Lessons

Lesson Info

Face to Face Consults and Sales

So now this is the most important part this is our face to face marketing my face to face marketing cook comes in the form of a consul to all of the marketing that I have been doing the last few weeks half that I want them to lead to a face to face whether they have already booked a session because sometimes you can get them to book a session over email I feel like that comes when you've established a good report a good reputation in your community you'll be able to book those now that's how my studio works I don't even do a console to until after I've booked the session because I don't want to waste my time and I want to spend time with the people that I'm going to spend time with you know, um but again you're bringing them in to connect with them so my console ts in my consuls there are four major components in my console ts they're meant to educate the client they're meant to start the sales process they're meant to establish trust and they're meant teo again reiterate to my clients...

that I am different than my competition so they come into the console tw and I'm going teo excuse me, I'm going to start educating them on the on my studio and how I do things I'm going to tell them that I'm a full service studio that I don't I'm not just going to send them out of my studio after their session with the disk of all the images and say how fun do whatever you want to him, you know, it's also a very positive way of saying, I'm not just going to send you out of my studio with the disk of images, so I gave that a positive. I put that in a positive light, I was going to say twist, but that sounded bad, but I said it anyway, so, um, and then I was going to educate them on establishing expectations and that's very, very, very important. Like I said with the disks, some people are going to come in and think, well, every other photographer and your market is giving away disk, so she probably is too. They don't even know that you don't do that if you don't do that. You know now to clarify, I do sell my digital images, but I don't just give them a disc of images, okay? And that's a whole another there's a lot to that as well. Um, so I'm giving I'm when I say establishing expectations, I'm saying this is how everything's going to go you're going tio, come in for your for your session. We're gonna have a ton of fun and then two weeks after your session, we're goingto have we're going to book you in for a preview in order session where you're going to come in and you're going to see a custom designs slideshow set to music of all of your images mom's going to cry they do every time if they didn't I didn't do my job and and, um and then at this point, this is when we're going to start the sales process, so so this is there there, their expectation is that when they come into view their images, they will be ordering product, they know that up front, which is very important you need them to bring their wallet. Um, I'm going to tell them about their experience that senior portrait's right now are nothing like they were ten years ago, they're nothing like they were it's an experience now, okay, this is not just about prince and folios and standing in front of a brick wall and smiling and in putting in the yearbook, this is an entire experience it's about the friends it's about the hair and makeup it's about the locations and the clothes, and and I guess what I tell every client is this and I believe it it's the most important portrait session that you're going tohave up until your wedding this is a huge milestone, and they should be able to not only have their portrait taken, but have a ton of fun doing it, ok, I also tell them about the fact that, like I said it's, not just about prince and folios anymore, the products are completely different now in our studio, we sell, we sell artwork, we still keepsakes, and we sell gifts, so I begin to take them through. This leads me into the sales process, and I start to take them through every component that I offer all of the products that I offer in my studio and what's available to them. I want them to see these up front so that when they come back for their preview in order sessions, they already know that they can put canvases and metal prints and matted and framed to pieces on their wall, and that they can get graduation announcements through me and not the school, and on that they can get some incredibly beautiful coffee table albums to be ableto have a keepsake of and pass that down from generation to generation. I am well spoken and knowledgeable about the products that I offer, and this is important if you're in a sale session and you're stumbling around and you're like, well, I yes, this that's a sixteen by twenty four. No, just kidding. It's twenty by thirty. They're like, oh, great who? Why are we buying things from you? Why are we spending all this money on you? You don't even know what you offer, which is why I don't offer very many products because I can't remember everything. So I keep it simple for my clients and for myself, and then we are establishing trust in our consul ts which is a very important thing to do with your clients. Um, I'm I'm sending every client out with a menu of everything that I offer and everything that's available to them so that they're going home with the prices and the reason why I'm doing that is so that they know I'm not going to try to give them a gotcha moment when they come back to purchase products, they trust me because I'm giving them all of the information up front, okay, also why I do this is so that they cannot come back to me in the sail session, in the preview in order session and say we didn't know what was going to be this much, we never would have booked you well, now they have plenty of time, they can't come back and say that, and then I also tell them that if they need it, I'm happy to offer them an interest free payment plan. Okay because I don't believe in sending my clients into a world of hurt and debt and so an interest free payment plan for them get is it helps them get what they want immediately and it gives me a residual income every month residual consistent income every month and then and then last but not least I would actually put that I should have put this in the educate portion but I tell them about my referral program any session that they refer to me they get fifty dollars on their account uh and actually I could put this an established trust because what I tell them is I'm really honest about this if you send a client to me I will put it in your account and I will let you know immediately that you have fifty dollars or one hundred dollars or two hundred dollars to spend and I have had several clients that have sent enough referrals to me that they've gotten free sessions and free products in the future so is very beneficial to them it's not like hey, I'll give you twenty bucks now I'm going to give you fifty bucks at buck's office session any session or product and then finally be different okay? So when I first started realizing that that something needed to change about my marketing I realized it wasn't just my marketing it was it was me something had to change about me you can't market differently unless you really are different so you have to figure out what makes you different for me. I was thinking what makes my image is different like I there are so many photographers in my area that are as good and a lot of them that are better than me. What makes my image is better than theirs and then I realized that it wasn't my image is it was me I'm the one who connects with the clients, I'm the one that communicates with them, I want to take care of them I want to figure out who they are, their personality, and I want to photograph them like that, okay, so that's what makes me different? And I just needed I just needed to figure out howto package that in a way that my clients would understand and once I did that that would come through my marketing. So then that birthed the personality form and giving that to my girls every time they come in for a console to and then that birth making poses to fit all those personality so I could tell them on their moms that these are the types of poses were going to be doing with your girls, I'm going to throw in some wild cards and I'm going to do some fun new ones on the spot, but this is what you can expect we're not doing in a well say inappropriate we're not doing inappropriate poses and moms want to know that they want us to capture with the innocence that's left in their little baby girl you know so so this for me is being different it's capturing their specific personality and then also getting to show that to their moms is beautiful because that's why they cry that's why they say oh that's my baby girl that's who she is you know so what makes you different guys what makes you different what makes you a stand head and shoulders apart from your competition before you can mark it differently you have to actually be different the tools that I the tools that I gave you today they will very very much benefit you but on ly if you weave yourself into it you know when you do something that works your competition will follow just like the rep program it started working for a handful of photographers and more and more and more caught on and they all started doing it and then it wasn't working anymore okay but the thing with this marketing strategy is that it is a template it's a system that you could do over and over and over but the thing is if you make it your own if you weave yourself through the entire marketing plan it cannot be replicated which is the most beautiful thing about it it will only be you no other photographer can do it just like you dio, and it will grow and grow and grow your studio year after year after year. So be who you are, innovate always and follow me on instagram s o much, alicia, that was killer information really, really helpful, lots of people really happy with what you gave. So go ahead and follow alicia on instagram as she asked. Also, there are bonuses included with purchase of this course that are from alicia, so thank you very much for putting them together. We have two bonuses. There's, a link to that light posing guide that'll kind of give you a taste of what the posing guide is, and also a personality form that helps you to understand your clients. And if you want to learn maura about alicia or also purchased. The full version of the post of her posing guide is available on her site at alicia white dot com and it's alicia with a y yes way show with the wife.