TheyCallMeJ Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Good to hear from you again mirrorrim, also thanks to others that chimed in so far.
I will start by answering your question, how does one differentiate from others? By being the first to ask for the booking. (Not the only way for differentiation, but a significant one)
Everything we do at this stage must lead to the booking, otherwise the entire exercise becomes pointless. Don't be surprised to hear that photographers are actually afraid to book. Asking for a retainer makes them guilty for some reason. The number of websites I have come across without any clear CTA is appalling.
I try to keep the process simple for the client to understand:
1) By reaching out, my work is proven to meet your standards. In other words, if you find my portfolio lacking then you wouldn't bother in the first place. So there's no need to justify or reiterate the quality of my work, doing so will distract or delay the booking. Meeting the client to show more samples products or full galleries is absolutely fine. Quality barrier gone;
2) My habit is to make an offer prior to the meeting so if you are willing to meet, then my assumption is that you can pay my asking price. Price barrier gone;
3) My experience is that clients will book the person who can most likely address their internal pain points. This means the decision is no longer based on image quality or price. My goal is to find out what they are during the meeting. They might worry about the weather (discuss plan B), the hours (discuss timeline), the video (refer vendors), etc. Depending on how they scored in my fictional bridezilla-meter, I might decide to walk away;
To be honest, I would be more than happy to plan your big day down to the minute. I am all yours, but you have to make me yours first. This requires the signing of the contract and the retainer.
All this being said, I have no doubt that you provide tremendous value to your clients mirrorrim. It shows that you care, the hallmark of a good photographer. You have given me plenty of ideas that I will try to incorporate next year. I am not disagreeing with anything you said.
This is where I feel conflicted because in various professional industries, whether legal, accounting or engineering, no work gets done before anything signed. Calling a lawyer for "free consultation up to 90+ minutes" is unheard of, many won't even bother answering if you aren't an existing client.
Among the other wedding vendors, how many offer the equivalent amount of information or value that we give out prior to booking? Does the tailor, florist or baker ever feel the need to provide 90+ minutes consultations and massive information dump to sell their products and services? Some charge serious coin but I have yet to see a florist helping out my bride's timeline.
And they don't even have to spend time worrying about "post processing" like we do...
By giving so much away, and willingly so prior to secure any booking, what message are we sending out to brides as a collective group?
mirrorrim wrote:
Sounds like we are similar then, however I get most of the basic stuff out of the way in my inital email response (it is lengthy, talking about my style, links to Facebook previews, links to 2 full galleries, reviews, my pricing, and a blog post about choosing the right photographer).
Responding to other comment topics:
"Feeling like the bad guy/bursting their bubble so they don't want to hire me:"
I'm constantly bursting bubbles. I hate being the bearer of bad news, but when put gently and giving a solution that I think still appeases them, my couples are very appreciative. It sets me apart and they really like how much thought I'm putting into their wedding day, especially compared to others who may have been blowing smoke up their asses. I'm sure my honesty has hurt me a bit, but if true that's all the better, because this post is exactly about avoiding those unrealistic people. But really, because I'm bursting their bubble sooo early, the bubble hasn't gotten that large yet. And I'm always offering a solution to make them happy.
"Discussing things a year out is too early. They forget it all:"
As I mentioned, I think I do a lot to attract clients who appreciate my Type A personality. I'd say 10% of my brides each year are the super relaxed/I don't want to plan anything type. But the other 90% aren't emailing me non-stop either. I sometimes worry I'm a bit too hands off with my couples after they book. I send my recommended timeline immediately after our consult, breaking it all down so they can use it to plan and make my life super easy later. I only check in again at 4 months out and 1 month out via email. Because I so thoroughly go over their wedding day at the consult, giving lots of insight and tips, it sticks with them as they start planning the day. I'm usually the first person to mention these things, so they use whatever I said as a template for all other wedding planning. Most all of them will confirm something I said months later when it's time to coordinate with XYZ vendor.
"I don't want to give them all this amazing planning advice, then they ditch me for someone else:"
Ok, sure, I know there are couples like this. Usually the cheapos. I don't get this far with those couples because they've already seen my pricing before the consult. And frankly, my advice isn't that ingenious. It's the basics. It's ok to me to "waste" a bit of time if it means they have a better wedding, and I'm not sweating the idea that some cheap inexperienced photographer is going to pull off my special portrait idea. And many times, I convince them to up their budget and book me because they love that I have their backs and they don't need to worry.
Personally, I think all my advice is setting me massively apart from others and giving me a leg up. If you are equal with someone else photo-wise and you both have likable personalities, how else are you going to differentiate?...Show more →
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