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Best Practices: Sales

So welcome back everyone. We're gonna talk about best practices for sales, so walk us through a little bit. This is your don't mean writes this is kind of my no fly zone for that every day, all day, every day of the week, so sales, sales sales first want to prep them ahead and get out your way so you, khun and khun see, thank you s so you want to prep them ahead of time. A lot of the objections you're gonna run into is that they weren't prepared to make a purchase decision that night and that's your fault for not letting them know ahead of time that the purpose of them coming in is to make a purchase decision. So whenever you're scheduling your sales session, make sure in your e mails that you're telling them exactly what the purpose of the session is for. So in our e mails, it tells them you are coming over to review and order your pictures that's in bold, old and caps so there's no mistaking why they're there, they're coming to review and order your pictures. Please refer to the spec...

ials attach these air tight. Two specials are vendors are running be sure you talk to your family about any prints they won and think about what you'd like for your home to core. What? Why do we let me kind of walk everybody through first and foremost? How long did it take us to figure that out? Probably at least a year, right? So I want everybody out there to understand this is this part of the process you should pay attention to, and I know we've taught our sales process before, but I I'm concerned that you don't understand the reasoning behind everything because that's just a cz important we had ah, mom, run out of our home. This was back when we were selling in our home. You remember this? Yes, she ran out of her home crying because it was the first time she had seen pricing. She ran out of our home crying because she used to just give them pricing when they came in and we didn't send it to them ahead of time, and that led to sticker shock and obviously a lot of emotion. So mom was crying, I felt like garbage, you felt like garbage and we realized this isn't why we're in photography were in photography toe document these great moments in people's lives, we want to want to be celebration, not people running out of our homes, crying for all the wrong reasons, so after that happened, we started including the packages and specials in the email that we sent them to schedule their previews. Which is at least two weeks before they come in. So they have atleast two weeks to review pricing, talk budget, figure out, you know, how to make it work. And so when they come in there's no sticker shock, they've already seen it, they've already talked about it, and so they're coming in to make a decision, and that elite alleviates a lot of pressure on you as a sales person because you're really not having to sell them once they've seen the packages and the pricing, and they've already talked about it and talked about what's best for them when they come in, you're really just showing them what each product is your explaining what everything is, and then from there that they're just telling you what they want back to email communication. What there's a couple of things we do that everybody needs to be aware of, one we're telling them what to expect, right? You don't have to put the language together exactly how we have it, but here's, what I think has to be in it, tell them what to expect. What are you doing there that night? You're coming to pick in order pictures in that very same email, it's one email you're letting them know here's pricing and packaging tied to vender specials in that very same e mail. You're also telling them look around your home make sure you have all the decision makers uh and be prepared to spend about two hours picking and ordering pictures so they're three very important bullets that your brain in this email so that when everybody gets there in that room we know why we're there we're not just here to hang out have a good time laugh were there to spend money and if you don't do that you're going to run into a lot of issues where there's a disconnect between what you're trying to accomplish there and what your clients are looking to do and there used to be that disconnect so this process has been refined and it still keeps going through refining process but you know we used to not put in the email you're reviewing and ordering pictures this night and so when they would come in they there might be some confusion sometimes like oh I didn't know I had to pick tonight well that's our fault because we didn't tell you you had to pick tonight yes you've done all this and then they're like oh what I guess we didn't really talk about it before they get there that just happened to us and I haven't doing this process and so I was kind of like, you know sometimes you can't know what you do day what'd you do wake narrowing down the photos again and they ended up just getting a digital negatives that they could put on their website but save it dates so it wasn't a huge sale at all they did buy something but how did you deal with that objection? Because when we're talking sales any objection not correctly addressed stalls a sail right? And it sounds like that moment where they said, well, we didn't really talk about this boom your sale just died right there there's an objection and it sounds like you didn't even address it at all. So what? So you didn't say anything when they said that? I don't remember specifically what I said, you know, we're still kind of like going through everything, but it sounds like I don't want the words come out you were like maybe way we would handle something like that if it happens because it doesn't happen anymore because of that email that's how important that email is, but from time to time I'd be lying if you admit it we do have people come in and they're just clueless about everything going like I just didn't look at the email, I don't read it do we didn't make time we don't have time to review the packages and so taylor's gonna call she's gonna be a little bit more forward right? And her forwardness is a little bit different in mind that's why it's great she's the one doing it but she's going to say to them something to the effect? Well, guys, that's, why we're here to select these papers. You want me to get you your own ass to give them time? Well, not necessarily. So whenever they say to me, well, we didn't really have time to look for him. I would try and give them a little bit of guidance. I'd be like, no problem. So the easiest way to go about figuring out what package fits you guys most is to focus on the product. Do you like books? Do you like canvas? Do you like acrylic? Once you figure out what products you do and don't like that will typically help direct youto one package or another or no package it all if you want to go ala carte, but typically the packages give you the bus deal because they're anywhere from twenty to fifty percent off the ala carte prices. Were there any products that really kind of stuck out to you? And so I'm asking a probing question because I want to feel I want to know where they're at if they liked books, I know it can start pushing towards our top package because that comes with the book. Find out they're like you know they don't like big prince I would say well if you're not looking for something big for the house than the top two packages really aren't for you though based package includes a lot of smaller guy if isis and that's typically why we have that package is for people that want smaller sizes but don't necessarily need a bigger one yeah you try it no we're not really looking to have something bigger you're like okay well this is something you say this is something that you'll have forever like you your time you don't tell you exactly what I say so if they're like well I just want like an eight by ten we don't need anything bigger this is what I say so these engagement pictures are meant to balance your wedding photos typically everyone wants you know a large wedding portrait for their house but you don't want every picture in your house to be in your dress and talks this is what the engagement session is for it's meant to give you balance in diversity in the artwork in your home so whatever you do from the wedding, people typically match with the engagement pictures so if you plan on putting, you know a sixteen by twenty four from the wedding up you'll want to have atleast a sixteen by twenty four up from the engagement session just so you can balance it out yeah, in the email, you just send the package pricing or dio taps the all card ala carte is on the right side of one page, and then the package is on the left, so we try and keep it on one page. Remember that folio I gave you guys that's all that's going to have everything on that folio when you hand it to him that's gonna have now they have already seen it at home, but we drive the point home again at the studio. When we get there. That's gonna be on that folio. I say this is a copy of what I sent you. You say, you know, vendor specials, teo kind of do that heavy handed, like you get this kind of price because their specials with the vendor, right that's in the email so the e mails kind of being all that's flushed out two weeks prior, so by the time they come in there's no, they've had time to process it. What, you don't want to spring this on them right there at that meeting, because then, it's, just everybody shuts down right there. They're being sold to. In that moment. What happens is because we do it two weeks ahead of time, they're not being so they come in, and they've already it takes the pressure out if it takes the pressure off you because that really should be on themselves because they've had time to review this but where they haven't there has been time when you step out of the room yeah, it really does that happen if there just go back and forth and I can see they're uncomfortable talk king in front of me about your client's reed reed your client's really read the body language I'll ask do you guys need a few minutes to talk it over and they'll say yeah, if you don't mind and then I walk out I go grab, you know, some water for them I asked him, can I get you beer while I'm out and uh and then they let them talk for a little bit and it doesn't always end badly. I know it's typically a bad thing when you walk out of the room, but sometimes they just need to talk over budget is having a time recently we just did this with an engagement session and I came back in and they're like, we really want to do the black label but we just don't have the money right now do you offer payment plans and so by letting by walking out of the room they were able to come to that conclusion of what they wanted, you know, contingent upon us having payment plans available they wouldn't have had that conversation with us in the room so sometimes you just gotta give him that privacy to think about how you are right sometimes if let's say I go to a jewelry store and I'm looking at the guy throws out five watches and he's like, you know, anywhere from like, ten dollars watch to a ten thousand dollar watch I'm not gonna be like here we go, I'm gonna be like, can I just talk to her for a minute to kind of figure out what we want to do? Some couples that have that conversation right in front of you they don't care like well, I want this one why don't you want it that's usually interest on that does happen in our studio we're just like so what we're talking about timing of everything about six questions came in all at the same time about when they see the prices so you know, so when they book they have no idea what you cost me on the session fee they don't see package pricing until after the session to explain your print pricing before the wedding, I feel like you might scare them anyway if they don't know the cost along those lines, right? So let's start with because it depends on what event there is, right? Let's just start with a win if it's a wedding whenever the wedding books with us whenever they see are what initial wedding packages they also have our ala carte pricing so there's no shocker the price of the ala carte pricing that they're seeing in the engagement session the same ala carte pricing that they saw when they initially booked so there should be no surprise there is toe what it costs ala carte they don't see packages for the engagement session at the time that they book us because the packages are tied, two specials are vendors are running and packages are dynamic there are being altered based on different products based on different demand so it would be I think would almost be irresponsible for us that hand packages over a year before their wedding that might change because it might change so we can lock ourselves into that we need some flexibility there but you also don't want them thinking about buying engagement picture at the time your booking them so don't try and drive the conversation too now that the engagement session you can plan on spending this much because that's going to scare them and then they're gonna book a lower initial package because they're budgeting for engagement pictures down the road also before we go on also there's no uh minimum order that's the key to drive home so it's not like there's this sleight of hand there's no minimum orders they already know one eight by ten for argument's sake is fifty dollars if they know it's a fifty dollars now they come in to see their engagement pictures they already know what a minimum and eight by tens fifty dollars what we're doing when we put these packages together is the packages now discount by twenty thirty, forty percent off the other car prices. This should be seen as like an appreciation like, oh, thanks for the discount now, I don't have to pay full of car prices exactly during their initial consultation with you, they've seen the ala carte prices theyjust haven't seeing the package and these guys, if you're freaking out online about ok, what exactly does that email saying? Where is all this stuff when you buy the course is all in there? So when you get a copy of our pricing with the course, it has our packages and ala carte pricing, when you have the email communications, it has the exact email that I sent to people for the previous session, so you can just copy and paste the exact wording, so if you bought the course, don't worry, don't try and write all this stuff down, you've got it in the documents copy and I'm ok, I'm totally okay with that it's just generic language tweak it to your to your business, but it'll work we've used it for years and it works you hear somebody had a question eso when you're in the initial meeting when they're booking in for the for the wedding and you explain to them that the session for the engagement is included but no product how do you address it when they want to see pricing and no they have that pricing members in the wedding package so our wedding our wedding kid that we give them or pdf file has got a pages in it what we showed when we were going here is just up the wedding packages next page is a list of the other we are quite items typically people don't they aren't focused on the engagement session when they're initially booking you they're focused on the wedding but sometimes they'll ask so I don't see any like prince or stuff included in here what what happens with that and that's when you just we tell them so after the engagement session the way it works is you all come back to the studio to review and order your pictures there's no minimum order so you can buy whatever you want and they'll be packages at that time that give you anywhere from like twenty to fifty percent off the ala carte prices that you see here so you get a discount if you do want a couple of sizes and stuff but I wouldn't worry about that now because it all depends on the specials that are running at the time. The negatives aren't included when they are included from a wedding least way too. So we're very upfront about that in the process. It's not like again, it's not like we're hiding things from them and encouraging you to be deceitful. We could our business wouldn't be where it is today. If we were deceitful, write the word would be out. We have complaints with the better business bureau s so you don't have a rating with the better business bureau if you're doing all this deceitful stuff. It's not deceitful, we're straight up with them. We tell them what it includes, what you don't do any sales wanna one is whatever you're selling, you don't tell him what it doesn't include. Hey here's, what this doesn't include, it doesn't include this. It does include this that's, not how you sell that's, how you actually don't sell when you're selling, you want to tell people the benefits of what's included with that package. So we highlight, of course, comes with an album comes with ten I was a coverage. It comes with this, that and the other thing. So while another photographer maybe say, hey, I'm going to shoot in every you get everything on a cd it's, just like they wouldn't say, hey, I'm going to shoot and burn and hand you a cd, but I'm not going to hand you an album. I'm not going to give you good turnaround time, I'm not gonna give you good service, they wouldn't sell that way, then they if they keep asking like, well, we really want the engagement negatives, too, to be careful with that bright, it sounds like they might might not be the right brian for you, but what I would say in response to that is, well, typically after the engagement session in the packages we usually have, our top package includes diddle negatives on, and you'll see those packages, you know, two weeks before you come into view them, so you have time to look at him, but we also offer a facebook posting, which is usually what people want the negatives for, so you can have pictures posted on facebook because you are missing a step. The next logical question is getting to the root of what they wanted, right? And you'll find it's, usually one of two things it's usually facebook or save the day, which, by the way, we offer both to them really the save the dates or at no additional charge, it's that cost. So ask them why they want the negatives and then once they tell you, well, we want to design our own book, then you know, you have to address that or we just want to say the date picture easily you khun redirect the conversation in a positive way. Robin was questioned, everyone wants a digital negatives for save the dates, so if they're really persistent on building their own that's the save the date thing or whatever, you just sell them the one digital negative they want, I do what they have to have already spent, you know, a significant amount on pictures, they can't just come in and buy one digital image, so I told him, well, if you end up in our platinum or higher packages will actually do a free digital image will send it directly to the vendor, and we just won't charge you for it. What I've been doing is I haven't really figured it out, but I said, I'll give you the digital image if you buy one of these products, you know, then, like he'd buy that product and twenty way thirty canvas yeah, of course we'll give it to you or at the same time, you don't want me to put the save the date let's just say it's the same thing, right? So you have to make sure that when you're releasing that negative, you've hit the price point you want, right? That's? All right, that's all I'm encouraging. You do right? So we do it, it's, usually in our black label package, you're gonna get all the digital negatives from the engagement session. We'll give that to that's that's. Ok? Because I've hit that price point, right? So what's our black label engagement nineteen eighty nine. So if they spend nineteen ninety nine in our studio out of engagement session, you're gonna get the cd of all the digital negatives. Do whatever the hell you want, but if you don't want to spend that much money, it just doesn't make sense for us to hand you the cd. But think about the good customer service that we've been talking about. If someone just spent two thousand dollars withy own engagement pictures, do you really want them using a digital negative for, say, the days that's going to go out all of their guests? I would rather tham use my edited digital image, so they already spent two grand. They already get a facebook posting of the pictures they ordered. It's the same thing just tell me the vendor you want me to send it to and also then the edited picture directly just a zit free service and and it is like I said from day one, everything we're teaching is not black and white there's a grey area this is one of those areas where taylor's looking at the client, how much they've contracting for. So we've had a client recently they contract id pre wedding with video, so they were in that twelve thirteen thousand dollar range then they come in and spend two grand on engagement pictures what we're going to nickel and dime um on a on a you know, digital image it's not something that they see it's not included in the package, so by going above and beyond your just instilling that goodwill in them and it's gonna pay off in the end, absolutely so let's talk about when they actually get to the studio for the sale session. What process to follow for the cell session as soon as they walk in? Like south said, we have a big image on the screen, so whenever you saw up here when we first came in that image with the art center that's like what we would have sitting on the screen and in light room, we just make the image full screen, I think you e and then lights out l twice to make it lights out so everything is blacked out around it's just about the size of the tv and our preview so this will be what we have that image would be showing I don't know if the control room can bring up that that image but this is what the client would see with the minute they walk into the room they would see like steven d for that wedding photograph can you imagine you haven't seen your wedding pictures yet? You walk in walking that's the first thing you see when you walk in and they freak out and there's a table to the side there champagne there we have jazz music playing like john mayer joss stone michael boo place so it's like relaxing upbeat love music than doing that should be just referred to jaws all right, so you can see as you can imagine taking off so you walk in and this is what the client's going to see this is going to make massive impact and then, like taylor's alluded to we're gonna have champagne we're gonna start talking about their day we're not gonna just walk in and be like all right let's sit down let's start the show all is to immediately set a mood you want them to get involved in the experience so you want to make him calm oh feel luxurious and feel happy so you've got happy music playing jazz music going champagne beautiful surroundings so our lives our sales room is set up like a living room because you wanted to for people to be able to envision their pictures in their home in their own living room so we have art display set up like over a couch over buffet over a fireplace so they can envision that in their own homes can we get this slides back up so it just makes sense the impact of seeing something like this this is very very impactful this is that kind of stuff that would never happen if you're just posting online there's no way right when you post online what typically happens is well like opens up to the first shot of the day which is like you know the bride getting ready or maybe the picture of her shoes that you took that's not how we want to set the tone we want to set the tone with that signature level at it that just blows that that client away so this is the kind of stuff you've got to be thinking about doing for you for your clients so back to that offering drinks but explain the process it's an engagement session we don't have champagne ready we save that for the wedding but as soon as they walk in offer them beer wine you know offer them a drink whatever they want. Get them comfortable? Um, we also have I also explained the process, so once they see the image, they're all excited. We start talking, we just don't go right into the sale session. We start talking about their day, how the wedding planning's going, do they have fun that day? Just little stuff and should chat then once we sit down, especially if they've come back from the honeymoon, right? They're excited to talk about their honeymoon and ask about the honey. Yeah, I always ask about it, and you'd be surprised how many of our clients have not been converted to their photographers, so we get to see their their vacation or a honeymoon pictures take an interest in it, right and enjoy it with them. Enjoy that moment with them because you don't want to go right into the sales process, it's just it becomes to sales, right? And then once they sit down, explain the process to them explain what's going to happen. You have to remember if especially if it's the engagement session, they've never done this process before, they don't know what they should do should they be writing down images? It's a slide shows going through, you don't want them to have anxiety, so whenever they sit down, explains that exactly what's going to happen? Okay, guys, we're going to start off with a slide show it's just going to show you some of your top images. It might be like fifty or so pictures, but overall you have over two hundred fifty. So once we watched the slide show, you could just relax for that after that will walk through all two hundred fifty and narrow it down. So I'll help you get rid of stuffs that it's easier for you to pick out whatever you want, okay? And so then they know that they can relax for this light show, but this was also born out of necessity because we started doing our slide shows and we didn't explain to them how the process was going to work and they would keep trying to stop the slide show they'd be like, oh, I like that one. I like that one and they felt they had to make notes or things like that were like, just relax watch a slide show here's what's gonna happen next because that's all we want them to do is immersed themselves in their slide show, right and for the wedding it's a little bit different process, so even though they might have come through for the engagement sales process, the wedding sales process will be different, so you still have to explain it uh everyone when they come in they think that they're gonna have to pick album pictures that night so they're like kind of dreading it they come in and they're like okay here we go like okay, well this is the process for tonight we're gonna watch all your wedding pictures and there's like a hundred pictures so just relax for this relived the day we want you to be able to see it here on the screen for the first time and enjoy it with your family that's really the purpose of your coming here tonight then after that we'll select your final album type like cover type paper type leather type you do not have to pick pictures to fill the album tonight they're like oh, thank goodness oh my gosh I thought we'd be here all night like no no no even though I explain in my e mail everyone thinks that they have to pick album pictures tonight once you leave here all your pictures are already posted online I'll send you the private lincoln password and you can send that to all your friends and family so everything you see here tonight you can see online in about two weeks you'll get your digital negatives in the mail if I don't have them there that night we'll sit him in the mail like two weeks later so I don't have to worry about coming back to the studio attached to my email that has your lincoln password will be a worksheet that helps you pick up pictures for the book so we don't tell you pick nine from your getting ready nine from you getting ready make sure you pick shoes jewelry flowers details so it breaks it down in it makes it easy for you once you fill out that worksheet you e mail it back to me we'll put a design together like you see here and you get to review that design to make changes to it before it goes to print it's all that makes sense there's like ten things happening in this conversation there's a lot of communication with the climb a lot of explanation a lot of documentation we're sending them this spreadsheet to fill out for the form this has happened if you want to talk about efficiencies and best practices this is what has worked and allowed us to people to scale uh so where we are today anything you can do to cut work out of the equation you've gotta look at because where you making your money it's typically shooting and then marketing when we were beginners we didn't have this no fancy excel worksheet for people to fill out we just told him to pick forty five pictures and they're like they sent back one with the bride getting ready you know to with the groom getting ready five from the ceremony then like fifty from the creative stuff like okay well that doesn't help doesn't tell the story of the album and the worst part is is like the church pictures would only be of the bride there there would be there would be assuming intruding room watching the bride coming down the aisle we're like ok these guys keep missing stuff obviously we're not communicating well enough so then it that changed from me telling them okay pick forty five pictures but make sure you pick this this and this still would not get it right so eventually as we become an advanced studio we've moved to the xl worksheets which now it's full proof they put their date in there they put their name and their this is also included in the communications that you get with the course so skip the beginner stuff and go right to the advance because it's going to save you guys a lot of time wow you guys are organ nine yes what's that record her and play that for my that's that sailor as always there have been very many how much would it cost to have taylor come to my sales sessions form a name your price? I think it's usual name your price I'll name my price that's our dr evil no but I mean it's I want anybody understand there this has been born out of necessity because as we were growing so quickly we were dropping the ball right on the ten yard line in the five years here like right from the get go this is through a lot of failure a lot of painful process so don't think that you know where these fantastic business people because we automatically thought of these things right away that's not how it wass you're learning from our mistakes eighty years of mistakes where we finally got it right so hopefully you don't have to go through the years of painful album process is now you can follow ours and your right there well like even in the sales process it took us time to figure out stupid things like our taste in music is completely different than maybe that of our clients that everyone likes cheesy and we'd be playing jay z you know showing pictures it's just like it's a wedding day picture is supposed to be moody and then it's like boom jay z talking about you know it's your book oi eh so it's not it's not doesn't work right yeah so those are things that we've learned some people that's common science for us it wasn't common sense at the time and we had don't learn the hard way so guys that's what we're trying to teach you here is cut all head off all this stuff don't make the stupid mistakes if we can help you bypass him going so let's say we start the slide show let them enjoy the slideshow so you're just watching it with them you have the music playing ijust have itunes open and I created a studio playlist with all the appropriate music and I put it on shuffle I saw that I'm letting that play I can control volume right from my keyboard so put it up put it down if I want to say something but we're laughing with each other back and forth like a funny picture comes up I'm like oh my gosh I can't believe you did that that day that was so funny so we're just going back and sometimes it's the first time you're seeing the pictures as well usually it isthe yeah because my wedding is the first time you're seeing him right right so we're just enjoying it together and they love this time they're cuddling up there drinking champagne I'm keeping their glass full and you just let them enjoy the process this is awesome um but let's talk about the materials that you're using for this sale session it's not a lot so for all of our sales session we use light room it's simple and easy I know nothing about editing I do not know photo shop I'm not allowed to edit it's my no fly zone uh but I know light room it's easy to you so we use that for a sales process and for their slideshow so we just put the slide show inside a light room and slight remote I use a two point eight second slide with a point nine second transition for the wedding day because it gets it through and like thirty to forty five minutes even with eight hundred pictures so we start off with the sideshow and then to flag pictures and light room we use p for pick so if they want to get rid of pictures we just don't pick it whenever they say I like that one I want to save it for later we use p for pick then whenever they want a flag pictures that they want to purchase if they're picking pictures for like eight by ten sixteen twenty fours we use uh green which is eight so we flag it green and that way I know it's something they purchased and then once they go through and they pick all their pictures you're able to easily flag by picked and green and you can show them their purchases that's actually a really important process again understand that this was born out of necessity we have show the clients all these pictures and then they say which ones that I order and taylor would look at the order form and then go into a light room and have to click click click oops I mission in ten minutes I'll be right with right and I'm like that's crazy so then we started flagging the ones they ordered as green. So now if the client says, ok, we see all these images, but which ones can we actually get? Right? Boom, she can hit the green flag, and it brings up just what they've ordered not was against just a stupid little process, but it's helped us tremendously and just another tip with seniors because typically, seniors, you're picking a lot of wallets and then a lot of gifts sizes, and it becomes confusing because they're like, well, show me just the wall, it's like, okay, now I gotta go through the greens and pick the right one. So I flagged the wallets on the star one and green so you can easily filter star one green and just show the wallets. And then, as they're picking pictures, I'm writing it down on an order form, so if they pick number five sixty eight for an eight by ten, I flagged it green, and then I write five sixty under my eight by ten column on the order form, and it just keeps the process going. So that way I know if they make any changes that cross it out, I write the new one. It just helps you stay organized instead of trying to remember and doing it all at the end, writing it down. The narrow down process so this is something if you guys have listened to our other creative lives before we had a narrow down process where we would bring up each image on the screen by itself and they would say yes or no image yes or no next image what I found in the sales room is that people found this process a little bit confusing but like, wait, I like that other image better can we un flag the one before? And so I found an easier way to go about this what I'll do now is I'll bring up the images that are similar like identically similar, so if it's you know a three quarter shot and they're smiling at the camera we have for those I'll bring up just those four don't mix in a full body shot with it keep it the same so all four three quarter smiling at the camera shots and then they can compare on the screen and they picked the one I like most in the reason all four are the same because they're not the same day that they might be seconds apart like what there was blowing well, the smile might be a little bit different what we don't want to do during our now down process prior to showing to the client but we don't want to do is make the decision on which smile is the perfect smile because clients, they know where they look real and where they look. Think so. That's what taylor's alluding to she'll bring up all four that have that similar look similar crop. And then what the client say yes. No. Yes, no. We were afraid when I started adapting this process that they would end up narrowing down toa less images because they're able to see right ahead of time and, uh and then just pick one from a grouping. But we're actually finding that it's making the sales process a lot shorter by doing it this way. There's a lot less confusion when there's less confusion, the clients feel better about it if they they're confused. A lot of the time, they're gonna have anxiety about did they make the right decision? Are they feeling rushed? So there's alleviates a lot of that, but there's still ending up picking about the same amount of pictures so they might end up with, like seventy five out of one hundred fifty, which is our goal anyway, so it hasn't affected the overall result. It just makes it easier for us and easier for them. So yes. So I'm wondering as faras people getting overwhelmed, and when they do, you see them just drop out of the whole process or they can't they just how do you deal with that how do you turn them around typically the narrow down process it makes sense to everybody and that's not where they get overwhelmed whenever they're narrowing down because you're doing that compare feature it just makes sense the way the mind works like okay, I'm seeing for the identical shot I like this one the best they're highly focused at that point the point where they might get overwhelmed us when they have to pick specific pictures to fill image sizes like okay, we narrowed down to seventy five pictures now we have to pick two eight by tens and I can't do it in that case if they end up in a package where they get an online posting I make the uh I let I have the option for them to pick from online so I tell them okay, what I can do if you feel overwhelmed what I could do is post all the images you narrow down teo so we'll just post the seventy five online and you can pick from online and just e mail me what you want for each size but I'm gonna be honest a lot of the time it's it's easier for people for me to help you because I have a big screen and I compare side by side you can't really do that online but if you're the type of person that needs time to review it multiple times, you can do it from the website just let me know it's easier for you and most of time will end up picking at the studio but sometimes they'll pick online which it's grand parent picture like if we're talking seniors or families they might reserve an eight by ten or five by sevens for the grand parents to pick online and that's totally cool but we don't see him get overwhelmed with like hey here's two hundred pictures because of the way we're taking him through the process if you don't take him to the process and you show them two hundred pictures right? Yes there when you say on your pictures they're like but once you go start going for the process like okay, I get this so for their hopes sessions and a few other not too many weddings but I try to read their faces like bride or fiancee is like like I love that one that can make a mental note that when we get down to the ones you like like I really liked a few of our men like like this one you loved your reaction you look you guys look beautiful on this and you get like, weird you're doing what I call becoming the trusted advisor at that point you're stop you stop selling, you start guiding them right and that's where when we get to okay I want an eight by ten which one should I get? Taylor goes into kind of guidance mode she's not selling them I think it was day one I was alluding to we had just had a commercial truck shoot for their anniversary of the business the owner's wife as a gift wanted to give them a full size canvas off their trucks will the wall was about eight or nine feet wide she's I come in I need nine feet well I went in and I wanted to be there trusted advisor so I could have easily gone in and then like we'll get you a nine foot campus edge to edge in the wall and I would have gotten that sale but I wouldn't have felt good about myself and who knows what other business I would have hurt myself from in the future because what what happens if you walk into the room the door opens so half of the campus you know what a piece of the campus is going to hidden if I run it edged edge on the wall and then it's off balance right? So I'm like no actually you need one half this size we're going to one that's about five feet not a lot for the door to be open and not allow for these cabinets here to be centered you know in the wall and she's very grateful that I kind of talked our way from well that's what you're doing in this part of the sales process you're not you're not looking too sell sell, sell up, sell them they have the pricing, they've talked about it, they're in your packages and you're very much listening to them as you go for the narrow down process I'm just like you if they're like oh my gosh, I love this one is one of my favorites whenever it's come coming time to pick pictures to fill sizes I'm like well, I know this is one you guys really liked here's another one I'd recommend for this size so the out you're doing great guide them that's purpose keep going um we go back one um walking through packages so whenever you're walking through packages this's could be the most awkward time for you if you haven't done the sale sessions a lot because you feel like you're selling but keep in mind if you're sending them pricing at least two weeks in advance, you're really not selling they've seen the pricing they know the packages show them what everything is. So this is the time when okay black label comes with a sixteen by twenty four campus here is a sixteen by twenty four campus it comes ready to hang, you don't have to frame it that's actually really really important, right? You are not. I mean, my god, we've been beating a drum on this. You got to show it to sell it. Why not make the investment? Get the sample product? Everything in your packages that you're trying to sell, you've got to be able to show it to him on that's what taylor does, man, and I'm not saying you want to sell a twenty by thirty campus. You have to hand them a twenty thirty campus even though ideo but that took time for us to build that. Yeah, in the beginning, just show them what campuses show them what it looks and feels like you have to be able to show them that size too. So I understand if all you can afford is an eleven by sixteen canvas have that canvas but then have a twenty by thirty prints. So you can say it's this material in this size exactly right? Right. And I have everything that's included in our package is sitting right next to my chair so I can easily pick it up. Okay, here's a sixteen twenty four print that's what this looks like and don't just show them this is a sixteen twenty four print explain it this comes ready to hang our the print, it comes mounted so it's not just on flimsy paper what a lot of people do with this is they put it in a frame with no matting or no glass because it's mounted and then it looks better that way so explain to them what it is, the benefits of it and how they khun decorate with it if you just show them what it is, these typically aren't visual people, they can't imagine what they're going to do with it, so if you paint the vision, okay, this is a sixteen by twenty for a lot of people into putting this, you know, above a fireplace or above a little nook with a nice frame around it or eight by tens on either side. Now they start thinking of their house and the place is in their house that matched that description, you'll see them start talking to each other, right? Like, you know, we could put that in the new room. Yeah, that we're redecorating like they start talking right? And once they start talking about where they could put in their house already know that it's going to be easy for them to lock in with that package because they're visualizing it in their home. All right, uh, narrow down, we talked about the flag system and how it's evolved, pushed through package is reviewing the order, so let's say they pick out everything for all the different sizes that's not that's not it people are gonna have anxiety that like they're not going to remember what they picked so just go ahead and review the order make uh make it that your step so don't wait for them to ask you hey, can we review the order that's gonna make you look unprofessional on like you don't know what you're doing so say okay we picked everything out and let me show you what you picked out like okay, thank you and show them okay, this is what you picked for five by sevens narrow down this is what you pick for eight by tens this is what you picked for the sixteen by twenty four do you like everything that you picked? Asked that question because you want them to say yes because then they can't go home and say, well, I really didn't feel good about that or I change my mind it won't be able to go home and say that because you're asking them then and there are you confident in your decision? If they say yes, then they really can't change it. Okay, now it's time to ask for payment. All right? This is everything that you picked. Do you want me to put that on the same credit card used for your wedding deposit or you do prefer to use a check notice? I've never said a number so I never tell people or I never say out loud what a total is how much need by tennis so you want black label that's nineteen eighty nine oh, that number hurt I don't want to hear that a lot of times our client will tell us I don't even want to know yeah, they don't they don't ask for a total because they don't want to know they just say here's my credit card just take it and I want you to think about something because this might sound like once again you don't believe that this makes sense but these air sales tactics processes that have been that go on with companies all over the world so recently I was in a very nice store made a very high end purchase of an item and the sales associate said to me well that's twenty seven, ninety nine would you like to pay from how would you like to pay for that doing? It was two thousand seven hundred ninety nine dollars and she just used my own logic on me and she said it's twenty seven, ninety nine that sounds much better than two thousand seven hundred ninety nine dollars and so this is the kind of stuff that works I knew what she was doing and I still appreciate it because I did not even though I knew the number I didn't want to hear the number but even other, like luxury stores, if you go in and your pick and item, they won't tell you how much it is I'll just say, what credit card would you like to make this purchase sign? And so we don't know the total we know how much it cause, but we don't want to hear the total yes, thank you to you guys we have in our studio, and we had one of our first, um, consultations in there, and we're like, okay, like let's review taylor's like the way you said it was just we would practice back and forth, like, how do we say? And tyler would have a read you have something to say back to me? I'm like, okay, well, other than the blind, I just we had that burned into our money rolled way re well, every wound your sales sessions, we just like the wording was perfect, like they came in there and it came to that time when we had to close the sale and it was work, yeah, oh my gosh, you put three in a row, it's just amazing what they would leave him just like s so easy isn't easy, it makes it so simple for them it's not confusing, they don't feel like they're being awkward moment we're likes time to pay me a reminder I know that there are a lot of people out of the chat rooms who are like I want to see taylor do a sale session I wantto watch along with you can in their previous two workshops the business senior photography and then the wedding photography boot camp both of those they did live sale sessions so want teo how they do it specifically for each of those genres you can check those out and those are actually on sale right now. Weii did the senior session you saw live senior session where the mom cried made me freaking crime then you saw the wedding, the wedding session a cz well, so yeah, the that part of the process the clothes how do you close without seeing seeming sales? E that's where a lot of people struggle that's something we worked really hard on on watching taylor do it live I think is a very powerful thing because and it's not just a standing up here telling you about it, you realise that wow, it does actually work. Jules, you have a comment since the boot camp when I saw you in action it just changed my mind set about it made me more comfortable, which then in turn made it more comfortable for my clients and it works every time it awesome so glad to hear it let's keep going. All right, let's, talk about how you prepped for ordering so they left and everything's done. You have the money, but now it's time to order pictures. This is again where efficiency and workflow coming to place. So in light room I have preset export scripts for each type of thing that I need to order. So there's a facebook posting exports group a picture order export facebook script uh, an emoto export facebook are animal to export script so there's a script for everything so I could just fly it green export an emoto export picture order so let's talk workflow best practice so here we are again. All the images have been edited doesn't matter whether you edit yourself or outsource its regardless, they've all been edited. Now they get rendered his j pegs. Taylor is working with the j pegs when she's doing the sales presentation and the reason is simple. One raw files are too big to be shuffling around. Secondly, she has to place an order that night so it's not she's in the sale session. Then she comes home. Then once a week, she places an order that workflow would be too complicated so right there if she had a sale session from six to eight right, the next sale session would come in or from three to five in the afternoon the next one scheduled to get their five? Well, the sale sessions don't typically take two hours they typically take an hour to an hour and a half. Well, now she's got thirty minutes let's say before the next session, she's already placed the order and gotten the facebook just ready. Everything is done in that thirty minutes from the client leaves, so I don't have any work when I get home and I'm ready for the next sale session it's very important that utilize your time there in between the sessions it's very easy to get sidetracked doing other things, but she knows that has to happen right down in there or it'll never get done. Yeah, and let's talk about prepping for wedding album images because sometimes it might be a year afterwards or two weeks after they come in and do their wedding pictures that they finally select pictures for their album design. If you're using this excel worksheet, you can copy the column of image numbers that they chose paste that into a fund these image finder, which I believe is a free application from the image finder yeah, you paste it in funny image finder and then you select the folder that you want to pick from so you pick their wedding folder hit go the place you want to copy it to and there done it actually goes out to your hard drive, finds all those images and then creates a copy in a folder that you're creating for an album. Or you could do it the way you probably do it today is click, click, some older click copy, click, click, click, click, click. Looking through seven hundred images to find the thirty that they picked and you can spend let's. Just call it ten or fifteen minutes where she's doing it in sixty seconds on so it's those little things again. It's fundy, image finder, it's. A free tool he's got a ton of free, good tools on his website and that's, one of them that we actually use in our business.