Lessons

Lesson Info

In Person Sales

pregnancy pricing and product well yeah okay you guys are probably all selling online yes who's telling who okay who's selling in person wow ier ok let's start this again okay are you selling in person no yes no yes no yes yes the nose the nose air going to stand up and tell me why you ate way you've created life in you this's like oh my god she never in the history of life has this ever happened okay tell me why you know I don't really have a reason I just started online for convenience I guess for my client convenience for your clients or you I mean I guess a little bit of apple okay and are you making sales online yeah and I have a great no okay down next for convenience for for both okay and how are the sales no okay the three letter selling in person comes stand up did you always start selling in person or were you online and then went in person online and then went in person same thing in person in personally in person one because of you and because I really don't know how to set...

up ordering and you were online in the way in person I did online cells first and then after talking with some other photographers uh learn the value of in person sales and switched and did your chance sales change they were increased incredibly increased incredibly good sit down I have had those who have in person workshops with me know that I'm very passionate about in person sales when I started it was film so there was no choice there was no choice and I owns to wish that everybody started that way don't you um with digital obviously you can make some sales and it is convenient and I'm not saying we don't do it at all ah with our holiday items easter and santa and halloween sometime following us uh we do pre purchased packages in our specials so when we do a big promo like a santa on easter where it's a big deal we make a set it's closed to the public it's it's different than what we normally do we require a pre purchase for that that helps us with our budget our time see who's really committed if we throw sand out there no one wants it then we have to build the set and then it also helps alleviate when they come show up for santa we don't have to do anything because it's all pre paid all that is done online and because they pre paid it then they can pick their photos online so that's the only time we do it so with that being said when I wass film I didn't in person and it was paper proofs in my home I didn't have a studio I remember the first time I sold frames because I already know the excuses I know maul you know I'm not gonna put you on the spot for all of them you know I don't have product to show I don't have a studio um I don't have time you know I'm only shooting a little bit and the rest of my time is with kids I don't like to sell and want to sell I'm afraid they're not gonna buy and on and on and on I remember the very first time I sold frames I had nothing but a catalogue and I grew up with the avon lady didn't grow up with the avon lady already told you hold I am jim girl with the avon lady as for nineteen seventy on forty three so in upstate new york and we my have my parents home sits on seven acres have a very long driveway and five kids if we're gonna go out that long driveway it's gonna be a big deal and we used to have an avon lady come to the house and I remember and we were in its very tight budget my dad bought like no frills cheerios like it was like a white box with black lettering so we're on a tight budget but I remember in the bathroom there were always lotions that was always shampoo conditioner I'm still a lover of all of that because of my mom we never had just generic creams it was always I could tell you you know all the ones they were always the best from avon and even lenny would come in house and sit down with my mom and there's five of us were running around ripping the house apart and she's looking at the catalog and I'm looking at the catalog and I'm sure we all had our input I don't know what she spent or what she bought but I know it was enough that it was in our bathroom and what I loved about the avon lady she came to her home she smelled good she looked good she left behind samples and she had a pretty catalog did I care about what home she lived in what her in securities were and I'm forty three years old and I have not seen in avon lini maybe in over thirty years and I still have an impression how about that I could smell I could smell her and so I remember when I wanted to sell frames we had left the kind of we have bought a house in testing ranch and I had nothing and I had an eight and a half sheet by eleven of my pricing just honest sheet of paper and it was at the table and I researched a framing company and I got their catalogue and it was me at the table with my my and a half by eleven price my frame catalogue and my first frame order was seven hundred dollars and this is going back I mean I didn't have a studio yet so this is over ten years ago when I was just trying to sell two hundred dollars and I actually was going into a studio with another photographer and moved out like all within six months there was a more established photographer in my area that was known as the pregnant see and newborn photographer person in orange county classic black and white classic pregnancy I met her at a photographer's group and I remember when going oh you look just use you work looks just like so and so we'll call her sally that's not her name and I remember being so jealous of sally sally had a studio sally has to you in newport beach everybody knew his sally was sally didn't person ordering sally had everything going on and I sat down for lunch with sally and we men were like we should partner together sally was a single mom you know I was mom I don't have a studio space she was moving let's doing a double studio space and I remember going in there in her order employments they were like looking at proofs on the floor her sample books have been drawn on by crayon and a lot of her sample material was kind of a hot mess and remember mentally taking note like I want a material even if it's on an eight and a half she's by eleven I wanted meet clean but I kind of watched her in person sales got some ideas we ended up parting ways on a good new we just were two different people and she didn't really like photography she told me she was in a purely for the business you want to make money and she was making money that she's making good money and she said I'm a single mom I want to make money so I took from her that making money part she knew how to make money you have to get him in her studio she hottest show them proof and help them create albums and things for their wall and I called you like the messy room makes me two rooms and mine was like perfectly neat and hers was like a hot mess but she was still pulling in thousand other orders and I was like I'm going to take that business and my creative artistic and I'm gonna put him together and I'm gonna become a businesswoman and that day that I left that studio member she's in my living room and we just said no harm no foul we're just two different people were going different directions and remember my husband whole time was like he didn't know why I was doing it was one of those things you have in you about you try it and I don't think I was good enough every thought I needed someone else and that's what happened and I moved in and out she ended up going and going to her first love which was writing so here's to people one is on ly doing it for the business and only doing it for the money and one is doing it for the art but doesn't know how to make the money so you take the artistic creative person who really doesn't want to sales or make you know the business part and teacher the business part the business person will eventually fade away because wasn't here right that was a third driving force she went to her driving force which was writing so I have a product catalog I have a truncated version here jim has the full version over there but it doesn't matter the same getting it in the course and if you purchased the course and it has all of the information in here and we're gonna go to kind of explain what's in here and how we do it we are going into the selling part so let me back up and just go over plans and things until you had to do it we're going to go in sales and I'm gonna show you some things in light room but baby plans so you don't have to have a baby plan if you're going to do pregnancy and newborn you khun stop here um but lied to me and you don't have to do pregnancy I do know newborn photographers that don't do pregnancy you don't have to no one's telling you to I like it so how it works is you should have a plan if you're gonna do pregnancy a newborn you should have a plan and so how it works is your pregnancy fee is one fee and our pregnancy fee is actually the same as a regular family so our pregnancy sessions one hundred ninety nine dollars and it's the same if you're doing a family session any a gent what we call a general session where there's no time limit time element time limit one of the things that I learned when I was in the film business was a lot of photographers were saying it's only gonna be two rolls of film in my session we only have a half an hour we only have an hour and I was like I have to be different so mice thing was there's no extra cost for people pose this time or film that separated me from other photographers it also put me in the red very quickly remember I talked about that twenty five dollars and I'm like shooting it rolls over shooter so but I still kept that motto no extra charge for people pose this time or film we didn't charge extra if there was two kids or three kids we had like a flat feet we went for several years where my session fee was one hundred seventy five dollars for pregnancy and it was fifty dollars more for children under five per child for newborn and twenty five dollars and uh per childs I'm sorry one hundred seventy five dollars for pregnancy it was twenty five dollars evermore per child for children a five so if you're pregnant and you're coming with three other children under five a god bless you and I'm so sorry you're paying seventy five dollars more and then newborn it was fifty dollars more per child under five and when I raised my price to one ninety nine which was not a big jump when seventy five to one ninety nine I just took it away I just told tiffany just was one of those things that have been bugging me for a couple of years and I just took it away so we don't have that anymore so are we call it a general session meaning a general session is about an hour but if it takes more or less there's no clock in my studio and we're gonna do everything it takes to take the right number of images knowing that I'm enough experience to know how much time I take tissue and run through a series of transitions we say that newborn sessions generally take two hours give or take more or less we don't book on the half hour to hour afterwards anyway so we have a buffer okay and so then my pregnancy fee is one ninety nine my newborn fee is a newborn session two hundred seventy five dollars so we pregnancies one ninety nine my newborns to seventy five and a pregnancy newborn is three fifty right pregnancy newborn three hundred ninety nine three ninety nine one oh I know three ninety nine somebody usually handles looking three ninety nine ninety nine three ninety nine so that's a savings off what's our savings two seventy five and one ninety nine would normally be four hundred seventy four dollars right if you did a pregnancy and you born separately so they save so instead of four seventy four it's three ninety nine so they save seventy five dollars right okay so we tell them when they call this is our pregnancy session fee this is our new warren session fee you can book a pregnancy newborn session for three hundred ninety nine dollars apiece for both your sessions everything is included memory could show up with your panties in your bag we can take care of you with the pregnancy anything you would pay extra if you want hair and makeup and then at the newborn session everything is included my props are clothing if we don't have it we'll buy it to give me a special request will do it we will you know feed you give you drinks we have a play area built for the kids they can play that can relax they generally take about two hours the grand parents were always welcome we never charge for grand parents ever for any type of session grand parents are free and the reason is because I'm all about legacy and extended family and if grandma and grandpa want to come out of their house and join us they deserve that right and they shouldn't have to pay for it they will never be charged unless they were just doing their own session and even then we give him our mini session rate which is r ninety nine dollars rate which is a thirty minute session for children and our senior citizens get that right you have a lot of couples were like we need a photo of us together charge ninety nine dollars so we do have what's called a mini session where it's thirty minutes and it's one twenty five I'm sorry used to be ninety nine or many session is one twenty five right jim one twenty five one twenty five is our many session it used to be nine ninety nine dollars so it's one twenty five and that's a half an hour and that's usually for people that don't want to commit to the baby plan but they want to come back for updated case smash christmas session with a decorated set and they can choose that many session they can say why the idea of a holiday sat when we have several or can we do something q or communion um all different types of things we also eliminated the travel fee for around town in our local field so I have one hundred dollars travel fee when we go to the beach um or two we shoot in san juan capistrano or some other surrounding areas that take a little bit more time to go to but we found a gorgeous field ten minutes away from our studio and we love to shoot around town in the studio so that was kind of a compromise where to my clients were like I don't pay one hundred our location fee but I want something local and I love discovering new spots and finding new things now the baby plan created out of a client sitting in that five hundred fifteen square foot studio saying okay I love you I love you I love you I love your pregnancy I loved your newborn I wanna come back otherwise it's over and I'm like I want you to come back and I'd like to have a baby planning like I sure do what is it you know what I let me I will send it to you let me call you we'll call back let me let me tell you whatever I said I did not have it in my hands so it's me going home going I need a baby plan I need a baby plan and I remember at the time the on ly baby plans in the industry were like fifty dollars baby plans like you can come six months a year for fifty bucks and we'll give you a wall panel when you're done and I remember thinking I can't afford a baby plan we can't afford to do that and so then I said I'm gonna think about this you khun do pregnancy newborn three six nine twelve that could be one plan then you could do what if they miss the pregnancy or don't want to pregnancy let's have a planet's new war in three six nine twelve okay what if I already have the newborn somewhere else and they really just loved me let's start at the three months six months nine eleven twelve and since you've invested so much time I'm going to give you a free session when you graduate plan nine hundred twelve hundred fifteen hundred dollars I have one of the most expensive baby plans in orange county and I don't apologize so the pregnancy newborn its on the belly baby love dot com website so don't quote me and if your client and I misquote don't quote me I believe the pregnancy the one year on the belly baby love website is fifteen hundred and then the and newborn toe when you're is twelve hundred I believe eleven hundred nine hundred sorry I don't even know why I didn't bring that pricing but I'm going to tell you how I got to my algorithms I'm going others actually a thought process behind this okay so what I did was I was like I mean when you graduate the plan I'm going to give you a key chain from planet jill so I thought that was a fun gift and I'm gonna give you another free session with no expiration date you can use it on the eighteen months two year the five year whenever well some things I learned along the way first of all that's my plan now that was not my plan I wrote a whole book on the baby plan I think it's still in my shop but I wrote a book on it and my original baby plan you mean tell you what it was so my original baby plan was six hundred dollars and it was a first year plan which to me I thought was very high at the time and so six hundred dollars gave you after each session an eight by ten ah five by seven to four by six is innate wallets they paid for it ahead of time and they had their sessions and they also got a free session and to me at the time six hundred dollars seemed to lose ten years ago seemed like a lot of money and it was compared to the fifty dollars a year baby plans it was high I was high people will look to me like you're out of your mind the baby plans that are going on right now are fifty bucks a hundred bucks you're crazy no no I'm not crazy I'm gonna get an eight by ten five by seven to four by sixes and a wallet there's gonna be no limit to their session so whenever they come we treat it like a full session if they want to do family they can if they want to just do three month they can we get the milestone we definitely listed out the milestones of what a milestone is a three month ahead is up six months there sitting up nine months there standing when you're there walking and people fall in between so we kind of list out with the milestones work well it was great it was actually a very very successful plan and I sold lots and then I remember being so happy about my baby plan we would sell frames each time but then I remember one saturday and I've got two babies my keys are all two years apart so it's hard when you've got kids that close and it was on a saturday and I was working all day and money never entered my studio physical many why did physical money never enter my studio an entire saturday is all baby planners I was including everything so they're like okay I got to sit down and pick my eight by ten five by seven to four by six isn't a wall it's oh and they would say that ok maybe ten hominy five by sevens too okay how many four by six is got it a wallet same pose yet okay I'm done thank you and so my first thought was I need baby playing I accomplished that second thought was I needed affordable I need something that I think will make sense and what I did was I sat down and I wrote a pounding teach each session is so if you think about it and I don't remember what my base session if iwas but let's talk about what it is now so you know it's two hundred and ninety nine dollars for a newborn session it's one hundred ninety nine dollars for a pregnancy session right so you're up to almost five hundred dollars and we've only had two sessions now you've got three six nine twelve you've got for more sessions at two hundred a pop is another eight hundred dollars right so how much have we spent so far eight thirteen hundred dollars in just session fees well why don't I give a seventy five dollar credit every time they come tto order and apply it towards their order okay and now let me give him fifteen percent off of anything they're ordering and now let me give them special digital pricing that if they want to buy their session images they can pay five hundred per session instead of a thousand or more you know what I mean I'm literally doubled my baby plan and I am that six hundred baby plan for like five years and I have clients that are still have kids that I'm thinker stone that plan somewhere I seriously dio but I learned some things along the way number one not everybody could do three six nine twelve months and they start that way and then something happens midway and they just can't maybe health maybe the struggling financially we all know a lot happens in the first year of the baby's life right there were there were my diligent clients that were clockwise honestly me as a mom I don't think I would have been able to get in three six nine twelve months I could barely get a grocery store on a regular basis and so I did have my digital clients that were three six nine twelve and then I had mine where they were like came in for the newborn and then they'd come for like the nine months and then they're like I don't know when so I changed it to saying it doesn't have to be the milestones you're paying for a number of sessions and that means you're investing in my studio and you think you're going to work well with me and I think I'm gonna work well with you I'm not saying it's perfect I'm not saying my clients think I'm perfect and I don't think they're perfect but it's it's establishment of trust and relationship I've changed so much over the years I think my clients every day that I've been with me eight nine ten years that have stuck with me I've made so many mistakes along the way and they've stuck with me and that's what I want I like loyalty I'm a very loyal consumer we go back to that consumer what kind of a consumer are you if if you've got me you've got me for life my hairdresser until he moves or I move he's got me and and I'm I'm very consistent if I find a canvas venner these beautiful campuses are from pixel the campus have been using them for years if I find somebody I like I will stay with them for a very very very long time regardless I may pick a similar vendor for a different reason but all of my o b displays air using pixel the campus every single one of them on that wall and so I like I like loyalty I like I like to be loyal you know the vegan place two doors down from me I eat there every single day you know and I'm not megan but they have the food that I cannae and they joke that I eat the same thing for like two weeks straight I'm like that's what I do when I find something I like I eat it till I'm sick of it and then I switched it was the same thing with the baby plan I found a plan that works that liked that did exactly what I wanted to do that drew clients in and honestly in the beginning it was a learning experience I didn't know how to do all those milestones so great I hadn't even had a child have gone through why only had heaven they've gone to those milestones but I have a girl which adds a whole other set of options and ideas for those types of sessions I needed to hone my own skills so I was perfectly okay with the baby plan in the beginning very grateful and each time was a challenge to me what do you do with a three month old what did you do with a six month old and then my walls started changing because I started creating groupings for three months and then I start realize we need to build our client's walls why don't we take it and say instead of of just kind of you know doing it give you all here at one session why don't we say this is going to be you're with me you just signed up for my baby plan you're with me and together we're gonna build your walls we're gonna make books we're gonna create product so when you're doing a baby will plan you deciding your limits discounts and incentives my advice is you sit down and you say what is my pregnancy fee and what is my newborn feet and they are different because they're very different sessions and okay I'm gonna write down I want to offer a pregnancy to win your plan so you write down the retail value and gosh now that hindsight it could have written all this out for you but stay with me you write down the retail value pregnancy newborn three six nine twelve on a piece of paper and total it up the retail value is whatever let's say fifteen hundred dollars ok we'll do I want my client to pay that exactly tell value well then what would be the point right so now let's throw in a discount to anything they purchase fifteen percent well we don't really quite know the value that we don't know what they're going to spend right let's throw in a print credit seventy five dollars instead of saying eight by ten five by seven to four by six in a while it's which limits them because they can't possibly see anything else let's say I'm giving you seventy five dollars to spend and I love when people thank me and I say thank you you paid me to give you that seventy five dollars you know I mean it's like it's like when you do a workshop in you have students I love when the students thanking me for lunch and I say but thank you you paid for the workshop that paid for your lunch do you know I mean it's ah partnership in there where the client is thanking me for providing a service and I'm like thank you because you're paying me to provide this service for you and let me give you incentives and things and also the we require payment up front and the reason is we don't want them to think about it all of our sessions when you call the book a session with me thank you we take payment at time of booking and I know people are like people do that I'm sorry when was last time you could go into a hotel and say I'll get you on the checkout I mean it just doesn't happen right rental car catch me when I'm done no I mean I'm a mom and I have my time is valuable in your time is valuable I would love for you to book a session with me let's do payment time of booking and I remember when I had no shows and I put that implement into place and I never had a no show again and it's just being respectful I can't get my credit card because my husband has a credit card my wallet in the other room no problem well tentatively pencil you down and just call back when when you have time to pay yes a lot of discussion going on about payment plans in the chat rooms suzy k j had said large packages paid all of our the large packages paid all up front or a portion of it at each session you book with that client friend okay if someone calls we actually get people that call and say I'm joining your baby plan I'm like oh do you yeah that's like the biggest compliment ever and the black I've seen your work all over town you're everywhere you're my three best friends photographer like already know I'm coming to you and I like to plan and pre pay and I like to be done and I'm just paying for the baby plan well they don't really require two hundred fifty two dollars deposit over the phone or three hundred it's his deposited with phone I think it's no more than three hundred and then we say you pay for the rest of the plan when you come for your first session and when they come for their first session they pay the entire plan and what's great about that is then whenever we have sessions they just call hey my name's angie a monogram on the planet and we know what you are when would you like to book we don't there's no discussion of money you have to whip out their wallets it's done paid for and the same with our sessions when they come in when they pay for the pregnancy anywhere in package it's already paid for I need to do is tell me when your baby's born tell me the weight and the date and then we book it on when you come in and you're stressed and postpartum in your nursing you don't know what about your wallet is there any pain then as a photographer you khun budget accordingly because you know what your book's looks like and you've already been paid for it you have to wait to be paid you know it is a business