4 Coronas for FREE!
Perhaps you’ve noticed that I love to negotiate and most of all when it involves a free beer or two.
Well today we were checking out wedding venues (again) for Shaun and Stephanie’s forthcoming wedding later this year and it was a fun time of negotiating.
It never ceases to amaze me how some people succeed in business when they don’t even take care of the basics. We had arranged appointments at 3 venues and NOT ONE of them had written down the appointment time, who they were meeting and a contact number. Not one! (And we were HOT prospects!)
At the first venue, the manager was not even on site when he told us he would be. It was probably the most modern and elegant venue in the city of Orange but it was a real challenge to do business with them. The manager was arrogant and rather difficult to discuss our needs with. We had to go back twice to talk to him. When we did some more research into this venue we found that although the venue was great, there was more than one report of poor food and service that we came across. As you can imagine, we didn’t end up booking that venue.
At the second venue we were confronted with a muddle headed proprietor who once again had no idea how to present her venue in a way which would instil confidence in someone who was considering spending a considerable amount of money with her.
The 3rd option was in a beautiful historic building, but unfortunately the room was so poorly designed that it was unsuitable for the number of guests we were expecting.
That’s when we got onto the mobile phone to ring a number of venues in Mudgee which was about 1.5 hours drive away. Given that it was after lunch when we rang and had a considerable distance to drive, everyone was very helpful and was willing to stay back for us and show us their venues.
We crammed in visits to 4 more venues until about 7pm and then headed to the restaurant of the venue which was our first choice for the wedding.
The reason it was our first choice, was because the functions manager went out of their way to show us all of the facilities and assure us that they would do their very best to make our function a great success. The venue provided both function facilites, an excellent backdrop for photos and accommodation for our guests.
When we suggested that we may want to fly the bride in by helicopter, they weren’t fazed and showed us where the chopper could land. Nothing was too much trouble and we made a booking on the spot.
The meal in the restaurant was excellent too, so we were sure we had chosen a good venue.
Once we had eaten, we were all very tired and we still had a long drive back to Bathurst and then to Portland so I went over to the counter to pay. This is when I jokingly said to the cashier: “we are looking to hold my daughter’s wedding reception here and that’s why we had dinner here tonight. I was told that if we eat here, we would receive a discount. What can you do for us?”
She looked at me in amazement and said: “Oh well, in that case you can have the beers for FREE”. We had 4 Coronas which were shown on the menu at $9 each so that was a $36 discount. Given that the food bill was $117.50, this represents a massive 30% discount. That’s quite good in my books. What do you think? Would that work for you?
The important question to ask yourself is: “how hard was it to ask?”
I’m sure you’ll agree that it wasn’t hard at all. It just meant mustering the courage to ask. Now I agree that can be hard at first, however the rewards for mustering the courage can be significant.
Another important question to ask yourself is: “what’s the worst that could have happened by asking?”
Once again I’m sure you’ll probably agree with me that the worst that could have happened was that the cashier could have said something like, “Sorry I’m not able to give discounts.”
While I would have persisted, I always keep the saying in mind: “You can’t lose something you never had.”
Technorati Tags: business coaching, negotiating, wedding venues
Warm Regards,
Hans Jakobi - Australia's Wealth Coach
Good luck for your daughters wedding here in Mudgee it is a magical place and so are the people.
Love
Rick and Denise Newbury
Thanks guys. We really love going to Mudgee and yes the people are great. It’s really worth spending some time in Mudgee and having a good look around at the wineries and surrounding area.
We also like going to the Mudgee Small Farms Field Days whenever they are on.
One of the other venues we looked at was at the the former Poets Corner winery which has now been taken over by the Oatley family. It provides a great atmosphere (lots of history too) and has a huge cricket ground down by the river.
Stay tuned because I’ll be providing more updates on the wedding plans as we go along. (Tomorrow I’m going to Bathurst to collect the Marquee for the engagement party this Australia Day weekend and all of the hire equipment arrives today! I already organised the drinks a week ago, and yes I did ask: is that the best you can do?
)
Hans