Good Morning everybody,
We had another great crowd last night in Tampa and I actually finished almost on time. my thanks for everyone staying to the end - in spite of a very warm room at our Embassy Suites venue. It was a nice surprise to me and the attendees that many of the Kelby Media group came by and said "HI." Matt Kloskowski of Lightroom Killer Tips and RC Concepcion of Layers Magazine fame both came by and gave a wave from the back of the room.
Before we got started, Larry Becker and I did a little interview - look for that to pop up soon at one of the many NAPP sites. Anyway, we had a great crowd -over 200 attendees strong - and everybody, including me, had a great time.
Oh, by the way, we are still looking for a few more volunteers for Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo next week. If you would like to help with the tour set up and be part of the festivities, email LaDawn at ladawn@ziser.com and let her know. We will certainly compensate your efforts.
We are off to Ft. Lauderdale in just a few minutes, so let's get started with today's edition on Business day Thursday. Here we go...
Bundling One More Time - One Print - Three Or More Images
I mentioned last night in my presentation that many of us photographers have just become "order takers" instead of striving to be "order makers" when it comes to running our businesses. I remember when I was just an "order taker" too waiting for the client to order an 8x10 or 5x7. I was green as grass and my sales skills were not the best.
We had another great crowd last night in Tampa and I actually finished almost on time. my thanks for everyone staying to the end - in spite of a very warm room at our Embassy Suites venue. It was a nice surprise to me and the attendees that many of the Kelby Media group came by and said "HI." Matt Kloskowski of Lightroom Killer Tips and RC Concepcion of Layers Magazine fame both came by and gave a wave from the back of the room.
Before we got started, Larry Becker and I did a little interview - look for that to pop up soon at one of the many NAPP sites. Anyway, we had a great crowd -over 200 attendees strong - and everybody, including me, had a great time.
Oh, by the way, we are still looking for a few more volunteers for Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo next week. If you would like to help with the tour set up and be part of the festivities, email LaDawn at ladawn@ziser.com and let her know. We will certainly compensate your efforts.
We are off to Ft. Lauderdale in just a few minutes, so let's get started with today's edition on Business day Thursday. Here we go...
Bundling One More Time - One Print - Three Or More Images
I mentioned last night in my presentation that many of us photographers have just become "order takers" instead of striving to be "order makers" when it comes to running our businesses. I remember when I was just an "order taker" too waiting for the client to order an 8x10 or 5x7. I was green as grass and my sales skills were not the best.
I began reading everything I could get my hands on back in the early days about sales. Slowly but surely, I was able to find out what the client wanted and show them how to get it.
Hit the "Read More..." link below for the rest of the story.
That, folks, is the real secret of sales - I always like to say - Selling is not a dirty word, it's a service to your client. So what are we going to do today to help our clients. We've been talking about "bundling" for the last few weeks - combining different separate products to create new products with added value. Well let's bundle products/images one more time today. Today we are doing things a little differently. Today we're going to discuss combining several images into one photographic product. This is like super easy in our digital world.
I was talking to my buddy Mark Zucker, president of Zookbinders and one of our tour sponsors a few weeks ago. He was telling me about his new Frame product just introduced at WPPI. His suggestion to his album clients is, "Why not sell one of the double page spreads from the album as a framed print?" Sounded like a great idea to me. We have been bundling two or three images into one image collage for years of our clients. This framed album page idea sounded like a natural evolutionary product for wedding photographers. We are now offering it to our clients. You can see what the Zookbinder Frames look like right here.
Don't stop there either. Today we can combine any number of images into a single framed image. Maybe you offer you client a choice of 3, 4, or 5 images into one beautiful collage presentation. Price would be less than 3 separately framed prints but more that one framed print. The client receives great value because they have three images they can display in their home or office at a cost substantially lower than the cost of the three separate images - what a deal!.
Think about what kind of combinations you could put together to offer you clients. Once you get thinking about it, the possibilities are endless.
How about our DPT readers offering some suggestions in the "Comments" section of this post for everyone's benefit. If I get over 20 suggestions, I'll pick a winner award them a $50 gift certificate from B&H. So put on your thinking caps and let's see what you come up with.
On that note, guys and girl, I'm leaving Tampa and heading down the road to Ft. Lauderdale. See everybody tonight in south Florida, -David
Hit the "Read More..." link below for the rest of the story.
That, folks, is the real secret of sales - I always like to say - Selling is not a dirty word, it's a service to your client. So what are we going to do today to help our clients. We've been talking about "bundling" for the last few weeks - combining different separate products to create new products with added value. Well let's bundle products/images one more time today. Today we are doing things a little differently. Today we're going to discuss combining several images into one photographic product. This is like super easy in our digital world.
I was talking to my buddy Mark Zucker, president of Zookbinders and one of our tour sponsors a few weeks ago. He was telling me about his new Frame product just introduced at WPPI. His suggestion to his album clients is, "Why not sell one of the double page spreads from the album as a framed print?" Sounded like a great idea to me. We have been bundling two or three images into one image collage for years of our clients. This framed album page idea sounded like a natural evolutionary product for wedding photographers. We are now offering it to our clients. You can see what the Zookbinder Frames look like right here.
Don't stop there either. Today we can combine any number of images into a single framed image. Maybe you offer you client a choice of 3, 4, or 5 images into one beautiful collage presentation. Price would be less than 3 separately framed prints but more that one framed print. The client receives great value because they have three images they can display in their home or office at a cost substantially lower than the cost of the three separate images - what a deal!.
Think about what kind of combinations you could put together to offer you clients. Once you get thinking about it, the possibilities are endless.
How about our DPT readers offering some suggestions in the "Comments" section of this post for everyone's benefit. If I get over 20 suggestions, I'll pick a winner award them a $50 gift certificate from B&H. So put on your thinking caps and let's see what you come up with.
On that note, guys and girl, I'm leaving Tampa and heading down the road to Ft. Lauderdale. See everybody tonight in south Florida, -David
thanks for the tampa stop! looking forward to the mac version of the album design software ......
ReplyDeleteLike I said on the seminar. You are dynamite. Thank you for very inspiring seminar.
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion for what to offer to clients: Ususally I'm asking bride and grom seperately to send me an email with few words which describe the other person and they feelings about him/her and this is during signing contract. After big bang ceremony they forget about that.
Text from bride on the left, photo in the center and text from grom on the right, framed. Facial expression when they discover I didn't forget.... priceless
http://PortraitsAtYourHome.com
http://BestPhotoPro.com
David, what's up with the image that shows with the mouse cursor?
ReplyDeleteWow! Great Fort Lauderdale show! A first I really didn't want to go tonight and thought about staying home. Photography has burned me out. The economy has burned me out. Clients trying to drive down my prices has burned me out. The amount of work it takes me to edit photos has burned me out. After attending this workshop, I feel refreshed and I now know how to deal with the economy, deal with clients & work faster. What a breath of fresh air! And what a deal too. I regularly attend workshops & this is the least I've ever paid & the value is incredible! I can tell your in this for the love of photography! Thanks, thanks, thanks! I feel motivated again!
ReplyDelete-dMR
Hi David, Collages with mats or digital. We have been selling a 3 for 2. I call it Build it once and sell it three times or more. It started with out Engagement collages. a 8x16 framed collage of 4 Images one of the groom one of the bride and two of the couple. and if you buy the 2nd one I will give you the thrid one. One for each family, But thats not all because we used the same design to print 2up x50 cut in half for 100 book markers (business card size) with the same collage image on the fromt and the the clients web site on the back with their pass word to see the web pages and :-0 oh they can order some photos
ReplyDeletealso :-), and it also had our web page on the back so they had to go to my web page to get to the wedding web page. and You could have this framed image at the guest book so when the guest sign in they saw the collage and the picked up the collage card. And now with the new Press Printed books that same collage can be placed into a Photo guest book. Oh one collage 104 times. Now that using and Image well. Thanks for a great Blog Its Daily reading here!
Hi David, your post is helping gel some ideas I've had about collages lately, especially while shooting, printing and framing a temple night shot last week for a friend who was married there. (I should mention this was in Boston last week in the evening after your excellent PS World pre-con class — you inspired me [no pun] to get out and shoot at a second church that day!) As the story goes, I came up with a lot of detail shots that never became part of the final product, and though they wouldn't stand on their own, these shots could make an excellent collage in a layout of several smaller photos accompanying the main work. Your post is perfect timing. I'm starting to think what a unique product I could make out of putting several shots together, it would be like nothing anyone had seen. The wheels are spinning in my head. Thanks for a great idea and the link to Zookbinders. I'm already scheming on what city is going to work best for me to attend Digital Wake Up Call. Was the title influenced by your wife's name? Keep up the great work.
ReplyDelete@ Jeff: Yeah, I was wondering the exact same thing about the tour's name-- "A New Dawn"? "LaDawn"? Coincidence?
ReplyDelete@ David: I meant to ask you the other night here in Tampa about one of the "program bonuses" you're offering to seminar attendees. You state that we will receive a "FREE 3 month membership to DigitalProTalkPlus.com, a $45 value". This appears to be a pay version of your blog, perhaps targeted at more serious photogs. However, I didn't hear you mention anything about this during your talk. Care to share a few details?
-Russ
http://www.russrobinsonphotography.com
David
ReplyDeleteI am so excited about the new dawn tour. Reading all the great comments I can't wait until you get to Baton Rouge. Thanks for the inspiration.
More great insight into the business side of photography. Thanks for more thought provoking ideas!
ReplyDelete