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Lesson Info

Day 15: Phone Coaching & Scripting

Today's challenge is a difficult one because it's all about the phone call. So many people are not selling themselves on email or on the phone properly. This was something I was trained to do in my first studio. I am going to take you through real phone calls and I'm going to script words to help you sell yourself on the phone and sell yourself in person. This is really important. Today's challenge is all about getting the gift of the gab and then selling yourself. Hi, everyone. Today's challenge is about how we speak about what we do, how we sell what we do, how we pitch what we do and how we talk on the phone about what we do. You might think this is a strange challenge but let me explain why. One of the first things that I learned as an employee in a photographic studio was how to talk on the phone. My boss told me that I did not have any phone etiquette when I started working there. I was only 18 years old. So they used to sit me down with a pretend phone and I had to do practice c...

onversations in front of them so that I wouldn't say um, that I wouldn't use too many slang words and that I would use the correct grammar around what we sell. So back then, and we're talking 22 years ago, 23 years ago, it was very important that we called them portraits and not photos because we wanted the word portrait to be something a bit more special than a photograph and so it was very very important that we used words like your portrait shoot, not a photo shoot, or nowadays that has definitely changed. I know I call my portrait session a photo shoot now. I think it's more trendy, it's a little bit more contemporary, but back then it was very important that we used the right words and the right language. The way we spoke about prints, we had to speak about them in a certain way that gave them value. So you can still do that, speak with value and speak about your portraits and your products with value, we'll talk about that, but mostly I need you now to understand how you're delivering when you talk about money, how you're delivering when you talk about and communicate what happens in a session with you and how you are locking down sales, shoots, bookings with just simple phrases that make a really big difference. So let's get started with that. The first thing I want to talk to you about is your pitch and if you think that this is something that everybody's got down pat then you are incredibly wrong. So often I say to people, give me your pitch, and people start with this. So uh well um, so I'm a portrait, I am a glamour, contemporary glamour portrait photographer from. And they start to read out this paragraph that essentially sounds like you're reading it from your about page on your website. And I was teaching people, when I was doing workshops in Australia, I was teaching businesses and not photographers, just all businesses, how to pitch themselves. So I think the greatest pitch that you have as a photographer is I'm a photographer. And that's it, that's your pitch. And so when people are like, ah, but I thought a pitch was 60 seconds long and no, a pitch is something that's going to pitch and open a conversation. And is there any better word than I am a photographer? Because the next question you get asked is what sort of photographs do you take? That's when you're doing your pitch. I shoot contemporary fashion style portraits like '80s glamour but I have reinvented it. That's my pitch. It's simple, it's a byline, it's a tagline, it's a short sentence and it's enough to describe what I do really accurately and communicate what I do really quickly. Now, there's your perfect opportunity to pull out a business card and say, like this. Okay, so it's not a waffle on. It's just a this is what I do. I am a contemporary fashion-style glamour portrait photographer like from the '80s but I just reinvented it and brought it into the third millennia, like this. That was my opportunity to bring out my card. Now my card was so beautiful right from the beginning that I would, I have this, okay, I keep this. Look at this, Sue Bryce, and see it's the writing is so small you wouldn't even be able to read it. Sue Bryce, photographer, suebryce.com on here. And the difference between a business card and this is the difference between this here is for about $130 I can get 1,000 of these. So for $270 or 80 I could get 2,000 of these. This here costs me $2,000. Okay so a lot more expensive, $2, but I got 10,000 of them. I got plates made, not digital, I went original printing. So these were printed nearly three and a half years ago. I got 10,000 of them and they have run out now. I have used them in my advertising in all ways, shapes and forms, given them away, given them away at talks. And then I got a voucher made, this big here, and this voucher fits inside this card and this card fits inside an envelope. Perfect size, standard printing size. Now, when people ask me, where did you get the accordion card from. You know, White House makes them if you're looking for photographic printers but the truth is that any standard printer that proper, offseat printer, this is a standard size because it is cut to fit on an A2 I think it is so ultimately they all go there and it fits on an A2 or an A1, whatever the standard size printing is. They get cut, they put a fold in it and there it is. Why did I choose a cantilever? I actually wanted a book. I wanted a small booklet because I learned a long time ago that you can pitch people with words or you can show them images. When I show them images it does two things. It gives them a very quick visualization of what I do and they're obviously impressed. Notice no before and afters, just my style. And it also gives me the opportunity to talk about every one of these girls because I know their stories and if you're telling stories then chances are you're communicating really well. So pitch with enthusiasm. A lot of people are pitching from a place of fear instead of excitement and a lot of people are pitching from a place of practice or they read it and now they're reading it back out to you. And this is how I got around this. Back when I was a young photographer and I was really unsure of what to say I used to walk around the beach or go for my walks every and just practice. I would have my earphones on, people probably thought I was mad, that's okay, and I would just walk along the beach saying, ah, hi, my name's Sue. I'm a portrait photographer. I actually, I shoot contemporary fashion-style portraits like 80s glamour but I just modernized it. I've been doing it for 23 years. Full stop. I said it over and over again until it became so second nature to me and it really is what I do. So I mean it's not hard to do your elevator pitch and pitch with enthusiasm. Make sure you have a beautiful visual card and if you don't have that have your iPhone ready with a whole gallery. I have a gallery on my iPhone with over 300 shots on it. The file is called gorgeous. People now get that phone and they look through that file and I have to ask for my phone back at parties and it's just brilliant. Sometimes people that I've photographed or photographers that I've photographed, if they're at an event or a party they'll come up and say, so have you got your phone on you? And I'll say yes, and they're like, can I borrow your gorgeous gallery? And I will see them showing people the gorgeous gallery. So have it ready to go. Under no circumstances should you be anywhere without a phone or business card or both. In my large handbag I carry a gold purse. That gold purse, inside that gold purse is this, all my business cards, my price list and my vouchers. I am ready to give a voucher, a business card, a pitch or a spiel to anybody I meet on a train, plain or automobile and I do all of the above. Now most importantly, my business is gold to me. That's what it means to me. And it is very important, I've always had this gold case. When this one got shabby I bought a nicer one. Now I have a nicer gold case in my handbag. And it's one of these things you can do as a business owner. I call it shameless self promotion. So after you get your pitch nailed and you've got your business card or your iPhone fill that gallery up, make sure you're ready to go. You can say to people, I don't have a business card on me right now but give me your email address and I will send you my visual PDF, it's absolutely awesome, and you get to see what I do. And then you take their email address and by the time you get home you send it like you promised you were going to and they have all your information like that and you're not missing an opportunity just cause you didn't have a card. Now this was the business card for $139 for 1,000. Waste of time. This was the business card that I got printed on somewhere like vista.com. So just an online printing. You design it on Photoshop, you upload it and you get it back and it's cheap as chips. $80 and you get 500 cards or more, 1000 cards. Now this here is a business card exactly the same and this here is my price list. Now I decided a long time ago, and I printed these first maybe eight years ago, that I did not want to confuse people and that was before I had even read the quote a confused mind says no. I needed my language to be simple, communicative and really precise and I did that by putting my price list on a little wee business card like this. So, have a look at this. I also did the poem from the floor in my studio and these two business cards not only educate people on how much I cost. They educate people on my philosophy as well. The best part is, think smart, they're gonna keep this business card because it's a poem and it's a really neat poem to keep but also my name www.suebryce.com is on the bottom and every time they keep that they've got access to me. So always creating something a product that they can keep that they want to keep hold of. Now, how do I use these words? Okay, really really important. If I've got this card here and this has got all of my images in it then my price list and my poem are two talking points that I put with this card. One of them was, I'll give you this as well. This is the beautiful poem that is on the floor of my studio. It's, as you walk into the entranceway to go into my shooting room this poem was written by Derek Wolcott and it's called Time After Time and it's about falling in love with yourself. Everybody who reads that loves it or cries or wants me to post it to them so when they see it on the card they love it and they want to keep it. I've also attached for you my price list so when you come into the studio you know how much I charge, it's right there for you. You can take it home and if you have any questions don't hesitate to call me. My phone number is on the large card. Okay, so just like that. Practice using this language. Practice with a best friend, with your partner, practice with a staff member but practice, practice in the shower, when you go for a walk. Practice using your language in a way that is simple, that communicates quickly. Practice it until you've got it down pat. This is not an easy thing for most people. And a lot of people, they just talk too much. So just keep it really simple and you know what? Do the next thing. After you pitch to somebody do the next thing that every good person should do. Ask them what they do because it's reciprocal and you would make somebody more important feel more important by asking them about themselves then telling them about you. Okay, very very important. It's a trade. In my little gold purse is also my gift voucher. The language I use on my gift voucher, one of the hardest things to write and you are welcome to use this language. You can use it, you can change it but I beg you, please keep it simple. One of the most intriguing things about making this voucher was the amount of people that said, but what do you say on it, what are the words? And when I wrote that Lisa, but what do you say, what are the words? Because when you sit down to write something this simple the words just seem to leave you. It's quite strange. It's almost impossible. You sit there and I notice all the time when I get on websites and all of you are writing your about page and it sounds like a Mills & Boon novel. And really you just have to write about. So I keep my about page more simple now. I want to come back to commissions start at $1,200. I want to price, put a price on there if you feel comfortable doing that. I want to say, I've been a professional photographer for 23 years. I want to say I've won some awards. I want to say that I'm associated with the Australian Institute of Professional Photography. Wedding and Portrait International. And using Institute of Professional Photography as well because I have memberships with all three of them. I'm a master in two countries. I'm an award-winning photographer, yes, but awards don't get you clients. But mostly I'm a woman who loves to photograph women and I always have in my little spiel, please, book a photo shoot with you. It will change the way you see yourself. And it's that simple. I want just a simple line. Come in, enjoy this, have a great photograph of yourself. I don't want to go on and on and on and on about all the reasons I love taking photographs. Remember your client only wants to hear how it's going to suit them. So keep your language simple. My gift voucher says a gift voucher. This gift voucher entitles you to a double makeover and photo shoot. You don't have to have the word double, that's just how I double my shoot and my sale. You can just say to a makeover and photo shoot or you can take off makeover and put a family photo shoot or a pet photo shoot or or or. Plus $100 to spend on photographs with Sue Bryce. Total value $290. Now, what that says is it's a gift voucher and the gift voucher works best when it's been gifted from a third party because then we make out that it's been paid for. And the gift voucher entitles you, entitles you to a double makeover and photo shoot. So telling me what I'm entitled to get with this voucher plus $100 to spend on photographs. To spend on photographs is the most important language in this phrase because what it's saying is that you can, you will be spending money on photographs and this is just $100 towards it. You're planting that seed of buying. To book, call Sue directly. So it is saying directly to me which I think personally works really well. Any questions or to request a full price list and an info pack on what to wear and bring please email me on info@suebryce.com and check out my website galleries at www.suebryce.com. This voucher expires. You must have that if you are giving gift vouchers because you need a call to action. Then you can say, get your girlfriends together, you sister or your mom. It is the ultimate girls day out. Now nowhere on this card do I say husband, partner, children, I just don't. I'm marketing to women but when I get them on the phone and I talk to them about coming in for the shoot then I open up how about your husband, your boyfriend, your children. Now if they choose to do this as a girls day out and they bring me five girls I will take the five girls first then I will photograph all five girls then I will market to all five girls to bring in their boyfriends, partners, children. Do you understand? Women bring a network first. If I go straight for the boyfriend or husband and she brings in the boyfriend or the husband I don't have much opportunity to network outside of her. But if she brings me five girlfriends that is five women with an audience of 20 women around them. That's 100 women that I am potentially marketing to in one sentence. That language alone has multiplied my business tenfold. Really works. So think about how you're speaking to your customers. It's very very very important. We book up to two months in advance so call to get the best day for you. Now the reason I wrote that is because I felt like at the time, back then, people were ringing up and saying, can I just have a Saturday morning and I felt because I wrote that that I could say. Oh no, Saturdays are all gone for the month, instead of I'm sorry, we only shoot one Saturday a month because what happens is we book up two months in advance and Friday and Saturday are the first two days that go but we don't want to work every Saturday. We want to work one Saturday a month but I'm not gonna tell them that. So I'm gonna tell them I'm fully booked and I'm gonna say no, but I have a Friday available and you can go out Friday night looking fabulous. See what I did there? Think about it. Every time I plant the seed I don't come from a place of negative like oh oh, Friday, um. I come from a place of, oh, Friday night's good and you can go out Friday night looking fabulous. 99% of the girls would say oh you're right, yeah. Or they'll go it's a work day. One percent would say it's a work day and I'd say, you know what, take a sneaky day off. Get your sister and your mom together. Go shopping, have brunch, come to the studio, have an incredible makeover and then arrange a night out with your friends because you're going to look gorgeous. And I probably out of a thousand phone calls had two people that said, no, I just can't take the day off work. Everybody loves that. If you use those words and you use that language everybody's captivated by it. Everyone says, you're right, I do need a day off work. And I say, good girl. What day should we book? Now I have a disclaimer on my card and a disclaimer is because it's a gift voucher with a value of $ meaning if you do not put this is not redeemable for cash technically somebody could challenge that and say, well I just want the money. So my disclaimer says, book a night out on the town, oh sorry, this voucher is not redeemable for cash and we cannot be held entirely responsible for how seriously hot you will look. Now the reason I did that was everybody hates a disclaimer, it's the fine print, you know, take this take this but this will make you feel bad and you know. So the disclaimer, I put a fun spin on it and then I put, book a night out on the town because you will look gorgeous. Book a night out afterwards. This is something I say in my consultation. Obviously I say to people, you're gonna get your hair and makeup done, you're here with your three girlfriends. I hope you book a beautiful restaurant or you're going out a night club. And they always go, oh wow, what a great idea. Then they make a day and a night of it. If they make a day and a night of it, again, they're more excited, they're more committed and they're gonna have great fun and they've already arranged three other girlfriends and they're all gonna go out afterwards. It's a done deal. The more you make that the experience of what you're doing the more fun they're gonna have. Now this is not something you list in bullet points that people are not going to read. This is something you include into your conversation. It's something you deliver excited and enthusiastic and it's something that you enjoy saying because everybody understands it, remember? One of the things I got asked by a wedding photographer just this year was could you, or last year, could you please tell me how I can work on my pitch. And I was like okay, give me your pitch. Now, this guy's a wedding photographer and he goes, tell me about your dream wedding day. And I kind of sat there and I was like, really, that's what your pitch is? And he said yeah. And I was like, well, it's kinda creepy and he was like, what do you mean it's creepy? I was like, why don't you just say, tell me about your dress. And he was like, oh. And I was like or, how long have you been, how long ago did you meet? Or where are you getting married? How many bridesmaids are you having? What color are your bridesmaids? Have you picked a venue yet? I love that venue. Just ask questions like you would a friend. You don't need to be like, tell me about your dream wedding day. A sales pitch, sales pitch. The same goes for glamour. How do you want to be photographed? Oh, well I'm a dancer. You're a dancer? What sort of dancing do you do? I'm a ballerina. Oh, do you have ballet shoes and a tutu? Yes. Oh, do you want ballet shots? Yes. Bring them in, I would love to do that. It's that simple. It's not a pitch. It's a conversation and the more you have it the better you get. So practice it because it just draws people to you when you've nailed down what you have to say. It's really really important. Alright, my next slide. So this is my beautiful business card. And remember, your pitches must tell a story. These tell a story. They tell a story more than any of my words can say and that's why when you're starting out the PDF is so important. How many times have I said that? It's the 28 day PDF challenge. This is what I'm gonna rename it. I'm gonna rename it the 28 PDF challenge. Don't give me ideas. I will re-record a 28 day PDF challenge where you will have to create a brand new different and enticing visually beautiful PDF every single day for 28 days. Hmm, I think I'll ring Craig Fonson. Okay, from there the phone training phone training phone training. Here's the deal. A long time ago we went to email and then we went to email we stopped talking on the phone and the phone was annoying. And this is a very terrible truth but I'm going to tell it anyway. The studio phone would ring and me and my staff, my staff and I since we're talking about language today, would get this groan (groans). Who is it? And then we'd pick up the phone and we would say this. Headshots Photography, Sue speaking. Or You Photography, Sue speaking. Or Photography Studio, Sue speaking. You have a voucher? Wonderful. And we used to do this face, it was so bad. One day we were sitting there and I looked up at one of my staff and the way she was talking on the phone and it was like yeah yeah no. So that voucher gives you a double makeover and shoot, yeah, no that's paid for. Yeah, okay, thank you. And she hung up. And when I heard it I addressed it immediately and I said, what just happened there? And she was like oh, this woman just rang up for a voucher. And we were getting really annoyed 'cause we were giving away so many vouchers and we were getting so many phone calls for work and we were annoyed because people were ringing us up and going, hi, it's Margaret here, I got one of your vouchers. So what does it mean? And we were like, what do you mean what does it mean? Read it, Margaret, you know? Read it. We had got so jaded in taking our booking that that's how we were thinking when we were booking our clients on the phone and when I heard her say it on the phone I nearly fell over and I saw myself immediately and I said, when did we become that person? When did we become that person? Nobody would receive something like this as a gift in the post or from somebody else and take the effort to call you if they did not want to book a photo shoot. Every time the phone calls, the phone rings that is your average sale right there. So if your average sale is $1, it stands to reason that every time the phone rings $1,850 is sitting at the end of it. Not only that, $1,850 is connected to 10 other people. So it stands to reason that every phone call I take is potentially $20,000 of my business and we've gone to email. Not only have we gone to email, we're groaning and rolling our eyes when people are calling us and it's time that we woke up and hit a big energy shift around how we're speaking on the phone, the time we are putting into our consultation and our service and what we're offering people because that is horrendous. So what I did was I stopped, and there were five girls in the office and I said to all of them, nobody answers the phone today but me. Now I'm the boss, I've been phone trained for years. Nobody answers the phone today but me and when I do everybody is to put their pens down, turn their full attention to me standing in the office and listen to what I say. Does everybody understand? Yes. So every 10 minutes, 15 minutes, half an hour that the phone rang I would answer the phone and I would say, You Photography, Sue speaking. Hi, Margaret, how can I help you today? You have a gift voucher? Fantastic. Where did you get your gift voucher from? Oh, how long have you been going to Fitness First? Great gym, isn't it? I already had a workout there. I've done their hot yoga. You know I haven't done the hot yoga. So then I would chat and tell me about your voucher. So double makeover and photo shoot and I would give them the spiel. Now as I was doing it all the girls were listening to me and I realized that it was easier if I wrote the script. First I have to ask where her voucher came from and they were simple script words. Where does your voucher come from? And then answer that question. Do you realize, Margaret, that that voucher is for a double makeover and photo shoot? Of course it does, it says so, but she's not understanding that so I'm going to coach her and educate her. A double makeover and photo shoot. That means you can bring your mom, your sister, your best friend or all of the above. Next question, what do you mean all of the above? Well, we love to open it up as a girls day out. We have makeup artists here. You can bring wine and cheese. You can make it a fabulous day and we'll photograph all of you together. Um, you know what, I'm gonna do this with my mom. You know what, I'm gonna do this with my two best friends. You know what, I'm gonna do this with my two sisters and my mom. Is there an extra charge for that? No, Margaret, there is not. So what's the catch then? That voucher has $100 to spend on photographs so whatever you purchase you already have $100 off and you're under no obligation to purchase anything. It is up to us to take beautiful photographs of you so that you want to buy them. I'm gonna send you a price list right now on email and we can talk about that. The images we sell start at $ and the folio box starts at $1,200. So whatever you buy is entirely up to you. What is your email address and I will send that to you right now as we're talking. The entire time I'm talking I'm smiling. I'm not groaning, I'm not pulling faces. This is $20,000 that I'm talking to in my business right now and this woman has taken the time to call me. And I have to give her my full attention. I say Margaret, we're abouts do you live? How easy is it going to be for you to get to me? And what's the best day of the week for you? Not when do you want to be photographed. What is the best day of the week for you. Oh, I have to do it on a weekday. Well yes, our Saturdays book out first and then our Fridays because everyone likes to go out but we still have lots of days available so which one works for you next month? Oh, I'm a Tuesday kind of girl. I don't actually work Tuesday, start till 3 o'clock on Tuesdays. Well you could take the morning session on Tuesday. What date works for you? I'm available the 12th and the 19th. I'm not gonna give her a wide open schedule. I'm gonna give her two Tuesdays in the next two weeks because I want to fill my diary. And the other good one is even before you get to that is great, Margaret, so you're gonna bring in your sister, your best friend, that sounds wonderful. Let's talk about clothes. Let's talk about educating these girls. You've got my price list. When would you like to book in? When would you like to book in? What date is best for you? Let's make your booking now. All of these are call to action phrases that make people say, oh okay, well should I talk to my sister and my mum first? And you can say yes, you can, but you said Tuesday's the best day for you so I could pencil you in for Tuesday the 19th. Talk to the girls and call me straight back. Just like that I've made a booking, I've made it easy, I've done it efficiently. I've asked question. And here's the strangest thing about me. I don't know how it works but for some reason whenever I talk to people I give them a mixture of giving them information, asking questions, but they always say to me, I'm so excited. I'm really really excited and I can't wait to do it. And I don't hang up until I hear that. When they say, I'm so excited I know I've done my job in selling myself, in selling my experience, in selling my portrait studio in every aspect of what I do. It's exciting, it's enticing and they want to be part of it. Sold. Home and host, just like that. Now the next one is this, the language that I use for touch points. So before I go onto touch points can I just go back to my first phone training? My first phone training was grueling, sorry about the sirens but we're live so we just have to keep filming, my first phone training was about speaking properly, being accurate, communicating well, making sure I use the right words, making sure I'm always coaching people into spending money but without threatening them. Yes, I always say there's no obligation to purchase anything 'cause there's not. I think it flips it into a service-orientated phrase when I say, there's no obligation to purchase anything. It's about me taking photographs of you that you love, that's the whole point. If you don't love them you don't have to buy them. I say that, I think it's honest. I believe it and I think that's probably the most important part. So the language we use, I'll put this on my slide now, wall portraits start at, folio box start at, commissions start at, team folio box, 15 folio, wall portrait 20 folio wall portrait. Right, I put this into standing and wardrobe. I'm gonna put it back in here in language. I think this works better than having your entire price list. I believe it opens a conversation around money while it's being honest, it's being open without being too much. And I just find that you can still have the full price list if they request that but right now you just need to communicate around how much they're gonna spend. You need to take the fear factor out of it and you need to communicate that really well. So this is the way I would write this. You need to decide which one you are. Are you wall portraits start at and folio box start at? Are you commissions start at? Are you a package photographer? So even an a la carte price, the very first one is for a la carte prices. A la carte prices can still be wall portraits start it, so you can still be a full a la carte price list and not have the listed the whole thing. Commissions start at is really good for packages and then the 10 folio, the 15 folio and the 25 folio is really for set in stone packages and that's what you want and see what people buy. They'll probably buy the cheapest or the medium. Now keep it simple, get them on the phone as soon as you can and use good language for touch points. So there we are. Our touch points are every time that you talk about money and every time you touch the client, every time you talk to the client. This is where it happens for me. I either get an email or a phone call to say I want a photo shoot. I either email back, call back or I email and call back and get them on the phone as soon as I can. Once I'm talking to them on the phone if they've had an email then this is the second touch point because they've seen my price list and they've called me and now I'm gonna talk them through the whole I'm gonna talk them through what to wear, what to bring, what they need and if they need to talk about price further they can do that then. After I educate them about this, I've just recorded a video of a Skype call that I did with Jen. Jen has booked in a shoot and I've sent her my price list, she's great with the price, and now I'm talking to her about what to wear and what to bring and in that Skype conversation I get her on Skype, I talk to her about bringing anybody else to the shoot. So you can watch this now, this little video, and this is a pretty fair consultation. There is a couple things afterwards that certain people will bring you in certain ways. Some people want to talk about money more. Some people want to talk about clothing more. But it was a pretty general consultation. I did remember a couple of things that didn't get mentioned. One of them was about paying for deposit or coming back to view her photographs. There was no questions around that which I'm not worried about but normally I would have covered just to make sure that they were all good with it. But have a look at this little conversation and see how I flow and getting people on Skype is the best thing ever. They get to see you and connect with you and you get to see them and it helps and it builds a relationship and a studio relationship that is so much better than the phone or email. Hi Jen, how are you? Good, Sue, how are you? I'm very good, thanks, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. It's so much better being face to face than on email. I want to talk to you about your shoot. I know that you've got some questions for me so let's go through it together and also the first thing I just wanted to say is wIth the gift voucher that you received it's actually for a double makeover and photo shoot. So I noticed in your email you were just talking about yourself. Is this something that you want to share with a friend or a sister or your mom? Um, yeah actually I think I would like to bring my mom in. That would be cool. Okay well basically the voucher that you've been given covers your whole photo shoot. So it's for a double makeover and photo shoot. It also gives you $100 to spend on photographs. So the gym that gave it to you, that means they've paid for that shoot so your mom gets to come in and do her hair and makeup as well. I don't just take photos of the two of you together. You can have individual shots and some together if you want but I love opening it up to best friend, mother or sister because it's something everyone wants to share with somebody and she gets to have a pamper session as well, alright? That'd be awesome, yeah. I didn't think of that. That's really great. Okay, so what I'm gonna do is I'll send you a PDF of what to wear. You've already go my price list. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna just send you a PDF of what to wear. We'll talk about it today but I really need you to coach your mom on what to bring because if you're gonna have shots together I'd need to look at clothes that you're gonna wear together so let's go through that. First of all before I talk about you and mom being photographed together, how would you like to be photographed? You've had a look at my website? The first thing I ask everybody is that what are the images that stand out to you on my website and what do you like the most? What are you drawn to? I really like some of the more sensual photographs. A lot of the boudoir shoots. I've never really done a photograph like that before and I think that you really nailed it with capturing that sort of that sort of picture and I would just love to have the opportunity to try to have an image of myself that way. Alright well you do need to consider this. The clothes that you bring in, it's really how I'm gonna photograph you so if you bring in lingerie then I will photograph you in lingerie. So I always say to people, you need four or five outfits. The cool thing is you can start in jeans and you can go right through to a cocktail dress or an evening dress. A lot of people don't wear jeans and a lot of people don't wear cocktail dresses so you need to give me some idea of how you dress and if you could do that then that's pretty much how I photograph you. So if you're going to do the sexy shots you just need to consider the type of look that you want. So some people like think that that sort of Calvin Klein jeans, white bra and big hair really Guess model looks really cool and other people want to do the whole suspenders and corset. So whatever you think you need to just give me some idea and bring in those outfits and you can either go shopping, use what you've got, borrow off your friends, rent something but the more effort you put into bringing gorgeous outfits the better your shots are gonna be. Okay, I see. Now I've got a little bit of a wardrobe here and I don't want to clone people so I don't kind of put the wardrobe out there as being something but I do have some vintage pieces and they can mix and match. You may have noticed on my website there's a little pink frilly tutu and I had some skirts like that, some smaller sort of boudoir type skirts. Yeah yeah yeah, I liked those. So I do have some cool stuff but I do want you to bring in stuff to match it, yeah. Okay. Okay. And think stockings. I don't really shoes. I'm not really into details right down to the shoes. I kind of focus more on the upper body but if there is something that you really had to have or be photographed. Like if you have a favorite pair of shoes you can bring them in but don't bother bringing shoes 'cause it's not really gonna pull in, alright? They're heavy. Now you said in your email that you're a dancer. Mm hmm, yes. Do you want to do anything like that? Yeah, I'm part of a vintage jazz troupe. We do dancing, chorus-filled kind of dancing from the 30s and 40s. Do you have any outfits? Yeah, I do actually. It'd be really fun to shoot a couple of my outfits. So I'll bring a couple of those. That'd be really great to get some of those, too. I love photographing dancers. I absolutely love photographing dancers. I've been doing it for years and I would love love for you to bring in something like that. Yeah I have a really nice 1920s beaded dress that I'd really like to photograph because it's something that's hard to wear out so it'd be nice to actually capture that in the photograph. You know, that's a really good point. I actually don't, I always say this to people, fitted clothes always look better than loose clothing. I just think that they flows the body more in photographs but I'll always say to people sometimes you have an outfit in your closet that you would never wear in public, it's too see through or too short or doesn't quite fit you anymore. I've photographed women in cocktail dresses that don't zip up in the back and I've also photographed people in dresses that they would never wear out or get to wear out and yet they look incredible photographed. So you know at the end of the day be daring and be bold and I always say five outfits but the truth is you're gonna bring in like 15. Yeah, I'm probably gonna bring in like 20. Alright, tell me about mom. My mom, she's coming to visit so I would coordinate with that and she's a hospital administrator. She's been my rock my entire life. She's extremely supportive, strong, loving person. She's my, I love her more than anyone in the world. She's just awesome and she's taught me how to be an independent woman and also to be loving and nurturing myself. So I just think, I want pictures of her now as we are because I've, I just imagine a world without my mom and it makes me sad and I just want to have as many photographs of her as I possibly can. Alright, I need you to talk to her about clothes. Okay. And I need you to talk to her and coach her in what to bring. Is she casual or is she quite a dressy mom? Has she got some good clothes or you're gonna have to take her shopping? She, she dressed up for work, she wears a suit but for the longest time she was wearing black, red and white or black red and gray only. Oh, I hear ya (laughs). That's fine it's great but you know she's been trying to branch out in different colors. They just look good on her really. Red and black especially just look good on her. Alright so one thing, red looks incredible in photographs and so does black but a mistake that a lot of girls bring, I wear a lot of black, is that they bring in five black outfits so as long as you can get in her in red. I probably wouldn't recommend red for both of you, though. So how about if she brings in a really great black outfit, a really great red outfit and then you can bring in a black outfit that you can be photographed with so either a gorgeous black dress or maybe a black top and you can coordinate to get a shot with her but maybe instead of something you can do something white and casual, just either jeans or she can wear pants, trousers, just a simple skirt. Just try and keep her away from the white shirt. A lot of women bring in the white shirt and think it's just simple and they just look boxy and they don't photograph very well. They uninteresting photograph and I kind of, I like white tops, don't get me wrong with tops with beautiful neat lines or even a fitted white top, knit top is great but that white collared shirt I just, I never pick it out out of there. Okay. Also because she's coming up for that weekend just make sure she brings jewelry because she might not think about to just accessory. So many girls walk into the studio and they've forgotten accessories, alright? And you as well, stockings, accessories. Think about those little extras. Go and get your nails done. Are you a spray tan kind of girl? You look quite fair so probably not. No not really but I could do that if you think that would be better. You know what, Jen, if you're not a spray tan girl don't do it but I will say one thing, obviously you're blonde. If you need to get your roots done get your roots done 'cause so many girls get photographed and then they hate the dark roots. So if you need to get highlighted make sure you do that before that weekend. So, clean, dry hair. You're gonna come in clean, dry hair with just a moisturized clean face. And my makeup artist is going to do makeup on you and don't worry, she's a professional makeup artist and she's not going to just do your makeup. She's gonna ask you how you like to do it. And then I photograph you and you've got my price list and I'm gonna send through, just a reminder with all of the stuff on what to wear and what to bring I'm gonna add notes about your vintage outfits because I really want you to bring in your dancing ones and I also what you need to remind mum to bring in as well. Okay? And any other questions? No, I'm just really excited. Cool, that's cool. Yeah, it's really cool. Thanks, Jen. I'm gonna take very beautiful photographs of you and your mom because my goal is to take photographs that you make you go, oh my God, that's incredible and if you don't like them you don't have to buy them and I just want you to experience that and yeah, I can't wait. I really look forward to meeting her, too. Thanks, Sue. I look forward to meeting you in the flesh, too. Alright, I'm sending the email now and I'll talk to you. If you need anything call me. We'll see you in two and a half weeks so if you are worried about anything, dates, anything, what to bring just send me an email and I'll call you. Okay, I will. Thanks, Jen. Thank you, Sue. Buh bye. Bye. So that little video, that consultation video so easy to practice, so easy to practice with friends, colleagues, whoever and so easy to practice on your next clients. Ask the right questions, include more, be informative, be honest, be direct. Talk about how excited you are to shoot them and then design their shoot for them and make them feel special. Let's talk about product and price. Product and price for me, so simple. It really comes down to this is the second tough point. Sorry, the second touch point is when you're gonna talk about what to wear. The third touch point is when they come into the studio for the first time. This is when I walk them up to my products and I say, what, what do you like? Do you like the folio box? Do you like a beautiful wall portrait? Are you interested in hanging anything on the wall? If the answer is no then I know I'm gonna drive them towards a folio box. If they say yeah, I don't really know I don't know you could say, cool. Let's just take lots of different stuff and that way you don't have to get them in this one. Some people won't reveal anything to you, they don't want to. Others are quite happy to tell you what they like and what they don't like. But it's really important that you take them through it. This folio box is amazing. There's a really good chance at this stage that they're remembering the price list and so they're gonna say, so is that the $1,200 one? Yes, it is. So you get a beautiful blah blah blah and this here wall portrait. You can go through the whole thing with them right there and then. You can repeat your spiel, repeat your price list. The other good one is the large frame portrait that I have with the nine images in it. That's a really good time to sell this. So this is a beautiful shoot that I can do. If this interests you I can photograph you. I do this a lot with the dancing poses or sequence of nine shots. They can be shot vertically or horizontally and if they are like, I like this one, then shoot for that. That's the fourth touch point, sorry, the third touch point, when you're actually communicating your product, you're communicating your price, you're showing them your work and you're also at the same time asking them how they want to be photographed. So it's such a great service conversation. The next one is when they finish their shoot and they want to book in their viewing and that's really really important. When they finish their shoot and they want to book in their viewing this is where you're going to give them your final price list, you're gonna give them your card and your poem as a keepsake, you're going to take them for coffee or say goodbye and say thank you so much, it was a great experience with you today. You're gonna write their appointment time on the back. So this is where you are going to say to them, I so look forward to showing you your beautiful portraits. We'll go through it together. And I find if people are talking about money still then I say to them, I don't hard sell. I've taken beautiful shots of you today and I cannot wait to show them to you. If you're going to bring anybody to your viewing session that was not here today like your husband or your partner or mom and dad just make sure you show them the prices so that they're educated on what it's gonna cost and that there's no surprises for them and I look forward to seeing you next Thursday. Thank you so much. Alright, that's a really really important one. The language that we use in marketing and networking is also a good one. The language we use in marketing and networking is again all about that voucher. You're going to communicate really well what you do but we do not want to word it up too much, we do not want to pansy it up too much. We want to be direct, we want to be honest, we want to be enticing and mostly mostly we just want to communicate really accurately. So whenever I introduce myself to another business that's a different kind of pitch and I practice that. So my name is Sue Bryce and I am a portrait photographer. I shoot a fashion, contemporary style of portrait photography kind of like '80s glamour but now. I own a studio in Auckland, New Zealand and I would love to work with you. So I would love to work with you, to partner with you. I would love to help you with your photography. I would like to shoot any of your advertising. I would like to help you with your social media and your design and in turn I would love you to gift to your clients. But I would never expect you to gift me to your clients unless you tried me first for yourself so I have a gift voucher for you for $ to come into my studio and experience a Sue Bryce shoot. And who's not gonna say yes to that? Because that's all I've said. I haven't asked for anything. In fact, I've given something. Is that worth my time to give them $500 worth of CD of their images even if they walk away and give me nothing? If I cannot win this person over that owns this database that would be my fault. But the opportunity to work with people and build a network is now there and using words like that is so simple. And you can do it in a party. You can say, oh hi, Jack, it's lovely to meet you. I hear that you've got a really great personal training business. Look, I photograph really amazing trainers. I'd love to photograph you. I don't even have to say, I want your database. I can just say, I'd love to photograph you. Let me send you a gift voucher for $500. And if they go, why? Say, because you're amazing and I'd love you to give me to your clients and I would love to photograph you so I wouldn't expect that you would do that unless you'd come and experience it for myself. For one shoot and one CD of images I can potentially get 150 mores clients. And I do not want to pitch that and get a no. If I pitch that and get a no, I haven't done my job properly. What I want to do is build a network. So even better is I'm starting a breakfast network of small businesses in my industry, small businesses, sorry, not my industry, small businesses in my area and we're gonna have breakfast once a month and bounce off each other. I'm offering free photography, we're gonna swap databases, we are going to cross market our businesses. Why don't you join us? Invite invite, send a voucher straight away, follow up immediately. Learning that language is so easy. You see, when I was a young photographer I would look at a business and I would think, how do I get their business? I don't know how to get that business so I would nervously ring and go, um, hello, my name is Sue and I'm a portrait photographer and I am and I just, I would stutter and I would just, I would struggle and then I realized, hang on a minute, I don't need to sell what I do. I just need to own what I do. So I would go into that sell on and instead of pitching to the manager on the phone who does not want to hear anything I've got to say and probably not the owner, by the way, I would go in and I would just book in to get my hair done and for the price of $60 I would sit down and when the stylist, who I've paid to do my hair, asks me the one question that all stylists ask me, so, what do you do? I say, oh, I'm a portrait photographer. I shoot a contemporary fashion-style glamour photography kind of like '80s glamour but in the third millennia. In fact, I kind of reinvented it. Here's my card. I've paid for her time. I'm a paying client in that studio. I'm no longer a cold-calling, pitching client that's asking for something. I am a paid client who is deserving of time and energy and is deserving of questions and at that moment when they look at me and they go, wow, your work is really beautiful, I say, thanks, have a voucher. It's all about practice, okay? I want you to practice it. I want you to be confident. I want you to be confident with your money. I want you to be confident with your service and what you offer. I want you to believe it and I want you to pitch with enthusiasm, no fear, no rubbish, no, you know, no falseness, just who you are having a good conversation about what you love to do. Enjoy that and lots of practicing, I want you to get your pitch nailed down and I want you to pick up your iPhone and I want you to record yourself doing a 30 second pitch to me and I want you to send it to my in bed with Sue page on Facebook and I want you to throw it up there. I'll put mine up today and I want you to match mine and I want you to do that for me as soon as you feel comfortable. I want to believe it, I want to see it and I want it to be real and enjoy practicing the way you speak about what you do.