reasons hopefully it's also because
you as a professional you as an artist
you as a designer are looking at the
world and understanding that it's
changed
and that there are things that we can do
that are new
you want to shake up and revitalize your
own business
and maybe somebody has caught your eye
on the internet maybe you've seen
something that you're like that's
that's cool that's interesting i want to
change that or i want to do that
but how do you know if it's safe how do
you know
if the thing you're seeing is real
and is legitimate so we're going to talk
about that today
the first thing that i do is i
go through if i'm looking for a new
vendor
there could be a million ways that i've
come across them instagram
client referral magazine but the first
thing that i do is i go
to their website because the website is
the only thing
that you as a business that you as a
creative
that you truly own you don't own
instagram you don't own youtube
you don't own a magazine and so your
website
is yours and i want to see
is this business it are they buttoned up
are they clean are they sharp are they
blogging
do they take ownership do they have
things like
policies usage privacy it seems silly
right like it seems silly that i as a
wedding planner care about whether or
not the rental company
has a copyright on their website but if
you as a vendor
are not taking care of your business
if you're not paying attention to the
thing that you own
which is the thing you should care about
then you will never take care of my
business
and so that is the first thing i do i go
through their website i want to make
sure
that i am working with somebody who is
business-minded enough
who understands the world enough and who
cares enough
to manage and maintain the thing that
they have
and that they can the second thing that
i do
is i go to their social now
yes i'm looking at their social feed and
i want to see
how is it curated how is it tagged where
are they giving credit
what are they saying a caption on social
is not just for a bride or a groom it's
not just for a corporation
in a very very real way if you're a
vendor and you're creative
the caption i want it to speak to me
and so if you're a planner or you're a
venue and you're looking to see
whether or not somebody is potentially a
good fit for your business
don't just look at the pictures read the
captions
in their social what are they saying how
do they
feel what are they talking about when
i mean this is they have a captive
audience they're speaking to the void
when they could say anything what are
they saying
does their vision align with yours do
they communicate
the same way number three is on the same
social on their instagram
i don't look at what they post i look at
what they've been tagged
in so are they being tagged
by the brides and grooms is the end user
is my
client excited about them to the point
where they're tagging them
in their images that says a lot i want
to know what other professionals
are tagging them in the images i want to
see
are magazines sharing their work our
blog sharing their work
are they being featured are venues
tagging them
because if they have a community of
professionals
that like them that respect them and
that are willing to share their work
then there's a very good chance that i
will feel the same way
if i respect the people and the brands
that are supporting this particular
vendor
and then i go through and i look who
have
who do we both know so it's it's really
hard to break into my particular circle
if nobody knows you like if i can't go
to somebody and say hey
have have you worked with this rental
company or hey have have you been
somewhere with this videographer have
you met them
at a whippa event have you met them at
engage do they participate in the not
like
if we don't know any of the same people
that's a red flag for me
so i want to see who do we know and then
i go to somebody that i can trust
and i say i'm debating working
with this person and i see they're in
your market
i see you've tagged them can you tell me
what your experience was
and i really want i want the bad and i
want the great
like i want i wish they didn't do this
but i
love that they do that because your deal
breaker
could really be no big deal for me or
something that doesn't bother you
can grate on my skin and like make me
lose my mind
so i want to hear all of it and i do
this
three or four times with three or four
different professionals so that
i can have a really good understanding
of what i may or may not
be stepping into and then the fifth and
final thing that i do
when i'm starting to vet a vendor is
i look for education which may or may
not seem silly
but i want to know is this particular
person
invested in being educated are they
attending conferences
are they speaking at conferences are
they posting about netflix
which i mean i like i love
but are they also posting about books
are they talking about things that
they've read
things that they've seen are they
sharing
who they are as a business are they are
they taking me behind the scenes
and reinforcing to me that yes their
business may be
5 10 15 years old but there is always
something new to learn
because somebody who's invested in
education is invested in growth is
invested in getting better
they will be invested in making me
better because they will come to the
table
with a whole kind of arsenal of
information
that's only going to better me and the
rest of the team so
once i go through that once i look at
their website
once i read their social captions once i
look at
who it is that they've worked with that
is excited to tag them
once i get actual references from other
people that i know and trust
and once i see whether or not they're
educated then i will make a decision
about whether or not
i want to go to the next level and the
next level
for me is never just booking but it's
always
a conversation and that conversation is
really really very simple it's this is
who i
am this is how i work this is what i
require
from my teams and from my partners
does this interest you i always give the
vendor
the freedom and the opportunity to walk
away and say
i don't like that work i don't do that
work i don't like those constraints
or to share with me i'd love that i love
this
but this is how i work can we work
together
and if we can then we try it sometimes
if i'm available i will ask if i could
go and like pop in on them and watch
them work or watch them do something
but a lot of times my vendors are coming
in from out of state i don't always have
the opportunity
to do that but what i do have and what
i'm required to do
is to research to develop an idea of who
they are
to test it with other wedding planners
and then
to take a shot because all of this is
risky
but you never know you might be really
wildly surprised because some of my
favorite vendors started out as new ones
so i hope that that helps you as we move
forward there's going to be a lot of
team shake-ups we're going to see a lot
of new people coming together
and i'm excited about the prospect i'm
excited about the energy
that we're all going to bring to each
other and to the work and so
until next time celebrating life luxury
and above all else love i am andrea
eppelito if you have any questions
about vetting vendors if you have any
questions about anything
leave them in the comments below i am
always engaged there i always try to
read respond get back to as many of you
as i can because this channel exists for
you and i'm super excited to answer all
of your questions again
next week i'll talk to you soon