How to get your first client in a new photography business – the Your First Customer Series
Here you go, mates – a complete list of all 10 posts in my Your First Customer Series:
Part 1: How can I find time to be a part time photographer?
Part 2: Top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people
Part 3: What should I charge for my part time photography?
Part 4: How do I get my first photography client?
Part 5: How to prepare for your first photography client’s call
Part 6: Your pre-photo-shoot checklist in four easy steps
Part 7: Your first photo shoot: expectations and results
Part 8: Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot
Part 9: Your first photo proofing and sales session
Part 10: How to earn lifetime photography customers with the perfect follow-up
There are three major steps to starting your new photography business: making the decision to become a part time professional photographer, doing the legwork and prep work to set your new business up right, and landing your first customers.
The Your First Customer Series offers 10 in-depth articles covering all the minute details you rarely hear about elsewhere – where to find the time to be a part time professional photographer, the top 10 money-making portraits (easily the most popular post on the site), and much, much more. This series has more content than you’ll find in most high-priced eBooks, with no filler – it’s the best advice I can give having been there, done it, and come out happy and paid on the other side.
Next Steps
- It’s a long journey, from making that life-changing decision to become a part time professional photographer, to landing your first customer and first sales. As they say, the longest journey begins with the first step. Start with Part 1 and work your way through each part in this series, and you’ll be better prepared than you ever imagined for taking on your first clients.
- Brainstorm session: What is your greatest fear about your first client photo shoot? What’s the worst that could happen? What potential rewards exist if things go exceptionally well? How can you prepare to give yourself the best odds of a great experience for you and your first client? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
- My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
- What’s the story behind your first paid client photo shoot? Were you nervous? Did they buy? Was it as fearful as you thought it would be? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.
How to earn lifetime photography customers with the perfect follow-up – Your First Customer Series, Part 10
(Click here to visit the summary post for the Your First Customer Series!)
If you've completed the previous nine parts of this series, I commend you – you've read a small book's worth of articles meant to help you get on your feet with your first customers.
As they say, the hardest moment in any journey is taking that first step. If you've read and followed along with this series, I hope that you've gained equal parts knowledge and confidence.
Here we come upon the final article in the Your First Customer Series. I'll discuss what you can do beyond the art and experience of your photo shoot to keep clients coming back for more while referring their friends and family with reckless abandon.
A word about touchpoints
Waco, Texas, marketing guru Jay Ehret first turned me on to the concept of touchpoints – all the moments where we have an exposure to or interaction with our clients. All of these little touchpoints, from your advertising to your web site to your e-mails, phone calls, consultations, and follow-up contacts, are rich opportunities to add another layer of awesome sauce to your customers' experience.
In any touchpoint, you can do what is expected – which often translates to mediocrity. Where the opportunity lies is in breaking expectations and giving clients something remark-able to experience.
Just as you want to answer your phone with a smile and be warm and encouraging during your photo shoot, you want your follow-up activities to reinforce your client's great experience with your company. Continue to show your client appreciation and respect after they've already given you their money; it shows character, which is sorely lacking in most consumers' buying lives these days.
Quality assurance = repeat business and referrals
Pick up the phone (or voice activate your Bluetooth, to be with the times) and give your client a jingle a few days after they've received their order.
Know your delivery times and methods. Know that if you place a print order with your lab on Tuesday at 2:45 p.m., your client will receive their print order sometime Thursday via FedEx Overnight shipping. Know that if you place that order at 3:15 p.m., your client's order will most likely be delivered Friday. Pay attention and be aware, both so you can share this with your clients and so you know when to make that first follow-up contact.
When you call your client, your goal is the same as it has been all throughout your time with them: understand their needs and meet them to the best of your ability, with your best art and the best experience you can provide.
Here's your checklist for the follow-up phone call:
“How are you enjoying your photos?” - Ask a few relevant and specific questions based on what your client ordered and what they talked about during your sales session. If a client buys a 20x30 piece of wall art, ask if they've had the chance to hang it; if so, ask where they went for framing and if they're happy with that vendor. If a client buys a CD of digital images, ask if they've shared them with family yet, or ordered prints from their lab. Show an interest in how your clients are using your art.
“Did your order arrive on time and in good condition?” - Make sure the shipping times you are quoting clients match what's being delivered by your lab or through the mail.
“All of the prints came out to your satisfaction?” - Give your client the opportunity to share concerns or problems with you. Don't market a satisfaction guarantee if you aren't willing to stand boldly behind it. Don't beat your clients until they find something to complain about, but if they have a real concern, be sure they understand you are receptive to hearing it.
Those are your quality assurance questions. Be prepared for clients who may express dissatisfaction with some part of their order. Be ready to explain why an image looks different in print than on your laptop (ink vs. LCD), why their prints don't have the same colors as what they see on their monitors (color calibration), why the print they ordered is “cut off” (cropping, image ratio vs. print size), why one print looks grainy and one looks clear (ISO noise, outdoor/studio lit vs. indoor/low light), etc.
Answer your client's questions honestly and clearly. Most clients just need a bit of education and they're satisfied. Be ready to stand by your guarantee, though – if a client is still not happy, offer to fix the problem if you can, or offer to refund that part of the order...
“Sure, I understand what you're talking about. Because of the lighting, those indoor images do have more noise or grain in them. If I didn't bump up the sensitivity of the camera once we moved inside, though, the images would have come out really dark.”
“I understand why you're not happy with that print. If you're not happy with it, I would be glad to do some Photoshop work on it and get a replacement print sent out from the lab. Would that work for you?”
“I understand why you're not happy with that print. Because of the poor light, I'm afraid there isn't anything I could do to fix that in Photoshop. If you're not happy with it, I would be glad to refund your money for that print and you're also welcome to keep it. Would that work for you?”
If you're working with decent folks, and most clients are, they won't ask for a refund or replacement if you explain why a print or image didn't turn out the way they expected. If they ask anyway, you have to assume they are truly dissatisfied with that part of their order, and your best long-term choice is to cheerfully fulfill their wishes. Deal with the situation in a way that, if you were on the other end, would make you tell a friend, "I had a problem with one of my prints, but they took care of it, and quickly. No hassle. I'm very happy with them."
If, for whatever reason within your market, you see too many requests for refunds or replacements (to the point that you're losing an unacceptable amount of money), you may have to be less accommodating in order to run a profitable and enjoyable business.
“I understand why you're not happy with that print. I would be happy to refund or replace the print for you, but I would need you to return the bad print. Is that alright?”
Some folks just like to complain. Some folks are happiest when they get something for nothing. By the time they get their order and complain, you probably saw it coming. But when you ask that kind of client to put in some time or effort to get their 'freebie' (as little effort as putting a 5x7 print in the mail to you), they'll often just pass to avoid the bother. While I advocate above-and-beyond customer service, in no way do I suggest you should hurt your business to satisfy unreasonable clients.
A future article will address firing your worst clients, but in short, don't be afraid to lose the business of a bad customer. And don't fear losing their potential referrals – birds of a feather flock together; do you really want more clients just out to rob you blind?
That said, be realistic when evaluating how much damage your worst clients do. You don't want to change a policy which hurts all of your clients, good and bad, when only one in 20 clients causes real trouble. Don't overreact if one client now and then takes you for a ride. The many, many other good clients more than make up for that one loss.
But if your current market is overrun with foxes, don't be afraid to guard the henhouse. Within a few months to a year, your client base will probably have upgraded by a level or two, and your ratio of BS to good business will have improved commensurate. Reevaluate your policies then.
Building long-term relationships
After the first half of your follow-up phone call where you ensure satisfaction, next work on the future of your relationship with the client.
“I'd like to stay in touch with you guys if I may. We have a fan page on Facebook and we send out a monthly e-mail newsletter with our latest specials, events, coupons and tips for clients to get the most from their purchase. Would it be okay if I add you to our list?”
If you haven't already made this request during the sales session, make it now. Give yourself every opportunity to maintain a relationship and presence in your clients' lives. When they or anyone they know are in need of a photographer, you want to be the first thought in their head – you want to be 'top of mind.'
If they approve, befriend (befan?) them on Facebook (or MySpace, or Twitter, or whatever you use) and add their e-mail address to your newsletter list.
The referral engine – planting the seed
The referral engine, the processes you use to turn existing clients into your best marketing tool, has many small parts that make up the whole.
The first step is to simply plant the seed of referral in their minds:
“I like to ask all my clients, do you happen to know anyone who might be interested in our photography services?”
Referral incentive programs are worthy of their own set of articles, so I won't go into them here, but if you have one, mention the benefits at this point.
You just want to expose your client to the idea of sending their friends and family your way. If they had an exceptional experience, they will likely do this anyway, but it doesn't hurt to pose the question and help the wheels start turning.
Depending upon your sales methods (harder or softer), when a client does have someone in mind, you can either ask for that person's contact information and permission to namedrop the referring client when you call, or you can simply offer to send your client a special e-mail to forward on to interested friends and family. Again, if you have a referral incentive program, mention the benefits.
Either way, let your client know that you'll drop them a couple of follow-up e-mails in the next two weeks to make sure they get the most from their purchase.
The survey and the referral
Next up are a pair of e-mails to send to your client: a survey and a referral reminder.
I'm a big fan of the two-question survey:
“How would you rate your experience with our company and products on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being a perfect experience?”
“If less than a 10, what could we have done better to make your experience a 10?”
Shut up and get out of the way. Don't obsess over controlling the direction of your client's response with loaded questions meant to elicit specific responses about specific areas of your business. Let clients tell you, in their own words, exactly what comes to their mind that would make your business a better one.
You'll be surprised how much difference there is between what your clients think about and what you think they think about. Give their thoughts the consideration they deserve. Often, it's the little things that count.
Send out your survey e-mail one week after you talk with your client by phone. Begin and close it with some copy reminding your client that you're always available to answer any questions they may have, and that you hope they're enjoying their purchase.
Your next e-mail will provide your client with all the info they need to easily refer their contacts to you.
Send out this second follow-up one week after your survey goes out.
In this e-mail, provide in brief your marketing message, and ask your client to forward the information on to any of their friends, family, or others who may be interested. This is a nice, soft way to ask clients for a referral. It also educates them to your business' talking points - the best reasons why clients choose you over the competition. Let them know what to talk about and they'll be ready to share when the opportunity arises.
Staying top of mind
A good e-mail newsletter is a wildly powerful thing. It is so easy to collect opt-in e-mail addresses from clients, and then for pennies, send them newsletters packed with great marketing - news, offers, coupons, contests, etc.
Facebook and other social media provide you another, more personal and interactive way to stay top of mind with your clients. Here you can keep up with clients’ lives while sharing your own professional life for fans to read about. Once a person or family becomes a paying customer, they become a part of your client community. Treat them as you would a neighbor - chat over the fence with them. Be yourself.
To be exceptional as a one-to-one marketer, which I feel is far more effective and lucrative than mass media for doing business as a part time photographer, you want to cultivate a very thoughtful, individual relationship with each client.
Should you dive into their personal lives? Share your own personal life with them? Unless you are one of those rare people who can pull off that kind of involvement and interest without creeping people out, I’d say again, treat clients warmly, but as a neighbor or professional contact.
Consider the ol’ Clip-and-Share.
Assuming you keep a handy customer database (as simple as a text file with a lot of notes about your clients; ages, birthdays, anniversaries, pets, jobs, hobbies, interests, what photo art and products they like or don’t like…), you can maintain a certain level of awareness about your clients’ needs and interests outside of photography.
When you come across something that would interest one of your clients, because of its relation to their job or interests (or their spouse’s), clip it and send it to them - e-mail a link, share a tweet, snail mail a magazine article, etc.
For example, one of my clients is involved in fundraising here in Bandera for Project Graduation, a non-profit event that gives high school seniors an alcohol-free place to party on graduation night. When I come across an article that highlights a new service or innovative project for fundraising, I forward that information on to her.
I have another client whose son has Asperger syndrome. I’ve sent her items weekly at times - news articles, book finds, blog posts. Another client had to cancel a shoot because her baby went into the ER with a high fever. You bet I called her the next evening to see how that baby was feeling.
Thoughtful gestures like these are far more effective than farming your client base for birthdates, then sending out a generic, mass-produced set of “Happy Birthday!” postcards each month. My gym and insurance agent both do it. I don’t even warrant a hand-initialed note. I’m worth “Thank you for your business,” signed, “The Soandso Staff” in Times New Roman.
Yeesh. Ain’t I special.
Whether in an e-mail, hand-written note, via an e-mail newsletter or on Facebook, be attentive, thoughtful, and ready to share things with your clients that will benefit their lives. Don’t spam, don’t hard-sell and upsell, just maintain a positive presence in their lives. The word-of-mouth referrals will flow.
Be real: care, and the clients will follow
Personal attention is the new black, in photography and just about every other industry. People want to be respected and treated as individuals.
The way you handle your follow-ups with each client helps lay the foundation for a lifelong professional relationship. Become 'their' photographer. Establish loyalty when they’re a high school senior, for example, and you’ll be shooting their engagement, bridal, wedding, maternity, newborn, baby, children’s, and family photos for decades to come.
Carl Sewell in his book Customers For Life talks about how a single car sale is only worth a few thousand dollars to a salesman or dealership. But once you add in service, maintenance, repairs, swag, trade-ins, returning buyers and referrals over the course of a lifetime, any given customer is worth over a million dollars.
Take the time to treat every client like they’re worth a million bucks.
Personal attention in the form of thoughtful gestures sprinkled here and there will set you apart from your competition and give you a special place in the entire spectrum of a client’s consumer experiences.
When’s the last time someone with whom you spent $5 or $5,000 bothered to send you, you personally, a link they found for an interesting article on photography?
There lies the big opportunity, my friends.
Whether you’ve read just this final article or followed along with the entire Your First Customer Series, thank you so much for your readership. If it has proven a benefit to your entry into the world of part time professional photography, I am truly thrilled. I am blessed to have the opportunity to share my experiences with you.
I have pages and pages of notes for articles and projects I’m excited to share here on PartTimePhoto.com - these two initial series just scratch the surface of what’s to come. I hope you’ll visit again. You’re invited to bookmark the site and/or click on the handy-dandy free “Subscribe” button at the top of any page of this web site.
Next Steps
- Whether you’ve already shot one or a hundred clients, if you don’t have a customer database going, get started now. Start with your most recent shoot and go back from there. Write down names, family member names and ages, contact information, and everything you can remember about them that could be useful later on: jobs, schools, interests, hobbies, groups and associations, charities, supported causes, etc. Add as many clients as you can remember details for, and then as you gain new clients, add their names and information to your list. Study this list once a month to keep fresh in your mind the many opportunities to share beneficial discoveries with your client base.
- Brainstorm session: What’s the best follow-up from a business you have experienced as a consumer? How many great follow-ups can you recall? Do you see the opportunity here for your own business? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
- We have only just begun, mates. PartTimePhoto.com will continue to grow with new articles, videos, and other great content to help you make the transition from amateur photographer to part time professional. If you like what you’re reading here, feel free to click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
- What have you discovered is your best way to stay top of mind with clients? What have you experienced as a consumer that made you say, “Wow, that company really goes above and beyond for its customers”? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.
Your first photo proofing and sales session - Your First Customer Series, Part 9
(Click here to visit the summary post for the Your First Customer Series!)
Home stretch folks! With this article on the photo proofing and sales session, we focus on the second-to-last article in the Your First Customer Series.
If you're an ethical and honest businessperson, trust me when I say that showing and selling your photos is far less stressful than most beginning professional photographers believe it to be.
You don't have to dress things up or make your art out to be something it's not; you don't have to hard sell or upsell or practice salesman chicanery; you don't have to do anything that makes you squirm in your seat or leaves you reaching for the Pepto-Bismol.
Your goal when proofing photos for clients and "selling" them files, prints, and products, is simple and noble: do everything within your power to help your client get the most long-term enjoyment possible while staying within their budget.
You don't have to try and convince your client to buy something they don't want, but you do want to expose them to options they may not have considered.
For example, I always tell my clients...
"I'm a crappy salesman, I'll tell you that from the start. I have no interest in selling you something you don't want. I want to make sure you end up with something you and your family can enjoy for years and years. Let me give you a few ideas to think about as you're picking out which images you want to buy..."
I then give them information on the products I really, truly feel they will get the most enjoyment from. Wall art for families, wallets for high school seniors, digital files for digital-native families, 8x10's for elderly relatives, whatever suits that client's situation.
So take a deep breath, feed the cat, stock food and drink nearby, and let's dive into the ways you can best present your photos to a buying client and turn them into lifelong customers and referral-makers.
Presentation: Online vs. Live
The vast majority of photogs present proofs to clients in one of two ways: via online galleries or in-person live viewings on a monitor, big screen TV, or projection screen.
I'll tell you right now from bitter experience: live outsells online every time.
Especially when you're starting out, you're likely to be selling to a lower-level buyer - they hired you because you were inexpensive, and they're interested in getting the most value for their dollar. These are folks who are more interested in value than convenience; they're more likely to "borrow" your online proofs, print them out regardless of quality, or just post them to their Facebook profile and never buy anything.
It's no insult to your client to simply recognize trends like these. Even when your client does something that doesn't strike you as fair (or sometimes even legal), you still want to respect them as clients and people and understand that they are coming from a different perspective than you.
There are ways to meet clients like these in the middle so they don't become timesinks with no commensurate payoff in the end, but that's a topic for another article. Today I'll relate these clients to your photo sales session.
Putting images in an online gallery and letting that gallery of photos sell to your client on their own time and turf is a perfectly valid method to move product; but let's be honest, it's not the best way to present your art, educate and help your client get the most long-term enjoyment from their purchase, or build rapport.
A live sit-down with a client gives you face time, lets you build on their overall experience with your business, and lets you play expert adviser. Clients are bound to have questions, and if you're not there to answer them or even help them know what questions they should ask, you're doing a disservice to your art and to their ultimate enjoyment of your art.
That sounds more harsh than I mean it to; I know that most likely your inclination is to use the ease and convenience of online selling to do the heavy social lifting for you. A live proofing and sales session requires that you have a location to meet at (your home, their home, Starbucks) and a method to present your art (Apple iPad, laptop, projection screen) - these technical details come on top of the pressure to impress the client and not come off as a used car salesman. Add in the struggle and inconvenience of trying to match schedules with your client so you can get together and proof images for an hour or so, and online selling takes on a shiny veneer.
You'll gain some time and take a bit of pressure off yourself, but there is a trade-off that I'm not sure balances out: no face time / experience-improving time with the client, no opportunity to educate and assist the client, and because of this, I can guarantee you will get a smaller sale from your shoot.
Clients, especially at the starter level, lean toward buying several small prints of their favorite images - a handful of 4x6's. They're cheap and because of one-hour photo labs, they're familiar to the client. Clients often don't think in terms of wall art, or groupings, or albums, or Facebook audio slideshows.
If you do find a client who buys these kinds of higher-end products from an online gallery, it's most likely because a previous photographer already educated them. If you can avoid it, don't play lackluster second fiddle to a more proactive photographer who came before you. Be that photographer who teaches their clients the value of higher-yield products - show them once, and they'll be better buyers forever.
For years I did online viewings only, simply because it was easy and convenient. But I was consistently disappointed when my clients would buy strings of 4x6 prints, destined to languish in confinement within a dusty album or wooden box, deeply-tucked on someone's bookshelf. My outlook fell to the point where I was just thankful when a client bought anything at all instead of stealing the dang proofs for their MySpace pages - forget about wall art or lay-flat coffee table books.
When I upgraded to live viewings projected on a 10-foot screen, the difference was monumental. I started moving some 16x20's and 20x30's for the first time, started feeling like I was using my expertise to help clients get real value from their buy, and most importantly for my business, revenues and profits both went way, way up.
There's something about a scheduled proofing session where a client shows up, checkbook in hand, that creates the expectation of a notable purchase. It's not as convenient as online, but that's a good thing; it puts the client in the mindset that you are putting serious time and effort into helping them make a smart buy, and they're going to reward you for that with a better purchase.
Online proofing and selling is cheap and easy; what mindset does that put your client in?
It won't bankrupt your business, but online proofing is not going to do you any favors, either. When weighing your options, just be aware of the trade-offs - if they're worth it for your situation or client base, don't hesitate for a moment to go with online. Only you know what works best for you as a person and you as a business.
There are more than plenty of successful photogs who do proofing solely online - it's by no means impossible. But I personally feel there's more to be gained from the personal touch of live proofing, especially for a newly-minted pro photog in desperate need of repeat clients and all the word-of-mouth referrals they can get.
Whatever venue you choose, let's explore how to maximize client adoration and personal profits at the same time - easily and ethically.
Proofing online? Get a retainer
I gladly offer online proofing to clients who prefer it to a live viewing. Sometimes folks just don't have the time or inclination to drive out to the studio a second time. Sometimes they're only in town for a short time and coming back to do a viewing isn't possible.
We have a lot of dude ranches around my town and I pick up many family reunion shoots from their visitors. It's not feasible to ask 12 groups from one big family to come in and view proofs when they're only in town for a weekend - online is by far the better option for all involved.
I've found a simple and fair way to make sure I get paid for my time, run off potential right-clickin' proof bandits, and give my clients an option to view their photos online at their convenience.
First, get a retainer. It's this simple:
"We prefer to bring our clients into the studio to view their proofs on our big, color-calibrated monitors, but in your situation it may make more sense to put the proofs into a private online album so you and your family can look at the images on your time and make your purchase from home.
"We do ask for a $100 retainer to put your proofs into an online album, but you get 100% of that back as print and file credits, so there's no extra charge."
Then shut up! Let the wheels turn in their heads, and they will either agree that the online album is their best choice, or they won't. If they prefer to drive back out for a live viewing, that's their prerogative. If they balk at the retainer, stand your ground - let them know that because of problems you've had in the past, if you didn't collect the retainer, you couldn't offer online proofing at all. If they still balk, and it's a deal breaker for them, let them go - odds are real good they're just looking for a free ride.
I'm a big proponent of very customer-friendly policies, but again - you are a professional and you deserve to be paid for your time. Wild and woolly online proofing combined with my suggested pricing scheme of no session fee and no minimum order just draws too many digital proof bandits.
For the retainer amount, I like 10 times the price of your smallest regular print. If you charge $10 for a 4x6, ask for a $100 retainer. If you charge $40 for anything 8x10 or smaller, ask for a $400 retainer. Scale your retainer to match your print prices and your market – a part-time photographer averaging over $1,000 per client shouldn't have the same online retainer as the startup averaging $50 or $100 per client.
A word about watermarks and copyrights
If you're going to do online proofing, you're going to get right-click proof bandits. The "it's digital therefore it's free to copy" mentality of netizens hasn't waned much, despite the fine efforts by iTunes and company to create attractive alternatives.
I for one love it when my clients "steal" their proofs. Hell, retainer in hand, I encourage it. I tell them...
"You're welcome to 'steal' any of the proofs from your album for your Facebook, MySpace, or to e-mail to friends and family. If you have any favorites that could use some touch-ups, just let me know, and I'll do some custom Photoshop work on them at no charge."
(at least a half dozen grognards just clutched their chests and reached for the Bayer aspirin...)
"The only thing I ask is that you keep my framing on the image with my logo and web address on it."
Never - I repeat, never - have I gotten into a copyright fight with a client over 'stealing' proofs with this practice. If you just take a few minutes to educate them as to what they can and can't do, then find ways to help them do what they want legally and fairly, they'll do the right thing. As always, anyone who doesn't is in the vast minority - don't stress about them.
As with my philosophy on session fees and minimum orders, don't treat your clients like criminals. They're paying clients who love your art and experience and are willing to trade their hard-earned money for it. They've trusted you to do good work - trust them to do right by you. The few who don't aren't worth worrying about to the point that you degrade the experience for all your other clients.
As for how to watermark your images, you can see at the top of any post on this site an example of how I do mine. A semi-transparent thin bar across the bottom of the image with my logo on one side and web address on the other.
I don't write PROOF in massive half-opaque lettering across the center of every image, nor do I put a massive © dead center on every proof, nor do I write DO NOT COPY all over my site and images. Do you think your clients feel respected and valued when you take every blatant precaution to guard against their stealing your photos?
If your default impression of your market is that of a bunch of thieves and criminals hell-bent on pillaging your business into bankruptcy, I'll tell you now, you're in the wrong business. Go into IT security - you'll do great, kid.
Letting my clients post their watermarked proofs on their MySpace and Facebook pages has multiplied the volume of my business. There's little better endorsement marketing you can get than a senior or family using one of your images as their default profile photo for all their hundreds of friends to see.
Educate your clients in a respectful way, then give them credit that they'll do the right thing. They'll respect the fact that you're one of the rare few photographers that doesn't treat them like bank robbers. It's an easy way to differentiate yourself from your competition.
In a future article I'll cover the wide, wide variety of venues you can use to do online proofing. You've got self-hosted, third party-hosted, full-service options and more. I use a self-hosted gallery with a shopping cart plugin. You may prefer to start off with a service like SmugMug to handle your online proofing and sales. You might use a combination of Flickr and e-mail to take orders.
Whatever you use, try to make the experience for your client as pleasant and simple as possible. Don't let the service, technology, or process get between your paying clients and the art they want to buy.
The hardware - Live Viewing and Sales Session
Want to improve your per-client average on sales? Find ways to improve their overall buying experience.
The quality of your art is the first factor in how much you'll earn per client, and what you can charge clients for your work. Second, though, is the experience your clients enjoy while working with you such as, during a proofing and sales session, how you present your art for their perusal and purchase.
Assuming you're starting at the bottom and working your way up, you may do your first in-person proofing session on a slow little laptop in the middle of Starbucks. With time, clients, revenue, and investments back into improving your clients' purchasing experience, you will eventually do live viewings in your own home or studio; on a big screen monitor, projection screen, or perhaps even in a dedicated viewing room with comfy couch, your art on the walls, and a waterfall in the corner.
Or perhaps not - you may prefer the privacy and free-spirited nature of doing location proofing sessions at the local coffee shop or in clients' own homes. I've met photogs who do well with laptops and portable projectors to show full-size proofs right on a client's wall. As they say in car sales, behind the wheel seals the deal.
From my experience, the larger you show your images, the easier it is to sell large prints. Most folks think an 8x10 is a big print, easily large enough to mount on their walls - at least until you show them how glorious their photos look as 16x20's and 20x30's.
Don't discount using prints to sell prints. Many photogs for years have printed 4x6 proofs from photo shoots to use as sales tools. An investment of $10 or $20 on a set of printed proofs, including a few of your best shots as 8x10's or larger, is a smart one.
Consider the benefits of printed proofs: equally effective for proofing on location or in your home/studio, no need for a laptop or computer monitor for display, no investment in new tech or equipment needed, tactile for clients to touch and handle, as mobile as a good laptop with no worries about dead batteries or technical issues, and probably best of all, they're immediately available to sell: consumers pay better for convenience and immediate satisfaction. You can even offer the set of proofs as a single product for a discounted price. What you don't sell you can use as examples for future clients.
However you show proofs to your clients, do so with confidence. Whether it's on a 10-inch netbook or a 10-foot projection screen, feel good about the art you've made together and share it with enthusiasm. Your attitude, as much as your proofing tools, will help you sell your art.
The software - Live Proofing and Sales Session
Any computer you use for proofing is going to come with the software you need to show your art. Windows, Mac and Linux computers all have built-in image viewers that work great for displaying your art full-screen and zoomable.
Upgraded photo viewers, like the Bridge viewer that comes with Photoshop (which is what I use), add some helpful features like being able to tag or otherwise mark images as you view them. This is vastly convenient when you're flipping through photos clients and your client says, "That's a keeper... That's a maybe... Oh, definitely no." Two stars, one star, no stars - then you can sort and segregate accordingly. Easy peasy.
Most photo viewers include a slideshow option, which combined with some nice music, is a great way to initially present a photo shoot to your client. You can do this with your basic viewer and a separate music player like Windows Media Player or iTunes. Some advanced, sometimes expensive, photo viewers can do pretty fancy things to show off your photos. They often include royalty-free stock music that eliminates the legal complexities of what you can and can't play during your presentation.
One of the most popular new photographer services is web-based Animoto, a slideshow program that makes very impressive slideshows easily - and importantly, for you to sell to your clients. A slideshow your clients can easily purchase and share with friends by e-mail or on Facebook is an attractive product that digital-friendly folks will pay well for. Animoto and similar purpose-specific software makes this an easy addition to your product offering.
For your hi-res digital file sales, you'll also want some CD burning software, and if you have a decent printer, good label-making software. I use the freeware CDBurnerXP with the SureThing CD/DVD Labeler software along with the dead easy unitasker Avery CD/DVD Label Applicator to provide impressive CDs to my clients.
I also include a little "Copyright and License.txt" file on each CD which includes my contact info and in layman's terms outlines what I ask clients to do or not do with their images. When I'm sitting with a client and burning their CD, I tell them about the file and what it's for. Again, educate your clients and they'll do right by you.
Location, location, location
There's a great deal of talk and sometimes money put into where photographers hold court for their proofing and sales sessions. Some photogs do so in their clients' homes, some do it in Starbucks on a laptop, some have beautiful and elaborate sales rooms.
While I believe in creating the most positive and memorable (as Seth Godin would say, 'remark-able') experience possible for your clients, I'm also mighty frugal. I don't think having a professionally-decorated sales room is overly beneficial if you're selling to a low-end market. Does Wal-Mart have leather couches and fountains in its bathrooms? No, but The Madonna Inn of California sure does.
Scale your presentation to your market. Most of us want to end up in the fancy sales room with the projection screen and canvas prints on the walls, but that in no way means you have to or should start there.
Wherever and however you do your proofing and sales, be confident and comfortable. Don't be ashamed if the best you can do is a set of 4x6 proofs laid out on your client's dining table. Don't be ashamed if you're showing images in Windows Photo Gallery on a 10-inch netbook. Focus your energy on helping your client get the most enjoyment from their purchase and you'll quickly bypass any imperfections in your presentation.
As an aside, I've always loved coffeehouses for client meetings. It's modern, it's artsy, it smells fantastic, the atmosphere is light and friendly, and four bucks is a great deal to 'rent' a table for a couple of hours.
Preparing To Proof
Okay – you've got a location and method for showing proofs to your client. Let's get ready to make some money!
Regardless of where and how you present your proofs, be prepared:
- Dress nice and smell fresh. Don't go overboard on the cologne or perfume. Remember, you're still making an impression – present yourself as professionally as you present your art.
- If presenting on location, make sure batteries are charged and carrying case or bag is clean and organized. If you're nervous, do a run-through of the entire process before your presentation. Software should be working great, your slideshow should look and sound good, photos all where you expect them to be and looking their best.
If you're meeting a client at their house:
- Smile a lot, accept any hospitalities your host extend (drinks, snacks, tour of the house or property). Don't take anything you don't like, but allow your clients to be gracious hosts.
- Take control – find a great spot to present your art. A kitchen table is usually a good neutral ground where everyone can snuggle up and get a close look at the images together. Everyone should be comfortable and able to easily see the proofs.
If you're meeting a client at a middle ground like a coffeehouse:
- Needless to say, get there first and get set up. As with an in-home sales session, find a great place to set up where clients can be comfortable and see your art. Try to find a quiet corner so everyone can be heard easily.
- Make sure your waiter or barista knows your name and that you're meeting a business client. Let them know your client's tab is to go on your bill, no question. Show forethought and preparation – your client will be both gratified and impressed. Consider a couple cups of coffee, glass of wine, or cappuccino a very worthwhile business investment.
If you're meeting a client at your home:
- Be set up and ready to roll when your client arrives. Make sure the room is comfortable in temperature and light, that everything is clean. tidy, and dust-free, and that you have drinks and snacks available. For adult clients, it's not inappropriate to offer a glass of wine. Having coffee brewed or brewing can also create a nice aroma and show your consideration of your client's potential needs. Spray a light air freshener if you like – as with cologne and perfume, don't overdo it.
- Make sure distractions are limited. Turn off the phone, TV, and radio unless it's providing the soundtrack for your sales session. Have your spouse take the kids outside to play, out of earshot, and let them know not to disturb you during your session. Same with pets – a barking, jumping, scratching, whimpering dog will only annoy your client. You have control over your home, your domain – design as pleasant and delightful an experience as possible.
- Don't forget to clean the yard and entry to your home. A great sales room only does you so much good when your client steps in dog poop or trips over your son's bicycle on their way into your home.
Presenting & Selling
This is the moment that many new photogs worry about so much – showing art to a client and taking their money for it.
But if you've done your job – listened to your client, conducted an attentive photo shoot, and prepared your images and environment for presentation – this is one of the easiest and best parts of being a professional photographer.
Be confident. Feel good about getting to share the custom art you made for your client. There’s nothing to fear, so don’t let fear bog you down with nervous thoughts like, “What if my art’s not good enough? What if they’re disappointed in my photos? What if they think my prices are too high?”
Listen – your clients already want your art. If you ethically marketed yourself, your clients knew what they were buying before they booked with you. If you took your shoot seriously, did your homework, practiced, and then performed to your best ability, you'll likely deliver art and an experience far beyond their expectations.
I like to start my proofing session with a slideshow. Often just a fade transition with some select tracks (legally licensed) playing in iTunes. It may take a few minutes, but a good slideshow with music can set the mood for your entire session.
As soon as the slideshow ends, let your clients share any comments of admiration, then be sure to compliment them on the shoot – tell them how much you enjoyed shooting with them and feel free to share an anecdote about one or two select images from the shoot. If you exude positivity and enthusiasm, so will your clients.
Here's my general process (and as always, philosophy) to help you help your client get the most out of their art purchase:
I start, as noted above, by telling my clients I'm a horrible salesman and that my intention is only to help them buy what will give them the most long-term enjoyment and personal value.
“With that said...” I tell them what kinds of products I think they would get the most enjoyment from. Depending on the buyer (senior, senior parent, newborn parent, family of four, family reunion, 50th wedding anniversary, etc.), I'll suggest different products that I feel they will enjoy. I always encourage clients toward more visible and sharable products like wall art for the home, wallet prints for friends, 8x10's for close family, digital files for Facebook profiles, etc.
I tell clients that although most folks lean toward lots of small prints like 4x6's, those tend to end up in boxes and albums that just collect dust and aren't enjoyed daily. Wall art, for example, will become a centerpiece for daily enjoyment by family and a conversation piece with friends and guests.
Clients may ask for a reminder of your prices and a pad to write notes on; have these ready.
Flip through images first to last with your client giving a Yes, No, or Maybe on each one. Let them know this process is to cull down the overall selection and show only the best images they want to consider for purchase.
Once you've primed your client with some ideas and concepts they might not have thought of, tell them to start with the bigger pieces and go down from there, whatever they want to buy. “Start with what you really want to have and enjoy for a long time, and we'll add in the rest as we go.”
After your first pass, clients will usually have cut down the selection by 50-percent or more. Keep in mind what I've said in previous articles – as your art improves, so too improves your ratio of must-have's to good shots to leftovers. As you grow as an artist, clients will have a harder time not buying more and more of your art. You'll see your per-client sales averages grow with every measure of style and experience you gain.
Separate out your No shots from your Yes and Maybe's. Move the Yes and Maybe images into a separate “Best” folder, or if you use a program like Bridge with built-in rating and sorting features, filter that way. Separate the wheat from the chaff so your client can more easily peruse and purchase.
After the initial slideshow and the culling pass, your clients should now have a pretty good idea of their favorite images and what they want to buy. Bring up their Yes and Maybe images in a thumbnail view and make those thumbnails big enough to easily tell one from another (I tend to go for 8-10 on the screen at a time). Slowly scroll through the set, and ask your client what they would like to start with.
At this point, unless your client asks for advice, get out of the way. As they peruse images, slowly scroll through their options, and let them know they can ask you to scroll up or down, or to see an image full-screen. You've primed them to make an educated purchase, so give them control here and hush – let them consider and buy what they love.
If your client does ask your advice, give your honest opinion. If you have comparisons to offer from other clients, give them. If you have a personal opinion, give it. Just be honest, don't try to upsell or be a salesman. You're not trying to make money – you're trying to help. Give advice as you would to a close friend. Treat a client as such, and they will respect you for it – and buy more because of it.
Let clients go down their mental list of what they want and need to buy. As they wind down or seem to get to the end of their list, ask if there's anything or anyone they're forgetting – desktop prints for the workplace, hi-res files for home or office computer wallpaper, prints for grandparents or extended family, prints for close friends or godparents (that's one that is often forgotten), etc. Again, you're not trying to make more money – you're trying to help. You should never have to convince a client to buy something – your role is to present, advise, and facilitate maximum enjoyment.
When your client does finish their purchase, glance at your notes (you were taking notes during your presentation and proofing, no?) to see if there's anything they mentioned wanting that they forgot to buy, then tally the purchase.
The grognards say you should never tally in front of a client. They tell you to go into a separate room to do the adding because, as the numbers climb, so will your client's blood pressure. Walk back in, hit them with the total and without pause say, “How would you like to take care of that?” Don't give them the chance to back out or have second thoughts, they say!
Here in Texas, that's called horses***. Straight-up, hard-selling chicanery. If you have to trick and trample your client into buying beyond their wants or means, your business model is flawed, to say the least.
That said, when you do give your client a total cost, shut up! Photogs new to selling and not yet confident in the worth of their art are all too ready to start offering discounts and concessions, even before the client says a word.
“Well, umh, uhh, geez, ehh, the total is $254.42, but that's a lot of money...how about $200 even? Is that okay? I can throw in some free 20x30's, would that be alright? Or I could just give it to you for half off, err, uhh, how about just $125? Is that too much? I'll throw in FedEx overnight shipping for free...”
To quote The Interwebs, “STFU!”
“Your total today is $254.42,” said with an adoring smile.
“Alright, will you take a check?”
“Certainly.”
Easy peasy.
Is that what you were so scared of?
If a client does balk at your prices or the total of their order, don't devalue your work by providing discounts and concessions; offer to help them reduce the size of their order. Never negotiate or start discounting just because a client doesn't want to pay your prices. Your art is worth what you ask, probably even more, but there's no reason you can't help a client identify where they can trim their order and still get great products to enjoy.
No matter what a client buys or how much they spend, treat them all with the same respect and enthusiasm. If a client buys one $10 digital file on CD, don't scoff or insult their purchase. If a client buys $2,000 in massive prints, don't fall out of your chair or become star-struck and gushy. Whatever the purchase may be, show humility, gratitude, and professionalism.
And don’t ever feel guilty for taking someone’s money. I’ve spoken with plenty of new pro photogs who expressed guilt for taking a hundred or so dollars from a client. Again, your art is probably worth more than what you’re asking, and it’s every bit the client’s right to buy what they want and can afford. If you sell to them ethically and honestly, you never have to feel bad for taking clients’ money. Most clients will hand you a check while thanking you for doing the work you do - it’s a good profession we are in.
Remember: just because you wouldn’t pay your own prices or couldn’t afford them, doesn’t mean your clients won’t or can’t.
Finishing Touches
Take your client’s payment and thank them for their business and the opportunity to work with them.
If you didn’t at the photo shoot, have them sign your model release right after they sign their check. Ask if you can send them your e-mail newsletter and/or add them as a friend on Facebook.
Explain what happens next; that their print order should arrive from the lab within 3-5 business days, or their CD will be available for pick-up in 15 minutes, or whatever is appropriate for their order and your delivery policies.
As soon as your client is out of sight, perform a well-articulated fist pump.
Soak it up - you’re a money-making professional photographer! Truly, from me to you, congratulations!
There’s one more article to go in this series: The Follow-up. I’ll share with you some hints and tips to make a great impression with your clients after the sale, and how to maintain a positive presence in their lives so you get the most and best word-of-mouth marketing possible.
As a side note, thanks for sticking with this article beginning to end. Six-thousand-plus words is a beast of an article to read online (roughly equivalent in size to 17 pages in a novel), but I hope what I presented here will greatly benefit your photography business. With a pinch of confidence and a lot of respect and love for your clients, you’ll soon have to hire people to count your money.
Next Steps
- Educate yourself on what royalty-free music is and where you can get it. Photogs don’t want people violating their copyrights, so don’t violate the copyrights of your fellow artists.
- Brainstorm session: Unless you’ve been hanging out in Tibet all your life, you’ve probably been a pretty regular consumer of commercial goods. You buy food, cars, electronics, toys, clothes, etc. What are some of the best sales / buying experiences you remember? What made them special? What about those experiences can you emulate in your own sales sessions? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
- From tasty tidbits to long-form journalism, I do my best with PartTimePhoto.com to share my experiences as a part time professional photographer so you can confidently make your transition from an amateur photographer to a paid professional. If you like what you’re reading here, feel free to click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
- What was your best-ever proofing and sales session like? How about your worst? What tips have you picked up that have helped you better thrill your clients and sell your art? Leave a comment below or drop me an e-mail.
Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot - Your First Customer Series, Part 8
(Click here to visit the summary post for the Your First Customer Series!)
The hardest part is truly over.
You’ve booked your first client, gone through a well-prepared and methodically-conducted photo shoot with them, and now you’ve got a few hundred images that you need to turn into a sales presentation.
Here’s where you get to admire your work and start making notes on likes and dislikes and what-to-do’s and what-not-to-do’s for next time and what to practice before your next shoot.
Assuming you’ve backed up your images to a second or external hard drive (I’m partial to Iomega and Seagate options myself), let’s start culling the shoot down to a digestible set of your most salable images and then give them some Photoshop love.
Culling your shoot
This is going to be painful. Gird yourself.
No matter how many photos you took during your shoot, no matter how many subtle nuances captured, no matter the number of seemingly equal variations, we’ve got to cull your shoot down to the very best.
How many? The number 50 has always been a good fit for me. If you primarily push large wall prints, a smaller and more purposeful set may be appropriate. For those of us in the digital age, selling digital files, 50 gives your client a good set to choose from. You’ll hope that your client asks “How much for all of them?” or that your client will cull your set down by half to around 25 and buy that many. If they buy less, they are usually on a strict budget and weren’t going to buy more anyway.
Nothing wrong with that at all - some clients buy more, some less, and 95% of the time you’ll more than have your time well paid for. When you don't, you still gained experience and additions to your portfolio.
The best way to go about culling is to do an initial run and pick all your potential keepers. If you shot 400 images, by the time you toss all the bad expressions, half-closed zombie eyes, unflattering outtakes, and of course, utterly crap and/or out-of-focus images, you will end up with around 100 shots to concern yourself with.
Here’s where we take up the sage advice of two great thinkers of modern times, Steve Krug and Blaise Pascal:
“Get rid of half the text on your page, then get rid of half of what’s left.” - Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think
“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” - Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales
The point being, of course, that your first edit should not be your last.
If you don’t cull your shoot down to the very best, you’ll get two results:
A) Your client will be overwhelmed with so many photos to choose from and you’ll just end up wasting your time and theirs trying to whittle down their selection. You will likely frustrate and exhaust them in the process; and,
B) You will include too many “meh” photos, too many fair-to-middlin’ shots, and your client will be less impressed with your work. I shoot often with a fellow sports photog, very talented, whom I have long criticized (to his face, so I can talk smack here) for posting sooooo many images online. Backs of heads, no action, bad expressions… I tell him, “John Doe, you take some really good shots, but nobody’s going to wade through your 400 mediocre images to find your 40 real keepers.”
Fifty. 50. That’s the number to aim for.
Don’t kill yourself to get there, and have confidence in your artistic impression. If you feel you’ve got 80 really good shots and variations, show’em. If you feel you only have 25, then show only those. Give yourself some credit for knowing your art.
Many photogs will tell you that 50 is a loose cull, that you should get it close to 20 to show. I’ve found with portraiture, often my clients will go gaga over images that I wouldn’t have shown if I went with a tighter cull.
There’s art I shoot for myself and there’s certainly art that I shoot just for my clients; my art creates my style, but always, you want to balance style with salability. There’s something to be said for old standbys that sell every time.
If you’re having trouble finding 25-50 good images from your shoot, don’t stress - you’re early on in your transition to being a paid part time professional photographer, so give yourself some leeway. Try to find at least 20-25 images and let the client choose what they feel is worth trading their money for. Maybe they’ll drop $20 with you - just maybe they’ll drop $200. Some clients will spend as much on one big print of one favorite image as others may spend buying 20 digital files. Never underestimate your art or your clients. Give them the power of choice and get out of their way. Let’em buy what they love.
Post-processing
During your initial run of post-processing on the images you’ll present to your client, you want to stick to the 80-20 rule: 80% of the results from 20% of the effort.
You want to make your images look as nice as possible in the smallest amount of time. You don’t know what your client might buy, but you want to make a nice presentation so they are more inclined to purchase. Here, in the endless exploration that is Photoshop or your chosen equivalent, is where you can waste as much time as any marathon Facebook or MySpace session.
Don't do it. Get in, make the proofs pop, and get out.
When I prep files for client proofing, I load them into Camera Raw in Photoshop CS4 (adjust my instructions to fit your digital darkroom of choice) and make universal adjustments to the entire shoot. I adjust white balance, brighten to taste, add a bit of contrast, bump the vibrancy, add a vignette if it's warranted, and add as much fill light as I want to pull detail from the shadows.
I then quickly go image-by-image and fine-tune those changes I made universally to best fit that image. Sometimes I’ll grab a group of images, such as a set shot in shade, a set shot indoors, etc., and edit them together before making image-by-image adjustments.
What you adjust and where you take your image artistically is your call; it’s your art to create.
What you do in camera is only half the battle; what you do in post is almost as important as nailing the shot in the first place.
You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but showing your decent-and-better images some Photoshop love (without going hog wild…ha!) will only multiply their impressiveness and salability.
Once you’ve given each image a few seconds of attention in post, go back through and pick a handful (3-5) of your very favorites to do some extra post work on and add black-and-white versions of these. Use your spot healing brush to clean up blemishes and lines, soften skin, even out skin tones, dodge and burn to make the image pop where it should, then save a color version and black-and-white copy.
These will be your marquee images that really ring with clients during your sales session. Even if a client doesn’t buy one, they will see what you’re capable of doing with their favorite picks.
I’ll go into further detail on post-processing ideas and techniques in future articles; for now, just do what you know, do your best, and make those photos look nice. Just like learning to take great portraits in camera, learning to do good post work will take time and practice. Enjoy the fact that you’re getting paid all the while!
Take notes on what to improve
Want to multiply the rate at which you improve as an artist? As I mentioned in my Your First Photo Shoot article, taking notes on what you like and don’t like from your shoot will give you some real guidelines for how to improve your work.
When you’re done culling and post processing your shoot, make another pass through the images with notepad (physical or digital) in hand and write down another set of notes:
- What are your favorite images from the shoot? Why? Go into detail, explore your own artistic vision and preferences. Be verbose. You want to identify what to repeat next time.
- What are your least favorite images? Why? Be detailed here also. Is it the background? Lighting? Expression? Pose? Moment? Weather? Angle? Aperture?
- With this in mind, what are you going to do on your next shoot to create more favorites and fewer least favorites?
- What images do you think your client will love and buy? Do they differ from your own favorites as the photographer? Why? How can you balance the two styles? Step outside your own biased perspective and look at the images as a parent, senior, or bride.
- What resources (books, magazines, web sites, tutorials, forums, practice) can you draw on between now and your next shoot to better your best shots and bring your worst up from the trash bin? Try to identify at least one area of your art to better your knowledge in before your next shoot. Define a path to improve your photography.
- What will you do on your next shoot to create a better experience and better set of images for your client? This is a repeat from the last article, but worth doing again to both reinforce and introduce new ideas gained after post-processing.
In Part 9 of what is turning out to be a 10-part series, I’ll walk you through your first proofing and sales session. You’ll learn how to sell ethically and easily, letting your art and business policies do the hard work for you.
Next Steps
- If you’ve ever done a single photo shoot with anyone, for money or fun, go back over your images from that shoot and answer the note-taking questions posed above. As with your shoot, slow down and really evaluate. It doesn’t matter if you’ve done one or a thousand shoots; slow down and give yourself the opportunity to be conscious of your art and explore how you can make it better.
- Brainstorm session: If you could improve any three things about your art, what would they be? What resources can you find online or in your town that would help? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
- Once this series is complete, I can up the pace of my posting and expound on many of the ideas I’ve touched on throughout. I plan to leave no nuance unnoticed in my effort to help you make the smooth and exciting transition from amateur photographer to paid professional. If you like what you’re reading here, feel free to click the free "Subscribe" link at the top of any page of this web site.
- What’s one of the best post-processing tips or methods you’ve learned to improve your images after a shoot? Leave a comment below or drop me an e-mail.
Your first photo shoot: expectations and results - Your First Customer Series, Part 7
(Click here to visit the summary post for the Your First Customer Series!)
Ooh baby, it’s showtime.
(Speaking of showtime, here’s tip #1 for starting your first photo shoot right: show up on time. And on time means at least 10-15 minutes early. Guaranteed: if you don't, your client will.)
You’ve booked your first client, gone over your personalized pre-shoot checklist, and just parked at the location you chose for your first official photo shoot. Grab the paper bag, don’t hyperventilate, and get ready for a terrifyingly exciting ride. Here’s where you get to shine - here’s where you create art that your client can’t live without buying.
Okay, assuming this really is your first rodeo, a more reasonable goal may be to just walk away an hour later with images that are in focus and salvageable in Photoshop.
Just like anyone who has ever tried their hand at “something new,” your first time isn’t going to be your best. I don’t believe so much in aiming for the stars and landing in the heavens as I believe in mindful preparation and doing your best. It's all that can be asked.
You can knock it out of the park later on; for now, let’s just worry about getting around the bases, one at a time.
Slow down
On your first shoot, you’re going to deal with a heap of emotions and self-induced pressure:
- You don’t want to come off as a clueless amateur.
- You don’t want to give a bad impression and be talked poorly of.
- You don’t want your client telling all their friends how horrible a photographer you are and ending your career before it starts.
- You don’t want to throw up on your client.
- You don’t want to pass out.
- You don’t want to forget every single thing you’ve learned about portrait photography and end up with nothing but out-of-focus photos of people’s faces, contorted in disgust and venomous rage over your session being a complete waste of their time.
It ain’t pretty, but it’s true; you will probably be struck with the fear of any one of these escalating nightmares coming true. The good news is, they are nothing but fears; reality, I can tell you from experience, is far, far kinder than your own imagination.
More good news is, the first thing to do on your shoot is slow down.
(Repeat for effect: s l o o o w d o o o w n.)
The quickest way you will screw up your entire photo shoot is if you get nervous, worry too much about impressing the client, and melt into a lightheaded rush.
When you show up (early!) for your shoot, sit in your car and relax to some good tunes. Close your eyes. Take some deep breaths. Strike up the ol’ affirmations if you want: “I see myself taking my time, smiling and enjoying shooting with my client, and making the best photos I can for them.”
Deep breath.
Repeat.
Now that you’ve got your head on straight, step out of your car and don’t touch your gear. Close the car door.
Stretch. Breathe.
Look around. Smile and thank the stars you’re here today living the dream.
Start assessing the location you’ll be shooting at. Walk through the shoot in your head. Where’s an easy place to start out? Look for a comfortable place for you and your client, quiet preferably, with easy lighting and backgrounds, to test equipment and play get-to-know-you. If you did a dry run at the location during your pre-shoot checklist, just walk through your vision for the shoot one more time as a refresher.
Once you’ve surveyed the area and have your first few spots picked out to shoot at, pull your gear out and quickly test everything. Make sure your gear is where you want it and your camera settings are where you want them to be.
Feel free to walk over to your first setup (we’ll call good shooting spots ‘setups’), snap a few shots, and evaluate for exposure and background. Get things set to where you like them in your camera so when your client arrives, you won’t be fiddling too much with gear as you lead them into their first shots.
Client arrival & encouragement
When your client arrives at the location, do all the charming things your mother taught you. Greet warmly, firm handshake, smile, chat nicely, ask questions, laugh. Have some fun. Be serious about making the best images you can, but you’re not foreclosing on someone’s childhood home, you’re taking pretty pictures; allow some levity into the atmosphere.
One of the most important things you'll do with any client is make them feel comfortable and confident. A photo shoot is as much about the experience as the resultant images; from the start, show your client a good time and give them consistent encouragement.
“Hey, we’ve got some beautiful weather today and you look great; we’re going to have an awesome photo shoot.”
“I really like the outfit you picked out, it looks great on you and it’s going to look really good with this scenery.”
“Wow, we’re getting some great photos here; the background is great and you’re really photogenic. I am very happy with these shots.”
To quote my choir teacher from high school, it doesn’t take a mental giant to do this.
Don’t be smitten, don’t be inappropriate with compliments, and sure as hell don’t be insincere. Look at your client with honest and thoughtful eyes and see the best about them to talk about. Maybe their glasses are stylish. Maybe their hair looks great. Maybe they look like a train wreck, so compliment their distinctive style.
Just a few words of encouragement sprinkled throughout a photo shoot can relax your client, who is almost guaranteed to be more nervous and uncomfortable than you are. Give them some confidence, their guard will go down, and you can really connect and make some images that show their best.
Chat with your client as much as you like before your shoot; let them know you’ve got some ideas for great pictures, but you want to know if they’re looking for anything specific or Artist’s Choice. Nine times out of 10, they just want you to do what you do best, but it’s good to ask. Help your client feel empowered as well as encouraged - if they don’t want the power, then make them feel they are in good hands. Some gentility and a good attitude will take you far in your art and business.
Once you’ve got a rapport going, it’s time to step up to the plate. Lead them to your first setup and get to work - showtime.
Your first shots
Your first shots - in fact, most of the shots you’ll take - will be test shots.
Get your client in place at your first setup, let them know they can relax while you do some shots to “test the lighting,” and do just that - snap a few and see what you get.
Here’s where we slow down - here’s where we guarantee the best possible images from your first photo shoot.
What you’re going to do is snap a few shots, then pause to look at them on your camera. You’re going to evaluate every set of images you make, and then make adjustments to get better and better photos.
- Look at your exposure: Too bright? Too dark? Just right? Remember, expose for your subject, not the background; don’t silhouette your subject with a perfectly-exposed sky behind them, and don’t blow out the human in the photo to get a nice exposure on the dark tree behind them. Try to shoot from an angle that gives you a background as even as possible with the light on your subject. When you can’t, don’t sweat: just remember, expose for the subject, not the background.
- Look at your settings: How’s your shutter speed? F-stop? If your shutter is too slow, you’re going to get blurry photos from camera shake or subject movement. If your F-stop is too low / wide, you’ll only have inches of depth-of-field to work with and you’ll likely end up with the best part of your subject, their eyes, out of focus. Raise your ISO if you need to give yourself a boost on either of these other settings.
- Look at your background: What’s going on behind your subject? Is it a clean, complimentary background? Are there people, cars, signposts, trash cans, or other distractions? Are there any trees, flagpoles, or telephone poles growing out of their heads? Adjust your angle up, down, or sideways to clean up your background.
- Look at your subject: Books have been written on how best to photograph the human face. For your first shoot, we'll take aim at just a few biggies: shadows, expression, pose. This is where you’ll work your magic with a client to capture their best in your photos. Let’s give this one it’s own subhead...
Look at your subject
Here’s where so many photographers new to portraiture get discouraged and lose confidence. What you observe and adjust about your client’s face to get the best possible image will separate you from the wannabe’s.
Shadows: Unless you’re going for an artsy look, you want nice, soft, even lighting across your subject’s face. You want both eyes to catch some light and have life in them. You want light to come from roughly 45 degrees above and behind you, off to either side up to 45 degrees if you like.
This is why midday portraits are so challenging: your subject is lit from directly above, hiding the eyes and casting unflattering shadows.
Adjust your client’s body and face left, right, up, down, spin them around if you have to, to get pleasant light on their face. Remember that the camera will magnify the depth of shadows, so as with every setup you do, take some test shots and evaluate.
Harsh lighting is the most common challenge you’ll face shooting outdoors. If your client faces the sun, they’ll squint and tear up; if they turn sideways to the sun, half their face disappears; if they turn 180 degrees to the sun, their hair will blow out; if you put them fully in the shade, your background will probably be overexposed.
This is something you’ll have to learn to overcome with experience and practice. Be mindful of it as you shoot, keeping an eye on your subject’s face and the background behind them.
Above all else, no matter what other factors involve themselves, you want to properly expose your subject’s face and capture the best expression you can. In the sales session, your client will care far more about your getting a great photo of them than a perfect exposure on the background behind them.
Expression: Here’s where it pays off when you encourage your client and instill in them some confidence in front of your camera.
Getting an honest, personal, individual, telling expression out of a client is an art in itself; certainly worth of its own article in the future. There is so much nuance and psychology and personality involved in drawing out the best expression from a client.
Putting your client in the wildly unnatural position of being photographed, recorded, vulnerable in front of the camera, and then getting perfectly natural photos of them in that situation, is an area you will learn to master as you grow as a professional photographer.
Use your charm and social judgment to get natural expressions from your client. Get them to laugh. Get them to make goofy faces at you. Get them to look angry. Then happy. Then super-happy. Then angry again. This role playing will almost always draw a laugh or smirk out of them. Help them loosen up and be themselves and you’ll capture the best of them.
Pose: Posing is another factor in getting the best images of your client. This is also a subject about which many books have been published. In fact, go buy one or two right now. The illustrations and advice will give you far more knowledge and confidence than I can instill with mere words here.
In brief, you want to pose your client in a natural way that best compliments their unique body characteristics. In many ways, you want your posing to reduce or eliminate so-called “flaws.”
Double chins, big foreheads, big ears, big noses, lazy eyes, flabby arms, muffin-tops… You’ve got your work cut out for you, my friend.
But fear not! Honestly, most clients are reasonable human beings and know exactly what they look like, “flaws” and all. Play up their best features and reduce what they don’t like so much. As in all things, do your best; you’ll do fine.
Seriously though, invest some money in a good posing book or some time on a good web site that teaches posing. Even if you throw out all the canned “tried and true traditional” poses, what you learn about using poses and lighting to best compliment different faces and body types will pay dividends in every portrait you shoot.
Everyone is beautiful in their unique way, about this I have no question. It is a joy to me as a photographer to get to know and understand a client, to connect with them, and to best capture what makes them a beautiful person in this world. Sometimes it’s a laugh, a smile, a raised eyebrow, a stoic presence, a spiritual vibe, a loving aura…beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Step up - here’s where you earn your supper.
Pacing the shoot
Remember, you’re in control of your shoot. But for random acts of God, you’re given the reigns when it comes to pacing your shoot.
And I’ll say again: slow down.
You’re in a photo shoot. There’s no rush, there’s nowhere to be, there’s no finish line to cross. You’ll probably be shooting for around an hour or so, which is plenty of time to get a wide variety of great images with your client in a variety of setups.
Be methodical: set up, pose, shoot a few testers, evaluate, adjust, test, evaluate, adjust, test, shoot for real and work on capturing the best expressions and moments you can.
Getting the best possible shots during a shoot is a lot like solving a puzzle. Pace yourself and enjoy the experience just like you would while doing a good crossword puzzle, playing Jenga, or getting in a game of The Sims.
The very fact that you’re reading this article right now means you are miles ahead of most people, in artistic investment and business acumen. Take pride: even if you haven’t shot your first client yet, the education you are providing yourself through this blog and other sites and sources is putting you head and shoulders above most people to have ever touched a camera. You care. You're trying. And that's worth a lot.
As you proceed from setup to setup, work over your subject from different angles and distances at each spot. If you’re shooting them at a park bench, get a nice close headshot, then a layback shot on the bench, then some wide shots of them sitting on the bench, then doing a handstand on the bench - or whatever you want.
Nail your must-have shots, your bread-and-butter images that you know will sell well after the shoot, then experiment. Play around with ideas and just let your creativity flow. Once you feel you’ve worked over a setup for all the shots it has to give, move on to the next setup.
Repeat until your time is up.
Don’t be afraid to shoot the same shot at different times and setups throughout your shoot. Give yourself plenty of variety to choose from during post-processing. Keep shooting, testing, evaluating, adjusting, and shooting some more. Trust me; the headshot you get of your client toward the end of your shoot will probably be far more natural and pleasant than the first of the day.
Calling it a day
When time is up on your shoot, again turn on that charm your mother taught you and send your client off with more encouragement.
“This was a really great photo shoot, thank you so much for the opportunity. I really enjoyed it and I think we made some great photos today.”
“I’m really happy with how everything went today. The weather was right and you were really working the camera. We’re going to have some great photos to look at.”
“I think we got some photos today that you guys will really like. This is a great place for a photo shoot and we caught some great evening light.”
Lead your client back to your car and explain to them the remainder of the photo buying process:
- Show them your standard model release, explain what it means and what it’s for (“This just gives me your permission to use your photos in my portfolio or in an ad for my [senior, bridal, family, baby, whatever] photography business.”), and have them fill it out, including contact information and e-mail address.
- Ask if they enjoyed the photo shoot. Then ask if you may add their e-mail address to your newsletter list. If you offer a coupon for new subscribers, let them know what they’ll get and how they can use it during the coming proofing and sales session.
- Let them know you shot a ton of photos, but you’ll cull them down to the best from each pose and setup, looking for the best expressions and moments. If you recall a specific shot from the shoot that you know is good, mention it as an example. (“I loved the shot of you laying back on the park bench, the light was just right on your face; that will definitely be in there.”)
- Set a date, time, and location for your client to get with you to view the proofs and buy their prints and files. If they want the images in a private online album, collect your retainer for this service and let them know when they can expect an e-mail from you with a link to the images.
- Ask if they have any other questions, thank them for a great shoot, and then release them back into the sea.
Congratulations - you’ve survived your first photo shoot! Hopefully with grace and aplomb, but if not, no worries. So long as you were courteous, encouraging, had some fun, and made some solid images, you’ve had a pretty fantastic first shoot.
If you threw up on the client and all your shots were out of focus…well, everybody has to start somewhere!
:D
Taking notes on what to improve
Do you want to multiply the rate at which you improve as a photographer? Whip out a pad and pencil (or digital equivalent) as soon as your client leaves and get ready to jot some notes.
It's easy to get caught up in the excitement and flow of a shoot, then the euphoria of its end, without ever really slowing down to take stock of what went right and what went wrong.
The secret is to be conscious of your work.
Just like slowing down to evaluate each set of images you make during the shoot, you want to take a moment after to take note of your thoughts on how to improve for next time.
Pencil, stylus, keyboard, or touchscreen in hand, answer these questions:
- What was your favorite part of the shoot? Go into detail. Was it nailing a certain shot? Joking with the client? Getting to know the client and making better images for it? You tell me.
- What was the worst part of the shoot? Nerves before? Mind-melt during? Did the client have no sense of humor? Did you have no sense of humor? Details.
- What do you think your client's favorite and worst parts of the shoot were? Do these differ from yours? Try to step into their shoes as self-conscious and inexperienced subjects and explore what you feel they most and least enjoyed.
- This knowledge in hand, what can you do differently or better next time to improve your client's experience?
- Briefly looking at your images on camera, what do you like and dislike from the shoot? Best? Worst? Why? Where did you ace it, and where did you miss? How can you do better next time? Be specific; give yourself something real to grab onto and improve.
Head home, plug your card into your computer, back up your images, then back’em up again to a second or external hard drive.
In the coming final articles of this series, I’ll go over culling+post-processing, the proofing+sales session, and how to follow-up like a rock star.
Next Steps
- Take another pass through the Flickr archives to see what kinds of portraits other photographers are making in the great outdoors.
- Like a good actress or actor, grab a mirror, and talk out some of your photographer-client shpeel. Have a mock conversation with a client, from introductions on location to posing and joking around to fond farewells. Have fun. Be silly. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Life is good.
- Brainstorm session: What’s the worst thing that could happen on your photo shoot? What’s the most realistic worst thing that could happen? How can you prepare for it? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
- What was your first photo shoot like? What were the biggest lessons you learned? Leave a comment below or drop me an e-mail.
Your pre-photo-shoot checklist in four easy steps - Your First Customer Series, Part 6
(Click here to visit the summary post for the Your First Customer Series!)
Booked your first shoot? Pat yourself on the back; the hardest part is done.
Truly, there’s a reason why most successful photogs will tell you professional photography is 95% business and 5% photography. Getting clients in the door is the great challenge of any new business, artistic and service-based or otherwise.
So congratulations - with your first shoot on the books, it’s time to go down your pre-shoot checklist and make sure you’ve got all your waterfowl properly aligned. Nothing will make your first and forthcoming shoots go more smoothly and comfortably than a healthy dose of preparedness.
Step 1 - Confirm the shoot
Leading up to the date of your photo shoot, contact your client a few days before to thank them for their booking and confirm the date, time, location and meeting place for your shoot.
Answer any last-minute questions they may have about wardrobe or anything else.
Give them a weather update. Visit weatherunderground.com or a similar site to see what the forecast is for the day of your shoot. Have a bad weather back-up or rescheduling plan. Set the expectation that you want your client to have. For example, I tell my clients that if the weather gets iffy the day of the shoot, I’ll call them to confirm or reschedule the shoot that morning. Then I follow-through - not knowing what should happen or is happening is a big source of stress in any situation. Always work to dissipate the chance for such stress.
As I’ve said many times, your art takes time to grow, but you can provide attentive, fantastic customer service like this starting with your very first shoot.
Step 2 - Your “Plenty of Time” Checklist
Right after you confirm the shoot is on with your client, go through your first round of preparations:
- If you haven’t picked up your camera lately, do a dry run through all the gear you’ll be using. Pop in the battery, pop in the memory card, walk around and snap some photos. Plan on using an external flash? Load the batteries and snap some test shots. This is just to make sure all the gear you intend to use is in full working condition and working the way you want it to. If you’re going to have a problem, now’s the time to have it.
- Is anything not working? Do you have backups for crucial items like batteries and memory cards? Grab a third-party backup camera battery and a cheap 1GB memory card if that’s all you can afford, but try to always have a backup. Try to have a backup camera body if you can, even if it’s just a decent point and shoot or - if necessary - a decent camera phone.
- Day by day, stay abreast of the weather situation and forecast. Assuming at this point you are shooting outdoors with no off-camera flash or strobes, you’re at the mercy of Mother Nature. Respect her.
- If time permits, do a walk through of the location you’ll be shooting at during the time of day you’ve booked to shoot. Look for cool nooks and crannies to get fun photos in. Look for attractive and evenly-lit backgrounds and foregrounds. What exactly you’re looking for will change depending on whether you’re shooting a high school senior or a newborn or a family of four. But familiarity with your location before you’re there with clients will make the experience more fluid for them and you will be more confident throughout.
- If this is truly your first time with this kind of client or location (senior in a park, 50th wedding anniversary at a church, etc.), hit your favorite photography forum and post a request for some pointers and ideas. Fellow photographers are always a deep well of great experience and fresh perspectives. Ignore any discouraging bullbutter any grognards may heap your way, and take the good stuff to heart as you plan your shoot.
- Raid the ark of inspiration that is Flickr’s talented artists. Do a search for photography in the type of location you’ll be shooting at and with the kind of people you’re shooting, such as family portraits in the park, or high school senior photos at a junk yard. Take note of anything that inspires you - analyze what you like about your favorite images and solve the puzzle of figuring out how you can make those types of images happen on your shoot. Perfection is not required, just an idea of what you’re aiming for. Start building your shot list.
- Your shot list? Ahh, here’s one that some cocky starving artists don’t care for. That’s why the poor anemic things look like they’ve been living off two Starbucks lattes a day since they hit puberty. The shot list is good stuff, and unless you’re someone who can draw upon The Muse at will and MacGyver your way through a photo shoot with just a pinhole camera and your own force of will, said shot list will give you a big boost in confidence, flow, and most importantly, salable results.
In fact, let’s give The Shot List it’s own subhead:
Step 2.5 - The Shot List
Your shot list is a collection of images, ideas, and setups you want to work your way through on your forthcoming photo shoot.
In the beginning, your shot list may take the form of a scrapbook or folder with photos, notes, printed web pages, setup diagrams, and roughly illustrated concepts. As you grow as an artist, you’ll transition from a physical shot list to a purely mental one. With enough time and experience shooting all kinds of people, styles, locations and lighting, you’ll have enough swagger to let The Muse guide you through most shoots.
But for now, let’s assume that the second you shake your client’s hand, all your intensive research and creative inspiration will transmute to grass growing in bullet time. Honestly, that’s probably what will happen. Again, good preparation can diffuse this stressful problem before it starts.
Check out my article on the top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people for a strong jumpstart to your shot list.
What you want on your shot list are enough go-to resources to keep you flowing through your photo shoot when your brain quits on you. And you want enough variety to show your client a wide range of imagery during your sales session.
It’s easier to sell a client one image each of 20 different setups than to sell three images each of only six or seven setups.
Start with some easy setups; some simple, specific poses and places that let you get into your groove and to make your subject comfortable in front of the camera. If you’re shooting a senior near a swimming pool, don’t start with the cannonball drop into the drink. Give yourself and your client some easy stuff to start with so you can both get warmed up.
Add as much fun and artistic stuff to your shot list as you like. This is where you’ll begin to develop your personal artistic style, and experiment with new looks and feelings in your images. Have a solid set of salable images you know you can pull off - then, as time permits during your shoot, try out as much fun and experimental work as strikes your fancy.
You don’t have to go through your entire shot list on every shoot. But starting with a core set of images that let you make salable art with any client, then introducing some fun and artsy stuff with flavor and impact, you’ll be able to put together a robust set of proofs to show and sell.
Your client will very rarely buy every image you shoot. But you better your odds for a happy client and a bigger sale if you give them a smooth experience and lots of variety to choose from, both of which are a direct result of having a good shot list.
Preparation = confidence.
Step 3 - Your “Day Before The Shoot” Checklist
Now that you’ve got a good sense of who, what, and where you’re shooting, let’s get into the technical stuff you’ll want to check off your to-do list the day before your shoot.
- The obvious stuff: charge your batteries (both camera and flash if you use one); dump and clear memory cards; make sure your camera settings are about right for your shoot (TV mode is prepped at a fast enough shutter speed in case you start getting motion blur / camera shake, AV mode is prepped at a wide f-stop in case of low light, Manual mode is about where you think you’ll need to shoot, and your bloody ISO isn’t set to the noisiest-possible 1600 or H setting).
- Gather and pack your gear, including bodies, lenses, batteries, cards, flashes, tripod, backups, and anything else you need for your shoot. Try to get everything you need into one camera bag so that if you remember to bring anything, you’ll have everything.
- If you’re not too familiar with where you'll be shooting, have directions in hand from someone who knows or, preferably, Google Maps. Plug the address into your GPS. Know how long it should take you to get there - then allot an extra 15-30 minutes. If there’s any chance of traffic issues, allow even more extra time.
- Go back over your notes or e-mails from talking with your client and take heed of any specific requests or information they provide. If they “have to” get a family photo in their Texas Tech Red Raiders jerseys, by all means, write this down. Be sure to proactively remind your clients of this when you meet up - they will immediately appreciate that you remembered and that you're excited about making “their” photo.
- Check the weather yet again. If you may have to deal with light drizzle, intermittent cloud cover, overcast skies, or bold cloudless sunlight, you want to at least be solving those problems in your head the night before rather than the moment of your shoot.
- Watch what you eat. A worthy mantra for anyone trying to maintain their girlish figure, this advice will also keep your intestinal issues at bay the day of your shoot. Overeating or eating abrasive food is only going to exacerbate problems the next day when your nerves go straight to your stomach as you’re driving to your shoot. Eat light, drink lots of water, stick to fruits and veggies and salads that you know are easy on your system, and by all means, have a bottle of Pepto at the ready if you need it. (This is one of those “been there, done that” real world tips you just won’t find elsewhere - there’s no BS or pretense here, this site is about really helping you do your best as a part time photographer).
- Clean your gear. Whip out those microfiber cloths that come Free With Everything and give your lenses a good wipe down. Make sure your glass is clean and your camera body looks nice.
- Set your alarm. If you’re shooting early, set your bedside alarm. If later in the day, set an alarm on your phone with time to get your gear together and get on the road. Much as you have prepared for your shoot, the moment you sit down for a second in front of Call of Duty on the Xbox or David Hasselhoff on YouTube, you will lose track of time and only realize you’re late when the phone rings, it’s your client wondering where you are, and your heart drops out of your chest.
- Plan your wardrobe. Having checked out the weather for the next day, pick out what kind of professional-but-comfortably-artistic wardrobe you want to work your shoot in. Your wardrobe style should reflect your personal style and your artistic style. Some photographers belong in turtlenecks and scarves, others in jeans and T-shirts, still others in graphic T’s and khaki shorts. But guaranteed: if you don’t plan your shooting wardrobe, you’ll awaken to realize all your good clothes are in the hamper and either show up wearing a wool sweater and gym shorts or smelling like cheese.
Preparation = confidence!
Step 4 - F8 and Be There
If you’ve done your prep work - which despite the length of this article, should only take a couple of hours total - you can arrive at your shoot with time to spare and confidence oozing from every pore.
Or at least you won’t be hyperventilating and fighting to keep your breakfast down.
Your first time, as with a few other select experiences in life, won’t be your best. But there’s no reason you have to go into your shoot blind, deaf, and dumb. Take the small amount of time needed to give yourself the best odds at having a great shoot.
If you can show up with those ducks in a row, you’re honestly doing better than many paid professional photographers. What they lack in attention to detail, complacency brought on by arrogance and boredom, you can make up for in preparation and honest caring.
Art takes time, but providing the best experience you can for your clients starts right now, this very day.
The next articles in this series will walk you through a typical location portraiture shoot, your first sales session (in person or via online album), and how to follow through with a client to guarantee referrals and a customer for life.
Next Steps
- Now that you’ve read through this article, make your own personal pre-shoot checklist that touches on the above advice in brief. Single-sentence To-Do’s should keep you on track to make the most of your shoot.
- Make an inventory of all your shooting gear, piece by piece. Are you missing anything, specifically backups for crucial pieces of kit like batteries or memory cards? A spare of either costs about a tenth of what you’ll lose if you blow a shoot for lack of backup, and a hundredth of what you’ll lose long-term from looking like an unprepared amateur. If you have the coin, hit up Amazon.com or bhphotovideo.com and get a good faith set of backups for your primary gear, even if it’s the cheapest thing you can buy. I’d rather fall back on a children’s $50 Disney Digital Camera than nothing at all.
- Brainstorm session: What’s a quirk unique to you that could affect your ability to perform at your shoot? Irritable stomach? Profuse perspiration when nervous? Need Starbucks? Affirmations? Yoga? A jog? What should you add to your pre-shoot checklist that gives you, you personally, you specifically, the best chance at having an awesome photo shoot? File this in your Brainstorms folder (and add to your checklist!).
- PartTimePhoto.com exists to provide sound, real-world advice from one photographer to another, me to you. If you like what you read here, please don’t hesitate to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
- What’s one thing that you do to prepare for a shoot that’s unique to you? Did I miss anything in the above list? Leave a comment below or drop me an e-mail.
How to prepare for your first photography client's call - Your First Customer Series, Part 5
(Click here to visit the summary post for the Your First Customer Series!)
So you've got your prices set, your most salable photos picked out and practiced, and your marketing has people talking about your business.
Then the unimaginable happens - someone actually contacts you to ask about your services! Life and small business ownership are sometimes truly unpredictable.
Make no mistake - if you are practicing your art and marketing your services to your target market, you will get clients a-callin'. Let's explore how we need to prepare for this momentous, and nerve-wracking, occasion.
Your first contact
Not unlike how scientists are prepared to communicate with alien races when they come to take away all our cattle and chocolate, you want to be ready to take the questions your potential clients may have when they call and turn them into answers, education, and bookings.
Answering the phone:
- Do: Smile (people really can hear it in your voice)
- Do: "Thank you for calling James Taylor Photography, this is James, how may I help you today?"
- Do not: "Hello?"
Nothing turns me off faster than when I call a business, especially a service-based business owned and operated by an individual, that answers the phone like I just interrupted their dinner. "Hello?"
Because then I have to sound stupid and ask, "Is this James Taylor Photography?"
To which they shall then eloquently reply, "Yeah."
I'm officially done. I no longer care about whatever I called to ask about. You've lost my business and I'll probably tell everyone I know.
As a part time photographer, your business phone is probably your personal cell phone - nothing wrong with that; that's how I've handled my business for many years. But unless you know for sure the person calling is a friend or family member, always answer with your professional intro and a smile. Begin every call by giving the right impression.
Be sure you know your business, policies, and prices. Be ready to answer questions broad and specific.
The first question most contacts will ask is, "What are your prices?"
At this point, don't become a smarmy, manipulative salesman. Grognards will tell you that the first thing you do when asked this question is to deflect and say, "Well our price depends on a number of factors. Tell me what kind of photos are you looking for?"
You know what? If I call someone and ask what their price is, and their response is to not tell me: yet again, instant turn off. Don't start trying to play Salesmanship 101 with me. Tell me what I want to know, then introduce your hook.
"I charge no session fee and have no minimum order, you just buy what you love. Prints and files start at just $10..."
...then, without pause, extend the conversation...
"What kind of photography are you looking for?"
If you follow my suggested pricing structure for freshly-minted professional photographers, it would take quite a cheapskate to balk at your prices. You don't want to flatline the conversation, though, by answering their question and leaving them to come up with a response. Warmly guide them into establishing a rapport and learn about their needs so you can better help them get what they are looking for.
Remember: In all acts as a small business owner, your goal is to help your clients. Approach all contacts as an opportunity to learn their needs and help meet those needs via the best experience to be had. It is most definitely not about manipulating and milking clients for all you can get out of them.
Be ready for anything
Be sure you are knowledgeable and confident about your business:
- When someone asks your price for a 16x20 print, know it. ("16x20's go for $80. Are you looking for some wall art to go over your fireplace?")
- When someone asks if you guarantee your products, know the answer. ("Any print or product you purchase from us is 100% satisfaction guaranteed. If you purchase a digital file from us, we will give you our recommended labs to get prints from, but of course we cannot guarantee someone else’s prints. That's one of the benefits of buying directly from us. Some clients simply prefer the convenience of knowing we are handling and guaranteeing their prints.")
- When someone asks if you're available this Thursday at 2 p.m. for an outdoor shoot, know your schedule. ("I do have an opening at 2 p.m., but the light is still pretty harsh at that time of day. I would suggest shooting closer to 5 p.m. so we can catch that lovely, soft evening light. Would that work for you?")
- When someone says they had a bad experience with another local photographer, know how to respond. ("I'm sorry to hear that shoot didn't work out for you! I've always heard good things about Jane Doe Photography. We have no session fees and no minimum orders, and we guarantee complete satisfaction with all our prints and products. Tell me what went wrong with your other shoot and I'll tell you how we will prevent those problems if you decide to work with us.")
- If someone asks you for anything outside of your limits, know how you'll respond and still help them. ("No, I'm sorry, we don't shoot on family holidays like Thanksgiving. Would the day before or after work? No? Hmm, let me call a couple of other photographers I know and see if they are open that day. Could I get your phone number and call you back in about 10 minutes?")
Whether you charge $10 or $100 for an 8x10, whether you never shoot on Sundays or every Sunday, make sure you know and are confident in your policies. Some fish will swim away, and that's perfectly fine. Even just starting out, you do not have to shoot for free or jump through hoops to build your business, and you never, ever have to suffer insufferable clients. Have the confidence to say, "I don't think we are the right match for what you need, but let me recommend a couple of other local photographers I have worked with that may better be able to help you."
Answer client questions directly and honestly. If you don't know how to do something they need, or if you feel they need someone with more or different experience, don't be afraid to tell them so. Don't be afraid to tell folks that you are new to professional photography, that that is why you are such a good value, and why you're ready to work hard to ensure they have the best experience possible.
And be ready to refer out: as someone just getting started in part time professional portrait photography, taking on a big commercial contract for an architectural firm is asking for a mountain of stress and one ticked off client.
Booking the shoot
When you feel like you've answered your caller's questions and fairly educated them to your prices and policies, go ahead and ask for the booking.
"I have an opening this Friday at 6 p.m. Would that work for you guys?"
Put the ball in their court. Try to get a firm booking from them, but if they have to talk to a spouse or check their schedule, make sure their impression of you is a good one. Starting out, sometimes enthusiasm is all you’ve got - but that enthusiasm and attention can be big sellers to potential clients. They will expect, and receive, a better experience than a much larger, pick-a-number studio may provide.
If your art isn’t to the point of enamoring clients, make sure the experience you give them leaves them enamored with you as a person, photographer, and business.
When finalizing the booking, be sure to:
- Ask for the client’s phone number so you can call to confirm the shoot the week or day before the booked date (and to get a hold of them if something comes up on your end - when I came down with swine flu this year, I had to make quite a few phone calls).
- Ask for their e-mail address so you can send over a Session Prep Cheat Sheet (I’ll write about this in a future article). Ask if you can also add their address to your e-mail newsletter list. If newsletter subscribers get a little bonus like a free digital file or 8x10 with their first shoot (and they should!), be sure to mention this when asking their permission to add their address to your mailing list.
- Repeat the date and time back to them one last time. “This sounds great! I’m very excited to shoot with you guys. I’ve got you down for Sunday, Dec. 20, 5 p.m. at the City Park. We will see you then!”
- As soon as you hang up the phone - before, if you’re good at multitasking - get that booking on your own calendar in full detail. Be sure to include all the details of your conversation, your client’s needs and expectations, and their contact information. I use Microsoft Outlook, and put all this information right into the calendar; this way, when I sync my iPhone, I always have everything I need at my fingertips.
- If you said you would send a follow-up e-mail with that cheat sheet or any other information, do so immediately.
So you’ve booked your first honest client! Not your sister, or your best friend, or your coworker - your first client to learn of your business from an outside source and proactively contact you to set up a shoot. Congratulations!
Preparation is key - I’d rather be ready than lucky any day.
The next three articles will close this series with how to prepare for and perform your shoot, how to make the most of your sales session, and how to follow-up with your client.
Thank you to all those readers who have visited and referred their friends and fellow photographers to this site over the past few months. It’s been great reading your comments and sharing encouragement with one another!
Next Steps
- Review your prices, products, and policies - daily - until they are second nature to you. When a potential client calls, you want to be confident in answering their questions. Feel free to have mock conversations with family or friends, or by yourself - remember, practice how you will perform.
- Call around to your local competition. Don’t be shy in playing the part of a consumer and seeing how they respond to your questions. See if they use a soft or hard sell, see if they treat you with respect and answer your questions clearly, see what their demeanor is like on the phone. Refine the experience you provide your potential clients on the phone to meet or beat their best.
- Brainstorm session: Do you feel prepared to answer the phone when a potential client calls? What can you do to make sure you can speak with confidence and answer potential questions and curveballs? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
- Encouraging, educating, entertaining, empowering content is the bread and butter of this blog. If you like what you’ve read today, please don’t hesitate to click the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
- What do you to prepare for incoming phone calls? What phrases and methods have helped you up your bookings over the phone? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.