For many years bridal retailers have been training their own staff themselves due to a lack of business coaches with real experience in bridal. Now bridal retailers in Germany have their very own professional bridal business coach who understands their day to day bridal shop operations and challenges.
Meet bridal expert Anja Grosche who has successfully launched “Bridal Business Coaching”, together with her husband Ivo, to help bridal retailers successfully push their businesses forward.
What inspired you to launch “Bridal Business Coaching”?
My husband Ivo and I ran bridal shop “Princess Dreams” in Berlin for 12 years. We started in 2007 with a 40 sqm shop and within 6 years we quickly moved into a 500 sqm shop with 15 employees and our own tailoring. During these years and growth of our own business, we would have liked the professional support of a coach with industry experience on many occasions. In the past few years we’ve had the support of a business coach and we can only recommend this to everyone, but they often lacked the inside knowledge of the very special wedding scene. How do I deal with challenging brides and companions, what key figures do I have to have in mind for accounting and controlling, which marketing makes sense for my business – these are questions that we have painstakingly developed over the years which we would have liked to talk about with another insider.
In September 2019, we sold our business to our managing director in order to live independently and not be tied down in one place. Since we are still passionate about the topic of “wedding and bridal wear”, we have therefore decided to launch “Bridal Business Coaching” in order to pass on our many years of experience to other bridal shops- true to the motto “from the practice – for the practice”.
How important is it to have well trained staff in a bridal shop?
It is extremely important for a bridal shop to have well-trained staff. The sales process of a wedding dress is very special and highly emotional, and it has to be sold with different standards than with conventional fashion. The more well-prepared the staff are in dealing with the brides and their companions, the more the employees can meet the typical objections, the higher the sales quota and thus the turnover of the business. Even small tips & tricks help to make the seller more secure and from there it’s: practice, practice, practice.
What can bridal shops learn from you in order to be successful in their businesses?
Bridal fashion retailers will be able to get a lot of fresh impulses and ideas for their day-to-day business and marketing as well as (if necessary) a finished controlling system for the bridal fashion business. Thanks to our many years of practice, we have had countless positive and negative experiences that we can pass on to dealers. No matter whether it’s tips in sales, support in controlling, small hacks for marketing or insights from employee management – we can support retailers in every segment with practical advice and action.
Does “Bridal Business Coaching” offer special courses for both employees and their owners?
We offer special success packages for both owners and employees.
The sales training involves practical tips. Learning customer types, or a strategy day in which we also illuminate the values and corporate mission statement of the business together with the whole team. This is certainly interesting for the employees.
For the owners, we recommend starting with the owner strategy day, in which we look at the current status of the company and then discuss the next steps towards growth in concrete terms and explore suitable measures. Even if things don’t go as planned in the company, we would recommend this package first. A heart package is our mentoring program because it is about long-term cooperation that offers the greatest growth potential for the dealer.
We are also very flexible and if there is no suitable package from our offer, we will tailor an individual package for the bridal retailer’s business.
What do you say to bridal retailers who have previously trained their staff themselves? How important is it to get opinions and experiences from outside?
We always support and encourage our customers to continuously train their own staff. Nevertheless, the outside view is extremely important for the growth of the company. Over time, you simply become blind, so that sometimes the simplest little things don’t come to mind. The exchange with other retailers and coaches has always helped us a lot. Impulses from outside are always very valuable.
What is a common challenge or typical mistake bridal retailers tend to make?
One of the typical challenges for retailers is, as an entrepreneur, they are too busy with day-to-day business and take too little time for their strategic tasks. As a result, the owner is more responsive to immediate circumstances rather than acting and executing successful measures. Our own business success started when we took the time to strategically position ourselves for the following year. As a result, we always had a concrete plan in hand that was a beacon for us when we reached our goal.
In addition, many stores unfortunately pay too little attention to their numbers. Most of them know “roughly” how things are going with them. For example, in an Excel spreadsheet, however, there is no such thing as a target / actual comparison. Often there is no tracking of sales quota, sales and costs. The planning of an effective measure of success is almost made impossible without this.
At the moment you are visiting your customers in their shops – do you see the possibility of offering seminars or online courses in the foreseeable future?
At the moment, we are currently visiting bridal shops. In fact, we are already working on many ideas to offer our service online. So the retailers can anticipate that this is coming.
What is the best advice that you can give to your clients based on the experience of many years of your own business?
The best advice is to sit down at least once a year with your management team and to draw up a detailed plan for the next year. Evaluate the past year and decide on goals and measures for the new year, quite specifically and in peace, away from the hustle and bustle of day-to-day business and in a different atmosphere than your own bridal shop. For us it was the absolute game changer & THE success tool and has helped us to achieve truly incredible sales growth and a whole new team spirit.
Where can interested bridal retailers turn to if they are interested in more coaching information?
For more information, we first recommend looking at our homepage at www.bridalbusinesscoaching.de. Interested bridal retailers can also reach us by phone on 0173-20 24 055 (cell phone from Ivo Grosche) or by email mail@bridalbusinesscoaching.de.
After the initial contact, there is usually a telephone call in which we get to know each other personally and discuss the other steps for booking a suitable package. We look forward to many exciting bridal shops and their challenges!