I meet a lot of photographers that are not into In-Person Sales even though it is a great way to grow your business. So I thought I would spend some time on this so you can easily decide if In-Person Sales is for you.
I will give you a short introduction what In-Person Sales is and why you would want it (hint: it could generate an easy 300-2000$ per photo shoot) and I will elaborate on 2 changes you would need to make to get In-Person Sales to work for you.
After that, I would love to hear if In-Person Sales is something you do or are considering.
What is In-Person Sales?
Like the name already tells you, In-Person Sales, from now on we call it IPS, is the process of selling products to your photography clients in person! This could also be done online via Skype but it does mean, you or your assistant are actually there with the client, showing them their images and taking orders.
Why IPS?
It’s a great way to add more revenues to your shoots and to ensure your clients are actually seeing their beautiful images framed on the wall instead of on their hard disk. Photographers who do it make commonly between $300 and $2000 extra per shoot. But more is also very possible.
Photographers who do IPS want to:
- Ensure the best possible print quality and service.
- Help their clients make the best choices.
- Grow their revenues.
What do you need to make IPS work for you?
- Change your mindset
- Change your workflow
IPS Mindset
A lot of times when photographers don’t want to do IPS, it has something to do with mindset. They will say things like: “I want my clients to have their digital files” even when they can hardly pay the rent. Then I wonder how many clients will have their files if they stop their photography business?
This might sound harsh, but it is coming from a loving place. I want you to share your gift with the world! And usually, that means you also have to learn to sell it.
Luckily selling is not that hard, selling is basically providing great service. But when you have a mindset around selling that is limiting you, you can feel an enormous resistance towards selling and you come up with excuses not to.
So let’s dissolve those limiting ideas, shall we?
Limiting Belief #1 – Selling is dirty, sleazy, evil, etc.
This one is really common and since there are way better experts out there explaining why selling is absolutely not evil I have this video for you here. Video by Joe Polish found via jordico.com.
Now that changes things right?
You will only feel like you are evil when you are selling crap to your clients.
But you want to do something good for your clients. You want them to wake up to see the images of their loved ones hanging in their bedrooms. You want them to be immediately in a great mood when they see that. That is forking priceless! (Sorry, I watched ‘the Good Place’ lately on Netflix ?).
Also, you want them to have quality prints. Your client doesn’t know the difference between printing at their local supermarket and at the professional printing service like you do. So you educate them and that is selling. When they learned the difference, they don’t want to go back.
Alright, feeling good already, feeling like selling? Let’s do one more.
Limiting Belief #2 – I wouldn’t pay my own session fee let alone order prints with high margins so I don’t believe that others will.
This is one I hear often too. And this one is simple to grasp and to change. First, remember your last big purchase. Did you buy a new lens? Went to a photography conference?
There are people who would never ever pay for that.
Guess why not?
Because it’s not their priority. They have no interest in photography or learning more about it or getting to know colleagues in the field.
So you see where I’m going with this, right?
You can not decide what’s the priority of your clients in spending money.
They could save up for years to have a shoot with you and they would be totally fine with it.
Treat all your clients who value your expertise and your images as the best clients you will ever have and educate and sell them.
Alright now that you have changed your mindset, we are moving along to number 2.
In-Person Sales Workflow
If you are used to sending your clients a digital gallery after the shoot and be done with it, some things will have to change in your business and workflow.
An in-person sales session is only going to be successful if your clients are on the same page with you. This means that they need to know that they are going to be sold to, they know what people spend on average with you and they have seen the price list.
Being aware that they are going to buy products from you already starts on your website and even before that, in your marketing.
If you only show and share digital images, people will expect to get digital images. If you show and share albums and wall art, people will expect a full-service photographer who will help them with the buying decisions.
So be aware that you will have to make some changes to your workflow if you want to make IPS work.
Here is an excellent Blog article on how to rock your IPS over at photographyspark.com so you can get started with it.
Implement all their suggestions one by one in your ShootZilla workflow and you will be rocking your IPS sessions in no time!
What about you?
So now I’m curious, are you doing IPS or are you sending digital files? What is your reasoning behind it? Did this article change anything in your attitude towards IPS? Let me know in the comments! (skip past the related posts).