RIP • Death of the Sneak Peek pt 2 {the solution!}

No matter how you choose to show your clients their photos, these wall display guides are a perfect way to help your clients picture their pictures! {click the image}

I hope you didn’t lose sleep wondering what the answer to last week’s post was! Last week, I posted about The Death of the online gallery and sneak peeks. And today, I give you the good news! What other option is there?

In-person viewing sessions

The in-person proofing session is the anti-gallery and these are the reasons I think they work better:

• As they are viewing their photos, ooohing and aaaahing over each new one that pops up, there’s no mistaking that they LOVED their photos. When everything is through email, you don’t know their reaction as they were looking through their photos. It hurts you feelings because you have no idea what they were thinking when they saw them and it makes it easier for them to not buy because it’s not like they made a big deal in front of you. Some of my most surprising no-buy sessions have left  me baffled and asking “did they even LIKE them?” I have no idea why these sessions ended the way they did when I count them among my best work. So, yeah…being there to see them fall in love is a definite perk to the proofing session. For both you and them.
• Because we’ve murdered the proofing gallery, this is their one and only opportunity to see those heart-melting photos. And if they want to own them? Well, they’ll have to buy.
• You will actually be in their home, viewing their living space and they don’t even know yet how much they will value your opinion and help in how to display their most loved shots. People might not realise just how stunning a giant canvas would look over their sofa but which sofa? The one that can be seen through the front window or the one only they can see? They might not know it, but they NEED you help!
• …in addition, you wouldn’t want them to buy a giant canvas from their white seamless studio session and then put it on their stark white wall. People don’t always think about this stuff.
• Read this post for more reasons why you should be doing in person sales.

How to do one

So how do you actually DO an in-person viewing/proofing session?

• I like to do this exactly one week after the session. The memory is still fresh and exciting and they’ve waited just long enough to be excited but not so long that now they’re ticked off. The viewing session is scheduled at the same time as scheduling the photo session. No surprises!
• Make sure you aren’t overloaded with too many images. Each of my three sessions comes with a predeterminied number of images to choose from.
• Create a beautiful slideshow with iMovie, iPhoto or Lightroom. Resist the temptation to use music. It’s cheesy and distracting. Personally, I just use the regular photo album area in my iPad and hit ‘slideshow’.
• Get the show ready to go on your laptop or iPad before you leave your place. Then when it’s time, you can just open and press play.
• If you do enough business to warrant it (or you just darn well deserve one!), buy something glossy and oooh-la-la like an iPad so they can hold their images in their very own hands. But then they have to hand them back to you and thus creates the sense of urgency to actually purchase the images if they want to have them in their possession forever. I’ve also found that the iPad almost always impresses the dad which is great.
• For image selection and narrowing down, you can open up the session in Lightroom and have the clients rate their photos. You could have them flag the faves with a ‘p’ for pick. Then, out of those you can help them compile their order.
• You can download this awesome program called Sales Without Shame to learn how to do the whole shebang. It’s not free, but there is a free version.

What about asking for the money?

Let me get an ‘amen’ if asking for the money is the hardest part of what we do? At what point do you hand over a list of prices? What do you say if they gasp?

• Take them through their gallery to pick their faves.
• NEVER APOLOGISE FOR YOUR PRICES. Never. EVER. I never ‘do a deal’. Sometimes, I will add a gift at the end but never because I was asked for it. Just because you don’t own a store where the prices are set in stone (even though they’re just little stickers) doesn’t mean you need to haggle.
• If someone complains about price, I will then mention my 50/50 plan. 50% on ordering, 50% on collection which can be up to a month later if desired. Then you can move on with “well let’s just put together what you really want and see where we go from there.”
• On the subject of money, don’t make the session about taking their money. Emphasise that the photos are art featuring their family and not merely paper & ink and try to make the cost a sidenote. It might help you to read what I said to this client who complained about my prices.
• Overall, talking about money should be easy if you have some prices on your website. In my prices list and in my initial booking email, all clients know that prints start at £30 and collections start at £350. If they hired you, they’re already willing to pay at least that.
• Honestly, when it comes down to it, sticker shock is just a result of YOU not managing your clients properly from the very beginning. I used to be so sly and secretive about my prices because I thought that if I was too open, then people wouldn’t book me. That may be true, but only because they’re not the right clients in the first place. Would you rather book the right client or book another one and then piss them off when you reveal your prices and lose the sale {and your reputation} in the end anyway? Even yesterday at a first meeting, I gave them my actual ordering menu which I pull out at viewing sessions. Because I respect my clients and treat them as I want to be treated. And I would want time to prepare so I could buy all the images I wanted.

What if you just can’t bring yourself to do it?

This is the category I fell into for quite a while. First, I didn’t have the time {which, as I reveal in this post was a rediculous excuse}. Second, I neither wanted to sell my own art nor am I particularly good at sales. And I hate talking about money. And when you’re not good at something, you can pay someone who is. The next best thing to myself is someone else who really believes in me so I hired a friend to do my sales calls. I paid her hourly plus a 20% commission and it worked out great. But I was missing out on the most important part of the session: seeing my clients cry with joy over their images. My self esteem as a photographer took a hit as a result and I started losing the will to work. Now, I love doing sales sessions {yes, LOVE!} and I’m so happy I started doing them myself.

In conclusion…

The proof is in the pudding. My online proofing and ordering galleries were selling under £100. If they even ordered, that is. And my first in home ordering session surprised me with a whopping 600% increase. And so did the next. And the next. Try it – you’ll never go back!

Pin It