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After the Shoot

Welcome back everyone we have taylor with us and she and I are gonna walk you through our mindset now, right? So if you think about it we've talked about our business plan we have showed kind of the workflow that goes on behind the scenes for post production and in all fairness I know several of you have asked you know, we are part owners principles in evolved edit so I don't want anybody think I'm hiding that because it's right on the website and I had faith in you guys that you could read so I figured as much so let's move on here now so what I want to do taylor is have you kind of right from the get the photo shoot's over the client that the first thing they always ask me is what's next and so I kind of want a whiteboard some of this out but talk to me what are you doing? Why are you doing it assumes that photo shoot's over so talk a little bit about that so the day of the photo shoot while the clients actually having their pictures taken I have a template email that I send out to t...

hem that invites them to come back two weeks later to review in order their pictures his email is very key the way that you handle it just like sales talk before we do certain things because we learned the hard way we attached the pricing and specials in that email and the reason we do that is so that when they say yes okay that date works for me they can't ever come back to us and say oh I never got the pricing therefore I'm not ready to make a decision during the sales process we can say well yes you did because you responded to the email that has the pricing attached what can we do this can you just for the audience and everybody here they love hearing about the language what language are we using so do you know off the top of my head because I know I can probably recite the whole you know no pressure yes says hey guys thank you so much for for shooting with us today I hope you had a blast we can't wait for you to come over to view in order your pictures how does this date in this time work for you please make sure you review the specials and packages attached there tied two specials are vendors are running. Therefore there will expire the night of your preview so be sure to tell talk to your family and talk about home decor and what you want to dio um if you have any questions, please let us know once you get to the studio will review all your images with starting off with the slide show and then we'll whittle that down and pick out some of your favorites and during that time I'll show you some of the products that are included in the pricing because a lot of one won't make sense until you get to see them in person well, you really do know because I usually paraphrase when e like that's really like word for word yeah that's that's pretty good so I hope your butt what keywords are you picking up on their what'd you guys grab right be prepared to pick in order your pitch and that's actually bold it in the email because I'd want there to be no illusions as to what they're coming therefore so if they come to the studio and they're like oh, I didn't know we were ordering tonight like really because it's bold in the email like three times so there's no way you can't know that I don't want them to be surprised or not know what they're therefore we need to be clear on what the mission is it's to view and order your pictures and that's very important so I know a lot of people out there at least when we've been on tour that question comes up all the time you know people come in and they weren't ready to order you've got to tell them what's gonna happen you've got to lead them through every step of the process here's the thing as artists were afraid to ask for the money we cannot be afraid to ask for the money ask for the business right that's way have to operate under a certain set of assumptions they came to us for pictures right? You came to me for pictures and now you're going to buy pictures that's why you're here so don't feel bad don't feel like you can't ask them for that it's okay to ask for the business so there's a few elements I want to touch on that happened prior to this email so we used to give them the pricing when they came to see their pictures we just let them know that they were coming to order but we didn't send them the packages and discounts ahead of time tonight it was a nightmare s o we had people come and they were shocked they had no idea what the pricing was and then the sales process itself took like two hours longer than what it takes now because that was the first time they were looking at the menu and didn't have time to kind of think ahead of time of what they wanted so we learn from our mistakes and now we send the pricing two weeks ahead of time it goes out literally the day of the shoot right? So while I'm wrapping up that shoe tail already knows they already have an email so when mom asked me what's next I go well, you should already have an e mail from taylor all a lot of our parents already plugged in right on their iphones androids whatever they got on there going oh yeah I already got an email from tel I just haven't looked at it yet so that's how important that process isn't happening but guess what in that email? You're sending them dates right? So you're sending them two or three possible date so guess what postproduction better happen better be able to get in you can't tell him I got a date on, you know, two weeks from now and then you're stumbling around, not getting it done right? My clients don't care they're not yet creative live. I don't care where you are, sal. I want to see my picture well and the quicker you can turn around your pictures better the sale's gonna be just because of the emotions involved so very is very much an emotional purchase. Once they see those images, they get drawn into him. So the sooner after the shoot that you can have them see the images because they're still feeling that excitement that can't wait to see and they're still in the moment, so if you're waiting past that two week mark, I think it's going to hurt yourself that one that one thing taylor mentioned, I call it an objection remember any objections not correctly addressed or going to stall the sale? So what happened was in the beginning when we were still working out our process back in old seven away and perfecting this we would get asked all the time you know they'd come in, see their pictures, see the pricing for the first time and shock and sometimes horror would set in I literally had a mom break down in tears and walk out of our home slamming the door on at that moment, I'm like I do not want to feel like this ever again, right? We're in the happy business she should be happy not crying because she can't afford the pictures so by sending that out two weeks ahead of time if there are any objections they're gonna happen before they ever make their way to our studio, that is so important because now that gives them time to kind of figure this all out, not put them right don't spot another thing you can do to get those objections out of the way before the actual sales process is to do ah pre call like a day or two before their sails session. We do this with our post sweating previews just because in our realm the post wedding sale is the hardest sale to get because they've already spent so much money now the wedding's over and they want to move on with their lives but if you don't do weddings or if you do, you can call your claim a day or two before they come in to see their sale session and ask them if they have any questions that everything makes sense on the menu. I know you'll some of the products don't make sense, I'll show you those when you get there, but I just wanted to see if you had any questions I could address now and so that's their opportunity ask, we'll do offer a payment plans what's included are, you know, get any objections you can out of the way, because whatever objections happen in the sales room, if you don't overcome those right away, you won't have a sale. So the key is to learning the objections there's going to be, what about ten ten common injections? I say we talk about those, we'll get to that, but the one thing taylor's doing here, I hope you understand it she's putting out a feeler I mean, we're trying to get a sense from the client if we are going to have a very difficult sail ahead of us or if they get it, and from time to time, we can tell like we had this's an interesting story was an engagement couple, and she took her engagement pictures approximately six weeks before her wedding. Uh that is pretty much a nightmare for you you want to shoot the engagement pictures about six months once they get inside six months they're no longer thinking about engagement pictures there thinking about all those bills that they have to start paying so this was done six weeks before their wedding the client you called the client for that feeler that pre call check in and she was furious wait a minute you mean to tell me I gotta now spend more money on engagement pictures after I just paid you all this money for your um for my wedding your answer uh my answer was well we try and be really clear as far as what's included in your wedding package it states exactly what's in there you don't have to buy anything if you don't want to there is no minimum order that immediately got the client's guard down right so even this could happen even with a senior that immediately gets the client's car down look guys, you don't have to buy a single thing remember this objection is coming into play before they've ever seen an image so it's very easy to object about spending more money if I have not seen any of your imagery because to them they're making a price decision right now we have to understand the psychology behind always when your clients are making price decisions you are going to lose nine out of ten times so at that point taylor gets her guard down just relaxes her and it's not I don't want you to think it's smoke and mirrors hocus pocus it's true there's literally no minimum order in our studio they could have come in and purchased one picture. How much did she come in and spend after making that a major objection? This has happened two months ago twenty, three hundred, three hundred on the engagement pictures on their engagement pictures that's amazing right from a client who came in and me taylor I'm like two. This is going to be a nightmare with this client when they come in to see their pictures. But just because taylor had that follow up call it's a ten or fifteen minute check in call the client walked in relaxed guard down if we didn't have that checking call client walks in and she's like enraged right now there's an obstacle to my sail and we've got to do everything in our power to remove all potential obstacles from the sale so let's keep going there well and another thing that made that sale possible was taking those images that I knew would sell so I know you talked about this yesterday I shot images knowing what size I wanted to sell them, as is this big wide fifteen by thirty panoramic and so we added in edited them that way and presented it to them that way so when I'm showing them their pictures and I tell them this one is meant to be this size just look at that aspect we know we've got your motorcycle in there they're hardly people and so we you know find something that we think is going to sell it be important to them and they fall in love with it something that goes beyond a basic edit write what I like to call for our studio that impact shot that sign's take your shot when you're showing these to your clients right love or hate my version of a signature shot it doesn't matter you define your own brand and find your own signature shot this is what our clients are coming to us for that kind of surreal moment right we show that picture we had of the space needle and we had it looking like a sunset and we swapped out clouds and all that other stuff that's a surreal image did it really look like that in seattle? No and I'm okay with that because my clients love that surreal type of image and if your brand is defined that way when that image comes up on the screen they're going to go I have to have that I've never seen anything like that and that is the emotion we're looking to re vote are you projecting at this point or are you are you on an led screen, our tv or projector? Or I mean, I know when you first started out, you said you were on your thirty inch mac, but what are you doing now? Today, we're using a samsung fifty or fifty five inch led tv, you know, and that's the key, you know, let's, talk about this for a second, you guys, we're looking at some images that I'm editing online, right? You're watching it online, we're looking at here one version on this tv, and then I'm looking at yet another version on my monitor and it's making me twitch, right? Because of the calibration you know of that so showing darker in some areas, so ultimately you've got to get this monitor to be calibrated to your home computer. You're editing computer because you want to make sure what you're seeing in your eye on your laptop on your computer, you're editing machine is identical to what the client's going to see so just to share with you, we use ah calibration tool called x, right that's what we use and it allows me to count calibrate from camera, you can actually create custom camera profiles, right? Because even if you're using all cannon, even if you were using all cannon five g's, all cannon, one d's read from each one of those cameras will look a little bit different and so this allows you to calibrate each one of your cameras so that not only does it match each camera match special if you're working with the second shooter things like that when you incorporating the light room it'll bring that calibration in but it also allows you to calibrate your monitor all the way out to your printer so make the investment in a tool like that if nothing else calibrate your monitors, which is really important because when I'm doing a sale cycle at first when we moved into our studio we didn't have our tv calibrated and so the highlights were really blown out just because it came with a little more contrast than we had it with and clients would get away from pictures because they didn't like missing the highlights that didn't know they what they were seeing they just knew well that I looked too pale there or I don't see the detail in my dress and I would have to show them well if you look on my computer, you know you've got more detail in there it won't print that way so it's it's important for your sales toe have it calibrated yeah very, very important so keep keep that in mind with that answer your question, your image at the beginning or do you save it so I'm going to tell you about my process so whenever a client comes in to see their pictures just like at the photo shoot the mood is set the mood is set when they come in to see their pictures so I'm watching for them to arrive I've got again john mayer joss stone's cem nice relaxing music playing I've got scented candles going as soon as they walk in the door I talked to them for five minutes we don't even talk about pictures just asked them how everything's going as the wedding planning doing I just want them to relax from driving in the traffic and getting nerves out of the way I offer if it's an engagement I offer beer wine whatever they want seniors obviously you're not offering beard but soda water and then on the tv screen right when they walk in is one of those signature images and I have it in light room you know lights out it's as big as the screen goes and so that at first they don't realize and then we start walking in and they're like oh my god is that me oh my god I love it so they start freaking out it gets them totally psyched for the sale session I want them to be stoked about the pictures that they're going to see and so that's how we start off with that signature images just up on the screen very similar you're seeing here so where we have one image just up on the screen, whatever the signature image would be, we would have that up and ready to go for the client so that they're seeing that on getting excited about before we ever even start. But before we get into how, what? How we run the sales process let's keep on with this work flow. Let let's keep going through. We'll take a few questions, but I want to walk through the email so that everything that's in that email the audience understands there's a reason for it to a phone call, particularly with the seniors. It seems like the schedules are like, impossible. The seniors, they have other kids that are doing stuff. They've got intramural sports that are outside of the school. How do you find out? Is there a is there a piece before this informational piece that you send out or that carries with the client all the way through the says this is the number? This is the time. So you know when to call mom? No, no, I just call and leave a message on it. Yeah, and then they called me back. Yeah, but the other thing that's in that email are multiple dates. So this is one of those things where it's not the tail wagging the dog I know all of you out there have trouble scheduling appointments with clients and you opt to defer to when the client has time well, what works for you? Oh well sunday at seven p m meanwhile you had like five things pointing that you wanted to do with you with your family that's how you have no life because that's how we used to run our business and we were literally working nine a m to two a m every single day of the week for like two years straight we were so busy until we finally started making our own schedule and now where I used to take maybe six appointments in my day by the fourth one you're just done you don't want to sell another picture you wantto go have dinner s o we set our own schedules and now we tell the client what times we have available if they don't work for you okay we give another date they might ask well is nine pm available on friday night? No nine pm is not available on friday night that's not what I want to be doing and so we just tell them no unfortunately already have meetings at that point about this time but we do know that each of appointment takes two hours so what? We won't do it starting appointment at six thirty because then that jacks up the schedule. What tale will do is they'll be correct me if I'm wrong there's a four pm six pm a pm well, and the first time slot I offer them will be in the middle of the day, so don't assume that they have jobs so that they can't get off work or they don't have flexibility. Well, we hope they have jobs. Why you gotta pay for the pictures? Thank you. So the first option I give them is usually eleven a m that's when I like to do my first sale session and then I leave it up to them to tell me, well, no, I don't get off work until three okay, no problem, then how does four p m work for you? So always offer that first time slot that where you're not working until midnight, like I used to be, and it just manages your schedule a lot more but it's important to create a framework of what times you want to meet with clients, because if you have a client kind of just jumping in the middle, it throws everything else off because then you can't get two or three sessions in a given day presentation sessions islamic sense, we do the same thing with our photo shoots, you can't just start a photo shoot randomly at eleven thirty yeah, create set times of when you consort shoot, so I actually have a document because I have a horrible memory. I have a document of when I can start shoots that includes makeup and doesn't include makeup because that'll change the start time so I know if sal has let's say, a nine thirty shoot that starts makeup it nine thirty that takes an hour, so he's going to start shooting at ten thirty, shoots an hour and a half, so noone and then he needs a break for lunch, so the next makeup should start at twelve thirty with hair and makeup that way, they're ready by one thirty, so it just goes that way throughout the whole day so that his schedule is seamless and allows you for maximum shoots. Right? So while I'm shooting taylor's typically presenting right? So as I'm walking out the door with my chute, taylor's got a client coming in to see there, see their pictures, she wraps that up. The next client comes in for hair and makeup. Okay, gets done through that. I walked back in the door, they're done with hair and makeup. I go right back out the door for my next you the next client comes in for presentation. It is this well oiled machine that we have developed over the course of in the last four or five years again, we want a personal life to some extent, I want to go on a date with my wife, I want to be able to do things beyond being married to the business, and I think that's very important for all people work, life, balance well, and most people, most studios, you probably don't have, you know, this ton of employees to help you out with stuff, so I'm selling, and I'm helping these chutes come in, just like you saw yesterday, I'm bringing in their outfits, picking out their outfits, so that means whenever my sales session's over, I have to go prep for the next shoot. Whenever that she gets there, I have to pick out the alf it's, talk to the client, get them ready for south, shoot, and also be ready from the next presentation. So it's, very important to keep that lined out schedule and adjusted as you see issues, so if you're seeing well, my makeup artist is taking forty five minutes and not thirty. Adjust everything so that you're not killing yourself for clients are bumping into each other. Make sure you find the system that works for you, something I want to talk about, you just happen to say it, and it made me think of something is you know all the last three days all weekend I've been mentioning this concept of becoming the trusted advisor and some businesses I've seen consider adding sales staff right? They go hey, I don't want you selling south can I work your framework and hire a sales person? Yeah, you can totally do that but keep in mind if if they don't meet that person let's say you hire this sales person to handle all you're selling nothing wrong with that you can make that work but if the first time they meet that sales person is when they come in for the sale they will not be the trusted advisor they will in fact be a sales person they won't trust a word they're saying because they'll think hey, I don't even know you you're just trying to sell me an image they'll have no connection to the image no connection to the outfit the sales person that is however what we do is because taylor's not on the shoot I'm on the shoot they trust me right? They're engaged with me that's why we have taylor welcome them to the studio bring in their outfits help select the outfit she's the one talking to them on the phone getting them excited for their appointment taylor the entire front end of this process is becoming the trusted advisor so now when the client comes in for a sale so vision we're just meeting with our friend taylor and she especially with picking out the outfits the seniors they're relying on you because they have no idea what looks good there so nervous and then I'm picking out these outfits and styling them by the end of me showing them their alf it's like oh my god, I would never put that together that looks amazing are you coming on the shoot? They had their tied to me like they trust me now and they want me to be part of it and so I know when they come through for their sales cycle it's just gonna be easy yeah so you guys with me on that is that islamic sense the importance of getting to that trusted advisor so let's keep going through this email right there's some other things that are in there and you send the multiple dates you let them they'll be prepared to pick in order pictures and bold in behold what else is in there? Uh it lets them know that the packages we've attached to the email or tied two specials are vendors are running, so the reason that we were that this way is because if you tell them it's just specials were running now you're the bad guy now they're going to say, well, I don't want this campus I went this size canvas let's just switch it out we wouldn't be able to say no if the specials were coming from us, but now we can tell him the specials are tied to discounts are vendors are running like certain size canvas, a certain size prints we're gonna say, well, we can't really adjust anything because the packages were put together based on the discounts they're running on certain items, so it would totally negate the whole package if we were able to swap stuff out and let's talk about that for a second, right? What I don't want anybody to believe, especially photographers. I know you guys have a tough time selling right, and I don't want to be a hard sell. I don't want to be like, you know, you got to do it now forty nine, ninety five got to do it right? I that's not what I'm looking to do with the client, but there has to be pressure. There has to be some sort of pressure to close the deal. So this process we have found this super simple it makes life easy whether the client believes it or not, it doesn't matter. The truth is behind this, even though we're saying they're tied two specials are vendors of running there's a little bit of truth to that because the packages were put together with profit margins tied to the pricing our vendors are offering so if a client comes in and they're like, well, I don't want this campus, I want this print at this take that out, sure, that might all sound reasonable to them, but on the back end, we've got a hard cost of goods, right? A digital negative costs you nothing in reality compared to the hard cost of a canvas. So what do you do if you're selling digital negatives for five hundred dollars, six hundred dollars? And now the client goes, well, I don't want that I'd rather have three canvases for the same price you're going crazy because your margin, you just lost all your margins, so there is truth to that statement, and that becomes our pressure to push that sail too close. I know you because of your growth over the last four years, you've had a lot of movement on your price structure, but at some point in time you got a plateau somewhere, although you'll tweak it a little bit. Is there any fear from you that using that when somebody comes back two years and seize the exact same prices, or even for a family session because you offered for free three months later? Wait a second, this vendors been having the exact same special for three months? How is that possible? Wait it's not possible because the packages change remember I told you day one the packages are a living document so those packages what's in um will change based on what our client preferences are and our senior packages change each year we look at the new products that are out there whether it's acrylic heard you know different stuff that we wanted to incorporate into our clients or offer them they'll change it might only be one thing, but it changes every year, right? So that's a pro example acrylic and metal prints those are something that are really knew really hot for our seniors, the acrylics right now we're in love with so we just introduced those I'ma show you guys after lunch I'll pull in an acrylic that I had shipped here so you could actually see it uh this is something brand new that we're starting offer our seniors and they're going crazy for it so that wasn't in our pricing so that will have worked its way into the pricing model and justin according yes so that has to be a living document but good question what else lets keep going through the mail? And then well, you want to go for questions now chapman's blown up there just so many way have a ton of questions regarding pricing filthy a asked do you give them a priceless before they pay the booking fee or a rough guide as to what clients typically pay so they don't get shocked after paying out for this shoot itself not realizing what prince will cost that is a great question so let's step back that phone call comes in I want a little bit more information about your studio right? First and foremost I'm a tailor handle is because she's the one we handle that phone call but first and foremost no pricing on your website you've got to stop doing it what's happening if you do that you're rewarding bad behavior you're encouraging the client to price shop I never want my client's price shopping because what am I selling make no mistake I am selling me more than I'm selling an image I'm selling the experience and I can't get to that experience if I'm a price list online so that phone call comes in mom's going to start asking questions let's role play do it it's over everything we do we have a process and a script for it just makes everything seamless so is you start to add employees or you introduce your spouse to start working with you it helps them adjust to it so we have a script which oversight for you from memory because I've said it a hundred times a year uh when a senior calls in to get more pricing seo so great to hear from you how did you hear about our studio? You want to see where that lead came from what tie it to some kind of advertising is it from your ambassador program so from the school that way you can get a sense of what marketing's working for you and uh well okay, I heard about you from ambassador great have you had a chance to check out our website? The reason I ask that is because I want to make sure they've seen cells work because his work is unique and that's part of our selling points I want to make sure we're on the same page so I know south talked about a situation where they hadn't seen our website and they were asking all these questions it would make sense if they did see the work, they wouldn't have those questions so I always direct him to the website if they haven't been there yet next okay, if you don't know anything about sally's from new york, he worked a lot with commercial models and so that's the type of experience we like toe off for seniors is we treat them like a model for a day we have here stylists, makeup artist, stylist it it's an amazing experience to get a couple hours a shoot time one on one with sal doing all these crazy locations crazy stuff and they have a blast I'm selling the experience that's very important let's pause there for all of you at home everywhere, right? You have to understand that what she's doing right here that's the elevator pitch that's her her thirty second here's who we are now we can start answering some questions because you want a level set on who you are and what you're offering especially somebody saying I've never even seen your website my daughter handed me this card this flier and she wants to work with you so taylor's painting the picture now if you're the one answering the phone, you don't want to be answering that question about yourself let me tell you a little bit about myself, right? We're great we take great pictures were so great you want to work with us no that's not what you want to do, so create that layer of separation between you and the conversation if you will with the client, so go ahead. So from there I explain the different session options that we have and so that's your point to differentiate okay session a has this amount of time session because this amount of time this one cause this much this one cost this much and then from there if they don't ask any other questions about pricing, I don't give them any information if prices of really important thing for them they're gonna ask questions if price is of no concern to them, they're not going to ask questions, so why would I want to introduce price of them if they're not worried about it if they're just going to spend however much they want and so if they start asking me well how much your pictures afterwards that's when you can give them a general idea you don't have to go into the specifics of packages just tell them well we don't have any minimum orders at the studio so you can spend however much you want but to give you an idea most families and spending about a thousand to fifteen hundred on pictures boom challenges put out a feeler right she's pre qualifying the client if that client now this this conversation could go one of two ways right you're going to get that oh my god fifteen hundred dollars for pictures that's ridiculous like we've had people tell us that you're calling me right so uh the end of the day this is how much they it is so that conversation didn't go that route taylor's gonna handle that that's what I call an objection how you handle that objection will define the rest of your sale or that khun go where the client has no objection whatsoever and proceeds to booking so now that comes in and the objection is fifteen hundred dollars for pictures we don't want to spend that much money how do you handle it? Well I would definitely again check out our website salis not your typical photographer this isn't your typical studio studio, where we're putting through like four hundred seniors shooting multiple at a time, we really give you an individual session and focus on the senior themselves. Sal actually limits the number of seniors he shoots that way we can, he could give everyone that individual experience and make them feel like the most important thing that day. So we limit the amount of seniors we shoot, so if you are looking to book with us, I definitely would book sooner than later because we tend to book up about three months in advance, right? But how much your pictures it's however much you want to spend, we have packages that start around six or seven hundred, just depending on what specials are, vendors are running and go up from there. Some includes small print, some include big prints, but just to give you a general idea, most families end up spending about a thousand fifteen hundred. And so once you come in for your pictures, will send you specific discounts and specials that where you haven't exact idea before you come in to purchase what you're going to be looking at spending, but what's in that base package, I can't tell you exactly what's in that package, I know, I know just give me the evil I'm going to, I'm not there. Going through my objection list ahead, but what's in that case package, I can't tell you exactly what's in that base package because the packages change depending on what specials are vendors run, they might be running a discount on canvases are on books, so we put those specials together and pass along those discounts to you, but typically to give you an idea, like right now, the package might include four, eight by tens, five five by sevens, eight sheets of wallets, and then the other packages will include something like this. So that way you're addressing their questions without kneeling yourself to the wall with something specific. But how much is an eight by ten? If you go on the cart, you're going to spend more money than you would go in with a package, because the packages pass along that discounts from the vendors. So if you're going on the cart and eight by ten is fifty dollars versus in a package, you might get anywhere from twenty to fifty percent off that you have rehearsed. This is bobby. What do you guys think? You impressed by that? It should be impressed, right? Because these objections, we just gave you the whole freaking stick right there so that these objections are the objections are studio candles every single day, and in the beginning I would listen to taylor having the phone call or me having the phone call and she would, you know, sometimes you just get taken off guard by some of these questions. Like what? And then you give a ridiculous answer. It doesn't sound good notice, which he never said no never heard her say no, right? You never heard of just give a very short and abrupt dancer? I didn't say an eight by tens fifty dollars. I explained why it's fifty dollars and what your other options are. And she said at least two or three times. However, if you go with the package that's where you're gonna get a significant discount planting c she's planting seeds she's reinforcing the message over and over and over again never, ever, ever give your client a one word answer? Can we do this? No. How much is this? Fifty dollars? You're not controlling the conversation, you have to control the conversation. How much is an eight by ten? Fifty dollars? The reason? It's fifty dollars? Because a b c d you guys with me on this? All right. How we doing that? I like the role play. She did good that's. Awesome. Thank you. I got in the character, I was like a book in my senior pictures. Oh, I sold you, you sold me yeah, can you do one more roll play because it is a no for your studio? The digital negative question? Sure, absolutely well, can I get my digital negatives? We don't offer digital negatives, but what we do offer is a facebook posting whatever pictures you picked for your prince if you opt for a facebook posting, those same images will get posted to facebook so you you'll have your favorites to share with your friends and family like people print from those you won't be able to print from those we do have a copyright on those so anything that you would like to print, you need to purchase from the studio and if you end up in a package, if you add any prints onto that, you typically get a discount on him, why can't I get the digital negatives like an eye print from those just because anything that gets printed from our studio, we want to have our editing and our branding on it? We don't want our work, you know, displayed that isn't how we wanted it to be seen without special edits were cleaning up their skin pimples, increasing highlights, doing all these things that you don't even need to know about just to make it look more polished and professional, but I want to print some announcement cards for my for my daughter, we actually offer announcement cards so when you come into the studio to view your pictures, I'd be more than happy to show them to you. They're gorgeous there on metallic paper, double sided. They include the envelopes, so they're definitely going to stand out over anyone. Else's announcements. Bingo. So I just not not only that, I just asked about digital negatives. I'm driving into that because these air the objections again that we here, while here's, the thing with clients money is like water, it will follow the path of least resistance. If you make it easy for him to not spend money in your studio, they will not spend money in your studio. So I am. I want to make it easy for them to spend money in my studio, so we will typically offer graduation announcements at near cost so why's that so important that's not what I'm making my money. Every store has what's called a loss leader, right? You walk into ah wal mart grocery store, they're not making money on bounty selling bounty for seventy nine cents a role. They're not making money on that. However, what they know is that by pulling you into the store to spend money on bounty once you're in the store, you going by ten other things that's where they're making their money, graduation announcements I'm at near break even with that but here's my philosophy on graduation announcements I think we offer him for about a buck buck fifty apiece that's cheaper then they can get online at any of those sites better quality it's two sided pearl paper guess what's on every single car that goes out my logo so for break even okay they're mailing out two hundred graduation and with my logo on it yes, I will sell them gladly at cost so she's handling these objections and I'm just throwing things at her she's never saying no she's always explaining why if you just tell your client no and throw up a wall you're no longer the trusted adviser you are an obstacle and I don't trust you your sales person taylor is continuously reinforcing look, the reason we don't give you these digital agnes sounds going obsess about these images you can clean up your daughter skin we're going to show you get a professional portrait and after all that's what your coming to us for his artwork for your home we're doing good we're doing great. I know you guys had quite a bit to get through perhaps so what do you want to keep going or walking another question to a lot of weird plastic fantastic so um my next question actually just closed my questions document so I'm gonna pass that over teo question from our friend sc in colorado salin taylor seem pretty comfortable with their ability to handle most sales situations how long did it take you to gain this confidence and is selling the toughest part of your work so uh it hasn't stopped we don't stop learning so any objection that we keep hearing over and over again you have to kind of take a step back like okay, this is the fifth client that's had this same objection something's wrong let's fix it and so that's what we've done with our business the whole way we didn't start out perfect and we're still not perfect now it's about continuous change but in order to chance of the question how long it took us to get confident it was probably after the first year we think we heard probably most ninety percent of the objections that have come through and we had solid answers them we memorize them I even types them up that we could refer to them of from on the phone s oh, I remember that beginning by the way in the beginning it was a nightmare because taylor would actually give a different answer every time that same objection would come up there would be like a different variant I'm like where'd you get that from like why'd you say that like that's not even our standard answer and she's like I forgot so she started writing it down so that when that when she was on a phone call that's the beauty about being on a phone call when it would come in, she could at least reference, uh, that objection and then have an answer. So there's truth to what we're telling you, like there's seven to ten objections that will happen, whether you're doing senior's families, babies, weddings, doesn't matter. I have a pre canned response and you shouldn't sound like high, we would not offer digital negatives because south said, so, yes, so right, you have to have something that's going to flow sounds well, practice practice practice when I think it's also about a mindset, so I think in the beginning I was nervous about giving the answers I was giving because I wasn't secure and what we were offering, like, well, you know, we're sales people were going to be selling them stuff I feel like this is kind of fluff and, you know, they're just trying to get the real answer, and so I was really nervous because I'm not a sales person at all, and then as our business started growing, I came from the mind set that you know what, they're coming to us to get what we do, we're offering something, and they want it. And so when I'm explaining to them what we do and don't offer it's, not a sales thing, this is how our businesses run if you don't like it, you don't have to come here, but if you want to come here, you're going to adapt to what we offer and there's nothing wrong with that that's how we make our money that's our business so that's I mean, it just helped me so much they get over those nerves, and when people would ask me questions that I didn't know the answer to, I wouldn't be freaking out doing my thing. I would just say, you know, that's, a great question, I don't know. Can I give you a call back in a few minutes? And you don't have to be nervous about answering all those different sales questions? I think that's well put, though, again, just from our experience when we're on tour and we meet all these photographers that we work with, the one thing I find is that you guys aren't necessarily comfortable in your own skin. You have to be okay there's certain things you have to be able to say no to, for example, you you couldn't go into a vegan restaurant, be like I want t bone steak. All right, wei, don't carry that. We don't offer it. So why are we so afraid to say we don't offer digital negatives here? Yeah, I know you can get them someplace else. I mean, that's the one object shin. Honestly, I haven't heard come in from anyone, even in the challenge. What happens when somebody is just insistent on getting those digital negatives? Here's a typical objection. Well, studio abc offers the digital negatives. Come on, have you guys heard an objection like that for something or studio sees in this expensive or whatever. Whatever the case may be, what's your answer there. Well, I lost a wedding because of this ones beautiful bride. She came up to me and she said, I want all my edited digital negatives, raw files. I'm like no that's not gonna happen. Well, studio abc does it, I said, and this was a truthful answer to her. I said, I totally hear you unfortunately, I don't know anything about studio abc. All I know is my studio in what we offer. I would venture to guess that while studio abc is doing this there's probably five things that I'm doing that they're not doing so if that's the most important thing to you are getting those fully edited raw files, I highly suggest you engage with studio abc and that's probably going to be a better fit for you our studio just probably won't be a fit I was okay letting the business go I was okay saying no I didn't book that wedding I lost that wedding I did not walk away from that event go home cry myself to sleep and change my entire business model because I lost one event. I'm confident in my business model that my clients who see artwork who see photography is a priority will find me you have to find that confidence in your own skin let's take one more for my uh and you can definitely say no to this I know you've done the reason to spend the time would you be willing to share like a vendor list? So if you've got somebody you know that's reputable company that does good work too may we could also give him some more business absolutely that that's something we freely do when you book a wedding with our studio. Now seniors, you know there's not much in the way of vendors that are going to go out however, you know, maybe a makeup artist things like that, but for our wedding clients we actually mail the client a branded folder our contract is on one side and on the other side of this folder is our all our preferred vendors so that would be hairstylists, makeup, limo companies, catering halls, all our preferred renders is that what you're referring to? All the other stuff like you software, graduation announcements, campus. All these other things that maybe that weighs a photographic community could also engage in you guys. Like what vendors I use. Yeah, this afternoon we're going to cover all that. I'm gonna tell you. All the vendors I use what products I carry, how much hr form? Absolutely. Yeah, I feel totally comfortable sharing that stuff with you. Come another question, I think for a lot of us starting out, this is from georgia girl for you to envy. How do you email? How do you handle email shopping versus phone price shopping? So so, yeah, you have to get them on the phone so we get email increase through our website how much you're seeing your pictures don't answer that an email because you can't sell an experience through e mail, you have to get him on the phone, so we have our template of response that says we would love to give you all the information you need is just way too much for email. Give us a call at this number, and we'll be more than happy to walk you through the entire process. If they don't call you, then they're not your client that's not your client they are priced shopping if they're just emailing they're doing a drive by their window shopping kicking tires not my client we know that our strength is getting them to the phone call uh getting to that meeting and so if we can't get there, we've got to be willing to let that business go. You make sure that you've talked about this a number of times that you reference your website in any way or was that the template right there? It doesn't reference just call us well and then in the phone call you would quantify whether or not they've seen the website it all. I quantify it with a phone call but in the signature of our e mails so you should all have email signature so that it looks the same with each email that has your name, your phone number in your website so in the bottom of each email they have our website so if they haven't seen it before, they've seen it now. But most of the enquiries we get our through the website through a contact of slavery, but they've already been here, right? Sorry about that yes, it comes in you know it came in from your website causes the standard form on your website that you know where it came from exactly now, for all of you out there who are sending email via gmail, knock it off, man. Nothing says mom and pop like billy bob, twenty three at gmail dot com knock it off, man, be a professional, you would never go to a really can you imagine? Think about this pick any big brand that you're used to dealing with. Can you imagine if you've got an e mail in your inbox that was like billy bob, twenty three loves, loves cows, dot com. I've seen all these crazy emails, man, that come in it's like that's, fine for your personal stuff, but that should not be what's going out for business. Billy, about twenty three loves cows, is getting a lot of email right now, so let's say let's, say, this is good. This is really good discussion. So are you guys getting the power in the gist off this, uh, this email that goes out how powerful this pre email going out is to the overall process.