Mind Your Own Business – Entrepreneurship: Seeing is Selling

Photographers are often guilty of believing that big sales are for everybody else. They hear a lot of speakers talking about four-digit portrait averages and believe there is a secret. In fact, photographers spend a lot of money on seminars and classes to learn these secrets. Although I can’t claim to know all of them, nor put them into words if I did, I can tell you something simple that I’ve learned which can help you get a little closer to your goal of making more money. It’s something that can be expressed in one statement: People can’t buy what they can’t see.

However, this wouldn’t be much of an article if we stopped there. It’s my challenge to read that statement often and find new meaning each time. At my studio, we are constantly looking for new ideas and concepts that we can put before our clients. With most things, clients aren’t shy about what they want. Whenever I do something really cool and original for a client, there’s a simple step added. We make two. That is a great way of generating new products and enthusiasm. It also tells your clients that you are not afraid to do something new and that they are a truly important part of the process.

Now before you go off reinventing the wheel every time you are in the sales process, let’s first talk straightforwardly and truthfully about your prints. This truth will not only help give you ideas for generating higher sales, but it will also give you direction when it comes to setting up your studio and sales protocol. Some of this might hurt a little, but I assure you, they’re just the facts.

Almost all of your prints are going to end up in or on one of five places: 1) a box that will some day end up in a closet or drawer, 2) a refrigerator, 3) a wallet, 4) an album or 5) a frame. Many of you are probably not happy about some of these final destinations. It used to bother me too until I started looking at this from another perspective. Let’s break down these situations and put a positive spin on each.
No photographer wants his or her work in the dreaded box in the closet. This is the bleakest fate of any of the five, but if you have ever attended a funeral, you know how valuable these treasured memories are to loved ones. At that moment, your prints are the most important things in the world to these people. Make them count.

On another note, I’ve done quite a few restoration projects to bring 100-year-old images to the 21st century. Slideshows and albums documenting a person’s life are also a very powerful option to consider. It’s also important to make sure we are using quality materials that ensure our prints make it to those moments in one piece.

The refrigerator. Ah, what fond memories we have. I can’t imagine there are many photographers who make the refrigerator a professional goal. On the flip side, consider all the friends and relatives of your clients that visit their fridge many times during the day. In short, your clients are paying you to advertise in a prominent place in the house. Somebody’s prints are going on those fridges, so why not make sure they are yours?
The wallet is a very underrated selling tool. Think how many times people take their wallets out to show off a shot of their children or families. Most of the time, these images get bent and worn. Remember, most people want to carry an image in their wallet so they can brag. They also take that wallet everywhere they go. If you give them something to brag about, they will brag about you. When those images wear out, they’ll come back for more. A lot of vendors are offering small wallet-sized “brag books” that are very affordable and easy to create. With portable technology like the iPod, there’s also a new market to move toward. When it comes to a client’s pockets, they are paying you to advertise.

Interestingly enough, photographers don’t like the prospect of a box, a refrigerator or wallet; however, the truth is most photographers are only selling to these three areas. Forthcoming is a breakdown of albums and frames, but I encourage you to re-examine the statement: People can’t buy what they can’t see.

Albums are great. It is a no-brainer to sell albums for a wedding, but why not for a portrait session? Not all of our clients are blessed with wall space. Sometimes that’s true, or sometimes they are just trying to save money. Either way, our prints end up in albums and knowing that is just a fact. There’s a really simple question that must be asked: If you aren’t selling albums, why not? There is a definite need for them. If you sell albums, you are saving your clients the trouble of finding one. Clients usually want to buy many of your images but don’t have space for them. Albums are an easy and practical solution. If you show albums, they’ll buy them. There are also many other possibilities, like coffee-table books and other vanity books.

Of the five concepts that I have presented, framing is by far the most obvious and most profitable. It is also an area where most photographers fall short. The fact is people will spend a good amount of money on a large wall print only to have it sit in a closet waiting for the right sale or time to have it framed. If not the closet, your beautiful wall prints will go to your local frame shop where a complete stranger will finish your vision. If you frame your own work, you are adding value to it and completing your vision. Practically speaking, your work won’t go in the closet and, more importantly, you make extra money on the sale. If you offer comparable frames at a comparable price, you are saving your clients money and hassle while creating a product with more impact. The reason why most clients don’t order frames is because they don’t know you offer them.

This one’s easy, just put out a selection of frame corners in your sales room. If you are using a projection system to proof your images, they’ll be framing them in their minds even as you show your previews.

Although there is a lot more to big sales, a great start is coming up with ideas and add-ons. You’ll make small sales big and big sales huge. When all is said and done, clients want more. Show them the way.

Michael Barton is one of the busiest photographers in the Chicago area, shooting over 200 weddings in the past three years as well as countless portrait and commercial sessions. Barton currently owns and operates Indigo Photographic Inc., located in downtown Batavia. The goal of the studio is to shoot portraiture with a contemporary edge and commercial work with the warmth of portraiture. Barton is a member of the Associated Professional Photographers of Illinois, the Professional Photographers Association of Northern Illinois, and Wedding and Portrait Photographers International.  Michael Barton is an award-winning photographer.