Selling doesn't have to be scary or high-pressure. It's about serving your clients and fulfilling their dreams.
Selling begins with marketing, where you show potential clients the possibilities of investing in art. When a client contacts you, it's about understanding their needs and helping them envision their portraits' potential. By offering physical, printed products, your art serves its purpose, telling lasting stories and invoking emotions for generations.
Ready to transform your approach to selling? Join us in our upcoming episode as we delve deeper into the art of serving your clients through sales. Don't miss it!
Join Your Magic Year here.
Use the code PODCAST to receive special pricing when you enroll.
Connect with Karinda!
Thanks for listening!
Selling doesn't have to be scary or high-pressure. It's about serving your clients and fulfilling their dreams.
Selling begins with marketing, where you show potential clients the possibilities of investing in art. When a client contacts you, it's about understanding their needs and helping them envision their portraits' potential. By offering physical, printed products, your art serves its purpose, telling lasting stories and invoking emotions for generations.
Ready to transform your approach to selling? Join us in our upcoming episode as we delve deeper into the art of serving your clients through sales. Don't miss it!
Join Your Magic Year here.
Use the code PODCAST to receive special pricing when you enroll.
Connect with Karinda!
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to Mindset and Money Mastery for Photographers the podcast. We help overwhelmed photographers make more money while simplifying their business by mastering their you guessed it mindset and money. Tune in each week for practical and actionable tips to take your photography business up a notch. Let's dive right in.
Speaker 2:I hear it time and time again Selling is scary, selling is high pressure, selling, sleazy Selling is never sell anything. That's just not who I am. That is way too high pressure. Like, nope, not me. I don't want my clients to feel like I'm just twisting their arm into doing something and I'll be honest, like there is a trend in the photography industry for selling to be high pressure and for selling to be a negotiation. But I'm here to tell you that none of these things have to be true about selling, and selling done the right way should not feel high pressure. It should not feel scary at all. Selling is only scary because you might not have a true understanding of what selling really is. You see, when you look at selling from a serving perspective instead of a let me twist your arm and if you don't do this, then I'm not going to do this for you perspective, if you look at selling as serving, then selling really becomes about getting to know your clients, asking the right questions and fulfilling your clients dreams and desires. Crappy sales techniques, negotiations and those weird tactics like if you do this, I'll do this, are not required. It does not have to be a part of it. You don't have to tell your client, like you have to pay right now or I'm deleting all of your photos, and then you pull out your shredder and you run into pictures through the shutter like they used to do it, like JCPenney studio back in the day. I think, honestly, that's what most people think of when they think of selling as a photographer. They think of back in the day. You go to JCPenney, you get your pictures taken. They'd be like come in for your $25 photo shoot and then they'd say by the way, here's your $100 picture. You either buy it or we shred it and you never see it again. There goes your precious baby space. That is not what the photography industry should be and that is not what it's about today. Okay, I will say there is a small margin of people in the industry still doing things that way, but that doesn't mean that you have to do them that way. There are plenty of people that teach high pressure sales, but I'm not one of them and I'm not going to tell you to be a high pressure salesperson. Now I look at my own business and I think could I make more money if I was higher pressure and if I use some of those sleazy techniques? Yes, 100%, probably so, but it's just not who I am. It's not important to me and it doesn't feel good to me, so I don't do it. So let's break this down when you went down properly isn't something that happens at an ordering appointment or after the portrait session.
Speaker 2:Selling starts by planting seeds and your client experience is about watering those seeds. Selling starts with your marketing. Before your clients even contact you, they should already be sold on the idea of getting art for their home, getting that beautiful album. They should already have an idea that they're going to invest in art of some sort and they should have an idea that that's going to be a hefty investment if that's your brand and that's the type of products you offer. It starts by showing your potential clients opportunities and possibilities of what they can do with their portraits and it starts by normalizing investing in art and physical printed products. Bring yourself away from being just the photographer to the artist who produces physical works of art. Selling to your specific client once they contact you to book a session turns into getting to know your clients, getting to know their needs and desires, and it also turns into helping them paint a picture of what those needs and desires can look like when they work with you.
Speaker 2:If you aren't currently selling printed products and you aren't helping your clients with that process, the pictures stop in your client inbox and they die as digital files. They die on a disk in a drawer is what we used to say For a while. Pictures died on a thumb drive. Now our pictures just die in our clients inbox because, honestly, how many of your clients actually know how to download their pictures? If you actually go back and look and see the percentage of clients that download images, it's kind of terrifying. If they do download them, do they have a good system for backing them up and keeping track of them and knowing where to find them on their computer? Or are they like oh yeah, those pictures, I should go find them all crap. Where are they? To be honest, that's how I feel about my wedding pictures. I literally couldn't even tell you where they were at right now, which is really a terrible confession, and I should not say that as a photographer. But I'm great at keeping track of my clients' images my own personal images, though, not so much. So how can we expect our clients to be able to do that right Now, those pictures that I have printed out those pictures.
Speaker 2:I have an album of the ones I have on the wall. I look at them and I enjoy them and I love them. Each and every day we have this giant picture of our family in our living room and, oh my gosh, like it's me and my husband and our two dogs before we, our child, was born, and that picture is so important to me. One of the dogs in the pictures passed away since then and I look at that picture and it just like brings me so much joy to think about her and to just remember what she was like. And, honestly, if I didn't have that giant picture on the wall, that picture would mean nothing to me in my day-to-day life. It would have no meaning, no value to me, but on the wall it has value.
Speaker 2:Serving your clients by offering physical, printed products ensures that your pictures are actually serving the purpose. Our pictures should tell a story, they should invoke a motion and, honestly, those pictures should last for life. They should last for generations. The other day I ran into a client's daughter and I was talking to her because I thought she looked kind of familiar and then, after some conversation I was like oh yes, I know you. I photographed your mom's horse and she was like, oh my gosh, that's you. She was like that picture is so stunning, like it is gorgeous. And she said my mom made a comment like well, I guess one day out you'll, you'll just have to bury me with the picture of my horse and she goes. I looked at her, was like one day I want that picture in my house because it's so beautiful. Like what a cool feeling. Like I get goosebumps just thinking about that. Because that's what's important to me. It's important to me that I can create art that's passed down for generations, that one day Someone's grand babies are gonna come to their house and look it on the wall and you like grandma, wow, you looked really cool with that purple hair you used to have. Or wow, y'all like hot in that picture. I didn't know you and grandpa used to look like that. That's important. It's important to me that those pictures last and I know that unless they're printed they don't last. Like that.
Speaker 2:I think of my grandparent home. I think of seeing those portraits of my mom hanging on their walls. My grandparents passed away last year and I think about the portraits my grandma and grandpa From early on in their marriage on the wall and they have out the picture of my mom twirling when she was in Marching band and she was a twirler, I think that's what they called them and I remember like my entire life going to my Grandparent's house and just staring at their photos on the wall and all and just thinking like, wow, this is so cool. They had these pictures from back in the day of my grandfather's relatives when they were babies and they were those really old pictures where they used to like hold the babies up with their Hands underneath the dress and put these like capes on the babies and they were kind of creepy and weird. But they had these portraits on the wall in the bedroom, over the bed in their guest room, and they were in these beautiful oval frames. They were just like hand carved pieces of art in themselves. And then there were these pictures of these babies and, and although they were kind of creepy and kind of a little bit strange, every time I looked at them there was just something that just like absolutely just spoke to me and I don't know why, because part of me wanted to be freaked out and not look at them and the other part of me was so in awe over the fact that these pictures were on their wall. They were over a hundred years old, like my grandpa was a hundred and one when he passed away, and these were his. I think they were his siblings that were in the baby pictures. But like they were old, they were really old, and to think that that picture had lasted, it moved with my grandparents through their life to think that my grandfather had ended up with these photos and he felt proud enough of these pictures of these babies to put them up in his home. That's cool and I want my clients to do the same thing with my work Because that's important to me.
Speaker 2:I think about my own life and you know the fact that growing up my mom had all these Photo albums. There was a bookshelf in our house and there were these photo albums at the top of the stairs and I remember everyone smell as a kid just going and pulling off this photo album and just like flipping through all these four by six Prints that were in the book. I remember going with my mom to develop pictures at Wolf camera it was called I think it was Wolf camera and we would go take the rolls of film and we would get them developed, because my mom would take pictures all the time of everything that was happening and I think about how she would spend the time putting those pictures into those books and all of these books and albums of these pictures. So you could just flip through and I think about if I were to go back in my life to even 10 years ago and think where are those pictures from when I was in college or Freshly graduated and starting my life? It would be hard for me to find those photos Because there are simply so many images everywhere and we kind of take them for granted.
Speaker 2:And I want to make sure that our clients have something Right. They don't take that for granted, and that is my job and that is my mission. We live our lives on the edge, hoping that we don't lose life memories on our cell phone when it crashes or it's left somewhere even worse or if the cloud goes poof right, what if the cloud just goes poof tomorrow? Where all of your pictures? What if you lose your cell phone tomorrow? What if you lose your cell phone that has all the pictures of your baby on it for me, if that happens to my clients and they lose Everything tomorrow. I know I have a backup, I know that I have their images still, I know that I can reprint their work, I know that I have a record of what they loved and I'm not worried about that for my clients. But who do I worry about that stuff? I worry about that stuff for myself, but still it's the day-to-day memories that sometimes get lost in the situations. Our clients in 2023 don't even realize what they're missing out on the power of the portraits, the meaning of the portraits, because they take those things for granted.
Speaker 2:And it is our Responsibility in our duty to paint a picture in our marketing, in our client interactions For our clients, and to bring awareness and to tell them hey, these are important, this is art, this is a generational thing, this is important. What we do is impactful. What we do lasts for generations. What we do lasts far longer than that picture you take on your cell phone. What we do is art. What we do is heirloom. What we do is quality. What we do is going to last forever. It's never gonna go poof in the cloud, it's never gonna go away when you lose your cell phone. Right, we have to step in. We have to paint a picture of what that can look like for our clients in their minds and water those seeds that we've planted with our marketing. Okay, this is what sales is really about. It is about feeling so freaking passionate about the power and the importance of this that you literally cannot sleep at night because, like see, I'm just gonna get way off on a tangent here because it means so much to me and because I realize the value of it.
Speaker 2:I think about my clients from the early years when I did sell digital files, and I think about the fact that a lot of those clients never printed their photos. I think about the fact that a lot of those clients I did a disservice too. And then, when I started offering products I'll kind of throw this in there there was a time frame when I was not offering quality products. I was offering cheap products because I was afraid my clients were gonna buy them. And I look back at those clients and I feel like I did those clients a disservice, because I know that those products were not quality and that they aren't actually gonna last for generations to come, but they were cheap. I was selling canvases for a few hundred dollars that I'm now selling for a few thousand dollars. To give you context to that.
Speaker 2:This is our mission, this is what we should be doing, and without that we're leaving our clients high and dry. We're doing our clients a disservice. But the process of selling that art comes from a place of love and caring and compassion and wanting to get to know our clients and serve them how they need to be served. The process of selling comes from planting those seeds, watering them over and over and over again. If we learn to plant the seeds in our marketing and water them and nurture them through the process, by the time our image reveal takes place, our clients already have a great idea of what they want from their portrait session. They should know if they just want one single image for over the fireplace. They should know if they want a giant gallery wall featuring their family or whatever it may be. That should be clear in their head from the very first interaction you have with them.
Speaker 2:Whenever you go to like helping your client play in outfits, choosing a location, when it comes time to photographing the session and the way you're photographing the session and the images you're taking, all of that is because you've already talked to your client and you've already gotten to know them and you know what's important, you know what they need, you know what's going to go on their wall, because you know what they value from that very first conversation you have with them. And when it comes time to your reveal, when you're actually showing your client their images, it is really just fulfilling all of the things you've been talking about through the process. When you get to your reveal, your client should already kind of know what they want. Actually, they should really know what they want and you should know what your clients want. That is what selling and serving is really about.
Speaker 2:Our reveal is just about being a helper for our clients. We're helping them narrow down their portraits. We're helping them choose between their favorites and see which one is going to look best on their wall. We're helping them by making recommendations on what finish is gonna look best on their wall, what framing is gonna look best on their wall and all of those things. Guys, this is the completion of our work of art. If we're just taking the photos and handing them over, we're like getting 20% of the way there. If we're styling and preparing our client, we're like 50% of the way there. But when we step in and we say let's help you pick out your favorites, let's help you design things for your wall, let's help you frame that image for the wall. That is taking it 100% of the way.
Speaker 2:And on the framing front, because it is something that I'll be quite honest with you frames kinda overwhelm me. There's a lot of options, there's a lot of things. I've definitely resisted framing in my business because it just seems like a lot. And I was having a conversation with Tabas Guild recently and we were talking about framing and we were talking about offering frames to your clients and there was something that really just dawned on me in that moment If you are selling things to your clients that need to be framed and finished with a frame and if you're putting that in your client's hands, you're essentially giving your client a painting. That's 80% of the way done, because the framing is an extension of your work of art. Think about that again. The framing is an extension of your work of art.
Speaker 2:And if you're letting them go through a frame on their picture that looks like crap and does not fit the image or the space, if you're letting them go print their image in a weird crop, that is not appropriate for that photo or composition-wise right. We're delivering 80% of the way. We're not delivering and fulfilling 100% of the way. So for those of you that are just like throwing the digital files out there, you're giving your client a halfway painted canvas. For those of you that are like going 80% of the way, maybe you're helping your clients pick their images or you're giving them the opportunity to print through you. You're probably going about 80% of the way. But for those of you that are completing and designing and styling complete total works of art for your client's home complete with framing and arrangement and composition, and you're just handling all of it you are, as the artist, taking your work 100% of the way. So I wanna ask you do you want to be providing half of a painting to your client? And I know we're not art painters here, but I feel like it's a great representation.
Speaker 2:Imagine if you hired an artist to paint something for you and you were like, oh man, they're really good price, I can do this, it's affordable and then all of a sudden you get a painting back that is 50% of the way painted. How are you gonna feel? That's no different than what we're doing when we don't fulfill our client's journey, we don't fulfill everything they need by helping them complete the finished product. I actually received a message the other day on social media and somebody said something like I had these photos done and they're really pretty, but I've really struggled with printing them cause they don't look great printed. But I guess if I hire you we can kind of navigate that and figure out how to make that work. And have responded and said, hey, thanks for reaching out. Just so you know, I actually take care of printing all of my clients products for them. Because of that very reason, it is very tricky printing that type of image and if it's printed at the wrong place it's probably not gonna look super great. So if you decide to work with me, I will definitely handle that for you. You don't even have to worry about that, because that is part of my job as a photographer and as your photographer to do that for you. And they were like oh my gosh, that's so cool, that's so amazing. Here they have these pictures that they can't do anything with cause they can't print them. They don't know how to print them and clearly they must have tried and they look terrible. This is our job, guys.
Speaker 2:Now, if we think about serving our clients and taking them through the whole process and ensuring that when they work with us, they are actually getting a finished, completed piece of art. Their painting is done, their painting is complete, it is framed. It might even be hung on the wall by you if you wanna go that far. So we think about that from our selling perspective. Selling is really just fulfilling those needs. The next piece of this that people sometimes get hung up on is I don't wanna like get on a meeting with my client, whether in person or resume, and be like you have to make the decision today or else I get that.
Speaker 2:If your client needs to think about it, if they need to sleep on it, if they need to show their spouse, there is absolutely no reason you can't let them do that. They should be able to do that. But, honestly, if you've prepared them properly, nine times out of 10, you're not going to run into that, because they're going to be showing up, they're going to know what they want to do, they're going to have already talked to their spouse, they're already going to slept on it, sometimes for months before the session even happens, and there's going to be no, no absolute question in their mind of what they're getting and what they're going to do. Okay, so if you're planting those seeds and watering them the right way, you're not going to have to go through that. They will make a decision during their meeting and they'll be excited about it and they will happily swipe their credit card knowing they've made the best decision that they could have and knowing that when that portrait shows up at their home they're going to be ecstatic. And the other piece of this is they're going to trust you. They're going to trust you 100%.
Speaker 2:My clients don't see their album design before I print it. I don't show my client all the cover material options. I say here's a recommendation, I really think that this would look great with your photos. And they say okay, 99% of the time. When it comes to framing, now I've actually shifted to where I'm not showing my clients all the frames. I'm saying I have this frame in mind. It's going to be great, it's going to be beautiful. It's going to be this brown carved wood. It's going to really tie in with the furniture in your space. You're going to love it. And they say cool, corinda, we trust you, they don't need to see it. My clients trust me.
Speaker 2:That meeting and that image reveal is just tying up all the loose ends by letting them pick their favorite photos and then saying trust me, I'm going to take care of you. It's going to be amazing and my clients do that. So if you think about the reveal and selling an IPS whatever you want to call it like this, think about it like you're sitting down with your client and you're saying let's pick your favorite portraits, because I know when you see all 100 of those images you might be a little overwhelmed. And after that you say hey, I know, we talked about putting this piece of art of your entire family over the fireplace On your mantle. Which portrait do you like the best to go over the mantle? And you might even make a recommendation and say my personal favorite is this one. However, I was kind of thinking that maybe you might like this one because of so and so's expression is a little bit different and I wasn't sure which one you would like. But I wanted to show you a variety so that you can choose your favorite.
Speaker 2:They're probably nine times out of ten going to say, yeah, I like the one you like the best. I appreciate your opinion. I agree with you. I trust you, corinda. If you think that's going to look the best, let's go for it. Or if there's two images that they like, we're going to put one up on the wall and say how does this one look? And then we're going to put the other one up on the wall and say here, I'll insist, look. And when they see it on the wall, they're going to know instantly which one's going to be the best. I am simply helping them so that they're not overwhelmed. I'm making recommendations to guide them and direct them. I'm showing them exactly what those portraits will look like on their home.
Speaker 2:They don't have to buy anything. If they don't want to, that's cool. If they don't want to, if they don't want to. I probably screwed up somewhere along the way. Remember what I said about your clients being excited and ready to make their purchase. That's how it should work. You shouldn't have to twist their arm and say, if you don't pay in full today, then whatever it might be, you shouldn't have to negotiate. You shouldn't ever have to say things like well, if you make this decision today, I'll give you this, but if you don't make it today and you don't pay me today, I'm going to take that away from you. That is not how it has to work. If you have to say things like if you don't purchase these images, they're going to be deleted meh, that's not my favorite phrase in the book and let's just say it's not one I will ever be using. Now, even saying things like if you pay for this now, I'll throw in X free things, but only if you swipe your credit card right now, today. If you walk out my door, this offer no longer stands. Like, those things are sleazy, those things don't feel good.
Speaker 2:If my client says to me hey, karinda, what if we can't decide or we're really torn on these things? We really need to sleep on it, go for it. That's totally fine, I get it. I'll touch your face with you tomorrow and say your feeling. If your client's like oh man, this is way more than I thought it was going to be, because I figured I would want something smaller. Now that I see this big thing, I really want the bigger, nicer thing, because it's just so beautiful and I can't, I can't not get back, I'm going to say cool, no worries, you want to pay for it over time? Do you want to split up payments. Like I'm flexible, I'm here to help you. I'm here to make sure that whatever you want is something you get. How can we make this work for you?
Speaker 2:If my client says like, hey, if I don't get all these pictures today and I want to come back later for more, like, can I do that? I'm going to say, yeah, of course you can. And I say something like this like I can't legally promise you that tomorrow I will have all your pictures, because, you know, sometimes things do happen. But I will tell you that, as a person, I do keep multiple copies of your images and I do everything I can to ensure they're safe For the long term. So, if you ever need to come back, just give me a call and let me know, because I'm a person first and it's important to me that I serve people. If my clients need flexibility, I offer it to them openly. If my clients need time, I give it to them. If my clients need more than two hours to stare at photos and play with wall art mockups and dream of a million different possibilities, then I will sit with them and do it.
Speaker 2:My job is to serve them first and foremost, but my job is also to make sure they're prepared and ready for the reveal before it happens. My job is also to be a good person and, like as a person, that's important to me. I want to be a good person. I want to listen to their needs. I want to show my clients that I love them and I care about them and I'm serving them as a person. I want my clients to feel like I will work with them however they need me to. Now the thing is, my pricing is always my pricing, my system is always my system and my policies are my policies. So this doesn't mean I'm going around and like flexing and bending things for people, but within the system I am a human and within my pricing and my policies and my system, I always do my best to meet my clients where they're at. I have options for everyone. I have clients that spend 20, 30 grand with me. I also have clients that spend $1,000. And that's cool with me. I have options for everybody and I feel good about that.
Speaker 2:If you focus on getting to know your clients, asking them questions and getting to a deeper level so you know what's important, taking that information and showing them how you can serve them, then selling will no longer be scary If you focus on being a person during your ordering appointments and meeting your clients where they need you to meet them, while still respecting your pricing or systems and your business. Your clients will appreciate that and love you for it, for being a person, being the person they need you to be. And when you're serving your clients by offering physical printed products, you will realize quickly that the impact that those portraits leave on their wall will be cherished for a lifetime and generations. Because when you create something that is a once in a lifetime experience and it's far different than what everyone else is doing, your clients will know. And each and every time they look at that piece of art on their wall or the album they have proudly displayed on their table, their heart will be foiled with the warm and fuzzies and appreciation for what you've done for them.
Speaker 2:And one day, when their kids and grandkids visit their home and they can feel those exact same things that I felt each and every time I visited my grandparents' home and got to those portraits on their wall, that's cool, right? That's what it's about. And one day, when you run into your client's daughter and she says to you my mom said she'll just be buried with the picture of her horse and she's like, but I kind of want it. So I told her she can't be buried with it, like that's cool. So I just want to encourage you, for those of you that are scared of selling or scared of IPS, because you're feeling like it has to be high pressure, it has to be sleazy just know it doesn't have to be. It can really just be a way of showing up and serving your clients.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to support the podcast, please make sure you share it on social media or leave a rating and review. As always, you can check out the links and resources in the show notes over at masteryourmindmoneycom. To catch all the latest from me, you can follow me on Instagram at masteryourmindmoney, and don't forget to join our free Facebook group Photography Business. Tune Up with Corinne Decay. Thanks again and I'll see you next time.