Lessons

Lesson Info

Consultation Q&A

don't you ever have that opportunity or a situation where they are in love with that with that book do you how do you handle those those conflicts where like like I really want that but the black label book that comes up quite a bit so people let's say they're like the price of the middle package but they want the book from the larger package uh you can absolutely upgrade your book if you look just two pages over it's the ala carte pricing for every album so if you end up upgrading your book honestly it doesn't make sense because there is the same price point as the black label so that's the way we've structured our pricing you have to be strategic with it so if they're in the platinum package sexually the next page over and they upgrade their book to the next level it's the same price point is if they're in the black label price a black label wedding price right so it makes sense to be in that black label package because you've got all the extra stuff so if it were just a thousand dol...

lar difference for them to go from book to the next level of book everyone would do it and then that's where all of our weddings would be booking at okay that's great that's actually a great question right so the key there this is where yesterday remember what I told you your ala carte pricing is strategic toe all this working if you don't have your ala carte pricing right none of this works because money is like water it will follow the path of least resistance so as you see from our platinum collection most clients are going to hit that price point then upgrade the album well we've made it so painful to do that it just makes sense to be in the plot in the black label so I don't really have to sell it taylor doesn't have to sell it clients are making that decision on their own I don't want to be a sales person I just want them to select what they want so you're based package you have to be okay if they book it don't put a seven hundred dollars based package there and then you're hating life if they book it that's your fault they're booking you have to set up your prices so that they end up where you really want them to be and that should be in the middle right that's that's the best place right devon said it right out the gate he's like well start off I really think we feel comfortable being middle that's perfect response it's not like this was rehearsed we've never had this conversation with them they've never seen pricing until this moment in time and that's how we wanted teo presented to them but any other questions does it make sense why tailored it she never said the number I want to highlight some keys here because I don't know if you're realizing the nuggets of information we're giving you and watching your kind of scene behind the scenes and how we run this process when this is the million dollar question I get from photographers all the time like I get nervous in this sales room there was no selling going on we were guiding the client through the process and whether it's taylor doing it or me doing it the same principles or being in here too and that's why I'm so confident that if you just watch this over and over again as like your inspirational video before you go in you can have this conversation too I mean did you feel like any of you like this was something you can't replicate on your own it's easy and that's how it's meant to be a simple it should be simple all right well what are the questions question a question from a big dog daddy do you allow your client to change their minds and turn is a packaging package pricing after they've secured you and set the date for their wedding that doesn't happen that often you mean where a client is booked our package and then they change your mind for some whatever reason that's for a different package yeah that doesn't normally happen where they try and go down or up in package we haven't had that I would say in five years that's only happened once or twice where clients financials change and they wanted to downgraded package and you know what we just let him do it it's not worth of bad blood but we don't have that happen on a lot of time because of the album because when they choose to downgrade our upgrade the package and normally it's not we don't have a problem upgrading if you won't help raise your package yes but if you choose to downgrade the package it's what they're giving up is the album and that's usually not what they want to do he's not my bride the bride doesn't want to do it maybe the groom does so they usually find a way to make it work if you need to do this on sight what would be your style of presenting that's a perfect question because we do we have had these conversations over skype so I'll let you handle that because you do a lot of those calls you basically try and replicate this process as much as possible even through skype so we still have the video conversation and we'll be like okay can you see this no okay let me try so it's a little awkward but you want them to see your personality and see the books and what's included in the package is as much as possible so well it might just be like a thirty minute skype calling I'll walk him through just like I did with these guys here just over video yeah and I'm not gonna lie I've had skype calls in on my pajamas weighs down on me my pajamas in fluffy fluffy slippers but I mean I have a dress shirt on and then I made my job is on the bottom so I kind of like sky it's easy but no you've got to do with the best you can show them every product and again no one really caught this and maybe you did it home but I was showing them the benefits off this album like I'm explaining in detail why this album's important and what makes it unique so every product we show them and taylor did it as she walked through the rest of the product we're not just saying here's an album check it out it's really cool we're explaining to them why this album is unique if you're going to sell at a higher price point and offer a higher caliber product you've got explain those features right and you've gotta understand the value of that you can't just put the product in their hand and you definitely have to show it to them they've got to see touch feeling so we're wondering as a people online are wondering if you can hear from the two of you and get your reaction and do you feel like you're being sold tio what do you know I mean and I'm a pretty uh I'm pretty hard to sell too in general I have to say like when you know if I like tryingto get car like anything like that I get kind of irritated when people go through so yeah just like I'm just like okay you know can I leave now s o s oh I didn't feel that way at all I felt really comfortable with both of you and I like that I think as a team it works that you have kind of more like the loud like kind of more outgoing and talkative and you're kind of like softer and a little gentle earned enough and I think that like as a team that works for you because you khun sort of you know kind of play to whichever kind of couple that you have some couples are not comfortable you know with with a lot of you know kind of I don't know presentation right you know no we get it right it sounds brides very much love south and my brides love me especially for the personality times whenever they meet seller like e I went to tell her about the wedding a couple of weeks ago and I got in so much trouble from taylor because we had three weddings in one day so my wedding wrapped up probably about a half hour forty minutes before tailors and I went to her wedding because we were all in downtown st louis and I just kind of walked into the wedding and I started like talking to the bride's room and I was like hijacking the event and I'm like all right we're gonna go over here we're going to these pictures and she's like because I was hijacking her event so definitely you've gotta understand your own personality you're the dinette big in working together good so you don't feel salto you're used to it right we didn't give him that forty nine ninety nine now right I can't do this all day right we didn't give you the infomercial spiel we just we're letting you decide what's important to you that's good what else I mean devon how'd you feel um well I work in politics so I can smell a sales pitch coming a mile away but we and we've done with your vote but the important the thing that we've come across is we I've been meeting with a bunch of different people not just necessarily pertaining photography you know we're meeting with the venue people competing with people that are designing stations you know you have people who are doing web work foryou um the number one thing that you look for is people who are personally invested in you not necessarily just trying to get you to the finish line and that's one thing that I look or specifically is this person actually interested in sharing the vision that we have and helping us understand not just what we need done for the photos but helping us build out the vision for what that day is supposed to be rather than just you know here's the service we provide hears the price done finished if that's the case then we're obviously too busy tio to give us the time of day we're too busy to give you the time of day that's awesome feedback to evan by the way because this isn't necessarily something we I spoke about it also hearing you say that that's important you that's educational for me actually because I'm always looking to refine this process so you're really it just kind of paraphrase what you're saying you're looking for somebody who's not necessarily talking at you but working with you is that a fair assessment and did we give you that impression absolutely you gave a lot of actually both you did kind of give um like your personal experience on things which is nice to have the benefit of your experience because you've done probably countless weddings and our first one so you know that's awesome too that you just said that because what I teach people and what I tried teo just exude in our own business is that I never want people to feel like I'm talking to you and telling you I'm the expert right and that I know I know I never said that to you right but you just said something that made it ring true and I hope everybody's catching that is that your I made you feel like I was an expert there's a difference between telling you I'm an expert and you coming to the conclusion of an expert would you agree with that right yeah yeah so that's important that was that's important to me as we were in our business is that if you don't see us as experts I can't convince you I'm an expert right you're going to come to your own conclusions so good that's really good you guys are local couple right so I know your main markets are chicago st louis and new york how do you handle you know say coming out to seattle a ce faras travel and whatnot is that considered a destination wedding where there's other costs or is it more like do you know I mean I know I know exactly what you mean so depending on what market we're selling into travel is built into the package right here's what you don't want to do and it's a very good question brandy is what I don't want to do is I have to keep telling people plus travel plus travel plus travel because then what happens is I'm creating a barrier to entry they don't want to book me they're going to just look just look someone local I don't want to deal with this guy and I got a book his hotel in because they're fair we got enough things to worry about I don't want to do this right and she's like smiling as because they don't want to deal with that so you've got to build your packages together so that they include that and the truth is when you're in the midwest we are out of very advent asians spot because I could get to either coke coast relatively easily and I can jump on a southwest flight for two hundred fifty bucks almost anywhere in the us and beat him so it doesn't cost me a lot of money to cover wedding in new york chicago I could drive or the west coast so I use that to my advantage I don't want to add plus travel however with that being said if this is a europe wedding uh or anywhere outside the united states couples understand they have to cover your travel and I would in fact mean him cover travel but look don't make your couples book your travel that is going on that you're gonna get burned I did that in the past and my couple made the worst possible decision because it saved them a couple of dollars the decision they made was a well uh if we booked this flight it saves us four hundred dollars you know why I saved them for hundred dollars because it took a four hour flight and turned it into a fourteen hour flight it had me connecting in three different cities so they don't give a crap about my time so what I do instead is I go look in order for us to cover your wedding in the virgin islands uh this is gonna be an extra fifteen hundred bucks that's all inclusive that's my air fare hotel meals everything and then I take care of the rest from there and that's our couples like okay that makes sense yes a couple more questions yeah we have we have just a few more minutes left until lunch break um just so you know there's like fifty or sixty questions that come up about this and I hope I hope everybody you know my thing in there and you know everybody out on the internet I hope you appreciate the kind of vision we gave you into this like you know meeting with a legit engagement couple and hearing from them I think it's powerful for you guys to be able to hear their vision or version of what transpired here because a lot of job offers will look at this and maybe be a little skeptical but guys it works you know we have again a fully functional studio I'm telling you this works when we get to this meeting we're booking ninety percent of the time because of the way we run it so right emulate this and bring it into your own business so let's that's I don't think I could get you can't fifty there's so many great questions I'm gonna ask this question from keith um what do you say about the lowest level album do you point out the shortfalls or talk about the great look of this album so I'm wondering I know we've talked about that it's so easy to sell the best album but how do you sell alot album without how do you not talk down about that why do you talk about do you just literally I don't want you I don't want you to have this yeah let's do it right okay as you can see in our capri siri's album this is maura about coffee table book so this isn't quite going to stand the test of time it's got thinner pages you know so they can they can be bent it's still a beautiful album you still get thirty pages in it however notice there's a gutter here so that's going to impede our design typically you know this is great if you're gonna put it out on the coffee table but you know it's clearly not my favorite album done so that's exactly how I would sell this album and I've just talked him out of it for sure and just out of curiosity you're sitting here you've looked at all our albums forget price for a second which do you want s so you know where our strategy is very simple we didn't start with the cheap album and then work up to the most expensive we started with the luxury the louis vuitton of albums show them that and then we pull out like the wal mart version of albums and they're like no we can't have that that's no that's garbage get that off the table all right and that's how we want them to feel selection of albums obviously not of this s caliber but you know I have made investments into my albums because that is something that I am showing during my consultations but I don't know if I'm speaking for anybody else but you know for somebody like me to feel like to go from like a four to a cadillac kind of thing you know what sort of advice do you have for somebody like us teo if we are gonna make this big jump we're gonna increase our prices and listen to sound we're gonna do everything he tells us to do because this is what we're supposed to be doing do you recommend just jumping headfirst and buying all of the exact albums what do you recommend I recommend you go get the albums because this is the linchpin in our entire system so if you don't have the albums you're going tio you can't sell it if you can if you don't have it to show you won't sell it yeah they don't understand the value note again I go back to her raw expression when she felt that album right that's it dude when she did that she's mine I can only screw up this meeting but if I was sure a piece of paper and be like oh my god this album sold cool you're gonna love it it's got crushed velvet it's got all this um no way it's not she's got to be ableto touch it right that is again consumer behavior but let's talk about the strategy a little bit this is one book this is one investment this is just a press printed book from from a lab so that's one investment your middle album this's just in acrylic cover black leather that is the only option available ten by ten acrylic album black level there is no other option in the middle this is where you hit your sweet spot but we tell clients grab this for me is when you hit the black label you have over forty different leather options we have over five different liner options for you this is completely custom you get any album in our sicilian siri's collection well that is a twelve by eighteen eight by twenty the ten by ten the sixteen by sixteen so we have like four five albums in our signature collection one that will appeal to everybody so we reward you for good behavior if you're in our top of a pack we're gonna give you any option you want I'll pull out forty different swatches of leather you tell me what you want now they feel like they've got that customized personalized experience but hey you want to be in our middle packaging worries this is still a great album a lot of our clients love it it's still the heirloom quality it's very thick pages no gutter so we still hype this one but you know they're lusting for that louis vuitton album and that's the key there good questions all right another question is from the times that you don't close the sale which I know is not that money but or maybe when it was the case what is the most common reason is there a theme yeah you know that is a great question by the way the way our business processes run now is from four years of experience right so every part don't take this business plan right this whole course and try and implement small pieces of it it won't work you're going to feel like this isn't working you've got to understand this is an entire blueprint for your business the reason we have so much success here now is because of that initial email that goes out and our prices aren't online so because our prices aren't online when they get here there's no shock factor when we first started out right there was a shock factor because they would walk into a studio and not realize how expensive we were so everything has been refined over time the second part of this process is the albums the albums have made it easier to start closing deals because they're a differentiator this has allowed us to go from just being a photographer right with god with the camera to check with the camera to being an artist so now the client's coming in are seeing the value in these books where's before clients some clients would come in and say I don't want a new album at all we don't even know we just want to see the of images we don't have that problem anymore and so those two pieces working together and of course our testimonials on our websites you guys made me want to hit my website and go look at our testimonial page because not only do we put words up we put the couple's image up that's powerful because anybody can say and words up like sounds the best photographer in the world that's garbage put the couples picture up and their wedding date up there and suddenly you're bringing identity to that testimony all right lots of folks are asking about the lifetime client yes client for life thank you and how that works how does it work if people if your clients aren't in the same location is you and also then for a couple does that is that an added bonus that you were drawn to yeah let's talk to them about it first where your thoughts on the client for life on important on the client for life I don't even know if you remember that's all we do want to feel like we can come back to you at any time for anything kids that's something that we do in our business is something that you know we value and anything anybody else gives so I wouldn't say it's initially a selling point but it's just one of those reassurances that you need over a long period of time especially for her you know if she feels like there's something that she wants to come back to we need to feel like we have the ability to do that we don't want to just be cut loose that's perfect what's the difference between a sales person which is like a one time experience and something where it's like you know like you said you know when we have kids and stuff it's like oh you know you photographed just getting married he photographed you know all these phases of our life so we feel comfortable and feel like you know us and know how to take you know those kinds of pictures because it's a more intimate yeah I think she just hit the nail on the head because you're you're saying exactly what I think everybody's getting out getting on is what is the value ofthe you know coming back to me I'm letting you know through offering your client for life I'm here forever right or I'm here to be with you beyond your wedding day and I think that makes you feel more comfortable in knowing that I'm taking I don't want to screw up your wedding day if I screw up your wedding day you'll never come back to me right so I'm letting you know I've got skin in the game so to speak and I'm invested in you guys being successful and so from a business perspective they're saving a session fee which at our studios anywhere from two to five hundred dollars every year so it's just for the session and doesn't come with the sea cd or anything like that it covers their session feet and if they're spending eighty five hundred dollars with us and they've gone through a process they know how we work they know the process of everything why wouldn't I want them to come back and shoot with me every year so they're not hardly any of our clients take advantage of this yet because I don't think they've had kids yet you know they don't need the session yet but the ones that teo they spend because they've been trained they know the process so I just shot someone's wedding they were black label next year uh they had a family get together they spent four thousand dollars on a family session I just shot our family portrait are we don't advertise it on my website you don't see anything about family portrait because I don't want the random person coming to our studio doesn't know the process right way I'd rather have somebody who's been with us so to that point the average family spends between three and five thousand dollars in our studio and we probably do anywhere from fifteen to twenty five year but a majority of those fifteen to twenty five are previous clients and I just shot their newborn pictures a couple months ago and they spent another twenty five hundred dollars when they come into view their pictures they know the process that like just give us black label sign it up stick pictures so that's always music to my ears it was music to my ears you're not in the way no fly zone way um so yeah it's it's trained they've been trained and so we want those clients back every year so it's great sales for your studio in the future