Lessons

Lesson Info

Closing the Sale

Now we want to talk about closing the sale and that's really important, how do we get to close the sale now? This is because you're working with credits and because you're working with selling and you gotta get people in there and they're not making decisions and that's the biggest frustration we've got to get them to make a decision. So there are two things that are the most important things a bonus structure is an opportunity for you to gift your client something, um, if they close the cell that day now with us, the rule is we want to create an incentive to help them to help them close a sale, and as the cell increases, the value of the bonus item increases. So that's, our rule is actually, when I started photographer, when I started bonus items, I had this great idea I was like, okay, if you spend five hundred dollars, you get this thing and that if you spend a thousand dollars, you get this thing and this thing, and if you spend fifteen, you get this this and this and, you know, if...

they spent three thousand dollars, they were getting six or seven gifts, and I thought, wow, this is awesome, they're gonna love me, and guess what, they hated me. Because if you spend an hour and a half buying portrait's and you spent three thousand dollars and somebody turns to use it and says, hey, guess what now you gonna pick six more things they're like? Are you hitting me? I seriously don't want to and the worst thing that could happen is they would go well, you know what? If I'm getting this for free, then let me go and take this off the order because I'll just give this to my mom instead so it was totally down the toilet we didn't like that at all, so we changed it now what it is is as you as you sell, the incentive gets bigger, so this is very old that we've changed so much we actually offer less items in this, but you can see it's a level system in this case if you spent eight hundred dollars, you gotta frame upgrade this is actually way back when frames were included. Then when you spend a thousand dollars, you got a folio and then when you spent thirteen hundred dollars, you got like either playdate cards or an eclectic or note cards, so depending on how much they spend, they get one gift it could be anyone from that price point under so let's say they could have a heart print but they decide they want a folio that's their choice um it's completely up to them but the value does increase as we go now the last I believe major soapbox of the day is selling your files if you're going to sell your files and we are all going to sell our files mark my words there will come a time that we do not sell paper anymore. None of this scares everybody but we won't be selling paper in the future and that future is already here. What's the most popular gift item for moms well, digital picture frame right? Everybody loves those how many clients come in albany clients come in and ask you to sell your digital files. All of them all of them they're there already. What you going to do some day when company sells a frame on the wall that's actually a tv monitor that showcases your family pictures and it's forty inches big what do you do? How do you sell to that client? You know what it's too late there's already companies out there that cell beautiful framed tvs that are mounted installed in your wall and they showcase your family work all day long. It's too late the good news is it's really, really expensive right now so not everybody could do it. The bad news is I bet they'll be at wal mart in a few years and that's the truth when that happens in every client that best you know the best gift the most popular gift of christmas two thousand twenty two is that installed frame what you going to sell to that client so we know we know that files have to be sold eight ten years ago I stood on the stage and I was with film twelve years ago whatever was thirteen years ago if you told me if you ask me if I sold negatives I would say absolutely not your negatives are your work and they are proprietary to you never sell your negatives fast forward to digital went digital immediately I knew I was going to ask if we got if we sold our soul digital files uh we're yes however studio do you know what the word however is now? The word however, is but in a tuxedo yes however studio yes, we sell digital files they are eight hundred dollars apiece I didn't say no, but when you say a hundred dollars apiece nobody wants to face this moves you right along they good act eight by tens pretty quickly at that point now I did that for many years when I first went digital I was like yes however there around eight hundred dollars ended the problem and there is no issue I never say no I told you I'm gonna guess person however but moving forward um now I'm competing with people that are throwing ninety nine dollars every image on the disc un retouched as is take him and go I can't I'm I'm I have struggling to we're doing fine but it's because we're making changes were open to change so now the game has changed now we do offer files there is a bonus item and you could only get them the first time you see your images within thirty days of your session after that you have to come back for a second time you're gonna lose the option of getting the digital files you're gonna lose your bonus item there is your answer to close a sale you could turn to a client say well you will lose your bonus item and you will not have access to the archival files now just to give you an idea of how we price them um I'm gonna use my pricing as an example let's just do let me use it just a general if you are if your minimum purchase is five hundred dollars if your minimum remember we talked about your minimum sale I'm sorry that you could make to be profitable is five hundred dollars then you can never ever ever ever sell a digital file for less than five hundred dollars right ever now most of you were going my clients will not pay five hundred dollars for a digital file so your answer is then create a bonus structure when you reach five hundred dollars, we will gift you and our archival file now I will give you my pricing as an example baby pricing we've talked about his lower price point when our clients had a thousand dollars they get three archival files for every five hundred dollars they spend after that they get an additional file my family price list for every three thousand dollars a client spends, they get three files and then one additional file for each five hundred does that make sense so you don't have to have one answer. You can have multiple answers and I understand my baby plan clients spend here if there are eight hundred dollars, and I want to get them to that thousand dollars I'm going to say by the way, you know what? You're so close you're gonna actually get access to three of these images tohave as an archival cd is something that you can place in your safe deposit box for safekeeping. Do you know clients love those files and ito they do nothing with them, nothing, they just want them because they exist period when they didn't when they thought they had no access to the negatives that didn't want them because they have digital files at home, they think they deserve them and they don't do anything with them they're not going to print big ones very rarely there not going. They might make christmas cards big deal now here's my other so box if you're going to sell files, you're never going to sell them less than their minimum purchase. Khun b correct. So five hundred dollars is your mark. You never sell a file for less and that the second thing for heaven's sakes, if you're gonna sell a digital file, please, please, please please whatever you do, do not stick it in a cd drive, burn the dest take a red marker, but baby files two thousand twelve stick it in a paper glass ing and hand it to the client. Please, I'm begging you not to do that. You completely discredit the entire industry when you do that because what you're telling them is the disks that they have at home are exactly what you're creating. The twenty three cents that you put into that is what they feel like it's worth to them you are giving them your art. You are giving him them an extension of your soul and as you can hear this one's important to me, please don't do that don't hurt me and don't hurt you because I need you to take care of me too um, when a client picks up their file, it comes first of all I mentioned kind of pretty things. I'm out there. Plug it back out. I'm just so excited that the new printer that picks him a printer, the pro one actually burns disk so we can print on the disc. So are not burns admit prints on the disc. So now that eliminates a huge problem of mine cause I get tired of trying to get those order because we always forget. So you need tohave a disc with a printed cover that has your logo and your name and your contact information and our beautiful discos in a beautiful case that bay photo provides and it has the client's image on and on the back it has our logo biggest day right there. So people know it, and that little cd case goes in a beautiful art box that bay photo produces with the client's image on it and our contact in formacion on the back. It is a presented piece, it's a big deal if you're going to take a piece of me it's coming in a beautiful box it's not gonna come in a paper glass ing on a silver city, it's just not it's the most imp important thing we have in addition to that way, make them they're two documents that come with this one of the documents is, um it's basically called a certificate of authenticity and the certificate of authenticity talks about me is an artist who I am, what the value of my work, what I've done in this, you know what I've done to create these images? It also states the actual value of the work. And so it says, if there is something happens to your porch it's for insurance value, here is your work and it tells them put this in your safe deposit box because it's archival, you need to protect it. There's a second document and it's a legal document. It is a document that basically states what the copyright is and who owns the copyright that I own, the copyright to the images and they're available for personal use only. It actually gives a description of yes, you may make your own holiday cards. No, just because you're a real estate agent, you cannot. Even though you paid for this, you cannot put it on your website because that's commercial use does that make sense. So we tell them that now, do I think that every time a client walks by, walks out the door, they honor that? No, uh, it's well, it's, a two part document that they sign and one piece goes in the box and one piece days with their five, so I know that when they walk out the door they know the value of my work they know how important it is to me and they have legally signed a document saying they will not abuse it and the minute they step over the threshold of my home it's not my problem anymore I let it go dude I know they abuse it absolutely have I seen my work on a real estate agent site absolutely but you know what the one thing that I do do you know I know that I collected the money before they had access to it so yeah it bothers me a little bit but for those of you out there who are putting things online saying I can't get them to order I put it on facebook and they never called me that hurts a lot that's really frustrate when you have zero money from that transaction and you know they've done something like that it just burns you up my role is when you step out my door it's your problem if you want to steal or take advantage of me then you have to live with it not me I won't look at it I don't want it when my employees say hey oh my gosh look at this I'm like don't show me I don't want to know because that's their problem they get to live with that and they get to die with that too and I'm not perfect believe me I make lots of mistakes some of them on purpose I'm not going to like but I try to try to keep my you know I try to keep my focus and I try to stay within the realm of my mom's not gonna get too mad at me um it's a good way to go you remember your mom's they're pretty tough uh so that's my purpose I mean that's my point so again don't whatever you do don't discredit the industry and what we do by giving garbage because garbage in is garbage out if that's what we're educating our clients and that's what they're going to believe and that's really important all right, now I'm gonna give you through a couple sample orders just to give you an idea of what the credit system really does for you because I know some of you are tryingto still process this and it just that you don't have to go to credit system um certainly could do it with regular dollars and cents but I'm going to show you why a credit system works for us this is a baby plan order so it's around thirty five hundred dollar order so for thirty five hundred dollars this client shows a twenty by thirty and a nine by fourteen eight by ten medal print they did some brag books a big collage she could see a couple of wall portrait usually this is very typical wall portrait collage album prince this is very standard, but they've got to pick and choose what they wanted. They built this package and it's completely custom. This one is very similar to thirty nine hundred dollars order. But look at the difference in this one. This is a child's order wall portrait twenty four by thirty twenty twelve by twenty ex lodge. I love these this twelve by thirty should clay you can see this is just an image that I cropped a slim and I had it a quote if you haven't noticed I like quotes. You know what, quote, sell well so there's just a little life. Well, there's, a twelve by thirty inch portrait is a thirty inch portrait and it starts at, you know, eight hundred ninety nine dollars that's a good place to go and it's an ad on sale eight by tens ten by ten. Sixteen wallace and some holiday cards so just give you an idea again. Totally customized it's a package and yet it's all a cart. They picked it and they picked into chose it themselves. Ah here's, another baby order around the same price. Thirty six hundred. Totally different order. This client wanted a sixteen by twenty and a three albums in a five by five album brag book six for by fives and fourteen five by seven so I'm assuming they're probably doing another sort of album thing with that. So again, all those orders with it were it within thirty five hundred sort of four thousand dollars, and they're all coming completely unique and completely customized for the client and that's why this works this family just to give you an idea of the difference between a baby order, you conceive babies where a lot of brag books and wave books and things like that family orders a very different they are traditionally wall portrait wall portrait wall portrait holiday cards and a few small gift prince and that's pretty pretty standard photo charms for grandma so they do so. And these are these are, by the way, really client orders. So these air absolutely straight out of this last christmas holidays kind of get an idea around five thousand dollars and this one is a little higher. And clyde seven thousand five hundred dollars ah, one twenty by twenty four four sixteen by twenty to eleven by fourteen. So over half their order is wall portrait's and remember, we shoot to sell. We shoot individuals and together this is not a family program, I'm sorry, but if you don't shoot the two girls together, you can't sell the two girls together does that make sense if you all if they walk in and say they want a family portrait and you say okay let's get it done and get it done you're really hurting your shoot yourself in the foot um you're going to say the next question's gonna be what say what if they say they don't want to do breakdowns, we don't give them the choice when a client walks in the door, we say all right, we're gonna go ahead and started now just a couple things I want to let you know during this session I know your goal is a family portrait and that is my goal to but I do want to let you know working with this many kids kids do get tired, so what I'm going to do with some breakdowns? I'm probably going to some of the kids alone some of you alone some of the sibling groups don't worry if you just want family portrait is not a problem, but honestly for the kid's sake it's much easier on them and the session will actually be faster if we do it this way so let's, go ahead and get started uh couple things I said the session will be faster if we do it now you know who that was for yeah, so he totally got him he's now yeah do whatever you want please do as many breakdowns you want because that will speed it up and the other thing I didn't say is is that okay? I said let's go ahead and get started did you hear that? Because that's important if I said is that okay? What don't I get one of my chances that they're going to come back and say you know actually I think we just want family pictures we never give him the joys were like is that okay? I'm certainly saying way say let's go ahead and get started and they are just like okay, what just happened way we were and I treat them just like children and I moved so fast and do so many stupid things they can't possibly figure out what I'm doing confusion works so we just keep moving but again I'm keying in on certain things I know dad doesn't want to be there I mean, how many of you who my favorite family forces cracked me up because literally every family portrait they walk in the door and you could tell mom and dad have been fighting every time. So yes, uh wall space fills up what do you find from families year after year product line well and that's the thing is family still come in every year I worked with babies and hopefully we've talked about maybe doing the part two, two this was which is tots to teens the following problem how do we get them to keep coming? We have a program that takes children from from there one year birthday we started eighteen once threw five years really and truly I'm market two newborns through five you're basically the communion, which is eight years that is my target market and you know what? When those kids had eight years old, they almost disappear. I see him once every two or three years for family portrait and that's it. So while space does fill up depending on the home size we then sell products, we sell collages collections we also really council clients that it is totally appropriate to taken older image, move it to a lower basement family room and update the you know, the update, the areas you don't have to hold on to them forever you know, those kind of things we help them understand that these air emotional things these air not I don't want to say there are heirlooms, but we have ways of explaining to them that it's okay to take it off the wall and put something new up infact you should let's let's update no let's freshen up the house so this next sort I've been explaining before I show it to you because I just showed you some really high sales just so you know when christmas we had five hundred dollars sales we have a thousand dollars sales we had twelve hundred dollars sales we don't you know this is not our normal I mean this is this is pretty good for us as we consider this a good day or I should say good client um a very good client actually so please don't think that all we get is five thousand dollars sails that's not true um we have our own ranges depending on the product tips this next tale I just want to I want you to think big this is the one where I've had a couple of amazing record breaking sales in my life this one happened to happen this fall a client I photographed them once before they were very good the first time they booked a session very late in the fall pastor really close to our deadlines and my schedules hard to get into but knowing who they were I went ahead and squeeze them in but my mom was so worried that we weren't gonna get the products in time they had a big company and they wanted to make sure they got the order out so they came in and mom came in and worked with the sales associate and pre ordered everything the sizes that they needed in the things they needed before they I ever even photographed them so of course, when I got to the appointment and I'm reading the notes quick oh my gosh, um, to give you an idea of what this family ordered without even pushing the shutter, they spent almost nineteen thousand dollars of portraiture. Now you can see that six thousand holiday cover was the bulk of that expense because really, truly they got a twenty four by thirty, some eight by tens of a fun little art collage and sixteen watts and six thousand holiday cards. So the majority of their money is right here that's their priority and what was important to them and was a valuable investment for them. But you know it can happen. You can have a twenty thousand dollar sale. It's not impossible. Look at my work. I'm not trying to crack on myself, but come on. Those were pretty standard family portrait, right? I mean that's, there's, nothing spectacular or breathtaking. They're beautiful family and wonderful people. But there's not one thing in there that I could say deserves twenty thousand dollars accept my heart and soul is somewhere stuck in that paper, and their heart and soul is somewhere stuck in that family, and somehow the universal line that it was worth eighteen thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars and that's why that happened so just understand it's totally doable again I'm gonna say it one more time and I'm not trying to crack up myself nothing about that there's nothing in there that I think is worth eighteen thousand dollars except my soul and that's the truth so it's not that I'm spectacular I'm average I'm a good shooter but I'm a good lover of people and I think that's why it works all right I am truly honored that each day laughter and tears of joy fill ourselves rooms I really am every day I get to see people happy with what I do yeah there are a few bad days and a few negative things that come out of this but every day we get to see amazing experiences all right now I know a time wise um a couple more things I believe you can do this I love this quote it's not the dog in the fight it's the fight in the dog if you haven't caught on I'm a big dog in a twenty body I definitely I'm willing to fight for it you truly should let the mistakes of others be your education I have screwed every thing up I have lost a lot of money doing dumb things and you've just got an opportunity to truly make a lot of changes without losing anything and that being said life is a matter of choice we can ignore weaken here and we can do we must decide where hearts will go