Lessons

Lesson Info

Sales Q&A

do we have any christian yes yes we do what about you did you know I've heard you say it I can't remember what yes because that's the big question what happens what I asked for us today what happens up my ass for a sadie my images started two hundred and seventy five dollars in my folio started twelve hundred dollars my most desirable packages three thousand three hundred because they're from other everybody buys because it has the best deal for that price whatever you purchase I will give you on city high res okay that's where it ends for my client's so when people go but what happens when they say but I just want to say no you're not listening to me my images cost two hundred and seventy five dollars you get a beautiful folio and anything you buy I will give you hi res on c day and people are just mystified by that for a while listen again whatever you buy I'm giving you both it's in my best interest to give you a cd because you were going to go and put it on multimedia it's not big ...

enough to enlarge it's the size of what you have purchased and if you've spent three thousand dollars with me on a folio than you deserve both a failure and a c d when you explain to people that the images need to be printed proficiently and they get the cd nobody ever says now I just want the c day eva because they're getting both it's how you word it's how you value it and so when you say whatever they purchase so if they are purchasing a nine up there getting those nine images versus the twenty five that you neither getting whatever their pitches they get on see dae so if they get nine they get nine on c day they purchased one they'd get one yet great what if they can't afford it just yet and then they say like I only can afford I can for now but maybe in six months when you hold onto those images you're you're a woman right you've seen something that you wanted that you couldn't afford what did you do just make it happen you paid it off yeah because what we do we want something we'll pay for it it does not matter how we pay for it but we will pay for it we bury money we paid off I've seen people paid a five dollars a week it doesn't matter if you want something you will paid off do you hold onto the images are ways well you do don't give people anything until it's paid for that stupid business you know but do you store the images always ok nobody gets anything till it's paid for it's a joke if you're running your business on credit you're joking yourself when you said and I haven't even looked but I'm sure people are asking when you said um you give the image on disc what but they can't go print not they can't go print themselves welcome printed but they've got what imprinted well okay yeah so usually the size of the image so if they buy this even by team lets us even by teen printing and live in fourteen bucks I will give them that high res image as a seven fighting okay and if they buy a big one I'll give him the bigger vision of it it doesn't matter to me yeah I've been paid it's more important to me that they see it as a freedom gift that they can go and do what they want with their images you know I don't like this idea that we're going to control them I'm gonna give you small images so that you can not print them wouldn't it stand to reason that the more they print them and give them weigh them or that they had them to social media the more bookings I'm going to get I've got my sale I'm happy let them go and work for you by networking for you you don't be stingy on that give away when you're presenting the images to them at the sale uh you're doing that on a large screen tv yes I only sell on a large plasma I have to sell during the day in daylight I find sitting in a dark room has never been something that I've enjoyed in terms of buying product I just don't enjoy it so I've always preferred to someplace more I think the quality is higher and ironically my place most forty two inches which is exactly the size of my largest print and I've sold mohr larger prints then I have of ten years in a studio with a large projected that could predict cinema side effect I saw more thirty forties in my first year in business than ten years of working in the studio that had the cinema size projector in a dark room what software do you use to show the images that I don't think I know there were so many incredible self ways out there and I know that pro salute does magnificent and it is a great ordering suffering I know that there is others and there are so many great soft ways but I have never eva eva used one just plugging like your laptop and just start showing them question from toronto what if a client says they need to think about it and come back like you're not going to buy up okay if they're man they're not gonna buy a flu if there a woman there is an eighty eight percent chance they're coming back they're just made to tell the men all the reasons they're going to be buying off you so in the science of marketing to women it actually sears that a male sees he's gonna think about it he's not buying and if a woman says she needs to think about it she's gotta convince him or she is really thinking about it there is a really high chance um I think if you haven't got the sale you've let's go back through those points if they are not buying they're not seeing the value they're not seeing the image if they're not sitting there going I must own every image here where have you failed go back through your points and go one of those points electing I heavy they're not educated my client not delivered the product that they wanted I have not given them the service that they required I have not to live in on one of those levels one of those steps going backwards were they not educated sometimes a client will come in do a photo shoot and then come back with a partner and the partner has not been educated as to the cost it's very important because they will kai bush a sale if that when they leave the studio is that you say to the person do are you bringing back somebody to view these images like your husband or you know or boyfriend or anything like that if they say yes that you educate them as to what it costs that they're not sitting there with that awkward silence off them saying what you know what I mean is you must reach all those points in the pre education of your clients in order for that to be successful question from hillary gardener when you uh photographed multiple women the same time say they're friends or whatever did they come back in for their ordering together or separate I try to do them separately if I can but when they do like to come in twos twos and threes are fine but a big group I will break down because it's too much gaggle you know although woman or spend the same amount as the girlfriends to try and pick the spender first and if you need to spot the spender in a group of girlfriends she's the one wearing the fancy is close with the most amount of jewelry she has the least money in the bank and the more money on her body and she will spend with credit and then the others will speak what she's just to clarify uh cd question images on the cd people do want to know if you provide a websites image too partner the full size solicitor and you are watermark that I died okay I died although and I've never believed in water macking although I think krista border for a really good point when she found him but why images being used and not a good place in terms of imagery but no I do not want about uh how long do you keep your image is backed up like this taking forever yes yeah I don't use that bullshit line I do that I don't use that bullshit line that I'm going to delete them after a year if you don't purchase them if you didn't love him enough to want to buy them I'm picking that I have I've done my job well if you've been shooting for like twenty years you do you ever go back at your face fifteen was film you ever go back look at him oh yeah like my way yeah I've actually never gone back to the bed rounds although I will tell you something really funny I was doing a shoot one day and um I recognize this woman immediately when she walked into my studio but I didn't want to say I photographed your family portrait at the last video I worked for and she was now in my studio and she was one of the most profound sheets for make she had a very distinct job and she told me a story about her job that changed my life she's a literary professor and she works in prisons a teaching growing men who are in the prison system to read in the story that she told me that day changed my world and when she came into my studio I didn't recognize her at first and I was just about to say I did your family portrait five years ago at the old studio that I used to work it and the daughter pipes up and says oh my god mom he's gonna be so much better than the crappy shots we had taken last time and it just occurred to me that there was maybe there would be no going back and so I couldn't then tell her that I was don't you remember me I took your family portrait and then I showed him the back of the camera and the daughter again goes our thank god mom can take on that disk gusting family shot we've had five years up on the wall and the whole time I'm sitting there thinking it was may I did it I did it and I really wanted to say something but the best part about it wass is here is the daughter hating that shop for whatever reason she had braces she was dorky and suddenly she's gorgeous and the mother hasn't changed a lot but the where's parts are remembered her because her story changed my life it was such a beautiful story and she remembers didn't remember me at all I was nothing s o u isto beckett you work and hope that you've grown somewhat but you know you gotta be real enough to know that you don't always get it right question had come up earlier uh we'll never talk about the gift vouchers and with working with other companies yes are those people paying you for the vouchers or you're gifting them usually you're paying them to give them away yeah so again with the free lunch a friend of mine works for the company uh she just newborn photography and the company does you know for pregnant women and they give away her vouches and she gets a consistent flow of clients from this one business in his for three years and I said to her one day what are you doing for this guy that he's giving away your vouchers so consistently because let's face it if you go into a business and give them a box of vouchers they might sit under the counter who's going to sell your portrait studio what's the motivation to sell you to the clients she pays him and I said how much do you pay for that and she said after a few grand a year cost you a few grand a year he gets a plump little cash injection he gets teo get a staff to give away her vouchers she gets a constant stream of flow of business in his studio every three or four months she pops overtakes them all you know cake says thank you she's a presence in the business and they have a working relationship together if you're building networks with other businesses don't just assume people are going to sell you offer them something and be a presence and then offer them something back to the business it's the best way to build a business communications of business networks with other people I hooked up with a business in new zealand court hello dolly angela beer created a pink tool kit for women and it became an entire brand in a line she is just a marketing guru she started to give away my vouchers I started to give with poachers here products we bounced off each other for four years the only reason I started working with angela is I left new zealand and to take my brand to sydney and she is still working in new zealand with my studio there so amazing that you could meet a business that's macklin to women but nothing to do with yours I did all of their advertising of photography she helped me with marketing she's been a constant source of referral and a lot of money has changed hands because she is my evangelist building business network relationships starting your own business networks very important just maybe a follow up on that folks had asked earlier if you they loved your idea about the champagne parties and if you don't have a studio where would you like to hold such a thing that's a little bit of ahab run isn't it because if you don't have a studio of kind of not bringing anybody to the place where you want to book him in so it's one of those situations where you're it's like saying how could I run that marathon if I'm not training for it it's gonna be a little hard and you're gonna have todo high tea event maybe you do ah hi t event at a beautiful hotel which is twenty five dollars a head with lots of gift prizes but you get teo present to your business in your business story to all of these women maybe you you know you hire something out um in a way winery a vineyard oh something like then you have a wine and cheese tasting day that has centered around your business that you can invite all of these people to just try and let's try and think panoramic lee about there for a moment and give just tell me this that's out of your own christian if you were going to have a champagne party anywhere but your studio for a large group of women where would you like it to be because that would add to your question is where any of the girls would like to be many people have questions about your sales presentation especially while uh when you travel for shoot since how do you present the images I showed the moment act up okay and you turn that around fairly quickly while you're still tried to that's where I've been falling down lately and that's what I'm going to rectify when I get home from here I'm going teo tune my production back around and take some time to catch up and give my clients the service that I preach to people about she is so if you do like supposedly off shoot here and then would you have them come back to the very next day or yes I do like that I do like within two or three days when I'm traveling I allow myself whenever I do a talk I allow myself using two weeks to shoot because whenever people find out I'm going to a place to talk they want to shoot and I want to shoot around that two weeks and I want to give myself the time to turn guys around to sell them so for a photographer client I will do it online gallery but that's private I don't have that on my website um and I only do that for photographers because photographers don't rip me off they know the deal for clients that ad photographers I do view them straightaway personally on dh talk them through it and deliver my product as quickly as possible photography clients because I'm shooting so many photographers now because I'm out talking and photographers like I want you to shake me the online gallery works because you know not to rip me off you know it works um what's your preferred way to deliver the prints when someone makes an order do you like the person I want them to come and collect them and I want to take you out for coffee the difference being is in my first studio in my big studio what happened wass the clients were getting angry when they were picking up when we weren't getting any referrals we realized in that moment we were not doing the after sale service after they paid us they'd go away for four weeks they would call us and say when in my prints going to be really because we were not delivering and then they would turn up pissed off with us take the work and they would be something wrong with it and when they're already pissed off and there's something wrong with it and then they'll elevate tio you know you took my money I don't like you at all and we realized we needed to change that by pushing out turnaround time as high as possible then what we started to do was booked them into collect because I don't want them to tune out well I'm in a chute and walk out sweetie from a shoot halfway going hi kate here everything all right there good yeah thanks p four grand see you later you know all of a sudden it was cape spent all this time with us and consultation shoot sales she deserves a coffee and a chance in a connection when I started to do that especially when I got to australia when I took it back down to a one man band walk to men because the mine is with me when the client comes back to click I want to take you out to lunch now they've spent three thousand dollars with me they deserve a twenty five dollar lunch in an hour of my time I need to eat lunch and get away from work and computer and I get to network with them the best thing that happens at this moment is there not only feel special that they have spent the time with me that they've spent money with me that we're sitting down having a personal conversation and this is where I get all of their referrals so that's how I roll a lot of big studios don't have the time but if you don't have the time to lunch or date your clients then I do say one thing take the time to simply let them collect their images from you and give them your time of day even if it's teen minutes off your undivided love and attention and make sure the work is perfect before they pick it up that you have done the retouching you promised you said you were going to remove that brass trap it's not removed you know I'm not happy with this product you don't want to be sitting there giving somebody the photograph you wanna be calling them saying you must come in they're really come now it builds multiple referrals so with time what about um I just have a quick question what what about having a studio in your house like how do you feel about um I get that right but then did you feel weird about like complete strangers coming into your home and come into my house it was my carriage okay and that's one of the hardest things that you have to get around as if you haven't at home studio your house must be impeccably clean because you do not have the the privilege of having dogs and kids and real life going on people are not interested in your real life if you have a studio that tech home then you have to be out eat off the floor and that is a very hard thing to sustain because I tried that what you need to do is take it away from the house so even if it's in the carriage or an outside entrance in a clean bathroom but you really it is very hard trying to create an at home income with children in the house dog's jumping on you it does not equate to service it does not equate to a good feeling and people don't like it there's just one of those things you know I have a friend who's built a really successful winning business and melvin and when she started out they had no money here in the husband and they would shear a commercial space with four other studios and they each got a day and a half during the wake where they could do business so they would do the business fee of phone calls they would do the photo shop at home they would do their consultations on the phone and they would shoot outside on location in cell the day and a half in the big studio and all four of them paid that rent and they did that for two years and then one day they became more successful than the other three partners and they told the other three partners to go away and took over the whole studio now it's these and they've had it for years and they doing one hundred and thirty shillings a year so there's always a way you know I think every time you come across a block and you could sit here and throw a million questions at me I'm hurdles on how do we get over this but what if I'm thinking this and the people down the road of doing this but what if I'm doing this in clients don't want to come here what if I say this it's like we're posing used today what about a big forehead what about a big chin what about the big nose what do you do if you get clients with big ears you could ask the excretions for ever but what you need to do is stop and say let's troubleshoot this for a moment right now I'm working from home I need to find a space give me twenty ways that you can shoot from another space that would work for you I bet you confined twenty in one of them will be the right answer for you just open your mind and stop seeing the limits that you are constantly putting on yourself when you say but I don't have this but I don't have this you can't have small children they're not gonna be small forever so you're building now a folio that potentially in a year or two years could explode for you enjoy that worry about getting a studio a little bit down the track and do the best you can right now with what you got people want to know a little bit more about you and going from a large team to just yourself and yet and why and why because I stopped being a photographer and I started becoming a business manager because I met a guy in australia and I moved over there for him because I wanted to take my brand globally and I could no longer do that in oakland with a population of one point four million because I came into the australian market completely unknown in one two big awards of the first year became known in a year after I arrived in australia which is three years ago they asked me to speak at a cannon event two and a half years ago I could not speak to a roomful of people because I could not speak publicly and uh I enjoyed it I wanted to become a teacher not a speaker but primarily on a photographer and I want to be known as a shooter educator uh the fact that I have a good story and that I overcame my own odds that I have no education the fact that I learned how to make money these air really easy things to teach people because they're true and the fact that I went from nothing to having money is really cool because now in money now I value myself now I've understood the difference between fear and putting myself out there and I built a big studio would I ever go back to ten staff never never I'm an artist I am not a business aina I am not very good at managing teen other people and emotions and all the drama that comes with that I'm not a business person I want to be a photographer and when I come back to being on my own I earn the same amount of money then I end with teen staff I just don't paint in other people now because I do this work for a higher value with a high dollar value at a higher quality that I'm in control of the problem is my boss is a real cow and she never gives me the day off but every now and then I let her go to the movies and secondly I am a bit of a workaholic so it does work against me in that sense but when I love about it is that the backstop to have made if the service is shit it's my fault you know if I have done something wrong with the client it's my fault and I have to front out to that and when I hate my job that's my fault too because I haven't rejuvenated myself to a point where I'm falling back and love were taking photos of women I forget the story and I forget their story and I forget tio I love what it is that I do and I just get sick of photoshopping and working and paying bills and paying tex and sometimes I just wanna run away and then I remember what I do and then I get excited about it when I tell people and when I tell people I realize I'm in a full state of enthusiasm and my business takes off tonight boys always always evolving so you're you're authentic nous and genuineness is I think making waves across the world right now um so thank you for that co because you know there's something I want to say it you know people go she's so real and all the rest of it you know I'm a huge screw up sometimes I mean I'm like everybody else I don't always get it right I sometimes don't do great shoots you know I get called out on that every now and then it hurts me uh I don't want to be famous I don't need to be a famous but I'm not a famous photographer I'm a portrait photographer I don't wanna photograph angelina jolie I wanna photograph you know you said you're from canada huh I don't have any desire to be anything like that I'm a portrait photographer with a cool story but I will say one thing when I talk to you about going from nothing to something I dragged myself through that uh I'm embarrassed that I stood here and cried in front of you but when I saw her when I saw that studio picture I remember the fear that was inside me when I was told that I could never do this and I am uneducated and yes I don't punctuate on my block some guy right on my block at some guy right on a form have you read that sue prices of log she's just one rolling sentence of just shoot me now I thought that was brilliant two days ago somebody on twitter said they will always be a successful heck I am a heck I'm the biggest heck on the market I am a nobody I am nobody and I'm okay with it I take pretty pictures I've got a successful business I know how to make money but the one thing if I could just say one thing is I lent that I can have whatever I want in this world if I changed my thoughts there is nothing else that you need to know if you are limited you were putting up the limits if you're in debt that your fault if somebody is annoying you or hurting you or angry with you look at your own behavior if you don't like something in somebody else look at it in yourself that is this that is the end of the story in the fact that I have a cold business is just awesome and I'm really glad that you are all part of it and I really hope that you go home and make changes in your business they bring you rewards in success and enthusiasm and so much joy in your life that is all that I can help you