If You Run Your Business With The Correct Policies, You'll Be Running To The Bank To Make Big Deposits!

Question: Are you running your photo business, or is it running you – and how’s it working for you?

One of the biggest mistakes I see photographers around the world making is they don’t have very specific, carefully determined policies which they adhere to – no matter what, regarding the running of their photography business.

In my opinion, here’s the top 9 most important policies for the portrait end of your business:

1.  No photography will be done without a Pre-portrait Interview.  Period.  No exceptions.  Why?  Because this interview is a critical part of the “System” for making your studio extremely profitable.  In this interview, you inform them of your policies, prices, etc. and collect the Pre-Paid Creation Fee (see below.)  This is also where you let them know, in a very positive, enthusiastic way, that your Originals don’t leave the studio, and aren’t posted online (see below,) and that you project the images for them, about a weak or two after the session.

2.  No photography will be done without a Prepaid Creation Fee, paid in ADVANCE of the day of the session.  And, the Creation Fee does NOT ….  go toward the finished  photographs.  This is important because you want your clients to be fine with paying you for your time and talent.  If they are willing to give you a Creation Fee, that does not go towards the purchasing of the images, but only covers the time involved in planning and creating them, then they are probably going to be good clients to work with, because they understand that you are a creative artist, and that your time & talent are valuable.

3.  The Originals never leave the studio.  No exceptions. No paper Originals are printed. No “thumbnails.” No CD of the images for them to take home & make their decisions. In this day and age, you just CAN’T allow this.  If you do allow this, you might as well take out a gun, and shoot yourself in your shutter hand, because you are KILLING your chances for good sales and profits.  (See #8 below.)

4.  50% minimum paid before printing the portrait order.  And everything is paid in full before leaving the studio – no “partial order pickup” or any other arrangements.  Back before I knew any better, I was so excited to get a decent sale, that I often would be afraid to ask for payment, thinking it would kill the sale.  So I’d go ahead with the order before having AT LEAST 50%.  Then, the client would end up never picking the order up, or wanting to only pick up part of it, and I had lost not only the sale, but I had lost the printing costs, too!  The same goes for when the client picks up the finished portraits.  Never, ever let ANYTHING leave your studio that isn’t paid for in full, and be sure the entire order is paid for before any part of it may be picked up. 

Now, I do have a few students who are having good success with a payment plan for their clients.  I feel this is okay, as long as you do it with a credit card.  The client gives you the credit card number, etc. and gives you permission to charge a certain amount each month, until the balance is paid off.  But, in my opinion, you still don’t want to order the photographs to be printed, until you have collected at least 50%.

5.  Never give away free photographs.  I don’t care how much the client invests with you, you do not give away free photos.  You can discount them, under special circumstances, if you like, but you don’t give them away for free.  This also goes for your marketing.  For example, many photographers, who don’t know any better, give away free wallet portraits for seniors, if they book by a certain date.  I don’t recommend this.  What this does, psychologically, is decrease the perceived value of their photography, and dramatically hurt the total average sale in the end. 

6.  No nights or weekend appointments.  This is a real Life and Family killer!  As a professional, it’s vitally important that you “train” your clients how to treat you.  If you are available any time of the day or night, any day of the week, etc. this trains them that your time is not valuable to you, and that they can get you to do anything for them.  The result is they don’t show up for appointments, or they show up late, and they have little or no value for you or your time and talent (and thus your product and service.)  The clients are running you, and you are out of control.

On the other hand, if you are available only certain hours, and certain days, and if you are extremely busy and booked up, and you stick to this, then this sends an entirely different message to your prospects and clients.  It says your time is valuable.  It says you are successful, busy, and in great demand.  People want to work with people who are successful.  Thus, they will modify their schedule in order to work with you.  (Yes, there are exceptions from time to time when the lighting requires you to create the images at sunset, etc., but other than this, you don’t work evenings.)

7.  Never mail out price lists (or publish them on-line!)  Never, ever mail out or publish on-line, your prices.  It’s just not smart, and it usually sends business away if your prices are high enough for you to make a living.  Or, sending out your prices attracts business to you for the wrong reason, if your prices are extremely low.

8. No images published on line.  I can’t stress this enough.  Any time you let your images leave your studio, whether physically, or on-line, you hurt yourself in many ways.  Just because we can do it, doesn’t mean you should do it.  The technology can hurt you so easily.  Remember this always:  People invest in photography for emotional reasons.  And the point of highest emotion is the first time your clients see the images.  Therefore, you must be with them at this moment, and help them to become happily involved with your images, right then and there.  To do otherwise is business suicide for the photographer.

9.  Always project your images.  Never show your client anything smaller than a 30×40 to start – and preferably a 40×50 or 40×60.  We know that the first image a client receives of her photographs is the lasting image.  It’s a proven law of sales.  Therefore, every time you break this law of projection, you suffer the consequences.

This is the single most important business decision of your career – how you present your images to your clients.  This one decision will determine, all by itself, where you live in your community;  where your children go to school; what kind of car you drive; how many vacations you take; and how much fancy photo equipment you own. 

If you will set these nine above policies as THE WAY you run your business, you will sleep better at night, and you will earn more, much more money, on less, much less work.

All the best,

Charles J. Lewis

Here's One Of The All-Time Keys To My Photography Success

Trying to create meaningful, high quality photographs of someone without meeting them ahead of time and find out what they want, is like trying to drive your car without ever putting gas or oil in it. It’s just not going to work very well, or for very long!

If you will simply take the extra time to meet with your clients ahead of time, on a day that is NOT the day of the photography, you will find they will like you more, trust you, plus the  photography will be much better, and your sales will…

 dramatically improve! It is SO worth the small additional time investment!

Here’s 5 key reasons why it’s well worth your time to meet with your clients ahead of time – on a separate day from the photography day:

1. It builds rapport & trust.

When you meet her in person, it allows her to get to know you and begin trusting you. There is way more of a relationship when you meet her in advance and just ask her some questions, and give her a chance to see that you care about creating something she will really love.

2. You can honestly find out what she wants.

As you’re asking her questions, you’re finding out exactly what she wants. This way, you don’t do what I call “Pot Luck Photography” – which is do a bunch of everything, hoping she likes something. Instead, you find out exactly what she wants, and then you know what type of photography, settings, backgrounds, locations, etc. to create for her.

3. You can educate her about your policies.

Yes, you could do this over the telephone, but it’s not anywhere near as effective as in person. You get to let her know about how you do business – and do it in a very positive way – so she sees what you’re all about, and if there is some problem with anything, she can talk with you about it now – (so there’s not a huge problem later, after you’ve already created the images for her.)

4. You collect the pre-paid creation fee.

One of your policies (which I’ll talk about in my next article) is that you have a pre-paid Creation Fee that covers the time involved in planning & creating the images. This fee does NOT go toward the finished images. This meeting with her allows you to collect this fee from her that day.

5. You carefully guide her regarding clothing, make-up etc.

Once she has officially hired you, and paid your pre-paid creation fee, you can then carefully guide her on what to wear. And you can do this very accurately, as you are speaking with her IN PERSON – so you know her height, weight, hair color, eye color, etc. This really will help her be much more pleased with the finished images!

Hopefully, you can see how much this meeting will help your photography and your sales to be much better than they would have been if you had not had this meeting. All I can say is that this has had a HUGE effect on the success of my photography business for many years. I’ve tested this and proven it to be amazingly effective.

 All the best,

 Charles J. Lewis, M. Photog., Cr.

PS. Click here for more Photography Marketing & Selling Tips, Secrets & Techniques

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You Will Make A Lot More Money Doing What You Love To Do When You Have 'Unique Factors."

It’s vital to your photo marketing success that you know exactly why someone should select you over all the other photographers in your area.  What’s special about you?  And then it’s vital that you TALK about these important “Unique Factors” to all your prospects – in all your marketing, your phone conversations, and in person!

 As you know, marketing & selling is involved with EVERYTHING you do.  Frankly, who cares how “good” we are, if no one knows we exist or if we can’t sell it?  How many great photographers do you know who are having difficulty paying their bills?  Why?  Because they can’t market or sell it. Sad, but true.

 Now, whenever I say the word “selling” I want to be sure you understand that we’re NEVER talking about trickery, manipulation or pressure.  Selling is finding out what people want, and then helping them to get it.  And one of the most important parts of your selling skills is ……knowing and talking about your “Unique Factors.”

 It’s also important you understand we’re not talking about offering bad work to your clients.  Not at all.  What we’re talking about is being able to produce good work, and then help people make the decision to hire you over all the other photographers in your market area, even though you aren’t the least expensive photographer in town.

 So here are some examples, of a few of our Unique Factors, to get you thinking about your own.  

 Unique Factor #1.  We guarantee everything we do.  If you’re not thrilled, we either create additional images, or give you all your money back.  No hard feelings, either.  We are absolutely committed to creating the finest portraits you have ever had created.

 Unique Factor #2.  Both myself and my wife, Cheri, work together with every client – to create the finest portrait possible.  This helps you feel much more comfortable during the photography.  Plus, she has a wonderful eye for composition and design, and is super – detailed about jewelry, hair, clothing, etc.  This makes your images just wonderfully perfect and beautiful.  And there’s only one studio she works with – ours!  You can’t get her talent and her eyes anywhere else! 

 Unique Factor #3.  We only do a maximum of three portrait sessions a day, so you are not rushed through like a factory – so we can take the time necessary to make really beautiful portraits of you.  We are much more interested in creating wonderful images for you, rather than working with hundreds and hundreds of clients each year.  You simply can not rush when you want to create a truly beautiful, meaningful portrait!

 Unique Factor #4.  We meet with you prior to creating the portraits, to help you with make-up, hair, clothing, locations, etc.  Cheri, our Portrait Consultant, will guide you and help you with everything, and also be in with me during your session.  Plus,  we meet everyone, in person, prior to the session, so everyone knows us.  This is especially great with young children who otherwise might be afraid, and thus not look natural and comfortable in their portrait.

 Unique Factor #5.  We specialize in creating portraits on location, at a location that is emotionally meaningful to you – this makes the portraits much more personal, and special to you.  It means so much more to you than if we simply created the portraits in our studio.  Plus, there is no additional charge for this!

 Unique Factor #6.  My grandfather was a portrait artist in the early 1900’s.  I found many of his glass plates in my parent’s basement when I was 12, and learned the photo process so I could print those plate negatives onto paper.  Many years ago, my father passed away, and those beautiful images my grandfather created of my dad are priceless to me.  That’s why I do this, because I want to put onto film the very essence of your personality, and your relationships, so you and your family can enjoy them for many years to come.  I will throw my heart and soul into creating a wonderful portrait for you.

 We have more unique factors for our studio, but this gives you a good idea of what I’m talking about here, so you can build your own personal list.

 Can you see how having these at the tip of your mind when talking with prospects, or doing marketing, or working on your web site, etc. will make you much more persuasive, and how people will tend to want to work with you, regardless of your prices, or the economy? It makes you stand out – way ahead of the other photographers in the area – who are just talking about prices and sizes and finishes!

 In my next article, I’ll share with you some of our Unique Factors for Wedding Photography.

 Until next time – go for it – the only way you can make your photo biz better is by actually taking action on what we’re talking about in these articles!

For more Photography Marketing & Sales Secrets, click here ==> Photography Marketing

 All the best,

Charles J. Lewis, M. Photog., Cr.

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Photography Sales Tips That Will Make You More Money

Becoming a great sales person is vital to your success in photography.  Yes, marketing is important.  If your photography marketing sucks, no one will know you exist.  But even with great photo marketing, if your sales skills are bad, you still won’t make any money.

Now, when I talk about “selling”  I do NOT mean trickery, manipulation or pressure.  That’s not selling at all, and we want NOTHING to do with that.

What I do mean is you must discover how to be persuasive.  How to be able to gently influence your client’s and prospect’s decisions in a good, positive way.

Here’s 4 powerful sales secrets that will revolutionize your photography business if you use them:

Sales Secret #1: You sell what you show, absolutely.  So be certain you only show in your business what you want to sell.  In my case, it’s wall portraits as fine home décor.  So there is NOTHING in my studio smaller than 24×30 (and only one of that size.)  I show 2 – 40×50’s, a 40×40, a 32×50, a 30×40 and one 24×30.  That’s all!  Each portrait is beautifully enhanced, framed and displayed just like it will be displayed in a client’s home.

Sales Secret #2: Your telephone is your most important tool – not your camera or computer.  Basically, all your business comes through this tool.  Yes, you have people email you, but eventually each and every prospect should end up talking with you in person on the telephone.  So be sure you use this powerful tool correctly. 

For today, let’s just mention the #1 best way to use the telephone – ask questions of your callers.  Don’t just talk and talk about how great you are.  Instead, ask her questions that show you care about what she’s looking for and why she’s thinking of having a fine photograph created at this time.  This builds trust and rapport with her, and encourages her to “move to the next step” in working with you.

Sales Secret #3: Volunteer your fees before you are asked – this says two things – 1.) you’re worth it and 2.) you’re proud of the fees.  Don’t try to avoid this.  Instead, after asking several good questions, volunteer the fees yourself, before she asks you to. This is what I call the “Volunteer Statement” and it must be memorized word for word so you say it the same way, every single time. 

Here’s our Volunteer Statement for our studio, for portraiture:  “Before we go any further, let me give you an indication of what you can plan on investing.  Is that okay?  (Wait for her to answer.) Most people in your situation can plan on investing between $X and $Y and get a larger one for themselves, and a few smaller ones for gifts.  Does that fit within your budget?”

Sales Secret #4: The first impression is the lasting impression, so be sure that first impression is a good one.  This involves things like how you are dressed, the vocabulary you use, how meticulously clean the studio is, how the exterior of your studio appears as she walks up to the door, etc.

Remember, you are dealing in appearances.  One of my favorite sayings is:  “The reason people say ‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover,’ is that everyone does.”

Put more of your time and efforts into perfecting your sales skills – it will pay off in a big way in your photography business!

Click here for more tips on photography marketing and selling

All the best to you and your photography,

Charles Lewis

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www.cjlewis.com/FreeSecrets.html

But effectively pricing your photography services involves more than just assigning prices to certain sizes and trying to convince people to “buy stuff.”  To be truly successful in your photography business, you must consider human psychology, proven sales principles, and blind human nature.

One of the most amazing, little known secrets about pricing and selling photography is what I call “The Whopper Principle.”

Here’s how it works.

Most people will not normally buy the biggest, best photo size or finish.  But many people will buy the “next best.”  And once you realize how to use this fact, you can make a lot more money with your photography, for NO extra work.

Let me explain.

Let’s say your largest size portrait is a 30 x 40.  But hardly anyone ever invests in it.

That shouldn’t be surprising.  Human psychology says that most people will not invest in your 30×40 size, because it’s your largest size.  But they will quite possibly invest in your 24×30 if it’s quite significantly less money than the 30×40.

So, knowing this, here’s what you do.  You invent a new size – (for me, it’s a 40×50.)  You put a very significant price tag on it.

Now, when you show your clients their photographs, and you show and talk about this 40×50 size right from the very beginning, they will most likely not want to invest in it – but – and this is a big “but” – but, they will be much more likely to invest in the 30×40 size – since it’s the next size down. 

So the end result is you have many clients investing in 30×40’s now!  See how that works?  More money.  No more work.

I call this the “Whopper Principle.”  That new 40×50 size is your “Whopper.”  (No, you do NOT call it that to a client.  But that’s what you call it to yourself.)

The Whopper is defined as this:  “Something that is so big, so expensive, so incredible, that no one in their right mind would invest in it.”

Now, what this “Whopper” accomplishes is this: 

1.  It makes everything else you offer look positively inexpensive.

2.  It demonstrates to your prospective clients that you are “good.”  Because this price is so high that you “must be good” to be charging that much.

3.  It gives a client a feeling of saving money.  You see, she gets you to create her photographs for her, but doesn’t need to pay as much as your “whopper” to get your beautiful work.  She can just opt to get a smaller size, and save money, but still get you.

This sales and pricing principle is extremely powerful.  It psychologically encourages your clients to invest in your better products and services, and your larger sizes, which totally benefits THEM – because they are going to enjoy the larger wall portrait way more than they would have enjoyed a smaller size.  (I TOTALLY believe in the value of wall portraits as home décor.)

So the end result is your clients get a better size portrait for their wall, which they will enjoy more, and you get more money for your efforts.  It’s a win-win for everyone.  

Try this – it’s an amazingly effective photography sales and pricing principle.

For more photo business building and money making tips, click here:  Photography Business Building