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FEATURED ARTICLE:
RULE #2 For A Successful Photography Business
by: Charles J. Lewis
m.photog., cr.
There are very specific, proven "Rules For Success" in the Photography Business. Rules that took me years to discover, test and refine.
Although this is certainly a challenging time for many professional photographers around the world, there ARE very definite things you can do to assure your success and prosperity in this "new economy".
If you are not getting the number of clients you want in your photography business, and think it's the economy that's the cause – you will find this series of Quick Hot Tips very enlightening and profitable!
You see, you need to look at the photo business as a game – and there are very specific "Rules" of this game, which if you "play" by them, you will win – no matter what the economy is at the moment, or where you live in the world.
In my previous "Photo Business Building Tip" I discussed "Rule #1" which is:
"You don't build a successful photography business by chasing after prospects and having them decide whether or not they want to hire you now or ever. You build a successful photography business by having prospects chase after you, and you making the decision as to whether or not you want to work with them."
And I revealed several very effective ways to accomplish that.
Now, let's switch gears and talk about "Photo Success Rule #2" which will have a profound effect on your success in this business, once you know it …
Photo Success Rule #2: "People will only do what they believe is already being done."
This means that you and I must carefully craft our marketing and sales techniques to clearly show our prospects and clients that what we are recommending they do is already being done by our other clients. If we fail at this, people won't do what we are recommending, and our sales and profits will suffer.
So how do you do this?
Let me talk about just one part of our business – the creating and selling of high quality, very "adequate sized" wall portraits as home décor.
You see, I discovered many years ago that it doesn't take much more time to tell your printer to print a 30 x 40 than it does to tell them to print an 8 x 10. But you can get a whole lot more money for that 30 x 40 than you can for that 8 x 10. So I set as my goal to have at least 80% of my clients investing in wall portraits for their homes.
To accomplish this, here's 3 things we do:
1. Use testimonials in all our marketing – testimonials which mention doing what we want other clients to do – so prospects can see that it is being done. And we use the client's first and last name, and their city and state. This is important so the people reading these testimonials know these are real people.
2. Show what we want to sell, and tell stories about those clients. First, we exhibit our photography all over town – and we show ONLY wall portraits in frames. Next, in our studio, we show ONLY wall portraits – nothing smaller than a 24 x 30 framed image – and only one of those. The rest of the images are 40 x 50's and 30 x 40's. And when prospects come into the studio, we talk about the clients whose images we are showing on the walls, and relay short stories about their specific situation – which makes them real people and shows that they invested in wall portraits for their homes. (It's already being done.)
3. Act, speak and look like it's being done all the time – this way your prospects honestly start to believe it's being done. There are many things we do for this – but here's a couple of key examples:
- a. When speaking to prospects in the studio, one of the questions we ask them is "Where will you be hanging the portraits in your home?" We do this very matter-of-factly so the prospect clearly gets the idea that we specialize in wall portraits and that our clients invest in them all the time.
- b. When we go to their home to see where the best place is to create the images, we also look for the best place to display the portrait. We ask the client again where she is thinking of displaying the portrait. Then we measure the space with a tape measure we bring with us. The client sees us do this, and again, begins to get the definite feeling that we do this all the time.
- c. When presenting the images we have created to the client, we project them, into a frame, over a sofa, and as we show them the images, we ask them which one they feel is their favorite for "the one on the wall." We talk about wall portraits all the time during this session, and we do it in a way that makes it sound like we do this all the time and that our clients invest in wall portraits all the time. (Now, it is TRUE – but back in the beginning, it was not true – but we had to act as if it were true, in order to have our clients actually begin investing in wall portraits!)
There's no doubt that if you begin to think carefully about this fact – the fact that people will only do what they believe is already being done – and modify the things you say and do, you will see a substantial "bump" in your sales and profits – whether there's a slow economy or not.
All the best,
Charles Lewis
Photography Marketing & Sales Secrets
How To Bring In Lots Of Clients In A Steady Stream, and Make BIG MONEY Working 35 Hours A Week Or Less - All From Photography
