Lessons

Lesson Info

Post Wedding Sales Discussion

we photographed the wedding we have sent them pricing and not email to the client and now this is their appointment that they're getting ready to come into our student two weeks or more after the wedding that is correct so two weeks later they're coming into the studio to see their pictures and you know what's the goal here right and that's the part you gotta understand this is an opportunity to have a sale you've got to have a goal when you step into the sales room you cannot step into your sales room and just hope they buy something you need to create that environment for the sale so in the spirit of that what what's the mood like when they come into our studio well first of all this is the hardest sale to get so do your homework on this I would recommend reading over their notes from their wedding look at what they bought from their engagement try and think of any objections they had during their engagement ah sale session if they wanted you know certain sizes did they buy canvas be...

cause that they did buy canvas you know you might be able to push campus to try and balance their engagement pictures so definitely do your homework and encourage them to bring family members so the more people that are there the better the sale gets because they get sucked into the pictures as well and they start encouraging each other to buy things because they're all so happy so it's kind of infectious ah the mood is the same as if they would come for the engagement session just there's more people more family ends up coming so we'll have the lights dimmed at the studio uh scented candles going john mayer playing softly in the background uh that type of setting so as soon as they walk and I want them to feel relaxed and at home all right and you know let's talk about that for a second you lose everything you're talking about if we just post those images online right so we can't do that in you know I want to rewind in our own business for everyone out there who's watching you know back in two thousand eight we did not have a studio we were posting online and our sales averages post wedding we're almost non existent and the switch went off for us we brought him in our home at the time and I'm not you know look I know we all have different home situations ah that we live in but there where there's a will there's a way look for a business incubator look for shared commercial space don't go to their home because there's going to be all sorts of distractions that you have no control over whether it's the dog the kids the phone anything with noise or in a interruptions like that are going to detract from the sale because you want you aren't able to create an environment and you know we're going to bring him into our studio and we're gonna have what champagne wine and normally I would have champagne already poured so in the email that's now showed you it asked them to let me know how many people are going to be with them that way if there are gonna be like fourteen people I can set up a bar stools behind the couch is so that there's like theater seating and I'll have champagne for everyone and already be poured when they walk in the dorks I don't want them to even say no I don't want champagne you get champagne you have no choice it's just it's a celebration alcohol helps cells I'm just going to say it but it helps sales there you go forget everything I've taught you for five days taylor's sales strategy one on one getting drunk getting drunk yeah I'm not condoning that uh clear so you know at the end of the day right we we want to create this environment candles I mean everything we want to control the mood and we can't do that online and what's on the screen when they walk in typically yeah so any time a client comes into view their images at the studio sitting on the screen will be one of their favorite one of our favorite images that we know we're going to try and sell big and there's going to be like the signature edits that we get back from evolved where they do a ton of work to it turn on lights where there were no lights on and stuff like that that really blows them away it has to be an impactful image and so we'll just bring that full screen and light room and do lights out so that it's all black around it and just have that sitting there don't even pointed out so that when they start walking into the studio to get comfortable they finally noticed the image and there oh my god that's so that looks amazing and they get so excited to see the rest of the pictures so that immediately that's the tone for the arrest of the night and for linen chris that image in my opinion would be the space needle shot way we showed earlier that would be one of those you know impact shots that we would have on the screen because we know for a fact they didn't see that the night even on the slide show because I don't have time to do that so this would be a new image to them that they haven't seen on and we get them excited you know what else right so we're talking about we're going we're going come in we're going we're going we're going to talk to them about their honeymoon so when they get to your studio don't immediately start going into a sales session remember you have been with these people in many cases for a year or longer there should have been a report our relationship developed over that time when they come into your studio have a normal conversation with him we talked to our client how's the honeymoon where'd you guys go would you do well you know I remember they got they should have gotten your thank you card in the mail that we talked about and now when they come in there like all we went to mexico we went to wherever they went on their honeymoon you got any pictures we'll have we'll look at their pictures from their honeymoon yeah we might talk for fifteen or twenty minutes just drinking champagne and hanging out talking with the parents with everyone and just enjoying ourselves and they love that they love that word that were really investing time and we care about them we're not just there to get to try and buy stuff right and it's not fake by the way and I think that's key you know if it's one thing you guys have been I think especially you four have been kind of behind the scenes with us for the last five days here is we're pretty genuine people I mean we are genuinely interested in people we love getting to know people hearing their stories so it's not really a stretch for us to sit there and have a conversation with our bribing room after we just shared one of the most memorable parts of their life you know so far so we have those conversations with him and again it just builds towards that trusted advisor well and people see this experience as a treat at that point because they've come through for the engagement sale and once they've been through that experience and you know we have beer together we laugh we pick out pictures they have fun they love the imagery they look forward to it so it's not something they they you know don't want to do or they're trying to put it off they're excited they're really excited because they know they're going to love the pictures they're excited to see the pictures they know we're gonna have fun just relaxing with them so they look forward to it they can't wait for it and they thank us for that experience so I can't stress enough the experience the experience so find whatever brand you love whether it's louis vuitton or mercedes benz and pay attention to the things that they do for their customers and go and try and get that experience even if you're just walking into the store don't buy anything pay attention to how it makes you feel to be in there and the way people treat you it's always more fun when you buy stuff it's definitely more fun uh so spec prints this you know the internet maybe asking questions like this but we do this from time to time I get asked all the time what are your thoughts on a spec print for the right client if we know from the engagement session that we had the right experience with them I will pre print on a fine art piece of paper matted in a sixteen by twenty format sitting out on an easel I will pick my favorite image from them and have that out there on display as an upsell opportunity on that is extremely important because your investment there the sixteen by twenty formatting is about ten box a tte any frame matting store michael's anything like that thie spec print on art paper maybe another ten bucks and the truth is even if they don't buy it your worst case you're out ten dollars but it does offer you a great opportunity to pull them through and we do this with our client from time to time look I know you're looking at this package just to let you know if I get you into this top level package I'll let you take this home for free that's a case by case basis so don't trying to take on every client I think because some khun see that as too much of a push so make sure it's the right client when you do it and it's how you pitch it yeah it's definitely because we're pretty clear we're like guys we love this print we wanted to be a sample in our studio so we just printed this up today on we're excited about it and then we just kind of leave it there and we get a feel for them if it's something you're interested in wilson I'm home with that that night a za bonus for buying into a certain level package so that could be a great great up cell for your business strategy what are the main goals what are we trying to sell post wedding right post engagement which lets go back even before then the initial console what are we trying to do book them right I want them to book a wedding package that's the goal engagement session I'm trying to sell them save the dates an engagement guestbook and engagement album and and of course a large print will post wedding I've gotta have a different sales strategy here I want to sell large prints of course I want to upgrade the album so maybe they were in our middle wedding package meaning they got one of our smaller albums now I want to pull them up into the big around I'm not going to give up on yeah don't give up exactly I was going to say because everyone loves those big books but they may not have been able to afford it at the time of the wedding they might have gotten a ton of cash is gift from the wedding and they they still want the book that doesn't change but circumstances change so if you couldn't sell it before you can really sell it now right because when you were showing me the initial book they hadn't seen their images yet right now like you said circumstances change but most importantly the circumstances that have changed our won their entire bloody has been paid for money spent is money for gotten on now dad and mom are sitting here in a room with that especially if mom and dad are there they feel compelled like oh if you want it just get it just get it's our gift or we'll go in half with you or something like that so it's good to don't give up on trying to up sell that of course thank you cards and then we want to add extra pages to the album that is always the goal seventy five eighty five percent of our clients add extra pages to the album and they do this without any riel hard core selling from us because of the way we run our album process which weaken I'm going to cover later in the next segment so with that being said what I'd like to do is bring up our pricing now so that we can revisit this and there's two different sets of pricing put together one based on if they initially booked the middle package which our platinum package and then another set if they booked our black label our top package so of course we don't want to offer an upgrade to a sicilian siri's album if I already have that album obviously so we created two sets of pricing for each scenario right so just to reiterate one from the platinum package right they bought pre wedding platinum okay so we have to have one set of options for them or they brought purchase pre wedding the black label we have to have another set options for them and it goes back to what I've been saying all along these are living documents they should in fact changed so it does you no good and for those of you have purchased the course you're getting all our pricing but it does you no good to just copy my prising if you don't understand the framework I think that's the key there so are we able to get that up here we go so walk us through this dale yes oh the black label this so this set of pricing is based on if they initially booked the middle the platinum package so in our black label package here black label post wedding packages it upgrades um tour the larger book so if they booked us initially in the platinum they would have this album here which is a ten by ten and so now these sets of packages offered toe upgrade him to the bigger books here the big guys right which is where they want to be pre wedding they wanted to be here right but it's budgetary concerns that kept him from getting here well now I'm giving them yet another opportunity to get there on more than likely they're going to take advantage of that and now we're bundling it with other stuff making it even more compelling so it not only upgrades into that album it gives them ten additional pages so normally they would have thirty if they went with that package now they would have forty instead of thirty and we're pointing out the advantages to that obviously you get to put mohr images in the book but it also gives us room to go bigger across two pages where there's a statement image right so right welcome it walk us through the mindset you know no one really asked about this even online and I was surprised the additional discounts what's the mindset there what what does that even mean additional discount so the additional discounts with each packages if they want to add something on on top of what they get in the package jj we're offering discounts to them and the reason we do that is because we don't want them to stop spending at the package we want to encourage them to keep spending because the discounts are so good so especially of families there they might add on another wall portrait and other campus they might add on a parent album or if they if any family orders gifts sizes which are eight by tens and smaller they get him for ten or fifteen dollars each so that really encourages additional sales later on too and I do want to jump in on this you know notice it says if you guys at home are seeing that the ad parent album and I covered this on day one offer nine ninety nine it is an identical copy of the parent album now I'm not gonna lie this particular album could end up costing you five hundred bucks six hundred bucks so you might be thinking wait a minute you're going to sell that for a thousand now yes I am because I'm making an additional four or five hundred box just by hitting the number two right so quantity too I just made four hundred extra box so I'm okay with that I'm making it very very compelling from mom to add on this album and notice that ad parent album for ninety nine does not exist in the platinum so if mom wanted a parent album in the platinum package should be paying a couple of thousand dollars to get this well that's ridiculous right instead she can take that same a couple of thousand dollars and get all that additional stuff that's in the black label that's where having your ala carte pricing together really really matters if you're ala carte pricing is wrong money is like water that will follow the path of least resistance and so that's what's going on there with the parent albums is an identical copy same size shape everything now I will have parents ago I want the same album seen aspect ratio but I don't want the same size this is too big for me not a problem it will be the same nine ninety nine but then it's going to just be the small size because it's so discounted we can't make it any cheaper for you um also the parent albums are no longer in the initial package why write well we used to include parent albums when they initially book thus in those packages because we thought that's what everyone wanted but every time we met with a couple of potentially book then there would always pull out the parent albums just try and swap them for other stuff kids you're paying for the one right the kids are paying for it and so they would always want to take it out so that's what we don't include it in the initial packaging which when we don't do that now we have the opportunity to get that sail afterwards which is a hard sale to get that's right this is a tough sell but it doesn't have to be that tough it's by offering compelling products on compelling pricing that you're going to get that sail and of course the key is bringing them in to the studio now it's switch and bring up the next pricing sheet this particular pricing sheet tell us a little bit about this one so this is based on if they initially booked us for a top package are black label packaged pre wedding so they already have the big book so we can't upgrade to a larger book but we can do is add more pages so here it includes twenty additional pages so now they would have fifty pages instead of thirty and clients that spent black label with their wedding initially they're gonna have a lot of great images those so are most the time higher and weddings they obviously cared about photography a lot so we more than likely got a lot of great images on that day which lends itself to more pages in the album so that kind of goes hand in hand then obviously uh acrylics canvases give sizes in that sort of thing is well now with both of these sets of packages the top package always includes album upgrades and then the the bottom package the platinum one here is just prince so that's how we're differentiating the two packages really one includes canvasses acrylics album upgrades the lower package just comes with prints so if they don't want an album upgrade we have a package that fits that option if you just want prints so it will through to get him from that base package to the up the top one is one is just prints and then one is more of those higher in products on those acrylics right now or hot man our clients are loving them especially the framed acrylic option we're playing those in front of clients they're absolutely loving it makes it so easy to sell when you have good products like that because they sell themselves they see it on the wall and they want it because they've never seen anything like it and it looks so amazing so it's not just a framed print when they see those acrylics up there they're just blown away which for me makes the selling so easy I don't even have to sell this and this mind you everybody out there this is happening and they have their cd of digital negatives right so we're giving him that cd that night whenever they come in the door and we're still able to get sales here right because they have never seen anything like this right they know they don't have access to these types of products and these you know the special edits that we put on the images that they can only get that threw us and that's the key if you don't offer those kind one of a kind products and I know I'm beating people over the head to having this conversation about one of a kind product because we are in this we're living in this world right now off sameness of everyone's a photographer so the question is you know if you're not buying what I'm saying about products then you're going to have to tell me out there what are you doing to differentiate yourself what is your x factor what do you got a better camera than I have like what is the differentiation between you and every other studio and for us we have built our business on a couple of core principles one of service of course but the second part to that is quality products if you don't have quality products it make how much can you charge because the client's going to see is what I should get this that shutter flyer wherever I can get this anyone this they can't say that they've never seen it before and so the cost is justified that makes sense and next year we gotta come up with something new in the year after something new innovator die that's the only way to do it so with that being said let's take a few questions and then I'm going to step out of here and let you run your sales process because this is my no fly zone um I got to stay out of ladies we have questions we good here internet start with an easy one he's a question this is from chels photo you tell clients here using their work for their portfolio or is that in the contract you sign your contract so the good news is if you got the course you're getting the contract in the contract it says clearly salvator cincotti photography retains all rights copyright use of the images you know what guys I am going to do one other thing um somebody will have to make a mental note elissa please make a mental note if you're listening for everybody who purchased the course not only am I going to give you our contract but how I'm gonna give you our copyright release forms for the clients because that is another missing link you cannot just give your client's a cd of images and think that's ok you can also not give them a just a complete copyright release of the images they get a limited copyright release you control the images and where they're going why because I don't want my images showing up on the vendor websites unedited without our logo without photocopy it exactly we want control when where how these images are being used so that copyright release is very very important to your business and we have them sign one for engagement and for for wedding so any time they get negatives they have to sign a copyright released right do not just give them the cd of images that is the worst thing you could do for a business and in addition don'tjust go download some generic copyright release form that also won't work and I know you're guilty of doing it this is one that is put together specifically for us and our business so we'll do that as well so let's take some questions ok another question from about your album itself from net nelson from texas nelson from fort hood are the album's predominantly one image per page or two clients of the option to customize and add two images her page for example so the designs that we use some will be one page just like this so with their statement images we like to go with one page and that's another way we're able to get additional pages for them to purchase additional pages because we like to dio spreads like this where it's a statement image and then other pages it will be a collage of images that's our call so whenever they book with us they see this in our designs and so that's exactly how we design book now ultimately the client does get to review the design and make changes to it before we go to print but they're not putting twenty images on a page we don't allow that the worksheets that help them pick out pictures for the album doesn't allow that so we do lots of things to prevent that sort of thing happening but just to reiterate where you're going with this first and foremost when we're showing our client sample albums they will never see a sample album with like fifty images in a collage that's why they're asking for that we don't do two hundred images in a book during the initial console they're seeing albums that have an image and a half to two images per page that's how we tell the clients we design them so a thirty page album is going to have the opportunity forty five sixty forty five to sixty images not sixteen okay so two images for pages in my math is sixty times two time all right so when you design him uh tower sounds like towers being cheap on are fine but look what matters is they look well not is true right so bottom line is it's an image and a half to two images per page on that's what we tell our clients that can be anywhere from forty five to sixty images in there now that being said they're gonna pick their images and they we may have to add to them right our clients don't always pick the best and that's where I was going with it they only pick forty five so we don't want them picking all of the pictures because that leaves us no wiggle room with designs so there might end up being sixty but they only pick forty five right they might not pick background images we've had brides that just pick pictures of her in the church like the groom didn't exist eso things like that we need some wiggle room to enhance the album all right question from valerie do twenty two what is the percentage of your hard costs items in those wedding post wedding packages what is the market yes so they don't use the market formula that won't really work for you instead use cost of goods uh mark up is going to get a little tricky like think about it if I were to tell you your mark ups three hundred percent one hundred percent an eight by ten cost you two dollars so if you wouldn't mark that up by three hundred percent that means you'd start charging like six bucks eight bucks that's not where you want to be s o don't use that formula instead what I use in the packages all the packages you've been looking at this entire course your cost of goods in the packages hard costs of items has to be around fifteen max eighteen percent cost of goods if you're above that you've got your either not charging enough or your products are too expensive for your packages so great great question question of couple people have asked about the logo on dh are you putting that on certain parts the album of the back on every page no no logo no branding in the album if you're going to do it the only place I'd encourage you to do it is the last page closing page that I'm okay with but not every page by any stretch not on the images uh no not at all and some out manufacturers allow you do like uh you know d bossing things like that do that in the back of the album that's totally cool there should be brining there okay I'm not sure if we answered this one already um underland sounds and images would like to know how many of your clients by parent albums and other albums way didn't I answer that I would say to the question of and correct me if I'm wrong here how many parent albums are we selling I would say probably ten percent of our clients but thirty percent thirty percent okay she's in sales room so I'm not what we do offer different options for parent album so the identical copy isn't the only one sometimes it's out of their price range or they don't want to know exactly what I'm saying that I was thinking this guy yeah so this doesn't it being a popular option it's a five by seven album where they actually pick their twenty favorite five by seven images and then this's and then we mounted inside the out eighty is very traditional but fortunately a lot of the parents want that because they are a little more traditional so this actually unzipping another option for them that is your product you know how horrified I know this is not our product way mature collection albums this is I think it's like a tap book something thatyou khun buy on your own that's nineteen eighty they want there you didn't see that coming did you ask me this question everyone says you know over promise under promise and over deliver mix those two out what do you give away something unexpected something free and additional something that they were not expecting sometimes weave discussed we haven't time to implement it but something that we want to do for anyone that buys a black label package after their session is maybe give away a free landscape print I couldn't image sound took in san francisco that I love travel photography this is actually something we do do did just not for every client every year around christmas for our top ten top twenty clients we take one of our travel photographs whether it's europe one of the big cities and we will print it on our paper mounted for them sign it wrap it and hand deliver hand deliver that for christmas so listen well go to everyone's house and deliver that with a nice hand written note actually I got everyone's house wearing a santa hat we're in a santa hat well I'm not wearing a senator uh maybe this year you wanna listen go where I'm sure the chat rooms air blown up about you in a santa hat okay oh don't encourage them sound don't encourage them I gotta do is gain like two hundred pounds and get a super gray beard not mean man wow this is getting fun tailoring is the same christmas carols because if you guys could hear tillerson caught his voice anyway a special treat for us only so way question ese around doing something you know over delivering to your client let's let's rewind we promised our clients they will see an initial album designed four to six weeks after they pick their after they pick their images and we do target way ahead of four to six weeks right because truth is manual labor it's not that difficult force but really time it is difficult for us because we're backed up on a host of other things so we tried we ask for forty six weeks from the time they say yes and approve their album they're doing four to six weeks before the album's deliver too so we're definitely under promising there it's and we try you know ninety percent of the time we're hitting our promises to clients but man just like every other business in the world sometimes we're slipping to five weeks to six weeks and our clients you know they are very patient with us through all that but as far as like just delivering something that was not expected that happens during the initial booking right when they book a black label initially they get a bottle of wine and a thank you card in the mail from us so that is something totally unexpected and I think that people really appreciate actually one of the clients that sal booked this year was eliza's best friend and she books sound the black label and it was really a stretch for them they came in thinking they were going to book our studio c option and they booked our top package with sal and uh then she got a bottle of wine in the mail like the next week and she's said to listless like that really made me feel good about my decision to go with black label I mean they really know how to treat their customers so it was reinforcing that you're going to get that luxury experience with us yeah it's huge interest a question from petty pablo taylor with doing four hundred sales sessions a year this person is assuming that you are meeting some of the clients for the first time if so how do you become that trusted advisor so fast without building that relationship most of the time I have met them because if they're a high school senior I stylized them for their chutes I'll be there to pick out their outfits while they're getting makeup done so I'm building a report then with wedding clients most of the time I've met them or you're on the phone with him you're the mask scheduling all these meeting I had some point of contact with them because any time a customer is in contact with us they're talking to me so usually there is some kind of report there uh so I don't have to work at that a lot but if it is say the first time I have met them face to face I just I think I'm a pretty friendly person I'll give him a hug and say it's so great to finally meet you you know I can't wait to see their pictures they're so beautiful just you know be personal yeah but again I think it's important if you're trying to implement our model and there's two of you uh I'm shooting them cause some actually sometimes I think the questions being not necessarily be nasty right away the truth is I'm the one who's out of disadvantage ninety percent of the time you have talked to them I met with them scheduled their engagement session I'm meeting them for the first time sometimes on the engagement such right because sal get so busy sometimes he doesn't have time to do console so even if they are going to be his bride I might meet with them and book south for him so the engagement sessions really the first time he's ever talked to or met that client yeah yeah yeah yeah I've got it I'm the one who's got to figure out really quickly how to connect with them and you know I think like you said you just got to be personable get to know people and take a genuine interest in them and what they're all about so you know I know personal skills are not something that we're all strong at but if you know that's your weakness if you know that's maybe a place you struggle work on it uh you know just be friendly outgoing and uh more likely just be yourself you know we're all good people it hard so just be yourself and people probably connect with you so many questions and I just want to read this actually in our questions tab we just ask that people do questions on lee so I probably shouldn't be reading this but I'm going to end wavy twenty three said this is not a question but I just wanted to say sal what a great week as a photographer for over seven years shooting wedding sal has made me fall in love with weddings again that's also your fun I love him so yeah they become more fun if you can make money at them I think that's the key I don't want it actually is a key yeah I don't want to work for free okay back to the real questions cost see says what if a client or has this ever happened come back a year later and once or the black label album in a they already got a mid level package and all the cells were done a year ago does that happen ever that's never happened no one else comes back later they usually move on with life so once that once they come in and be the pictures if they don't buy anything then they typically don't buy anything at all you have to understand how important this part of the process is very important is once they disappear and they're like oh we'll come back and I know you won't you're not going out there buying a house now they're having kids whatever it is they just never come back but to your question specifically if they purchased the midlevel album that's already been delivered at this point a year later so I picked their picture if they think they're pictures and so if they were to come back now and try and they already have the album we can upgrade it they have to buy a brand new one and that's why that's never happened before it's just too expensive proposition so you know to the person asking that question just make sure you know is that a one off scenario where is that eighty ninety percent of the time so anything can happen one one time but for the majority we never have that happen all right so let's do this you are going to start yourself session almony step out of here we're going to bring in linen chris and you're going to show everybody talking through it what do you know the entire sales process and what it's like in for all of you out there pay attention because this is exactly how we would run our sales process the only difference is the tv wouldn't be behind us the tv would be where you are looking at me so just keep that in mind cause these guys gonna be looking back this way to look at the pictures