61. Why Your Clients Are Willing to Pay You More When They Could Get It Cheaper

Ever wondered why clients choose to pay premium photography prices when there are less pricey options available? It's time to peel back the layers and discover why professional photography is more than just a click—it's an art form. Let's dive into the fascinating realm of photography sales, revealing how the magic of an expert touch goes beyond the digital screen.

In this episode, we'll dispel the myth that digital beats the bespoke charm of professional portraits. I'll share why the discerning eye for detail, the one-on-one consultations, and the access to premium artisan products create a service that elevates a photograph to a piece of personalized art. We're not just selling pictures; we're crafting an experience that commemorates life's moments with unparalleled quality and care.

Ready to level up your photography game? Dive into the magic of professional photography and listen now!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

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: 0:23

Today I want to tackle a myth or question. I get a lot from people that are thinking about transitioning to sales and doing IPS and selling art and products. I hear a lot of people say, like nobody would buy art from me when they could get it somewhere else cheaper. They could go to Walgreens or they could go I don't know Shutterfly or something and print out the pictures themselves. Why would they buy them from me? So we're going to stomp that myth into the ground today and really just clear your brain of that idea and make sure that you don't have to deal with those thoughts anymore. And if somebody does say this to you, you have a robot for them. Let's say you're telling your significant other or friend, like I'm going to sell art, I'm going to make more money as a photographer, and they say nobody's going to pay those prices, they could just print it themselves. So we're going to tackle that right now, right here, and we're going to make sure that you never have that put again. So the other day, someone actually shared with me that they'd been listening to the podcast and they wanted to know why on earth someone would buy products from our photographer when they could simply go print them themselves and get them for cheaper, and I wanted to share my thoughts on that. So, first of all, people are not just paying for a piece of paper or a picture on the wall. They're paying for an experience, an experience that they can't have solo, by themselves, and let's talk about a few ways that people are willing to pay for an experience when they could do things for themselves way cheaper.

Speaker 2: 1:52

So do any of you like going to get your nails done? I do like getting my nails done. It's kind of like one of the things I do to go relax for like an hour, and I enjoy it. Plus, as a horse photographer, I'm not going to lie my nails get pretty dirty when I'm working and I think that whenever I go to show my clients my products, I don't want dirt underneath my fingernails and you can't see that when my nails are done. So that's why I get my nails done. But I also enjoy just sitting there and having to do anything and just like the peace and quiet of sitting there and nothingness. I can't even use my phone because my hands are tied up, right.

Speaker 2: 2:26

So why would anyone pay to get their nails painted? They pay for the experience, right? I could go buy a bottle of nail polish and paint my nails myself, but instead I drive nearly an hour. I drive past 15 other nail places to go to my favorite nail place and there are plenty of other places I could go that are closer. But I choose to go there because they're the best and the ambiance is different and the people are different and I enjoy it so much more than the place that's 15 minutes from my house. Plus, my nails actually last longer and they look better when I go far away to get them done. So I drive all the way to the nail salon, drive past all these other places that I could stop and go to to go to my favorite spot the space, the people, the quality of work they produce. Like I said, my nails last longer.

Speaker 2: 3:16

I pay 50 to 100 times more to get my nails done than I would pay to just go buy a bottle of nail polish and paint myself. Right, everyone knows a bottle of nail polish is cheap. I don't know how much a bottle of nail polish is, because I haven't bought a bottle of nail polish in a very long time, but I'm assuming I'm paying probably 50 times what it costs me to just go buy a bottle of nail polish and paint my own nails to go get them done. And there are so many other people that I could go to so many other nail salons that are more convenient and cheaper. But guess what I do? I drive further and I pay more money to go to the nail salon that I like. And I think that that's the perfect example of people going and paying money and spending a lot more money on something to have someone else do it for them because they just don't want to do it themselves and they want that experience and they want the quality and they want the service right.

Speaker 2: 4:13

Another example is that earlier this year we were in Hawaii well, I guess it's last year now and I saw a group of people snorkeling with a guide off of the beach and I thought to myself why would these people pay money to have a guide take them out and go snorkeling? When we just drove to the beach, parked our cars and took our own snorkeling stuff out there, and then it dawned on me it's for the experience, this guide that is taking them snorkeling. He knows the waters, he knows what to look for, he knows what the fish are, he knows the things to be careful for. They're paying for him, for his knowledge, his expertise and his experience and leading tours. The same thing applies for interior designers, right? Why would anyone hire an interior designer to design a space for them? Because they want their experience, their knowledge, their eye. They want to save time.

Speaker 2: 5:09

We hired an interior designer last year to actually redesign my husband's office. I did it as a surprise for my husband and I planned it so that way. When we came back from our vacation, his office was pretty and put together because we had taken our guest room and we were turning it into his office. I spent so much time on my phone sitting there scrolling and looking at different sofas and different things and rugs and all this stuff, and I just was so overwhelmed. I wasted countless hours trying to make a decision and, honestly, if left to my own devices, I probably would have never made a decision on any of those things. His office would have never gotten designed.

Speaker 2: 5:44

So instead I picked up the phone, called an interior designer and I said, hey, I want to do this, I want to surprise my husband. I've been staring at stuff for hours and hours and hours. I can't decide what to do. I'm overwhelmed. I just want you to do it. I don't really care the specifics. Here's the vibe I want. Here's a few ideas. Just go find the stuff and tell me what to do.

Speaker 2: 6:08

And he did. He put together a design, a layout. He went online and picked out the tables that were going next to the sofas and he picked out the cabinets, because we were gonna do like a little whiskey bar cart thing in my husband's office. He picked out the cabinet, the shelves. He told me what to buy, where to buy it. He even ordered some of the stuff for me. He made a trip to Target to get all the fun, little cutesy accessories like pillows and poofs and ottomans and all that stuff. And I just said, okay, cool, sounds good. Here's the money, go to handle it. I don't really want to deal with it because I'm overwhelmed and if I'm left to my own devices it will never get done.

Speaker 2: 6:47

So I willingly paid somebody to go do something that I was very capable of doing myself, just because I didn't want to do it. I didn't have the time, the knowledge or the expertise. It would have taken me five different trips to five different stores to pick out the stuff that he went to Target and HomeGoods or wherever he went to buy. He asked me do you want me to go shopping for like little accessories and stuff or do you want to do it yourself? I said I will pay you because there's no way I have the knowledge or the skill or the ability to go do this as quickly and efficiently as you could or for the same amount of money. I could just pay you to go do it. My time is valuable so I'd rather just pay you to take care of it. I paid for the expertise, the convenience and to save my own time and sanity.

Speaker 2: 7:30

To be quite frank with you, you see, in all of these examples people are paying for an experience, for ease, for simplicity in their lives. Your clients are paying you for creating the vision of what will eventually go on their wall. Your clients are paying you to style them from the location to their clothing. Your clients are paying you to pose them, to create that vision and bring that vision to life. They're paying for your interior design skills to help them determine what size, arrangement and images should go into your space and compliment your space. They're paying you for something that will live on for generations, that will bring them joy each and every single day when they walk in to their room and their home and they're paying you for your expertise to create that piece of art. Let's not forget the experience Because, honestly, the memory of working with you and being photographed and creating these portraits should live in their brain forever because it was so amazing and so fun and so exciting and something so outside of what they'd ever experienced before.

Speaker 2: 8:40

Your clients are paying you for retouching their portraits so they look good when they're viewed larger than life on their walls. They're paying you for your guidance and assistance and narrowing down their portraits and picking their favorites. They're paying you for access to the best artisans in the world that create these stunning portraits, like the Guild canvases that we sell and offer. Right, they can't find those somewhere else. They can only get them through us. The techniques that our artisans use are so special and, above and beyond, the products that we offer are so above and beyond anything they can get on their own. They're paying for something different than they can get on their own. They're paying for art that they cannot get at these big box printers that are available to consumers that they can't get by going down to Walgreens right. What you offer should be so different and so much nicer and so much more gorgeous and stunning than anything they've ever seen, that can't imagine not buying it from you.

Speaker 2: 9:40

Another part of this question that I received from the same person was you know, I really genuinely think that the only way people would ever buy art from you is if you don't sell digital, and actually I want to debunk this as well while we're on this topic I do have digital. I do give my clients a digital of anything they purchase so they can share it on social media and they can make small duplicate copies of whatever they buy from me. If they want to print a picture for Grandma or Grandpa or Aunt or uncles or whoever, I don't need them to come back to me and print that. I am perfectly fine if they want to print those small 8x10s and 5x7s on their own, but anything that goes on their wall, obviously I want them to have a copy for me and I want to make sure that anything that they're getting from me, they do have it printed in some way shape or form. It might be in an album, it might be in a piece of art, but I want them to know what that portrait's supposed to look like. So if they do go to Walgreens and they do print an 8x10 for Grandma and it does look terrible, they know what it's actually supposed to look like and they're going to come back to me and say, hey, I printed this myself. It didn't look great. Can you print it for me and I'll handle it for them, but I want to make sure that they actually have it printed somewhere in their home. That is extremely important to me.

Speaker 2: 10:52

So the thing is is that even if you were giving your clients your digital, they don't have the knowledge or the skill to go out there and figure out which portraits they love, how big they want to print them, what medium they want to print them on, how to display them in their home. They don't have that expertise and that knowledge that is on us and that is up to us to teach and share with them. That's why, even if your clients have digital files, they're not going to go print them themselves and chances are your images are going to rot away on their computer, as sad as it is to say, they will never live to be printed and displayed proudly on their wall like they should be. The other thing is that the products that I'm offering them are something that they can't get elsewhere. They can't go buy the products that I offer and sell themselves, so they're happy to buy them from me because they're different, they're exciting, they're beautiful, they're stunning pieces of art. My clients are so happy to pay me for this experience and for the process I take them through, and they don't hesitate.

Speaker 2: 11:57

I would actually go as far to say that you could still give your clients digital files and sell art. I have seen photographers my own coaching clients that have been in the process of transitioning from shoot and burn, including all digital, to transitioning to a traditional IPS method, and they had some clients that had already received their digital files with their session fee and they offered them the prints, they offered them the wall art and the client said yes, even though they were getting their digital files already. That's a pretty cool feeling. So what if I told you that there's a chance that you could still include some digital and you could still sell art? Now I do think it is a little bit more difficult and I do think you will have a lot more people saying no, but it's not impossible. I think the problem is that you are putting a ceiling of sorts on your sales and limiting yourself if you're including and giving away the farm, so to say, with your session fee and including all of your high-res digital files. I think that there is some flexibility here in the way you tackle this, whether you want to sell digital files or include them with your session fee or not, and I think that there is a way for both of those things to marry together in your business where you can provide digital, whether you include some with your session fee or you include digital, so everything they purchase from you. But there is some way to balance these two things and to make that work in your own business. So don't feel like you have to pull digital off the table completely to sell art and to offer physical printed products. But what I do want you to remember is that people are not just paying for that piece of paper. They're paying for the experience. They're paying for your expertise, and that is valuable.

Speaker 2: 13:43

People don't wake up and just know how to look at 100 portraits and narrow it down to their favorite five or six that are going to go on their wall. No, they don't know how to do that. I didn't know how to do that when I started my business, but now I do. I know how to help other people. I'll honestly say, though, even as a photographer myself, I find it extremely hard to narrow down portraits. When we have portraits done and the photographer sends us an online gallery to choose our favorite portraits, I sit there for hours, I glaze over and I don't know what to do with them. I don't know how to print them. I don't know how to pick out my favorites. I don't know how to pick which ones I want. I struggle with it. So, even as a photographer, if I struggle with that, how could I expect my clients to understand and be able to do it themselves? I want you to know that your clients want your help. Your clients appreciate your help.

Speaker 2: 14:40

The only reason that I finally have my own personal pictures printed out behind my head in my office are because my husband was like Corinda. This is bad. We don't have our pictures printed out. Well, what's going on? The only picture we have are your maternity pictures, which the photographer printed for us All of the ones we've gotten in digital files, for we haven't printed Corinda, and you're a photographer, and I was like well, austin, I just can't decide. I don't know what to print. We just printed a couple pictures from my office, actually, and we got guild camises made of them.

Speaker 2: 15:10

One of them is a portrait from Julie Paisley that we had done, oh, seven years, six, seven years ago, I don't know. It's a fairly old picture and, instead of sitting on my computer, I haven't printed a single one of them from that session. The pictures are beautiful and they're stunning and I love them and I'm obsessed with them, but I just never got around to printing them myself and finally I did, and now that I have them printed, I love it and I obsessed over that portrait on my wall and I'm so excited that I get to stare at it. I'm staring at it right now as I'm recording this podcast of some, because it's behind me and my camera and I get to see it all day long. It's kind of hard to see because there's a light that shines really bright on it, so it's kind of hard to see in the background, but it's very beautiful. I promise you can see our faces in the real thing.

Speaker 2: 15:54

But like I'm guilty of it, so your clients are definitely guilty of it. They don't know. They don't know any better than you do. Right, you need to help them. They want your help, they want that experience and they are going to be happy to pay for it. So don't feel like, just because someone told you, oh, people can get that somewhere else for cheaper, people will never pay that money. People will never buy those for you for those prices. Just remember, they're not just buying a picture or a portrait on a piece of paper. They're buying an experience. They're buying your expertise. They're buying your help, your guidance, and that's what matters. So keep that in mind as you go forth and as you're trying to figure out what you wanna do in your business and if you want to sell art and if you want to help your clients in that process, just know that you can sell art. You can charge a lot of money for your art and people will be willing and ready and excited to pay for it. And because you're selling your art, you can make a lot of money.

Speaker 2: 16:55

Feel like I should add right here Selling art doesn't have to be high pressure. Selling art doesn't have to be sleazy. Selling art shouldn't feel like a chore or like you're a salesperson. Selling your art should feel like you were simply getting to know your clients, understanding their needs and desires and fulfilling their needs and desires. You should be a guide, you should be a helper, you should be a friend through the process. You should not have to feel like a salesperson. You should never feel like you were just twisting your client's arm and saying give me all your money.

Speaker 2: 17:30

That's not the right way to do sales and if you've been taught sales that way, I am sorry, guys, because there are a number of photographers out there in this world teaching sales in a way that is high pressure and sleazy. I have heard photographers say and teach that you should do your ordering appointments when your clients are tired, because they'll spend more money, because they have less self-control. I have heard photographers teach all kinds of crazy tactics to close a sale. If you don't close your sale today, we're gonna delete your photos and they're gonna be gone forever. There's no reason that you have to do those things and you do not have to do those things to sell as a photographer. You can be low pressure, you can make money doing low pressure sales and you can be successful as a photographer Without ever having to use those sleazy sales tactics.

Speaker 2: 18:19

I promise you that, and if you are listening to this and you've learned sleazy sales tactics and you're using them right now and you don't feel good about them, then this is me giving you permission to let them go, to get rid of them, to feel like you don't have to close every single sale right there on the call. If you need a second meeting, if your client needs to sleep on it, if your client wants to pay over the next six months time, that's fine, let them. It's more important to me that my clients are happy, that they walk away with what they love and once then that I Close the sale with the perfect sales tactics and I twist their arm into getting everything under the sun and spending more Money than they could afford. That's not what I'm here for. I'm here to serve my clients the way they need to be served. I'm here to take care of my clients and I'm here to get to know them so that way, I can take care of them in a way that they need to be taken care of. I Hope this has been helpful and I hope those of you that are on the fence about doing sales or selling art Feeling better about it now if you are thinking about doing sales or you're interested and selling wall art or you're struggling to sell wall art currently.

Speaker 2: 19:29

Send me a DM on Instagram, facebook, email us, whatever it might be. You can Instagram messages that mess your mind money. You can get in touch with us on Facebook in our Facebook group photography business, tune up with Karin decay. Or you can email us at members at Karin decay comm. And I want you to just say the word wall art or Say the word I want to sell more wall art, or I want to sell wall art for the first time, whatever it might be, and I want to know if you are in a place where you want to learn how to sell wall art once, some more wall art or just getting started with it in guidance, because I actually have a wall art course that will be Perfect for you to help you get started in your wall art journey.

Speaker 2: 20:08

It's called five steps to wall art and it is intended to help you get started or optimize your wall art sales system on a high level, so you can get access to our wall art sales system without diving into our complete total course that is available for you. Let me know if you want the details about it. I can definitely chat with you more to see if it would be a good fit for you. So, like I said, just send us a message, get in touch with us. However you want to get in touch with us and Tell me that you want to sell wall art, you want to sell more wall art or you want to get started wall art, whatever it might be, and let's connect and see if it would be good fit for you. I love each and every one of you. Thank you for joining us, thank you for trusting me with your business and I hope you have a magical week.

Speaker 1: 20:45

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, a 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 Corinna Kay. Thanks again and I'll see you next time.