Elevate your business and services through SALES

Sales is a dirty word to creatives. In conjures images of a greasy haired used car salesman trying to twist people’s arms into buying things they don’t want to buy……But the reality of the situation is that every single business that is in business sells something.

So rather than run from the word sales, as photographer entrepreneurs, we need to learn to embrace the potential to help our clients make purchasing decisions.

The first step to that is to understand what solutions our clients are looking for from us. 

We sell one thing…..memory. 

Our goal is to document life’s moments for our clients…BUT if we are truly solving the problem of memory, then our JOB is to help our clients accomplish that solution, and we can typically do that through offering products like albums and artwork. 

Look, I don’t need to be captain obvious and tell you that photographers that offer products make more money than those that just shoot and burn, share, transfer, etc…..

But what I am here to do today is to REFRAME your mindset about how you think about sales…..

You see, most photographers have the same excuses…

• Clients in my market only want digitals….
• I can’t be competitive if I offer products….

•  I can’t do sales because I don’t have a studio…

• I am afraid my business will fail if I charge for products…… 

I will be the first to tell you that lack of positive change always boils down to a single thing in your business…..FEAR.  

Fear that you will fail….
Fear that you will face rejection…
Fear that what you worked for will all dry up…..

I get it, fear is real, it's healthy.... but this fear is unfounded. Let me tell you why. If you remember what we are selling (memory)….then you will understand that offering your clients these products are helping to solve the problem for them.  

Your clients don’t want a PICTUREbook…..they want a STORYbook.

Your clients don’t want a screensaver where little Johnny’s face is obscured by 7 notifications and the time on their cell phone…..they want to be reminded of the beauty of their family every time they walk into their house. 

But if you don’t offer these things to your clients…..they will never even know they exist. 

So let’s bust the most common objection photographers have to a sales model……

“If I charge a session fee + charge for products, my clients will go elsewhere because my competitors offer digital files” 

This “objection” is common, my clients come to me and say “how much are the digitals” literally EVERY SINGLE WEEK. 

But we still book them…..and here is how…..

We explain to the client that we understand why they would ask that…….

Then we explain to them that with our model….rather than charge the client a high rate up front, we instead have a low cost to entry….and then that they get to choose the exact images they want and will use, and that we can create artwork from those images…..as opposed to our shoot and burn counterparts, who have to BULK edit tons of photos that the clients want.

Then we tell them that they could potentially invest less with us and get more, because we can put the effort into creating artwork ONLY on the images that they want to use, rather than a digital gallery that will live on their phone. 

Approaching this objection like this almost ALWAYS solves it. I have a lot of data in my own business to back that up….

So rather than shoot and burning at $150, $300, or $500 a session….Now you can earn $1500 or more selling artwork to your clients. You can create a better final product, work less, and give your clients more attention. It’s literally a win-win, and that is the only way to succeed long term in business. 

Now, I don’t want to over-simplify this, there is a lot of processinvolved….setting up your pricing, CRM, automations….and most importantly, learning how to run a sales session. 

But I have to ask you…if just a little bit of effort into learning this could literally change your life, would it be worth it? What is an extra $2000-$10,000 a month worth to you and your business? 

We are living in a renaissance of the photography industry, photographers are finally learning the benefits of having a business first mentality, and my job is to make sure that you are at the forefront of that renaissance in your local market. 

Now….Weekly wisdom is not about pitching our products or courses, it’s about reframing your mindset. BUT if you need help with marketing and business, and you don’t know where to start…we did make a course for you. It’s called The Booking Blueprint, and you can access it for a special rate by clicking here…..

Until next week…..

-MA