The power of networking extends beyond the conventional exchange of business cards.  As a wedding professional, your building relationships focus is best served through approaching  the planning ladder’s earlier rungs.  However, when the agreement to promote each is other is forged, not all relationships will generate business despite the good intentions of both parties

Let us look at another value of networking and outreach that is seldom thought of or discussed. The bride and groom plan a wedding with very little understanding of what they are doing. In this new world, the known becomes a great comfort to them.  After you speak to a bride or groom on the phone, connect with them via email or Facebook. Discovering who they hired for the other services is extremely insightful because it can give you an idea of their budget and taste. However, you can only garner that information if you know the about the companies they hired. So the more industry companies you meet the more likely that will happen.

There is something  even more important to the bride and groom. They hope their wedding planning process will go perfectly; that the photographer and videographer will work together as a team; that the vendors have worked at the venue they selected. So consider the positive perception that you can create with your potential customer when you ask them whom they hired for different categories (especially the venue), and, when they tell you, you can rattle off people that work there and say something positive about the place and the person to show your familiarity.

This name-dropping strategy enhances your rapport with the prospect just by knowing someone they know. More importantly, it creates a perception of credibility and they are more apt to trust your core competency based on the fact that you have experience working with businesses they place their trust in. It really works but you need to interact with a lot of companies, pick up those business cards, and commit those names to memory for easy access when conversing with the bride and groom.