Negotiation skills are essential to wedding planning. Many couples would be surprised at the amount of money they could have saved with their wedding vendors if they had negotiated a little more than they did.
Fair negotiation benefits you and the vendor by bringing down the price to what makes sense for both parties. Depending on your flexibility and what you can offer to vendors, you can save money off your original budget. Here is how you do that.
● Confidence
Negotiation is about making the person realize the value of what you are offering in terms of finance, advantages, and benefits. Make a list of what you really want and other extras that you’re willing to do without to get the price down.
Be sure of what you’re willing to do without. If you’re asking for a lower price, expect the vendor to take away some of the package they are offering. So decide what is important to you and what you really want with each vendor.
● Finding The Right Person To Negotiate With
Be sure to negotiate with the right person capable of changing the price. Talk to the owner rather than an employee because it won’t bode well to deal with someone who doesn’t have the final say on the matter.
Many of our wedding professionals in New Mexico are small business owners so the person who will be doing the work is the owner. Be sure to know that and be honest about what you can do from your end too.
● Compliment Their Efforts – be easy to work with from the vendor standpoint.
When a vendor mentions his price, do not panic. Let them know that you can be flexible because you’d really love to work with them. Pinpoint why they need to lower the price so it can tally with what you have on your budget. But also realize that some vendors don’t have the ability to discount their pricing and it might not be possible to work with them. Ask the vendor for other pros who might be less expensive and a better fit for what you need.
• Be understanding and flexible.
Many vendors cannot come down on their pricing because of all the work involved on their side. Ask about what goes into their work so they can educate you on the process.
It might be that you decide to go outside your budget on one thing and then cut down somewhere else.
Ask them if there are any creative ways to make it work out too. Flexibility goes a long way toward finding a solution.
