Going to now take the six piece into the next level final section on creating a selling system we're going to learn about the final two piece so get ready to continue the learning with the system that gets you someone money we love that right? So sales we've been talking a lot about purpose we've been discussing the pre consultation and how important it is we've been talking about pricing and products which I think was a really powerful segment for those of you who are trying to kind of figure out what to carry in your studio and really coming up with the strategic mindset and creating a system for developing products a lot of people just kind of hogwash it together and go what should I carry and just kind of mish mash and don't really strategically think about it it has to look at these comments like that that I did do that well now you know now you have a strategy too edit that out a little bit and I think that will be really powerful for elevating your brand everything I'm telling y...

ou guys to do is all about bringing the brand up okay brand is not just what you look like it's not just a logo and a fought okay so so so much more than that that logo is simply the face of the company that's it there's so much more to a person than just their faith right? So much more than deeper matter of fact, the logo is the least important thing it's about everything else in the impression that you leave on the customer so today we're going to continue this sales discussion. We'll talk about projection and we're going to talk about policies okay? Purpose again let me reiterate is the umbrella that covers it all over ok, so you have to sell from that deep purpose that you believe so strongly in why you do what you do and why your customers should care that you even do it. Okay, so think about that a lot. Go back and look at the previous segments if you've purchased the class and really focus on your purpose because it's, what you need to put in place first before you can really get a good selling system or at least you're selling system will become that much stronger if your purpose is to find. Okay, so let's talk about the nitty gritty and the sales room we have done all the work at this point with the client at this point strategic selling a systematic and it's pretty much an ordering appointment that's it it is not a selling appointment, so why make a system? It prevents mistakes? Okay? It makes selling soft. It'll give you confidence in the sales room now what do I mean when I say mistakes what our mistakes in the sales room, what mistakes have you made in the sales room? Yeah, not discussed how the sale will go prior to the appointment, not talking about your pricing and all of the information that they need to know to be prepared for what they're going to purchase. I think the biggest mistake that most photographers make is surprising their clients in the sales room, right? I've done it, I've been there and you learn really quickly that that was a bad idea to just pounds pricing on them after the fact when they know nothing and honestly, I sometimes ask myself why clients would even go there I mean, when they want to know what the price is, where before they get the sale session and of course, when you're using that strategy and you think we'll have asked, that must mean they could afford it, they don't care, right? You kind of like, justify in your head? No it's, not the case at all. It means they don't expect it to cost they expected to cost within their budget if they don't ask, but you don't know what their budget is. So there's like the serious miscommunication going on in the marriage right? And so when you all of a sudden pounced the pricing on them and it's more than they expected, you're gonna have a fight it wasn't finance like the biggest reason for argument in a marriage it's true with your clients to I mean, we all know that so you have to the biggest mistake that photographers make is they don't prepare the client in advance for not only what they're going to be purchasing, but also how much it's going to cost and also how the pricing the sales appointment going to go. You want to prepare your client for how things were gonna happen? You see it every day, you know what it is? They have no idea. So it's really important to make sure you educate your client along the way. So overall, what I'm saying is, if you have a step by step plan in the sales room, you will get better profits, combine that with a beautiful coveted product line that your clients want and strategic pricing, how can you go wrong? It can't it doesn't. Okay, so what you're going to learn in this segment, we're gonna talk about the systematic approach to sales, how emotion plays into that actual sales appointment, how the pre consultation comes into play at this point, the step by step, method and approach in the sales room, what you should be doing step by step with their images were going to discuss configuring your sales room. Okay, we're going to also talk about navigating pro select the power it has in the saleswoman of course the systematic language in the sales room and how to say things all right, guys, I am not about a hard sell it sounds like it when I teach it it is not a hard so it is simply about letting your client bye with emotion. Okay, an emotion that's already there remember, this is the peak of the experience with you the sales appointment the session was building it. This appointment is like that, you know how excited they get there. So excited to see the images. This is where you are have your best advantage to maximize the dollar is when they first see those images. So the emotion is raw and it's there and you're simply guiding your client along the path. They already said they wanted to be on through the print pre consultation and you're letting their emotion, their feelings about the experience of being photographed and the stimulation that the images provide that so basically they see the images and they're taken back to the experience, right? Because that's, what photographs do they take us back to the moment when which the photograph was taken? Correct so they take us back to that experience which better be good right customer service we're talking about it and that emotion comes at its peak when the client sees the images for the first time so that emotion is what drives the sale not you you're just there to kind of make the system work the system is what makes the fail so once you have pre concepts products and pricing in place, the projection appointment will naturally fall into place. Really? The projection appointment is the easiest part everybody's always so scared the production within the one hundred sell my word what you doing about scary it's? A little scary at first, but if you have the other piece in place the projection appointment all of a sudden becomes kind of fun. You get to get the satisfaction of the reaction we were talking the other day about online and then whether or not you put things online before the sale because you want that everybody wants that in all the photographers and artist we want grad external validation, right? We love it when people say oh pretty such a beautiful image joanie, I mean, we all everything one of us, even though those of us who are experienced in the industry, we still get gratification when we put out our best work and someone loves it it's a natural reaction so when you see that in your client at the projection appointment all it's the best part of the whole sale belinda will even walk down the stairs during the slide show because she wants to see their reaction because it's so much fun for her too, you know, she's, my studio manager and she just edited the images she didn't even shoot him. She wasn't even there for the actual shoot itself. But she's been editing the image is she's in love with him and she wants to see how they react to him. Okay, it's a natural reaction for artists who want to see the results of their work, which is the emotion that we put into somebody threw our creative voice, right? So if you set your piece, if you get pre consul to nailed products branded nailed pricing correct and and targeted to your average sale and pricing that sells itself yesterday we talked about pricing and you could see how we use credit collection there's other models that worked great, but with credit collection it's designed to sell itself right. It's designed to make you want to do the most expensive thing. Okay, so that's what I mean by creating a conveyor belt system that you simply throw your client on the gotland and watch him go down the system? Okay, she's like that would be nice, but it's it is true, you know, yeah, you have to nudge it along the way but if the system's air set up in place you know every client is gonna go boom go boom right down right down the line assembly line and by the time you get to the sales appointment you know you've nailed it already before you're even in the appointment most of the time when I go into sales appointment I know I'm going to get my average no matter what very rarely do I go in and go this might be a crappy sale most of time I go in going yeah, we're going to average oh no we'll get more I almost know the number before I go in because I've educated the client and put them through this gauntlet of systems so I'ma justus educated as they are and what the process is going to be I'm getting to know them I know what they want to know what their budget is anna's just a matter of fact the salesroom appointment just it's an ordering appointment at that point okay, so there are some things you could do to systemized your sales room and make people spend more money. This is all deep psychological fun stuff love this kind of stuff the layout of your sales room can be extremely strategic okay? And the first thing we're going to discuss when it comes to this is the location of it in your space how many of you are in home studios home studios. Okay, how many of you have a retail space or some kind of okay? So just a few. How did you have no space at all? We're just on location. Okay, you're going to see my home studio back when I first started, I basically let my entire living room be my sales room. I had images of other people's kids on my walls. I had products displayed. I let my house be my retail studio. In essence, I merchandised I did everything I could to make that house b beneficial to my business. The sales room location is strategic. Now sometimes you're just limited by your space and you gotta put it where you got to put it, ok? But you want it in a quiet area. Okay? So if you are in a studio space where there's a hustle and bustle going on, you want to make sure you kind of tuck it away in a private location. If you have a house with kids, I highly suggest you get those kids out of there. You find a baby sitter or you make it a quiet place. This is the time for you and your client to do business and it's all about them, their emotion and their images, and if your kids were running around that's gonna be a big issue and I know you don't really want to say that because it costs money to hire a baby sitter yada yada yada, but you all know the reality that this is a business transaction and your kids need to be out of the picture now can their kids come? Yes, but I strongly suggest that they don't people ask me that a lot, I say, of course you could bring your children. We do have some entertainment here for them, teo help occupy them, but please keep in mind it might be easier for you to hire a baby sitter because the appointment will require your full attention and focus on will be much easier for you to make decisions if you're not being distracted by your kids. Oh, okay, well, think about that, so yes, you could bring him, but you'll have an easier time if you don't. So we in the studio do have toys and ipads and all kinds of things, and we've actually are setting up netflix in the studio so kids kevin can watch and all that stuff, so to get them because it's hard, I get it and you want to provide that service to customers, but I always tell them it's easier if they don't bring them okay, but when you tuck it away somewhere, it creates that sense of intimacy and avoids distractions no students could be full of people coming in and out, especially if it's the retail location. Now, if you're on location on lee, the way I would do this is tow go to their house and charge a premium for it, okay? I know molly used to do this right used to go to people's houses and one of the issues she used to tell me that she had its color calibration of the monitors you plug into someone else's tv and there it's not professionally calibrated, the color is going to be all walked out, right? So in that case I would highly recommend thinking about investing in a portable projector and a portable screen so you can control a color because that's so important or images need to look right and when I'm talking walked out color it's probably really walked out like a orange skin and nasty stuff going on, okay? It can't be that bad and that does make a difference in the sales room, especially if it's if it's not a good color, I'm sure you've had that problem, haven't you? Yeah, I know she has, um so think about those issues and problems that you may have going on location to somebody now can you do things through skype or go to meeting or something like that? Of course, if you're desperate and I do it and for my out of town clients all the time is we connect via skype and aiken screen share via skype but I do the entire prospect appointment through skype again you have the same problem their monitors air not professionally calibrated the color will come out way different in the print then they saw on their screen in their home so you need to develop policies and and you know caveats for that you want to be able to communicate that to your client so they know that that's a problem okay, but skype works great for those of you who can't do in person sales I got same averages doing in person on skype than I did as well as you know, being actually in person so you can do that if if you want I would use it as a last resort but it is possible to do things via skype. The goal is to get that personal attention to the client during the sales appointment to help them solidify and nail down decisions that they wouldn't otherwise make risky decisions. They want your input as the artist okay, so when you give them input you give them confidence that the risk your decision is the way to go okay, so layout for a sales room there's a couple of theories and this applies in the home or in a retail space okay, you can either do a table that the client sets out with you like a dining room table or you could do a couch the implications of that are when you're sitting around a table like this with your client and you're all looking at the screen a table is this is business, this is an official transaction like you know how when you signed legal documents with a lawyer, you sit at the table on its very official and formal yada yada yada the same thing holds true in a sales appointment so it's very much getting down to business we're going to get this done and make it the couch is more comfortable I use a couch I want like I don't want it to feel like a hard sell I wanted to be a soft sell one of your uncomfortable so I wanted like their living room so the emotion tugs in more as they're more in a comfortable environment a table implies you're going by a couch implies you're gonna enjoy okay a table imply selling versus a couch implies you're just taking an order and it totally depends on your business model and your personality what you'd like to dio on a soft cellar so I kind of went for the couch mop model and it's worked for me have I ever tried a table? No really, you know just don't spend money on the table not we're trying but I suggest really thinking hard about this to see what system will work best in your space okay floor plans the sofa theory this is how I'm set up the couch or sofa is back here the projection screen in the projector they look straight ahead and the image is there on the projection screen there's a coffee table there's a displaced cabinet I sit here in the sales chair okay and face the client now when we're watching the slide show I turned and I'm in this corner here and I turned to look up at the screen I'm not watching the client while they're watching their images it's very uncomfortable so be careful you don't want to do that because they're all self conscious that somebody's watching for their reaction so just you know you want to be respectful about can you imagine if someone watching you what you're trying to watch your kid and it's a little awkward um but you can put product display and there's wall space there and I'm going to talk about products playing the sales room here in a minute, but first I just want to take you through the different configurations with the table theory the same thing applies but clients can sit around the table and you're kind of sitting with them which has a different feeling right versus sitting across from someone sitting with them implies a different meaning it's like okay we're going to get this done where is when I sit across from you it's like what do you want? So a table just has a different connotation in a different psychological impact on the client okay, so I want to take you through some very famous photographers sales rooms and show you their spaces this is jan helin gay space she's a lovely, lovely one of person an incredible photographer she's now in new york city but this is her old sail space in in her minnesota studio she had a couch okay nice speaker system little cabinet there with snacks and goodies and the product was on the walls to kind of show off does that make sense to that julie class mayer was a dear friend of mine has a table okay, she works in the more business sense of it but do you see again the product has displayed on the walls the client can readily see the projection screen and it's all about doing business around a table jeff and julia woods it's about sitting on a couch and a comfortable space do you see that sales computer is here? Photographer sits here clients on the couch it's very much a friendly we're gonna have a conversation dialogue type thing that forrester a table but comfortable chairs colleen and company it's more like a table situation on a on a tv rather than on a projection screen okay but she also has a huff nagel but notice the smallest size she's carrying his twenty by twenty four on the wall okay so you can see a sales room does not need to be over the top but it needs to be strategically planned I think one of the biggest questions I get from photographers is do I do a tv or a projector okay and there are definitely some pros and cons to different once okay ah projection system is what I used to me projection is a little bit easier ok it does require a little more space because the screen has to come down um and you have to hook up to the projector on you have to look up to a tv too but it's a little more logistically with the speaker's and everything ah little more complicated but you can show bigger images okay you can show an image very easily in actual size so like using a software like pro select um if you think about this tv I can't I can show a much larger horizontal image then I can vertical image that makes sense so the tv I've got some issues there showing actual size on the screen projection screen and I can I could project against this huge wall here if I wanted to this white walls a fantastic projection screen okay and I can show any size I want the client is not looking at the tv and its size they're looking at the image projected on the wall I find that with tvs clients especially fathers men in their head subconsciously they're asking themselves, well, the tv fit seriously they don't even know they're doing it but if the tv won't fit, then the image won't fit so they say it's too big the projection screen tends to remove those biases okay many studios don't have the space for projection so a tv is their best option. The tv is a good option I mean the resolution and the clarity on a big screen tv is incredible I mean the tv screen the colors always fantastic. The resolution is incredible and the costs of tv's are going down so much that it's actually almost cheaper to do a tv that is a projection screen this point okay, but also keep in mind the tv has a glare so if you have a lot of light in your studio, you want to be careful that that glare is going to influence the images. Tv's also are a higher resolution there hd no ten, eighty p kind of thing. Your print is not going quite be that sharp, so just keep that in mind okay? You can't show size as easily, but in a bright room a tv screen is easier to see. You have to do with the glare but the tv screen itself is easier to see sometimes you need a really dark room in order to see projection properly okay so when I always suggest is calling the pros and projector people dot com is incredible and they actually have a guy there I think his name is tom orr tony he will he is a specialist for photographers and he will you can call him up and talk to him tell him the parameters of your space how much light is in there how long your throw distance is what your budget is and he will find a projector for you that fits within that range okay but you could you know the price of projectors are coming down but you khun safely assume that you'll spend a thousand dollars on a good productive okay but if it makes you that ten times over in your first week in sales it's absolutely worth it okay so product displays absolutely critical inside yourselves room okay if your client can't see it feel it touch it you can kiss that sale goodbye samples are so important in fact it's probably one of the first things you should go out and do when you get home make sure you have samples of every product you carry that's how important it is I cannot tell you how much my sales improved when I got samples of everything I carry in my studio I probably doubled my sales that and doing in person sales of pro select actually tripled almost quadrupled my sales average when I switched from online to in person sales using press elect okay that's how powerful this stuff is it's incredibly psychologically moving your client incredibly, I hope I'm showing you why I want you in your in your sales room to design what I call a cone of money it's actually a term coined by travis gugelmin, who was a wonderful photographer in idaho the best product should be placed in their line of sight the count of money okay in a sofa situation simply the client's field of view is which is the front area here now clearly the projection screen is in that area but you also have to keep in mind that they do see over here over the cabinet on either side of the projection screen they don't see what's on the wall behind them so don't put your best product up here on that wall you want to put your best product on the sightlines hot real estate okay when we talked about that in product development you want to save your hot real estate for your most coveted products that you want to sell on table the count of money khun b in several locations which is one of the reasons I don't like the table scenario because it depends on where the client decides to sit if dad sits over here and sees that and mom sits over here and sees that I can't control what they see as much does that make sense now these air tiny little elements to the issue here but they all add up to create a results things you must have in your in your, uh sales room I know it seems obvious but for goodness sake get a box of tissues okay drinks and snacks are a must pens paper trash can printer credit card reader and your brochures and of course your pricing guide ours is on the table in the sales room all the time and it's important because I want my clients to be able to leave through it to refer to pricing to have everything out and open on the table but it's really embarrassing when you start playing the sideshow and your client starts crying and you can't hear a helper out quickly and efficiently with a tissue simple little things but you'd be surprised how many people don't don't take that stuff into account the half bagel is very powerful selling tool the same image printed in every size you carry and there's a strategy involved here the image you pick should look the best large so you don't want to do a close up of the faith because that looks terrible large it's too big he wanted image with lots of heads in it and or far away so that it looks good large and it looks terrible. Small. You can't even tell the expression on the faces on the small one. Okay, I don't even have an eleven by fourteen in my huff nagel siri's minus sixteen by twenty twenty, twenty four, twenty four by thirty and thirty by forty there's only four sizes and the reason is that sixteen by twenty is the smallest size that we carry in awhile. Portrait so but this is incredibly powerful because your client was ask you, what is the sixteen by twenty look like and you, khun basically, you know, point up to your huff nagel and go okay, well, that's that size that they quickly realised that the larger ones look better. Okay, the sales room can have a step by step system. Okay, at this point, remember, we've done three consoles. We've done products. We've done pricing. At this point, the client should have a really good idea of what they want to dio I send my client's home with an ordering appointment prep kit from the session and that prep kit does prepare them for the sale. It just reaffirms with the pre consultation already said. This is what we're shooting for us is product. I want you to think about your budget. How do you want to see these images? Five, ten years from now. Here's howto measure your walls. Here's. What will happen if he ordered appointment here? Zordon policies. Make sure you read them before you come in to the sales appointment on that ordering kid again is just another beating on the head to your client that they need to be prepared for this appointment. And when I make the appointment, we always say, does your husband need to be at the appointment? The best question to ask the wife to determine if this is the case would be something like okay, does your husband need to be here? Oh, no, no it's okay. Are you sure if you were to go out and buy a sofa tomorrow, what you do so without his permission and without his input oh, no. Maybe you better be here. That puts the analogy in the client's head that you're gonna be spending more than a thousand dollars. Do you need to be both be there for this appointment. So that's the number one question you should use something along those lines that makes the client realized okay, yeah, maybe I should have both parties here so we could make this decision together and they kind of look at you funny like what was a cost me that much they already kind of know that but just it's that confirmation it's just that little push that goes yeah, I guess we will be spending a lot of money I should probably have them here or no some moms will be like oh no it's fine I'll do that and then I know that dad doesn't need to be there because the worst thing that happens you all have been there you get the sales appointment and mom walks through the door and you go where's mr jones and all he had to work are you sure you can do this on your own? Oh yeah it's fine. My husband needs to be here I can't do this by myself they've already seen the images and you go oh, and the sale goes down the tubes right? We're gonna talk about how to deal with that in future segments but you don't want that happen. So one way to prevent that is to nip in the bud before happens okay and those kinds of questions and preparing the client for that sail before they get there is what will prevent that from happening so in the sales appointment itself this is where we tap into the emotion so what I do is I first start off with the slide show, okay we want the slide set to music we want it to be emotional. Okay, this is the time to just enjoy the image mom may cry make sure those tissues around it's a huge compliment actually they always get embarrassed like that you made me cry and don't worry it's a huge compliment thank you because it is shut the heck up don't say anything and I'm guilty of this too I think in the I p s appointment that we, if I remember correctly the idea support that we taped for this course I think I did say something in the middle of the slideshow which sometimes yeah like you see monkey do let them get drawn into the images of the whole goal of the slide show set them to music we put out popcorn and candies and give them something to drink. We make it in a little experience to see their images so you want them to get drawn in without emotion and you want to heighten it even more. Then once the slide show was over, I discussed pre set goals. So I go back to what we talked about in the pre consultation and say ok let's revisit what we discussed we talked about doing an album I asked what their hopes are for the session what do they want to end up with at the end of this appointment so questions I ask our how do they want to see these images five, ten, twenty years from now, when their children are grown? Do they want to walk by them every day in the hallway? Or do you want a book or album that they can share the experience of looking at with their children and that their children can then have later on when they've kicked the bucket? Okay, so we revisit this concept of the art product before we've even talked about pricing before even even discuss what we're going to which direction we're going to go. Are we going to do digital files ala carte or we're going to do credit collection to see what I'm doing? I'm building up the idea that credit collection is better before we've even discussed pricing by asking them how they want to see these images five, ten years from now on what they plan on doing with them yet again, how many times have I asked him this question? Probably five before they've even got to the sales appointment clients need to be beat over the head toe, learn things, ok, I say that figuratively, not literally. If there are, if there is a solid plan for the images, I will show them pre design products, okay, especially if we're going to do something for the wall. And I know they've sent an image of their home and they want to do a three siri's or something and we've talked about that or whatever I will show them pre design siri's I will show them a siri's of wall portrait's with one portrait three portrait's and five which one did they buy? Three when they had on ly originally discussed doing what? Okay, so showing pre pre designed product lets you provide that artistic input that she so desperately wants you may think she doesn't but guy she does she has no idea what she's doing your clients do not have what I call the visual literacy thatyou do you see it? They don't so if she wants a wall portrait show her one three and a grouping of five and I bet you nine times out of ten you'll be able to convince her that the three is much better than the one will she go for the five? No, I don't expect her to. Okay remember when we talked about shooting systems last week you must shoot for variety. You must shoot for each individual image to be a work of art for each image to be different than the others because if that's the case then she's gonna want to do a three serious because she'll want more than one on the wall to see how all these systems build upon one another to create the whole and same thing with if, you know, she's going to go for a wall portrait, you better shoot your sit your your images so they all work together. You can see there's two different setups in this wall, siri's, but I'm a darn sure when I shot on the beanbag that those images matched what we did with the family and siblings so that we could pare them all together. If you're not thinking about that in your sessions and system izing how you shoot that in the sales room, you're gonna have a lot more trouble because if they look like they don't work together, it's a hodgepodge mishmash of images and it's, not a designed piece in your client, I like it it's not that pretty follow to have to have all the system set for them to build upon one another and work together actual size. It will sell like nothing else can. This is what I mean when I say I have a can, a couple of canned rooms, sometimes the clients send me their own rooms and all the next slide. Here you'll be able to see what the kind of image that people send me, but this is basically a can room that I purchased from another designer you can find him on our website, by the way, joel dash, education, dot com and they go into pro select and I can easily show my my client what an eight by ten looks like and what a thirty by forty looks like in the exact same space which one are they going to buy? They will probably by a twenty four by thirty which is slightly down from the large size we carry. This is the type of room they typically send me an iphone shot of the nursery kind of boring not exactly. You know it's just a knife own picture it does not matter how many of you have ever um gonna house hunt like look for a home everybody right? Especially women sorry, alex poor guy singled out all the time um what's it like going on a house hunt, huh? Okay, I need microphones tell me what's it like going on the house not what happens exhausting it's exhausting. Yeah. Why is it exhausting? Because you have to try toe see if you fit in and you have to try to see if you can fit into that household. And yeah, and you look at a lot of a lot of yes ten houses. Yeah it's exhausting because you have to have a hunt and you go through house after house after house and you see one of the outside's got cute curb appeal and you walk inside you're like, uh and then sometimes you're presently surprised it has kind of ok curb appeal on you walk in you're like oh wood floors crown molding open layout granite countertops all the girls are like yeah this is happening to me and then what happens? You start visualizing yourself in the home, right? The tv will go here. The sofa will go here. The dining room table fit right there. Honey, what are you doing? When you do that, you've moved in mentally, right? So compare that to this when you place your client's children on their walls in their space in the right size and it matches and looks like it was designed for the space you have taken over your client's mind they cannot picture anything else. And just like you mentally moving into the house you love, you have signed on the dotted line before you've even handed over your credit card. This is psychological sales right here and it's. Awesome. I swear to you I sell more using this technology than anything else. And when I get my client to actually send an image of their home, it ups the ante and the stakes get even higher. And I know I'm going to have a killer sale, okay, because I simply have to go in and start playing to mind if I play no, please d'oh we want you to play with our house and see what looks good and designed something custom for us oh no problem and then they just get gordon come on, little fishy come right into me, okay it's really what it is I know you guys giggle but you're you know it's true because you would do the exact same thing if some artists or designer came and I took a picture of your home and start doing this amazing gallery but I gotta go by that especially if you're not educated in photography interior design you don't have that sense of visual literacy which duh that is what your client is they would not have hired you if they could do it themselves, right? So use these tools and technology to your advantage because they all had up and when you system eyes everything and have a step by step approach in the sales room, then all of a sudden your confidence goes through the roof because you know you're going to nail him whether you live with it they like it or not. Okay, so in a good software it can be done in your client's own home I show her the three different designs that I've made for the living room all or whatever well they happen to want to do it if the client is hinting at an album, I will start pulling out samples of albums that we have to show for them and you saw that in the last segment when when we looked at products ok, I will start explaining the different albums and what their features and benefits are have you noticed? We haven't even looked at the images yet really we've gone through a slide show and that's it at this point, right? We have not nitty gritty narrowed it down looked anything and yet and there's a reason for that? Why? Why am I discussing products and choices and goals with them before we've even taken a close look at the images I need a microphone come on, you guys could do that you here all smart, I know you're all you've got it on and you're thinking and I love it you want them to have you want them to have a product in mind while they're picking out their images or blackly yes, and I want them to again a reaffirm that soft commitment to the product that they want t get if we start sorting images before that and they're able to narrow it down, then they'll change their mind about the product based on how they sort of the images makes sense I lost strategy so much now that we know what we're thinking about doing like an album or a wall siri's or whatever we start to sort images so sorting images does not take place until we've had a good look at the products we start looking at product pricing structure we've started looking at our pieces versus ala carte digital files okay, I tell my clients to sort images with their final product goal in mind just like if amy right just like amy said amy right yeah, I gotta keep my name straight I keep the images pro select has a feature that allows you to do yes maybe and no images it's really cute it's like second grade there's like a little smiley face a little neutral face and a little sad face and you just kind of put the images in the different faces to sort them into piles clients love it it's so funny it's like first grade technology like you're in first grade but it works okay sometimes simple is best less is more less is more right less is more so I keep the images in the yes pile and tell my clients to reject them strategic thinking people have a hard time saying no to their kid and I do that on purpose okay I only compare three to four similar images at a time that keeps them from dumping too many. I want them to have too many images but I don't want to show them so many that they're overwhelmed but I want them to have too many images in their mind that they need to say yes to does that make sense? It is a fine line. So when comparing show images that are similar to one another until each client that this is a first path that way, they don't get hung up on any one image, because you know what happens, they start getting in this little agony moment where they can't decide if they want to keep it or leave it, and I also tell them if mom and dad are sitting on the couch, they can override one another at this point, if you like it and she doesn't, we're keeping it. For now, they both have to disagree that they don't like it to get rid of it and that's the rule. And you see all this when we do the sale because they actually ended up going for an album, and you will see a sort through for for an album, okay, yeah questioned on at this point, everything is done big screen on a projector, so when there yes, or knowing they're fertilizing it to you and then you're hitting the frowny face? Yes, exactly, exactly, is there a reason? Is your direction your question is going, or you just kind of trying to trying to clarify, though I'm just a staying on track with what you're saying, I wasn't sure if they were proofing on you know, in front of them with photo proofs or if they were doing this on large projector screen just want to make sure I understood yeah no, no, no, it is a good question. It's on a projection screen I was just worried I wasn't fully answered your question so I'm glad you clarified it's on a projection screen. Nice big, large images and then I have my computer in front of me and the same thing is on my computer that's up on their screen on the projection screen so they can either look at my computer to take a nice closer look or they can go up on the screen so they can kind of see both at that time. So I showed you my my layout, how I sit over there and in the client sits on the sofa. Well, I right after the slide show I get up from that spot, put the thie computer on the coffee table and then I usually sit on the floor with the computer while they're on the couch. It's a casual approach it's how I let you know I'm comfortable that way and I think my clients kind of feel comfortable like it's more of ah, hey let's, look at pretty pictures feeling than you're going to buy something simon soft cellar I like to do that soft approach so that's, why I do that? And you'll see in the I v s appointment that it's a little awkward. It's awkward for me, but I don't mind it so some people may look at that. No, no, it's, not professional for me, but for me, it's in the way I do things, my brand. It works. Okay? Yeah. Question. The first time that you're showing this light show, how long do you have on each image? And you just show each image once? Or do you go through it a couple times for them to look at good questions? No, once only. And it depends on the length of the song I have. We have a couple songs that we used to, and I want the images to be up there for at least three. Three to four seconds. But not too long. It's, like, okay, even switch now you know it's long enough to see it. Three seconds is good. Two seconds is too long is too short. Five or six seconds is getting too long, if that helps. But we have several songs that and pro select times it to the music so that it fits the music. So choose the best song for the number of images that you have. And, of course, since we have we usually only show thirty to forty images. We usually play the same songs over and over again because those are the ones that set thirty or forty images, but you can adjust it, impress elect to be a longer length of time on the transition of the slide show or on the image itself so that it fits the music. Okay, so you can control that somewhat. Any other questions? Yeah, one more question over here. Are you using an emoto for this light shows? And does that plug into pro select? Yes, an emoto can you could design an animal slideshow out of pro select pro select has its own slideshow features which incorporate video and what we're starting to dio is just in the kind of infancy process of is starting to film video during the newborn session that will be integrated with the slide show to enhance the memory of the experience that they had with us. So not only was showing them images of their newborn baby, but we're also showing the video of me placing mom, baby and mama's arms and that whole process and then seeing the final finished image so it creates that experience that's even more in depth so an emoto is incredible for doing slide shows. They have also have video, too. But with pro select now offering video the to integrate so seamlessly that I've kind of made pro select the feature because it's just easy, it's all one software that makes sense. And does the client get the slide show? No as well. No, they have to buy it. If they want the slide show, they have to purchase it. It's an extra patterns padded sale kind of thing. And to me, it's an additional product. Okay. Anything else? Questions? Good. Okay, let's, keep going. Number five were step five. Once we've sorted the images on the first path so we haven't narrowed it down fully. We've just kind of sort of kind of narrowed it down. This is where we start to make some decisions. We re discuss pricing and collections, and I will pull out my pricing guide and I would say, okay, there's two ways to invest in your portrait you can either do it, allah, cart or in create a collection. And sometimes this discussion happens before we sort the images and sometimes it happens after we sort the images. Ok? It depends on how well my client is making decisions. If they're making decisions easily and they know what they want to do, then we'll discuss pricing and collections before we sort images. If they're hemming and hying they don't really know what to do I will say to them, well, why don't we start sorting the images and see what your favorites are and maybe that will help you better come to a conclusion as to whether or not you should do all our car to create a collection and they go yeah, okay let's do that it gives him time toe let it soak in, but what happens is because we have such a set system for shooting images they realise as they start to sort through them that they all have this variety they're all cute and they can't get rid of that many of them. So then that solidifies the decision to go with collection once we start re discussing pricing again here in step five does that make sense? I know I'm telling you this instead of showing you it, but I'm hoping you're following me. Of course you're going to see all this in the sale sessions, so I want to make sure that we've discussed it first before you actually see it. But at this point I say to them okay, you can either purchase all the cart or in created collection is ala carte works most people do credit collection here is why you get all the files plus an art piece and what they see on the pricing guide is that create a collection is more expensive and less value than going with create a collection so even though they will be spending more money and create a collection they get so much more for it so ninety nine point nine percent of my clients go for create a collection because they'll be spent even if they're on a rock bottom budget and they came in saying I could only afford the session fee and three ninety five which is my rock bottom ala carte price they will come in they will see create a collection they'll realize okay if I spend two hundred fifty dollars more I upgrade from twelve eight by ten digital files to all forty files plus an art piece for six sixty that is so much more value for such a smaller investment does that make sense so that's why almost all of my clients are incentivized to go with create a collection and when we discussed the stuff in the sales room and they say see that the pricing is structured that way they go oh okay well we might as well just to create a collection because it's so much more of a value for the investment so the pricing mix the sale, the structure of the pricing and how it's set up forces the client to do something and to spend more money and to go where I need them to go instead of me having to hard sell it to them system cells the product I don't sell I just run the system that makes sense okay, so we review the revisit pricing and this will occur often on as you discuss product and sort images so you need to make sure your price man he was easy to access I go over created collection with them clearly as many times as needed if you have set packages and you're going to want to go over those packages with them and understand and those packages should be set up strategically so that the lowest one has no value they see that so that they spend just a little bit more money they get a little bit more value for their investment and the middle package should be the one you want them to go for and psychology dictates in the sales room that they will go for the middle most of the time the problem I have with set packages is that people have to buy stuff they don't want okay well I want that album can we switch this album for that one in that package really it's a nightmare to deal with okay, no one will ever spend more than your highest package which is such a bummer kind of shutting the door on your ceiling of what you khun cell right that's kind of why I don't like that packages but they vanished to set packages is you can say your client's prices started whatever five hundred and go up to twenty five hundred there's a nice range which the client likes to hear so that's one of the advantages of going with set packages and as we talk about pricing more more next week of course we're going to go into how to structure packages and what's going to work for you etcetera, etcetera we will discuss all these things further and in depth and what the pros and cons are two each method and you need to pick a method that works for you I'm just kind of telling you what we do and how it works in our studio at this point so once you've gone through all this stuff it happens almost seamlessly because clients go so I say that you know you could have purchased all the car you can purchase credit collection this is why people go with credit collection so that's the first decision you need to make then if you decide to go with ala carte we're going to go ahead and start sorting through these images and narrow it down to your twelve favorites. What about just done right there if you do that in there never going to see those pictures again and it's hard to get away from him they're going to want and basically told them what they're going to have to do, which is something that they're not gonna want teo right? Okay or if you decide to go with creative collection, we know you're going to be getting them all on us speed, you got to take those home today by the way, when you do to create a collection and we'll just be looking at the different are pieces that we might be printing for you much better option, right? So almost all of them go. Yeah, and if they do have to go with allah card, they always apologize. It's hilarious. They always go home so sorry we're in such a tight budget and as much as I wanted to create a collection, we just we love your work, but we just we just can't just on such a tight budget. I mean, they're literally in pain that they have to sort these down to just twelve images and walk out the door spending their minimum because I have made it so hard and so painful to do that I had people do the created collection to get the high rez files that day and then try to call the next day and cancel the art piece because now they've got what they want, huh? And what do you do, there's a policy, right? Yeah, here it is when they take those files out here's my deal number one I tell them we'll be ordering the our peace that evening so my sales points take place the afternoon round one between one and four o'clock are my time slots for sales points and I will till I tell them we will be placing the or product order this evening and when I come downstairs with their paperwork there envoys receipt and I come downstairs with the files I say to them I need you to sign the invoice please read what it says I will preview it for you now you are signing for operations authorization on your credit card also please note this paragraph right here since you are taking a downloadable product out of the studio today please understand there are no refunds no cancellations and no returns on digital products and they kind of look at me like oh yeah people have tried and they kind of laugh and giggle about it because they realize how absurd it is you cannot take a usb home and then expect to bring it back you know and that's that's a huge policy so and then I talk about the graphic design policies and refund we have a cancellation if you cancel an order after it's sent to the lab it's already team nonrefundable we can't refund your money if it's cancelled before we send it to the lab that it's a fifty percent cancellation fee and it says that right there they're signing for it and I make sure they see that before they sign it so buy them it's the power of a signature is an incredible thing and so when they sign it there sign for the order there authorizing their credit card there saying yes, I will not return a downloadable product and I understand when I take this product out of the studio the sale is final and that I have once I started doing that I have never had anybody try to return the product they will call me and say there's problems or there's an issue with it or something's wrong with it we'll need to reprint but I've never had anybody try to return a product once we implement that policy and made them sign for it okay, so those are little things that kind of happen to you when you started having issues and there's a new policy for that and it happens to this day we will have we just didn't let us have another she'll tell me afterwards I know but there's always a new policy that could put into play because of some crappy client that I end up having to deal with okay, so and you just build upon them like ten years of policies start to get really long after awhile I'm wondering how long my policies they're gonna get time spying without question okay all right, so yeah one more question before I move on to the decision maker profits I was wondering so at that point, like if that is the client that says that apologize and says I just can't afford it, would you offer a payment plan to make the bigger sale or just talk about it? If they ask for depends on the client. I'm really has a ten about payment plans. Um, I've done them in the past it's more like a layaway plan, but here's, the problem with it is it counter acts what I just told her because I have more of a risk of them canceling completely if I don't let them go home with the product. So if they say, oh, I can only spend three, ninety five I will say them okay, great, well, we can have you pay three, ninety five today, order your product and then you can pay the remaining balance when you come pick up the product, but I take the risk they won't show up for that they won't pay for the credit card will be denied etcetera, etcetera does that make sense? Also, if I if I make it such that okay you, khun do create a collection for air nine hundred dollars, whatever you wanted, take your files home today, but then I may not they may not pay for the rest of product, and I'm stuck with them having just you walked out on me for money does that make sense? So by letting them go home with the files that day, I'm ensuring my sale does that make sense? So I'm making sense so they can't return and back out because I can't count the number of times back in the old days when I was doing stuff and I have a sales appointment on friday night and saturday morning I have a panicked phone call going we have to pull back on our order we can't pay for this we got our emotions got the better of us, which is exactly what I wanted to happen, but I need to make sure they're not going to call me the next day and try to cancel their order so by making them walk out with our files number them number one they want to do that because they want the instant gratification of being able to take something home with them, okay? But I also just solidified that if you take a downloadable product out of the studio, you cannot return your sale that makes sense so payment plans are iffy. I tend to only do it with clients I know okay, like they've got the money, they just want to split it up, but you know how many times women come in to go? Can I write you two checks so my husband doesn't know happens all the time can I put this on two or three different credit cards or can you charge this credit card this day in this credit card sustained if it's a client I know all agree to do it but if not, then I'm very sticky with payment plans but if I do offer a payment plan I take two credit cards and I take a fifty percent down payment I have to make something out of it and then the other twenty five percent is due on month one when we order the product or when we when we order the product that point cause we'll wait and then the second final twenty five percent is due upon pickup okay, so I don't really have a technically a payment plan it's more like a layaway plan answer question okay, so now's the point where you start making some decisions the client will begin selecting items for credit collection. I note their desires on their invoice, of course in pro select and show the final invoice so crow select allows you to add things to the shopping cart so my client can see me doing that so they see the prices of things and granted they see the pricing guide to it's all laid out right there is they know how much things cost and then they see me put in the shopping cart so I never have to sit rarely do I have to say to them okay your total is two thousand one hundred twenty five dollars liver whatever it may be I just show them the invoice and go okay we're going to go for this this and this is that our final order is everybody okay with that? I never have even stuff to say the final price okay and then they see that invoice and go yeah, okay, that looks good sometimes you're like yeah yeah looks good. Okay, great. How will you be placing your order? Okay you basically at this point ask for the sale and trust me with a well done pre consultation guys, this will be simply a matter of taking in order. The client usually has a good idea of what they want and what their budget is before they come in and I tell them to set a budget when they leave the session and I give them their ordering kit to prepare for the sales appointment. I say this packet is really going to help you define your goals for your ordering appointment please read are ordering policies. Payment is due at the time an order is placed. I want you guys to go home and discuss this and set a budget and have a family plan for what you'd like to do with these images so please review the materials in here so that when you confidence appointment you're prepared if you do find you have to make an additional order employment there is a hundred dollar fee to do an additional ordering appointment should you not be able to make a decision about your order at the time that we made this appointment for you they're ready when they come in and I make sure they're ready so once we've gotten through all the nitty gritty steps of this sales process now it's time to ask for the sale you know guys what is how dare I ask how would you like to pay simple as that and so many photographers are afraid to ask for money oh, a pair of the credit card some cash I got the request can I get a three percent just got a very good now I usually took around go and I just try I'll say that oh, nice dry and kind of laugh and giggle hole you know and they go oh, it doesn't hurt to ask yeah well how love cash gases great cash is king but anyway so then from there we confirm with a signature okay, like I said, a signature is everything so pros like prints out a thumbnail invoice like they see exactly what they ordered okay? And then this is the actual ordering from the in person sales session that we did that you guys are gonna see this is the actual invoice from that family, okay that signature prevent buyer's remorse because they know they can't go back it confirms the custom work and it holds the client accountable for the sale and if you word that correctly you will never have somebody call that saturday to try and cancel the order again it just doesn't happen anymore if it did happen for me it would be a very rare rare occurrence. Okay, the whole point of this lesson is for me to communicate to you that you need to control everything you control every system in your sales room and the system's make sure that everything goes smoothly in the way you need it to go while the same time making your client extremely happy and pleased with the process almost all of my clients who come through this process go that was so easy I would have had such a hard time doing this online because what happens when you go online send the gallery off they love the images they sit there you got a seven day open window and you're like oh, come back to it later come back to it later we gotta do that honey really sit down this weekend and go over that sunday night rolls around bam looking your way got fifty bucks okay, here you go to the gallery another seven days honey, we really need to do that I mean, you know the cycle then here's, what happens? There's forty images they're overwhelmed there like I don't know what to do, they can't see products, they don't know what to think they haven't we haven't planned for the wall, they don't know what they're doing, so what they buy what they know and what they know digital and a tenth they buy what safe? So when you bring them into your space, you get control over the images over the sail over the emotion tied to the images. When you put your product online, you are giving it away for free as harsh as that sounds, I also think about it my in person sales appointments taken our or less people are always shocked when I tell them that I think the one you're going to see is an hour and a half because we did an album with thirty images in it they upgraded the middle of the road out my half to a thirty page album, so we had to weed it down to thirty it was kind of a process so that I think it's about an hour and a half, so album orders are usually a little longer the wall portrait orders sometimes happen, our clients come in, you know what they want fam bam, thank you, ma'am, we're out of there quick and easy and those prints are ordered ten minutes after they're gone let's think about online sales appointment were already at two weeks, right? They're falling out of your conveyor belt line. You've already got two other clients behind them who have already ordered there are still certain sitting out here like a sore thumb trying to figure out where they're going. They want to talk to you about stuff they phone calls back and forth. What are we ordering? Oh let's, do a birth announcement. Oh my goodness! Now we gotta design the announcement, figure out what they want, go back and forth with revisions. Ah, online sales actually takes at least five times as long as an important person ordering appointment, and when people fall out of your system, you get screwed up, you end up providing less than sub sub par customer service and you end up getting blamed for it and because the customers so overwhelmed and can't decide what to dio, you haven't provided that service to them, so they don't. It doesn't do anything to elevate your brand or what you do is a service business to your consumer to see what happens and then on top of that, the in person sales appointment allows the client too take a risk your decision because the artist is there to give the input, it gives them confidence that what they're doing is the right decision and then with room view and being on the show things on their actual wall and the products in front of them you have just instilled a huge sense of confidence to them that what that's the decision they're about to make is a good one that's all they want they just want to know that they're doing the right thing and since you know they're doing the right thing because you know you could provide them amazing product for them all is a happy marriage you provide a beautiful product they're super happy they say it's worth it they just spent way more money than you than they anticipated they everwood and there's super thrilling happy because it was quick and easy very funny trust me on that one it's uh scary to do in person sales but once you have a system it won't be I promise well pro select allow you to pull the images and put them on the usb straight from there do you have to have the images if they order that like are you literally doing it in pro select right there burning their usb I go oh um there's a two part answer to your question you can take low res files directly out of select what I don't do that though I go upstairs and I, um batch process in photo file scripts image processor set my pixel dimensions if it's a low rest file don't set it if it's a high risk file saves the j peg face in a separate folder and then I dropped those onto a usb and then I bring the usb down. It's happened in thirty seconds so I can go upstairs, get their paperwork, process their files. They wait downstairs for about five minutes, which they don't mind doing because I want to take those files home and then we bring them downstairs. I have the usb in my hand. I make them sign the paperwork. I packaged up their usb and then they get to walk out the door with the other copy of their invoice and their files. That's how that works. Okay. Your question. Yeah. For maternity and newborn. Do you have to separate sales appointment? Or do you do one appointment with both maternity and newborn really good questions separate? If I can. I'm struggling with a client right now. Who is fighting me on that? Um, maturity sessions are never as good of sales appointment as the newborn, and they are separate sessions. So I make my client's order separate orders for each session. So if they want to do critic election for both, they cannot combine it's, got to be created collection for the maternity and create a collection for the newborn. I actually do more work on attorney even though it's a mini session than I do on the newborn because mom always needs liquefy, you know, and so every image and there is getting retouched, I try not to take maternity sessions. I don't like doing them. I never a good sale, and the only reason I do take maturity is to get the baby because I won't shoot a maternity without also getting the baby like, if they want a book, I won't book attorney by itself. They have to book both. So, um, if your questions answer is a dependent one, if they come to me for maturity, you know what week thirty, thirty one, thirty two then there's plenty of time to do an in person sales appointment for the maternity session. My issue comes when they come at thirty seven weeks for their maternity session, and then they give birth to the baby a week later, and we haven't even finished processing their maternity files, then yes, I'm going to be doing to sales appointments in one, but how we've kind of circumvented that is, we say, okay, bring your newborn in for the newborn session, then we'll do your maternity ordered appointment right after the session, and then two weeks later, you'll come back for the newborn ordering appointment. Is how I kind of tried to state that one off but yes sometimes it's a sticky situation and they want to order both at the same time for convenience and then what happens is they come into the sales appointment and they want to combine everything into one package now sorry that's not gonna work and when they ask why it's the truth hurts it's like well, you know we do just as much work for your maturity sessions we do for your newborn unfortunately have to profit on each session so each session is its own entity therefore you have to purchase product separately between them and they usually kind of getting going home and hot about it but it's the truth long as you say the truth of the smile usually in that worst case scenario you can get through it without any major issues but it's always uncomfortable to talk about because you know what the client wants and you can't provide it the temptation to want to provide that to them to make them happy is great. But again it's that whole sandbox theory make sure you stick to your sandbox rules don't let them walk on your business because then they'll attempt to walk on you again okay, so the effect of a good sale session is of course happy clients you want happy, happy clients you want them to spend a lot of money while the same time being pleased with what they got out of it and when you do that of course you make a good profit right and if your peas or set up correctly you will make the average sale you want at every single session that comes through your door okay you will meet that average every single time when that happens your income becomes extremely predictable what is that feeling uh such a good feeling because then what are you worried about what are you worried about that point in your business what do you have to do at that point you just yeah you just have to get him in the door so then your entire realm becomes about booking them and developing effective marketing campaigns that will help the community get to know you and that's it you're not worried every time a client comes in for a cell session is this going to be the make or break one that's going to feed my family for the rest of the month you know it's gonna happen systems systems and then of course a good sale also helps to find your brand because the clients extremely happy they feel like they got a service from you the price matches the brand all that good stuff and it gives you confidence and security and because it's so easy for them they decide that they want to refer you everybody always ask me how do I switch with my current clients, I'm online now how do I tell them they have to come in shift your thinking? You're thinking of it as a negative, right? You would think of a thinking of it as something they have to do. You need to spin it to be something that's an advantage in a benefit to them, it'll be faster, we're going to help walk you through it, it'll be an experience. We want to see your emotion, we want to help you, and we've discovered that this is the best and easiest way for our clients to make quick and confident decisions and what they're doing you'll be able to see what's khun be done with your images as faras goals and products go, and we will help walk you through the process, and you will not be nearly as overwhelmed if somebody really fights back to you say, no, I'm sorry, this is how we're switching this is how we're doing it. This is how we're providing better customer service to our clients. We're very excited about it, and, you know, sometimes at the very, very end of every I mean there's occasionally, once in a blue moon, when I have a client who just cannot make a decision just can not I mean, these people are just like aah, hot math usually it's my fault because I haven't prepared him enough, I haven't read their personality, I'm not sure what they're all about and I haven't done my homework, so in that case I will offer an online gallery with a minimum collection order because I know they're gonna get all the files, right? So we put him online and then let him decide on their sixteen by twenty their minimum collection order after the fact, and they usually bite that go for it, they don't order. Within three days, they forfeit their entire fee for the sixteen by twenty she's like whoa that's harsh three days is plenty of time to figure out, and I also given the choice. What day do you want your st gallery to start on? You got three days with day. He wanted to start that way. They're in charge of saying they can't blame it on me that I put it up and they weren't ready that makes sense. That is an extremely last resort. I hate doing it, and I try not to do it at all costs. All right, so I guess what it really comes down to guys is having a client who's happy, right? I think that's the biggest take home with all of this and having you get to your average sale the way you want it, right what if you don't have a studio? No problem for some reason on location photographers all think they have no option but to sell online you can do this via webex. You could do this for you to go to meeting it's simply about screen check is a little harder yeah because you can't see reactions as well but it is doable home studios are cash cows you guys got it made you realize how am but had maintain gis it is to have a home studio this is my former living room where I started my business okay, I owned a little cottage I did families and kids and dogs I did pretty much everything okay few albums there on the table you can see the couch people says that the home studio is the easiest way to be a professional photographer and the most profitable no overhead you just gotta do it right? And so this is hard for some folks who have kids. You need to try to segregate a portion of your house to do this. Keep the kids out of there. I know it's hard or you gotta switch it back and forth. His clients come in and out and yeah, if you're going to start a business that's what you're gonna have to do for now sacrifices and when you have the budget and you've made the money then you switch over to a studio space I had to do it to guys we all had to do it so this is my living room and how I had the projection screen projection screen was a portable one so I could you know put it up and down the tv was behind it so when I want to watch tv in my house like it easy I just put the projection screen down and this little table sat here and the projector just went up there and show my images okay that's what was over the sofa let things up there's my dining room and consultation table I had client images all over the place okay there's another client image of a dog when I was doing pet photography I tried to make it warm and cozy. You had toe walk through my kitchen to get to my shooting space so you walked through my kitchen out my back door down the path and the garage was a separate building from from the house of old houses with care you know? And so this is my backyard is my whole potting table one of my gardening stuff and this is the studio door that's where you'd go into my old two car garage and this was my two car garage where I shot sessions that sofa still lives in my studio today you guys have all seen it already okay and that's how I shot for a couple years and in portland I had a twenty five hundred dollars average sale when I was in my house okay portland can handle portland, oregon I can handle a much higher average than bend oregon okay, so when I moved to bend my average did drop based on what the market compare if you can carve out a separate area, go for it it's going to be to your advantage if you cannot you won't have to live with merchandising your home and kicking your kids out and cleaning up your house before people show up for sale sessions or shoots it's just a fact of life and it sucks I know it does trust me been there done that but you're gonna have to do it. You need to to maintain that or for fashion eliza mme it's the sacrifice you're gonna have to make to get started until you make enough money to move on to a more professional space but you need to tell the benefits of being in a home I used to say we're a home studio it's all about family cozy comfort we're going to serve you some food I really tried to spin the home studio is being different than the others as being cozy we want to be your friend we want you to be family with us create a deeply personal experience for your client there are people who love that I love home based businesses it's so cozy you get to know the person the first visits always kind of awkward because you know it's their house but then once you realize how comfortable it is and how welcome and welcoming they are and that the whole house is set up for this business you realize how awesome it is and you have respect for someone who's trying to build a business out of their home you guys have all patronize businesses that are out of their home right it's not a bad thing you don't think negatively of it do you now just keep it professional and at the same time charge appropriately for your work you have the opportunity with a home studio to make so much more money than me who's in a retail establishment now are there benefits to being in a retail establishment of course and that's why I'm there and we'll talk about that when we discuss more about switching over teo a retail space and we'll talk about the pros and cons of that and when to do it you know when financially to do it but my point in telling you this is the home sou is not that bad and that's where we all started we all start there okay? We all start on location first if we don't have a home that's suitable for it can't alex can you carve out a space in your home to even want to I have a goal of one day building above my garage oh cool so this is all of this is planting seeds for how I want to do things correctly and avoiding pitfalls yeah so I'm not doing it now but I'm kind of in the beginning of this journey but this is all like I can avoid a lot of mistakes at other people they have already made and plan for it and plan for which is so awesome once you build that studio above your garage you're going to set and you will be so confident about it because you know what two d'oh I've actually you guys I actually thought about moving back to my house in the last couple months because my own landlord basically six months ago he came to me and told me my rent is tripling tripling three thousand dollars a month screw that I'm out of here my husband I start looking at property he's a builder so we're gonna build a house with a studio on the property and that is my ultimate bucket list dream some day I'm getting the heck outta dodge a retail space and I'm going to own my space on my land and property have outdoor shooting locations for newborns and to a gorgeous barn studio with a wraparound porch it's all in my head check out my pinterest board you'll see it so I plan on going back to my home eventually there's nothing and I started my home and I'm going to end in my home someday there's nothing wrong with being in your home there's nothing wrong with being in retail space there's nothing wrong with sharing retail space is a matter of fact that's how I started was to share a retail space okay and this is why can't you just take it on the road? Location sales are hot and they're profitable and you could be in the client's house you khun so influence what they buy by being in their space you have incredible power to make the sale huge by going to them it's easier to have him come to you because of all the equipment transferred all that but if you charge for who cares right you can charge a premium to go to your client's house and talk about customer service it's incredible customer service to go to someone's home and its unique selling point elevates the brand right alex you have a huge advantage if you want to go to your client's homes and do this you are going to create such an incredible unique brand and such a beautiful service to your clients they're going to be overwhelmed think about how amazing you can make that b I almost think you guys have a better advantage those of you who don't have spaces because you can charge more make more and not have the overhead that's entrepreneurial strategic thinking everybody wants the dream studio may not always be the best for your pocket okay, so when you do this stuff on location, you don't need a projector a laptop or an ipad is fine you could do it that way I sold on my laptop for years because my project that projector you guys saw that picture broke and I couldn't afford to replace it and so I sold on my laptop using room view impress election I did that for years was fantastic. I worked fine okay guard their home, charge more, meet them at a local high end coffee shop or cafe, make a deal with somebody especially wedding photographers there's several wedding photographers in my town who have corroborated with the other vendors who meet in the same spot and for a fee they can reserve a spot fifty bucks or whatever it is go in, show their clients their images, do the sales appointment and not have to pay the overhead on the retail space. Brilliant. Okay, if budget is your issue rent just a tiny meeting room. Okay, I went to mali seo after photo week to shoot him one of my clients babies because her grant her grant her daughter gave birth to her granddaughter and you know you have what three hundred square feet four hundred three, fifty two little rooms is perfect her you're shooting room is what thirteen feet by thirteen feet somewhere in there eleven by thirteen feet she has her being back set up her family shot set up it was tight but we did it just fine you don't need much space to have an incredible studio an incredible space and a profitable one it just needs to be set up right? Okay find flex space or shared space flex space for you just kind of come in and pay to be there for a meeting room for sales appointments or share a space when is it time to do a studio space? When should you go there? Everybody wants to know that right that's the dream who has that dream going to retail space don't it's okay, you can you can say I did too we all had it. Okay it's the dream the glamour photographer job I mean that's like the be all and all you've got your own space okay, making that that is a very big leap it's probably the biggest leap you'll take other than actually starting your own business and it's a scary one okay, you need to really assess your income and this is kind of a dumb moment but I'm going to say it any way you should be making at least six figures gross before you start moving to studio space when you can gross one hundred thousand a year in client sales, then you can think about going to a studio space that's just my personal opinion okay? You can do it less than that but that's the comfortable point in doing it that means to me that your client numbers are consistent that you're not freaking out like you're not gonna get clients to pay your rent the next month I don't want you in that position I want you knowing that you're gonna have a certain number of clients each month it's reliable and one of those clients sales is going to go towards the rent okay sharing space first will help you ease into it make sure the space you pick particularly if you're sharing one suits your brand and everybody's brand is different so this is a choosy situation you've got to be careful with this one. Make sure you can cover the extra cost too, including utilities, insurance maintenance and triple net there. You know what triple notice when you do a commercial space triple net is the extra fee they add on per square foot to cover maintenance in the building it's like the cc and r's or the hallways and commercial space and that number changes and they have the right to change it whenever they want my triple net has ranged from two hundred dollars a month to four fifty, five hundred a month depending on what they did that year and how much snow removal there was and what garden they plan it in the audio yada yada yada okay, so you got to make sure you can account for all those costs should you need teo? This is my first studio space okay says in portland, oregon is a historical building. It was four thousand square feet wow, you weren't four thousand square feet. I shared it with three other commercial photographers but it worked. They were all guys and they let me decorate and they were more than happy for me to do so because it impressed their clients they didn't care about it because they were commercial photographers running on appointment. It wasn't about the brand of the consumer, it was about businesses hiring them and they had these they were doing jobs that were national ads so half the time they're clients didn't even see their studio space okay to them that was about online digital marketing product stuff they sent back and forth that such that it wasn't actually the physical space that meant the brand. So I put my life is my cell phone that was in the garage remember that sofa and I I know the shooting space was back here on this side that's the shooting space I just showed you hear go back this is the shooting space that if you walked back here you saw the little desk over there, and then I made this cute little sales area, and then if you're sitting on the couch right here, that's what you saw the projection screen and again I had to pull out my little table and pop the projector on there every time I had a sale sessions so I could project onto the wall I paid seven hundred dollars a month for four thousand square feet is pretty awesome in a historical building in the old town of portland, it was very charming clients loved it, it was on the second floor is it was not street level, and I worked with clients in there for probably about a year, year and a half okay, and it worked great, but then when I moved to ben, I was like, enough is enough, I'm spoiled, I cannot not have space, so I'm biting the bullet and going to rent space and that's where I have been since policies, policies keep everything going down the conveyor belt, okay? You can get policies the quick and dirty way because I'm going to give them to you go to jail dash education, dot com a little pop up, you have to give me your email, I'm a businesswoman, right? You can always unsubscribe, but I promised not to be annoying if you go to our email, we do provide now don't remember this is not a legal document, this is for you to get started. So launching off point you ultimately need to make your own policies, but there are some here if you put in your email, you can download them off of our sight, but policies are just good business sense and they keep you out of trouble. So my clients, when they fill out the portrait agreement online, they check that they have red and agree to the liability release in studio terms of service, which is basically my policies and a little bit more theirs. By the way, when you download those, it does not include the liability release, okay, so they have to sign and date and of course all those air red ass tricked, which means it's a required thing and really good policies are like a solid pre nuptial agreement don't rely on the state government to split your asset, you know what I mean? I mean, make sure it's all set in advance, it's always on the table, we all know what's happening these are the rules, this is what makes everybody happy, this is what I'm going to do for you, this is what you're going to do for me match made in heaven, my sandbox, my rules come play with me and I'll build you an awesome sandcastle. But if you not get down, you're in trouble and I'm gonna kick you out pretty much your being a two year old and giving them ah solid legal agreement that says this is what's happening what's funny is when you do this, the client immediately respects you immediately and they're okay with it. Almost all businesses have policies and procedures. We refuse the right just reserved toe serve anybody whatever that is. We refused. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone that's where this? Say that? Five times fast. So you need policies on sessions, design orders, payment, delivery, safety, communication. I love this. Erin is such an awesome cartoonists. He's. What the duck! Have you had a chance to look over my contract? Yes. What do you think? I can't complain as explicitly covered in section sixty four. Point three. Two b you cannot complain. So for sessions, you need set length of section session. You need session fee restrictions, cancelation policy payment policy booking policy moderately rescheduling policy pet. An animal policy sometimes, michael, I want to bring their dog into their newborn session. Not happening, they beg, borrow and plead no way, why? That baby is brando in that house. That dog has been head of the household for a while. I have no idea how that dog is going to react to the baby and there's. No way I'm going to put the dog next the baby because I am liable for that anything could happen and that dog could bite that baby and I'm up a creek. Even the dog moves out of the way too quickly in the baby ends up toppling over or whatever I'm liable for it. Okay? These things you need to think about ordering policies when and where they're going to order, who needs to be there? Additional ordering appointments. Is there a fee for him if they can't decide? Online gallery restrictions order cancellations, digital file restrictions image archiving policy is there a minimum order? What will you provide at the order of appointment design policies? Is there analogy rate for extra extra design work? How many revisions are they allowed to design approved designs? I don't let my clients approve designs via email that came hard one let me tell you a card christmas card planet looks at it online comes in, approves, it comes in, picks up the cards, takes him home, calls me they don't look like they looked on my computer, guess how many cards she ordered ten boxes I don't know what they look like on her computer. How the heck am I supposed to tell what she wants him to look like? New policy, bad idea anyway. Email policies, procrastination policies. You know, if they spent too long trying to approve something and procrastinate on it, what's the re progression for that. Okay, wen's payment do do you have a payment plan or changes order returns, digital orders, you need policies and all this kind of stuff. What about delivery? How long will it take? Are you going to ship it? One of those policies? Pick up, order approval. Do they need to see it before they take it out? Do they have to sign for their order to provide any guarantee on the work? What about digital delivery, saying things like as obvious as it is once you take a digital downloadable product out of the studio sale is final. Okay, I know that seems like, uh, but you need to spell it out. It's really, really important.

Class Materials

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Studio Systems Resource Guide

Interview: Social Media Guru Sarah Daily

Studio Systems Workbook and Homework Guide

Syllabus

Jewel Images: Sample Client Survey

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Julia Kelleher

Portrait Photographer, Julia Kelleher, M. Photog., Cr. CPP, specializes in newborn and family portraits out of her boutique, Bend OR, studio. She offers her clients a photographic style that is organic, textural and artistic, and specializes in creating heirloom albums

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Business Portrait Photography Wedding Photography

Ratings and Reviews

AlwaysFashionGirl

I look at this course as a library of amazing and valuable content. Everything that any photographer ever needs to run their business and make it successful and profitable can find all in one place, this course. I always felt inspired by Julia's amazing business skills, she is one of the best in this industry. I have taken all of her previous classes before and never felt disappointed. Instead, I would feel more confident, educated, empowered and inspired. Every segment is packed with so much information and it feels overwhelming at first, but the workbook that this course comes with, gives you sanity and helps you to work through it. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone. You should decide if you want to spend 10 years to get all this knowledge that this course already has, or just spend $199 to get it all at once and not waste anymore time experimenting!? Your choice.

a Creativelive Student

We're only 1wk into this 5wk bootcamp and I have already gained so much valuable information {already worth every cent}. Julia shares so much about how to run a business, and do it in a way that's successful, profitable and enjoyable. Have already started working on a few new systems to help run my business better, and my customer service has already improved. Now to just spruce up my home studio to make it more visually appealing and comfortable for my clients :) Thank you so much Julia!

user-faa438

I am so incredibly happy to have taken the plunge this evening, as I bought this course! Today watching the course a lightbulb went off and I knew I had to have it! This is worth every cent, and I am so very excited to watch the rest and implement these teachings into my business. Its time to take charge and take my business back! I am so amazed after standing back and looking at my business from a distance, of how much i have been giving away. Not only of not only my pricing but myself. I have compromised for clients that aren't right for me. This is giving me the confidence and knowledge to say no, in a nice way, and to focus on the business I really WANT! Thank you Julia, you are an inspiration! An amazing women with impeccable business sense!

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The 6 Ps of Selling Part 3

The 6 Ps of Selling Part 3

Lesson Info

14. The 6 Ps of Selling Part 3

Lessons

Introduction to Studio Systems Bootcamp Part 1

Introduction to Studio Systems Bootcamp Part 2

Customer Service Part 1

Customer Service Part 2

Customer Service Best Practices: On–Location

The Customer Experience: Client P.O.V. Studio Walk-Through & Session: On–Location

Photography Session Systems

The Studio as a System to Success: On–Location

Image Workflow—From Camera to Client

Post-Processing Systems

Back-Up Systems

Overview of Successful Selling: The 6 Ps of Selling Part 1

The 6 Ps of Selling Part 2