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Your First Massive Failure

Lesson 66 from: How to Start a Photography Business

Pye Jirsa

Your First Massive Failure

Lesson 66 from: How to Start a Photography Business

Pye Jirsa

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Lesson Info

66. Your First Massive Failure

As Pye says, you can't sell to people that aren't in your target market. In this lesson, Pye discusses failure and how to qualify and differentiate your work.
Summary (Generated from Transcript)

The topic of the lesson is about starting a photography business and the importance of qualifying leads and targeting the right market.

Q&A:

  1. Why is it important to qualify leads in a photography business?

    It is important to qualify leads because you can't sell to people who are not your target market.

  2. Can you turn a $500 client into a $5000 client?

    No, it is not possible to turn a $500 client into a $5000 client.

  3. How can differentiation in your work benefit your photography business?

    Differentiating your work from competitors is important because if clients can't see a difference in quality, they will choose the cheaper option.

  4. What are some questions you can ask to qualify a lead?

    You can ask about the venue, size of the wedding, vision for the shoot, clothing, and car to visually qualify a lead.

  5. Why is it important to establish the value of your services?

    Establishing the value of your services is important because you are selling a luxury product and not a commodity.

  6. What should you do if someone is not your client persona?

    If someone is not your client persona, it is best to stop investing energy in them and focus on targeting your actual clients.

  7. Is sales a numbers game?

    Yes, sales is a numbers game, but you can increase your odds by qualifying leads and targeting the right market.

Next Lesson: The Sales Process

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction

13:12
2

Common Myths & Unknown Truths

11:42
3

The Road Ahead

13:03
4

Find Your Passion

06:06
5

The Lin & Jirsa Journey

13:54
6

Part-time, Full-time, Employed, Partners?

03:51
7

Stop Wasting Time & Money

06:07
8

Your 12 Week Roadmap

04:33
9

Great Plans Still Fail

06:01
10

Strategy Vs. Planning

04:16
11

Mind Mapping

07:25
12

Select a Focus

14:16
13

Competitor Research

09:34
14

S.W.O.T. Analysis

13:54
15

Strategy & Long Term Goals

03:50
16

Values, Vision & Mission

27:49
17

Effectively Managing Your Time

15:05
18

Artistic Development

07:30
19

Create Your Plan

13:12
20

What's Your Product

10:51
21

Luxury vs Consumer Products & Experiences

11:44
22

Quick Break for Econ 101

16:31
23

Your Target Market & Brand Message

21:25
24

What's in a Name

09:20
25

Your Client 'Why'

05:43
26

Crafting the Why Experience

24:17
27

Document the Client Experience

08:29
28

Business Administration Basics

27:03
29

Book Keeping Management

06:51
30

Create the Logo & Branding

07:04
31

Portfolio Design

15:11
32

Design Your Services & Packages

18:51
33

Pricing Fears & Myths

08:46
34

Three Pricing Methods

25:39
35

Package Pricing Psychology & Design

06:15
36

Psychology of Numbers

07:29
37

Pricing Q&A

23:51
38

Grass Roots Marketing

09:36
39

The Empty Party

07:03
40

Friends & Family Test Shoots

16:28
41

Join Groups

04:32
42

Second Shooting Etiquette

07:44
43

The Listing & Classified Hustle

14:10
44

Make Instagram Simple

13:55
45

Your Automated Pinterest Plan

08:01
46

Facebook Because You Must

07:37
47

Giveaway & Styled Shoots

12:17
48

Content Marketing & SEO

08:12
49

The Monster: SEO

07:26
50

Selecting Your Keywords

05:45
51

Testing Your Keywords

07:53
52

Grouping Main & Niche Goals

12:39
53

Your Content Road Map

11:47
54

Content Marketing Q&A

10:45
55

Inspiration to Keep Working

07:45
56

How to Craft Your Content

15:03
57

Internal Linking Basics

05:30
58

Back Link Building Basics

04:55
59

Link Value Factos

14:38
60

Measuring Link Value

04:24
61

Link Building Strategy & Plan

06:10
62

Link Building Plan: Vendors & Guest Writing

06:45
63

Link Building Plan: Features, Directories, Comments

03:11
64

Link Building: Shortcuts & One Simple Tool

14:44
65

What is Sales? Show Me!

12:58
66

Your First Massive Failure

05:17
67

The Sales Process

07:31
68

Your Second Massive Failure

05:23
69

Understand Buyer Psychology

10:00
70

Step 0: Building Rapport & Trust

15:14
71

Step 1: Identify Need or Want

15:39
72

Cognitive Dissonance

12:01
73

Steps 2 & 3: Value Proposition & The Solution

14:21
74

Step 4 : Close, Make the Ask

04:32
75

Step 5: Follow Up & Resolve Concerns

06:13
76

Family Photography Hot Seat

12:06
77

Business Example Hot Seat

15:52
78

Boudoir Photography Hot Seat

16:09
79

The Best Sales Person

07:45
80

Your Mindset, Vibrations & Frequency

06:56
81

Always Positive, Always Affirming

11:55
82

The Second Money & Dual Process

07:39
83

Chumming the Price Waters

03:57
84

Creating Want or Scarcity

09:54
85

Timeless Advice on Being Likable

11:53
86

Selling Over The Phone

10:59
87

Forbidden Words in Sales

11:40

Lesson Info

Your First Massive Failure

Your first massive failure. That was like literally one of my first massive failures was this photograph right here. But I'm using this photograph because this is one of our first failures is to qualify your leads. You can't sell to people that are not your target market. You can't take the $500 client and turn them into the $5000 client. You can't take somebody that wants to spend $ for a newborn session and have all their images and sell them a $2500 piece of wall art. That's number one is just understand where to put your time and where to put your energy. And this goes back to also, you can't worry about... I use this image for a specific purpose. Because so many of us are concerned about the photographer down the street that's charging just a little bit less. It's because both of your images look like this. Okay? If the quality of work between you and a competitor, if you can't tell the difference, how's the client going to? So if you're not producing good work to begin with, then...

you're gonna be in that range where you can be undercut. Easily. Because a client can't even differentiate between the two. And I don't mean that you need to be doing crazy, expert work. What I mean is that at least differentiate yourself in terms of like, Honda, let's go Toyota, I like Toyota, Toyota to Lexus. None of us here understand a darn thing about cars. Well, maybe some of you do. I race cars but I don't really know what goes on inside them, I'm like, they're just fun. None of us get it yet all of us have the perception that there's at least one that's significantly better than the other or at least partially better than the other. That's the level that I want your work to be at. Where at least a consumer can come in and say, their work is good, it's better than the rest. Like they have at least that basic level of differentiation. Now when it comes to comparing Lexus to Mercedes to BMW, that's your job as the salesperson. Does that make sense? First step is to not be competing in a class where everybody else can compete right there with you. And that goes back to like price and quality and these we've talked about. I want you guys to avoid budget questions when it comes to qualifying somebody. There are plenty of other things you can ask to qualify a lead. Because Haldis, if you ask me, now I ran that conversation, but if you ask me what do you want to pay for this service, what do you think I would say? I want it free. Yeah, I want it free. (chuckling) Fist bump bro. I'll hit you back next time. I want it free. Like I mean, that's what happens when you ask a budget right? What did you expect to pay? I don't know, $100? I'm gonna give you a number that is what I wanna pay. It doesn't mean anything. So qualify with things like other questions. Venue, what is your venue? What's the size of your wedding? What is your vision for your shoot? Clothing and car, these are things that you can qualify visually, right? I have an asterisk next to them because you need to be able to see them. But if somebody shows up carrying their Louis Vuitton bag and they set it down on the table for their maternity shoot and they start going, I really expected to pay $250, there's some education that needs to happen. Right, it's not that they can't afford it, it's that they came in with the expectation of something. But you can use that clothing, you can use the Mercedes Benz that they showed up in to qualify them as yes you can afford my services, now I need to establish the value for you. This is important because qualifying does not mean directly asking. In corporate sales, sometimes it does. In corporate sales sometimes you call somebody on the phone and you're talking about budget considerations for paper. That's a commodity, right? Commodity based businesses where it's like a software, a specific piece of thing that you need, it goes down to budget. Because by and large, they're all the same. But we're not in that industry. We're not selling a commodity, we're selling a luxury product. This is why we defined all that so long ago in earlier segments, right. Because we have to understand what type of product we're actually selling. Don't use your energy on people that are not your clients. That's the first step. Just stop. And think back to that persona, who was your client persona? Okay, that's where we want to spend our time. This is where I said, remember I said, it's okay to send your price list out if they're not your prospective clients. Or if they're gonna burn your time. Send it out. Go to the next one. A big part of this is a numbers game. Sales is a numbers game. But I can help you to really increase your odds.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

How to Launch a Photography Business Workbook
Experience Pricing Example

Ratings and Reviews

Armstrong Su
 

This class and materials are to the point and eye-opening on the business side of photography. Pye Jirsa is an amazing and fun teacher as well! Most photographers need more business classes offered to bring us who love to create art back to reality for a more successful business that makes a living on it's own. This course will definately get you started in the right direction and so cheap too! Great investment! armstrong outdoor tv case outdoortvcase Pye Jirsa is one of the best instructors that I have the pleasure to learn from. He and his team have given me so much more than they'll ever realize. Knowledge, wisdom, training, friendship, mentoring, inspiration, joy... I cannot thank Pye enough for changing my life for the better. I owe them more than they'll ever realize. Thank you, Pye Jirsa!!!

Angela Sanchez
 

This class has been an eye opener for me; a point of change in my vision as photographer. Pye is and AMAZING, INSPIRING, GENEROUS instructor, with an, authentic desire to help people and to share with them the best of his knowledge. I will not have enough words to say thanks to Pye Jirsa, as a teacher and as a human being, and thanks to Creative Live who allows us to benefit from the experience of such a knowledgeable, educated, well-versed photographer and instructor. 1000% recommended!

Yenith LianTy
 

Been following this guy forever. Pye Jirsa may be well known in the wedding & portrait photography world and if there is something that this guy knows it is how to create a business, a sustainable one. The workbook he provided is comprehensive, and I honestly wish I had this when I first started out as a photographer! I love that he talks about his failures, keeping it real and honest for anyone starting out. He is definitely one of the best instructors around, super humble, down to earth and with a sense of humor to boot. The course is worth it! THE WORKBOOK is AMAZING! SUPER DETAILED!

Student Work

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