Lessons

Lesson Info

9:00 am - Problems with Sales

What I want to do is start out and just go around the room we're gonna kick off right in the very beginning going into what the problem is as we go through this, I'll have a nice little introduction and we'll glide into the sales program but I'd love to start in a very raw, honest way, which is what's your problem what what is your problem? I would like to start out every single one of you just give me one line that says this is what I'm battling with when it comes to sales and start like just dig like this is the line so maybe an example is I feel guilty selling or I just don't know what to do or something try try to it he is best you can sum it up in a line who would like to begin? Uh yes honestly I just don't know what to do right now I'm just an order taker andi when people give me objections, what I what I hear his objections like I don't know which ones I want I want to think about it, I don't know what to say to them and I don't know how to help them make a decision that is a gr...

eat response and I think a lot of people's response you guys were selected when we went through the videos you guys were selected because you represented a lot of what people felt and we're struggling with all over the world so this is great that we're doing this so don't know what people want next just consistency in sales plants they're great sometimes not so much and so you are inconsistent in sales yeah that's your struggle yes ok next I feel pretty confident in the process that I've managed to create it's taken me a long time to get there okay look, I feel like I'm unique in the way that I live in a very small community and a lot of the people are friends or friends of friends and I feel aa lot of guilt when it comes to closing that sale feel guilty selling to friends and family yes all right, next um I attack onto the guilt thing I like feel that way with asking people in general friends or family or other people for money just because I know how bad economy is right now and you know, maybe they don't like it and they're just buying stuff too be nice and then what if they don't like it so it's just a hole I don't feel comfortable taking their money yeah now that's fantastic next got him a horrible, horrible writer I'm just gonna go matt from you right anymore all we do is tight all right sorry uncomfortable taking I love that word taking money ok for me other than a lack of experience I'm really comfortable with systems work flows you know, something that allows me to if I run into a situation that I don't have a handle you know I can always go back to some form of system so I have no system in place whatsoever no system but it all system for sale okay, so you kind of I don't really know where you are when what you're doing is happening and you're not sure how much is left and what you got done right? So I've got indirect basically so you know, I post you know my images to a website and say hey go here but unfortunately the the return on investment for that has been next to nil so um I think the bottom line plus I think one thing that I've learned is you you're better serving your customers when you can walk them through the process and the more I watch other people do it um the more I realized they're helping them yeah and um so from my standpoint if I could just get comfortable with ah system you know I could get my good myself into a position to get more experience to do what I need you to do wonderful next mine also goes along with the inconsistency but I also have another one good cause I wanted to be a fresh exactly level that is when the client is struggling to make a decision themselves do I want wall portrait so I want an album and they get kind of paralyzed by the process sometimes I don't know how to navigate them through that don't know howto help overwhelmed process clients I don't know what to say what it was that you mean yeah just to keep them from becoming overwhelmed from the process help over wow this's this's phenomenal this is a great start to this course because first of all we're digging right into the heart of it and secondly I actually have solutions for all of this that's been tested and we want to jump on any comment from the internet we do I don't know how to help overwhelmed clients slash what to say stephanie w as well as several other folks are saying when the client says can I just get the disk? Yes so you know how to deal how to deal with I just want disc ok a c m eighty three at says asking for the money up front and simpson portrait says my my portrait clients don't want prince they want images for web sites and print materials asking for money first and what was the next simpson portrait says my portrait clients don't want prince they want images for websites and pre materials ok, so how to manage uh digital hungry peeps okay and diana o forty six with the port economy it's too close to home, I catch myself assuming that the client cannot afford it but I don't really know that it's just an assumption on mar part I totally done that sue assumes client can't afford it or let me just tack onto that something I've heard when we were doing research for this program um says well I wouldn't pay for it you guys ever thought that no anybody anybody here ever felt like why wouldn't necessary paper yes yes so I get credit for that one. Yes anything else you want to bring up? Rebecca ruiz says my challenge is upping a sale the client says they have ordered all they need. Okay, so up selling I guess how to sell more we've also got a folks talking about just not knowing how to decide what products to offer people tear that down so it's not overwhelming ok back to overwhelming let's see here here, here, here, here where they would products overwhelms clients and product options we've got uh photo photo twin mom getting away from discounts and freebies people wanting something for nothing yet I would add to that like all the discounts and groupon's and people um how about this people who have been trained t brain what stephen met her in the group on age ok, I like that brain washed all things group on I did a part of a panel once holdings called is technology is test technology good for us? Basically is a twitter photo panel, katherine hall, about whether or not technology was helping or hurting us and there's I think uh, ten of us in the panel, maybe fifteen, maybe some of us were smaller. I don't know we have this large panel and the big discussion was, is it helping or hurting us for the respective perspective of the new technologies and cameras, the new ways that people tune in online the way they buy and stuff, and my point was that groupon and living social and all that sort of thing, the major harm I think that comes from those sites is twofold. It's not just this kind of sync inning, the concept of what is a good price to pay? What is the value of photography? It's? Not just that it is thinking that if that is in fact a word, but the other big major issue is how many people I see who who do that, how many photographers who do that and just get their bottom kicked. I don't know many stories of people who had a wildly successful experience putting the price out of saying I'll do the whole shoot for seventy dollars. On give you the cd if there is an experience actually it would be very interesting if there is experience out there somebody's had with you know I did group on I got my name out in front of one million people I gave everything on dvd for seventy dollars and I have seen that price that price point exactly on debt was a wonderful experience for me I would love to know why because from my rationale doing the numbers I don't know how you invest eight to ten hours on a shoot, which is what a lot of people do when they're starting out and usually don't do a group like that if you have an established business, you start out and you're struggling you're spending a lot of time in editing and all the effort that goes into obviously now in the marketing but the time you put into the shoot if you're putting all that time in and you have two of the people sign up for that and you have to honor all those how do you maintain sanity and business? And so there's this dual effect of not only hurting the market in the marketplace and the image of what good shock it was valued at but it's also hurting you specifically if anybody could respond that they've had a great experience that I'd like to hear what it was because it might be something I'm just missing no, kobe, splendid. And yet with that answer no, but we have so many great. Can we keep going with this? Or do you want to go on? Because there's so many great ones. Look that's not like me going. I'm gonna take this and flip it and keep going. Can I know it's? Not for you. Bring me another flipper. Yeah, so confidence is a big one. Yeah, chris w says I don't know my values so difficult knowing want to charge confidence knowing don't like that. You don't know that that I don't know how my work is valued. I don't have a value about the work I producer, I'm not sure if my client's value we're gonna sure of the two meet it's, probably all of the above all of you about they just they just don't know my values, so that probably just means they don't know. Ok, I have their work. Yeah, because they're often different issues. One issue is, I don't I don't believe in what I'm producing, so how can I sell it? The other one is I know that I'm creating amazing work, but noah, nobody else sees it that way. Those are two very different issues, and you tackle them in different ways, right, right? Yeah I mean I don't think we have a lot of the way of guilty and feeling bad but I'm amazed that that the republicans I think part of how we talked about this course the build of this course how much feeling the words shame awkward uncomfortable weirded out I hate doing this well this just the dirty we're in factor of feeling that sales we've got much better dirty words out there well let's ask chris w in the chat room if you could explain a little bit more about how you're feeling chris and we will ask camera yeah so we do have somebody that tried living social and that's in tag uh and says I did living social I gave on ly session it did not give did not sell anything with it s so my cd and album with each boudoir session I'm really getting almost the same amount with what I would get without living social so didn't work right and also didn't do what I said the deal that I've seen which is I give you everything the shoot and all the imagery completely with no other things that you quote unquote have to buy if that's what you're going for right okay all right so don't know my value let's go and put both down because like I said I don't know my value am I worth it oh wow this is such a snu they're white or like flossie am I worth it? I think my hand is being better on this board and then um I know I am worth it need clients to know this is like, you know, when you know you're super super hot but nobody's asking you out you can't figure out why you got to figure it out okay a photo girls seventy seven says I tried raising my prices and doing in person sales but I was slow for nearly five months so now I'm afraid to raise them again okay so raised prices heard crickets freaked out yes yeah all right f eight photo says I have trouble asking clients what their budget is I feel so rude you have been just talking about you yes and you know what I do too so I'm gonna talk about this again I feel weird saying budget ok so many remember actually unlike pincus says I'm like a hidden my first couple clients are personal contacts and I think of them as network hot spots and I am charging them very little and I can't bring myself to charge more because I cannot know if they will think I deserve it. Ok, so basically you start at a certain price point you have clients associate that price point you need to move on, but you're afraid that you'd lose this client as you move on so I hear that right? Yeah, I think they said their first couple clients were personal contacts so you know what? It's people that you know and you're charging them little and you what to do with first clients, especially personal ones which mostly they are at first okay. And just educating clients as to why my art is worth what I charge so probably not just and how to do that when to do that. How? Beginning to end sales process. Okay, this is great stuff people way could go on and on, but I don't know. Okay, good, because my legs were hurting let's, get on and on and on. All right, well, then clearly we have a lot to talk about today. Um that's just that, but, uh, I have to say, by the way, um, we have, uh but having an interesting time dealing with some level of sales here in seattle speeches this way. When we first got here before the course me and my family, we stayed in this hotel and we booked it for the two rooms to be conjoined co join conjoined and, you know, for my husband myself and then the kids and then we end up getting put all in one room and we realized the bulk of the problem why we got put in one room is a triple booked the room because sales. I mean, every it's amazing to me. When you look around with the sales cap on, and you start thinking how much sales are a part of our everyday world, it's everything we're doing, everything we're doing and talk through this about, like you think sales is weird to you, how you've been selling your whole life anyway, and it's such a fundamental thing and effects of so much all these frustrations we have when you get to your airplane and you're you're your seat, was overbooked or double booked. You guys had that experience. They do call, and they ask you to give up just because they sold a bunch of extra ones. There's, a lot of disconnects and problems with sales.