38. The Fireplace Episode: How Sales is Evolving in 2025

Ben and I are renovating our home, and part of that includes picking out a fireplace (hurray!). 
We thought it would be simple—walk into a store, pick one out, order. But instead, we had three wildly different experiences. And by the end, I realized this had everything to do with what’s working in sales right now in 2025.
Quick summary: 
Store #1: all the friendly chit-chat, but we left without answers
Store #2: bombarded us with pushy sales tactics (eww)
Store #3: the expert who guided us with clarity and confidence, making the decision easy. 
Guess who got our business?
This same dynamic is happening in the wedding industry right now. Clients don’t want to be sold to. They don’t need a new best friend. They need an expert guide—someone who knows exactly what they want before they do and makes booking a no-brainer.
If you’ve been feeling like couples aren’t moving forward, or you’re losing them to cheaper options, this episode is for you. I break down:
✔ The key mistake most are making in sales (without realizing it) ✔ What today’s clients actually need to feel confident booking ✔ How to be the “just right” choice—without pressure or discounting

When you show up as the trusted expert, couples won’t just book you—they’ll refer you before they’ve even signed the contract. That’s what’s working in 2025.

Successful Creatives make the world brighter. Follow @theewingsstudio on instagram for weekly tips and tricks to uplevel your bookings and increase profits so that you can accomplish all of the goals on your heart.

Transcript

Right now, Ben and I are going through a home renovation, and as part of that, we're making a lot of purchases. We're working with a lot of different local businesses, and one of the best things that you can do as a business owner is to literally just go observe other businesses, especially the buying process, the sales experience, and then bonus when it's a custom or a luxury product or service. And this is what I'm going to talk to you about in today's episode. We were shopping for a new gas fireplace, and we went to three different stores and had three very unique sales experiences. So today I'm going to walk you through those three sales experiences and tell you exactly what is working right now in 2025 to cut through the noise, to serve at a greater level, and to really make the buying experience easy for your ideal clients. This is exactly what's working right now. We've had plans for our. It's basically like my dream house. We've had the plans since 2016 for this addition, and we're finally doing it this year. Goal had been to do it 2020. And then, you know, a global pandemic disrupted that plans. But now we're in the thick of it and construction is going on. Our lives are kind of um disrupted. But you know, of course, in the most amazing way because it's all in just manifesting our bigger goal of just this house.

I'll share in my stories once it's done. Maybe I'll do a little behind the scenes right now, but I'll share when it's all done so you can see what we've got going on. But as part of that, we're adding a fireplace to our house. We don't have one right now. And, uh, and it makes me really sad. We had a fireplace, a wood, like an old school wood burning fireplace at our last house, and we didn't use it often, but I loved it. I loved the ambience. I loved having the option to have it. And so now, this time with the addition, we're adding a gas fireplace. And I'm super excited about it now. When we started the shopping process, Ben and I had literally no idea what we were looking for. We had no idea the decisions that, you know, buying a gas fireplace required. We had no idea the cost of a gas fireplace, honestly. Like we had a number in our mind. We were way, way off. Um, so if you want any advice, if you're thinking about adding a fireplace at any point, feel free to reach out to me, because now I'm an expert. And if you're in the wedding industry, it's kind of similar to that where our couples come to us and they're, you know, they're they're planning their wedding and they've got ideas on what they think they need or they want, or what the options are or what the price ranges are for things.

But that's not always the case, right? Like they're starting brand new by the end. They're experts just like us with this fireplace process. But in the beginning they're brand new. And so we had we started our fireplace shopping journey with very little insight on what we were looking for or where to go. Now. We were we asked around locally and we were referred to the local spot. It's like kind of the go to spot where it's the only one that we've driven by. We know the name. It's not far from us. And so that was our first choice. We went there. We were assuming we were going to buy there. Okay. So let me tell you what happened. So I'll take you through all three of the stores and it's almost like, um, it's like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, because the first two stores were extreme on opposite ends. And then the last store, which is where we ended up purchasing from, was just right. It was Baby Bear's bed, right? So the first spot is the local, I'm going to call it the go to spot. Okay. So we went in and we were excited. We were ready to look at the options. We were ready to get more information. We at that point were honestly ready to make a purchase. Um, we thought that we were going to leave the appointment with like order in hand, money down, fireplace checked off our list.

Like, if you've ever done any sort of renovation, you know that the list is long and you get to the point where you just want to start checking things off, right? So we walked in and we actually got to meet with the owner. It was a Sunday afternoon. It was quiet in the store, and so we had the undivided attention from the owner. And he was a lovely man. He showed us two options. Well, first I'm going to say we walked in the front door and, and we were, um, essentially grilled about our situation. So it was questions like, is this new construction or existing? Is this an outside wall or an inside wall? Is this, um, vented out of the roof or out of the side? Is this an insert or like it was all of these questions that we didn't necessarily even know the answers to without being guided through it, right? Um, so once we got past that stuff, the owner showed us two models that he felt like would be a good fit. And we, you know, at that point, we were really interested in trying to make it work. Now, one model was way too big for our space. Our space is not huge. So one model was way too big and then the other one was really it didn't look real to us.

And so we had basically asked like, is there a third model, one that is smaller but deeper and more realistic looking? And then also can we get an idea of pricing? Okay, so we were there for about 45 minutes and this man had the gift for gab. We talked about all kinds of things, very little being actually about the fireplace. And he took our information at the end. He didn't answer the pricing questions, not even with a range. And he told us that someone from the office would follow up with some pricing later in the week. Okay. And then before we left, he also pulled us aside and said, wait, I also want to show you these other things, these like custom fireplaces that we do, but these are not things that you're going to get, but we just want to show you what we're capable of. So the whole thing was honestly. Honestly, it was a waste of time. Like, we we went in, we didn't find the unit that we were looking for. We were promised that they had it, that they would send pricing. But none of it happened while we were there, while we were, while we were like in our active buying mode. And it just felt like this guy wasted 45 minutes of our life getting to know us right when we wanted to make a purchase, we wanted to give him our money and he literally wouldn't let us.

Okay. And then afterwards, um, I did not get a quote from his office person. And so I called and followed up about a week later and was told, oh no, no, they did. She did send it earlier in the week. It was actually she sent it on Monday. And so I finally found the quote, it was buried deep in like my junk junk box. You know how there's, you know, junk. And then there's the real junk folder. It was in the real junk folder. So it didn't even come up in my search results when I was searching for it. So I did find it in there, and we had massive sticker shock. Like I'm saying, these prices were more than twice what we thought they were going to be okay because we had no benchmark at all. There was no starting prices on the website. There was no arrange, there was nothing. There was no education. When we chatted with this guy about ballpark, nothing to set our expectations. So we get these prices. They are not even for a unit that we want and they are insanely expensive. At least that was our perspective at that point, right? So there are a few very clear takeaways from this experience. Number one, set expectations. Number two, definitely follow up. So if you're getting inquiries and you are not following up with a phone call or a text to make sure that people got your information.

They might be like us. They might be kind of pissed off somewhere thinking that you never even responded to them because of their simply because of their like email filter. Right? So follow up, you've got to call or text. And then number three is assume that your clients know very little about the process in Be the guide. Okay. So in this case it could have totally turned around. We probably would have purchased we probably would have found something that worked in that. In that case, if instead of just, you know, chatting us up about local things and, um, in the fireplaces that we weren't going to get, he could have walked us through important decisions. He could have walked us through general price range on the low end. It's X and you get this on the high end, it's Y and you get this. And then a lot of people end around this. Any of that would have been really, really helpful. Okay, so we did not purchase from store number one. Now let's move on to store number two. The second store is one that we've driven by before. Ben remembered that there was a fireplace shop in, you know, a town that was a few towns over from us. So we looked it up and sent a contact form in on their website to get more information right up front.

Their website was more helpful. They had like more details on their specific units. We saw things that we thought we were interested in. There was pricing on their website to give us an idea, and I submitted a form to schedule a time to come in and see everything. Now, in this case, I got a phone call within 20 minutes of submitting the form, and I scheduled an appointment for the very next day, so that was a much easier process with the original store. I never actually reached out in advance. Um, in this case, I reached out. I scheduled an appointment. We confirm the appointment. I got an email right away confirming it, and it was, um, it felt more like this was going to be a commission based experience because he was very adamant. When you get to the store, ask for, we'll just call him Steve, ask for Steve, okay? And I can help you. And he mentioned it a few times. He mentioned it while I talked to him on the phone. He mentioned it in his email, and then he might have even texted me the next day to confirm and remind me. So, um, so we we get to the store and they definitely had better options, much more in line with what we were looking for. And he was really much more informative on things to look at, options that you could consider, different things like accent lights and, you know, LED embers and things that we had not even discussed with the first store.

We were now noticing and able to decide if it was something that we wanted. Oh, my dog is shaking out in the back. If you just heard all the jingling, that's my dog. So this second buying experience was off to a definite better start. We for sure were feeling more educated. We they were way more transparent about the prices. So like I mentioned, they had pricing on their website. And then when we were there in person, they had little placards that listed the prices on every single fireplace in all of the options that were included at that price point, which felt really, really helpful. It felt like we fully understood, you know, what we were getting ourselves into and what we were looking at as far as investment level, which helped, even if it wasn't what our final choice was, because we knew that it was custom and different, you know, different options cost different things. We at least had a general idea of what we were looking at investment wise and just knowing, even if it was more than we thought. Just knowing the rough Range gave us a sense of peace. So when you're debating about how you should handle pricing with your clients, consider that experience. Like how can you give them a sense of peace without overwhelm? Okay, so they did not hand us an entire price list of all the options I'll get into.

You know how we did price out the options, but walking around, we had a general idea of what these things cost. So remember back to the first shop experience. And the guy was very nice. We definitely left feeling like we knew the owner, but we didn't know anything about what we were buying. We didn't leave with information on options or, you know, pricing or really anything that helped our buying decisions with option. With store number two, we got more information. There was transparency about the pricing. We got a better idea of the options that were available to us. But this one was funny because it was almost the opposite of the first, where in the first case we felt like we wanted to buy something and we weren't even able to write. In the second case, he was more of your typical, like when you think of a sales guy. That was him, right? So I mentioned that in the beginning when we were coordinating on when we would come in for our appointment, he kept saying, you know, ask for me, ask for Steve when you get there. So it sort of set the vibe that this guy was working off of commission. And then he guided us through two different options. One of them was one that I had inquired about on the website, which was more in the price range that we thought we were going to be in.

Okay. And he was showing. So he showed us that one, but he kept referring to it as the budget unit. And he kept like alluding to the fact that that was cheap. And the only people who used that were basically like builders who were building massive developments, and they were just popping fireplaces in every house and not giving, you know, homeowners an option or anything like that. And and so he kept saying very directly all of these things about that unit being cheap and how the other unit, which was twice the price, was significantly better. And then when we sat down to really quote the options that we wanted, he also started talking about this heat escape contraption contraption which I've never heard of before. But it's basically like if you're planning on mounting your TV over the fireplace, then you put this extra heat vent behind like the TV, and then it's got basically a hole above the TV where the heat comes out. And he was telling us that if we didn't have this piece, our TV would melt. Now we know many people who have TVs mounted over their fireplaces, and we've never heard of anybody's TV melting. And so We. We almost bought from him. Okay. Like we were happy enough with the more expensive unit that we saw.

But the trust was way down, so we felt like he was pitching us right. Like we felt like he was selling to us instead of really helping with all of the the comments about the lower option being cheap or nobody buys that one. If you want that, then you're going to go with this more expensive one, right? And then throwing in the heat escape thing that we've never even heard of with fear tactics about our TV melting. Um, it just it just really eroded our trust in this situation. And so originally, you know, we wanted to get the job done. We wanted to have a fireplace ordered by the end of the week. And so I had told him, I'll reach out to you tomorrow. We're going to purchase this unit tomorrow. And after we left, we both we felt happy with. We agreed we wanted the more expensive unit. We felt happy enough with it, but the more we thought about it, the less we actually wanted it and the less we felt confident in the choice. And so we decided to find a third option to take a look at. And I'm so, so glad that we did, because we did order from option number three. And the sales experience was beautiful. And I have already referred a friend who is building a new house to this saleswoman because she was that incredible.

We don't even we haven't even actually physically ordered our fireplace just yet. We've given the info to our contractor and it should be ordered by the end of this week, but it hasn't even been ordered yet, and I'm already referring her in this specific shop to other people. And this is really a testament. I'll get into the specifics, but I just want to say, like, this is a testament to how your sales process can actually become a part Of your brand, and it's really the first taste that somebody has with your business, truly and with you. And so when you create a sales process, or I'm going to call it a buying experience, that feels really good for your buyer, for your client, then that is how you have people referring you before they've even actually booked. So for this third appointment, we didn't make any sort of, you know, advanced reservation for an appointment or anything like that. So we walked in. And it's funny because in this case, the the shop was under construction, so it looked like they were doing a renovation or an expansion of their own. So the back of the shop had contractors out there working on it, and we walked in and the woman was honestly a bit disheveled. She had a winter coat on inside, which was ironic to me since it's a fireplace shop, and I literally stopped wearing jackets into these stores because they are so hot.

And here she is in her winter jacket, looking like a hot mess in the middle of this fireplace store. So at first I was kind of like, okay, uh, what are we getting ourselves into? Um, and so we started a conversation with her, and she asked us a couple of questions to get the information that she needed on systems that might work for us. So then she took us to the gas fireplace section of the showroom and walked us through the different options that were available to us based on the initial information that we had told her. So there were a few. There was one that really fit closely with our initial budget. Then there was one that was kind of like a nicer version of like, I'd say like a mid-range version. And then there was like the newest model, hot off the press, like new technology where it looks like the the log is actually burning versus, you know, most of them look like the fires coming between the logs. Um, and so she showed us the different options and she told us very, very straight the facts about pros and cons of the different options. She told us the pricing. She told us how different, you know, add ons would affect the pricing. There was no, like, slanted selling. She wasn't pushing us towards any one of the units. She was just very clearly saying, this is, you know, here's what this unit does, here's what this unit does, here's what this unit does.

Here's are the features that you could add if you want. Here's how you can customize this. These are the rough prices. And then once you choose one then I can quote you based on the options that you're interested in. I can give you an exact price today. And so now since this was shop number three, we knew a little bit about questions to ask and things that mattered. And so we were able to like we knew she was an expert, right? Like, she knew her shit. And she was so forthcoming with information on, you know, what she's seen other people do. She pulled out her iPad and showed us units in action. She pulled out manuals and helped us with dimensions because we had been hesitant about if a certain unit was too big or too small. She was there to help us choose the best unit for us. She wasn't trying to be our friend. She wasn't trying to sell us something. She was trying to give us the information that we needed to know so that we could make an informed decision for ourselves. We ended up, you know, we were kind of torn between two options. And so she walked us through the add ons. She gave us two very detailed quotes. There was zero selling, there was zero pressure, and she 100% Felt like an expert.

She was the person that we immediately trusted to guide us through the options, and that is exactly why we ended up purchasing from her. We ended up spending twice what our initial budget was on this fireplace, and we're obsessed with it. Um, I'm obsessed with this woman. She was so lovely, and she still continues to be. We've had some, you know, back and forth communications about questions from our builder and, um, really like making sure that our order is put in. Right, and everything. And she every single time shows up with a very thorough answer so that we know that she's the person. Like when you want to buy a fireplace from someone who knows what they're talking about, you're going to go to this lady. And so that's why when I have a friend who's looking for a fireplace, and I know that they're starting out from the very beginning, they have no idea what they are doing. And they need a guide. They need an expert to walk them through the process, teach them the options, teach them the things and the questions that they should be asking. I'm sending them to this lady because she was legit. And I know that they'll take she'll she'll take care of my friends. So this is exactly what is working in 2025 when it comes to selling. People are not looking to become your friend.

Yes, they're going to. They want to like you to a certain point, right? Like you want to get along, especially if you're in the wedding industry or any service industry where you're going to be working closely with your client. You do want to make sure that there's a certain level of connection and just being able to enjoy time together, because you will have that time together, right? So that's certainly a part of it. But they're not reaching out to you to become your friend, right? Maybe that'll be a nice byproduct, but that's not what they initially need or want. And then on the flip side, nobody wants to be sold to. So when this guy, the salesperson who I called Steve, that's not his real name. Um, he was very clearly directing us to the more expensive option. And then he was trying to sell us things that we didn't actually need. And people today, like, their bullshit meter is high. People can smell when there's pressure or like, sales tactics being used, and it's a total turnoff. It was something where, you know, if we had purchased from him, I probably wouldn't have even ever recommended them. We probably would have been happy enough with our, um, you know, with what we chose. But it wasn't like the level of love that we have for this third option. So. So what is working now is really meeting your ideal client with meeting them where they are in the process, and then like, taking them by the hand and guiding them through the experience.

So if we're thinking about being in the wedding business, understanding that your ideal client. This is likely the first time they've ever planned a wedding. They don't know what they're doing. Okay. They don't know the right questions to ask. They don't know the things that they want fully. They might have an idea. A lot of times it's surface level to start. So like if you're a wedding photographer, they might say they want light and airy wedding pictures, but there's actually a deeper desire okay. And so it's your job as a business owner, as the solution to their problem, to really guide them through the experience of of buying not only from you, but in general, like the things that they want to be considering how they can solve their problems and really get the solution that they're looking for. So they're not looking to be sold to. They're not looking to be your friend. They're looking for an expert who will guide them, and who really aligns on the values and the things that they want, their deeper desires, not that surface level stuff. Sales in 2025 is not about being friends. It's not about sales tactics or pressure or convincing language or discounting. It's not about being low cost. I know right now there's a lot of turmoil in the market and in the economy.

Weddings are down. You know, there's a sentiment that budgets are down, but there's statistics out there that show that the people who are investing are actually investing more. And so being lower cost is not how you want to differentiate yourself. It's not how you want to, you know, book the clients that you want to work with, those clients who don't micromanage, the clients who have full trust. Right. Like those are the people who are willing to invest more to have an expert. So in 2025, sales is about setting expectations, okay, really guiding your right fit client through the buying process, being the expert that they need, who's going to educate them? Who's going to inspire them? Who's going to end up feeling like the total no brainer, obvious choice who's aligned with what they want? You want to give your clients an opportunity to trust you and give them space to make the choice for themselves. Nobody likes to feel that pressure, right? So give them space to really consider it and make the choice for themselves. Sales in 2025 is not about being perfect, okay? And it's not about worrying about ghosting. Yes, that's the topic for a whole separate day, but it's your focus should really be on the human behind the inquiry, okay. And how you can best help them, serve them, guide them to the solution that is right for you.

And if you've got your messaging dialed in, hopefully you are attracting those right fit clients. And so then the process becomes, how can you make it the easiest decision for them to say yes to you? Now one little bonus all three shops missed one very specific thing that would have really made the process of purchasing a fireplace so much easier. Okay. And my coach likes to call this the core of competency, which is that they are such experts in what they do that they missed, like setting the foundation with us. Okay. So in all three cases, we were almost like confronted with logistical questions when we walked through the door and started the conversation. It's almost like like and they did it for a reason, right? Like they were asking us these questions to be able to make recommendations about which fireplace option was right for us. Like when you walk in, there's a ton of different options. There's wood, there's pellets, there's gas, there's um, like inserts versus freestanding units and there's a whole bunch of stuff. So in order for them to be able to even start the process of showing us something. They need to get a little bit of information, but the way that it was handled was that like, they know that they need this information so that they can guide us, but none of the stores actually told us when we walked in.

Hey, there are a lot of options when it comes to fireplaces. There's different, you know, fuel options. There's inserts versus freestanding. So what we would I would love to do is ask a few questions that will help me understand which fireplace options I should show you, which ones will make the most sense for you. Does that sound good? And then all of the questions they asked about, like venting up out of the roof or venting out the side or, you know, is it new construction or existing home? All of those questions would have felt so much more pleasant, um, if we just knew why they were asking them. So they're so close to their their competency in being fireplace experts that they didn't even know that these questions were a little bit, like, abrasive to us because we didn't even know why they were asking them. So it's almost like going to a clothing store and the sales clerk asks you for your pant size, like first thing off the bat, right? Like that's a little bit awkward. She could say, hey, I, you know, offer like custom as part of our shopping experience, you've got access to like a, I don't know, a shopping style, a stylist or something like that. I just need to collect a few pieces of information for you, and then I can help curate a fitting room with some options I think you're going to love.

And then as part of that, ask for the pant size, right? But can you see the difference there where it would have felt like a better experience with just a little bit of upfront info? So that was just one thing that felt like it was missing from all three of these options. Now, I hope that this was really helpful for you, for me going through this. It was such an incredible experience to kind of go through the Goldilocks of sales, see the person who was just trying to be our friend and build the connection, then experience the person who was using, you know, old school sales tactics, and then finally the one who was the expert guide that we trusted to make this happen and who got our business. It was a really cool experience to go through all three of these options because, you know, as a small business owner, I'm in the sales seat very often, right? And even though I have a process I've built that doesn't ever feel like selling, it never feels uncomfortable for me. It's really good to get a reminder of what it feels like to be in the buyer's seat, so I hope that this was helpful. Go out, do some shopping of your own. Pick a little, you know, niche or product or service, and line up some appointments with a couple of different shops and get that buyer experience, because it will definitely help move your sales experience forward.