Business Day Thursday: One More Way To Sell More Four More Photographs

Good Morning Everybody,
We had a great time in Portland last night with our very fun and welcoming crowd of enthusiastic photogs. I think a good time was had by all and to the amazement of LaDawn, I finally finished close to the scheduled quiting time - 10:30 p.m.

We had a nice surprise last last when our B&H friends, Steve and Gabe - all the way from NYC - came by to see the show. Of course, they had some great B&H deals as usual. Just as a little footnote here, everyone attending my Digital WakeUp Call tour is getting a special DWC catalogue with the best B&H specials. My thanks to B&H for their generosity and support of the tour. Hi-Fives, you guys!!!

We have the next few days off as we take a few days to rest then to get to San Francisco for next Monday's program. We are hanging out in Portland taking in some of the sites and enjoying a little R&R and site-seeing before heading off tomorrow - Southbound and down. So on that note, let get to a short and sweet Business Day Thursday - here we go...

One More Way To Sell More Four More Photographs
At one of our DWC cities along the way, the hotel room in which we stayed presented a wonderful idea in how to display images. It was the decor in the room itself that prompted this post. Above the flat screen TV was a shelf and upon the shelf were several photographs.

Here is what struck me about this simple piece of wall decor - what a great way to sell collections of images. That is to give our clients an easy solution to selecting many off their favorites from one of your portrait sessions.

Follow me here - shooting digital these days generally means we are taking many more photographs than we ever did in he film days - at least to those of us that still remember film;~) The problem is that digital photographers are still thinking like film photogs and only selling 3-5 images from a shoot. I said it before and I'll say it again. We need to stop waiting for the client to tell us what they want. We need to create innovative and fun products that they have never been presented with before. Products that include more than one 8x10 or 5x7.

Hit the"Read More..." link below for the rest of the story.

Selling image collections of family portrait sessions is one way to do just that. Maybe not every family client wants to go to the expense of purchasing a wall portrait. Maybe it's just not their style.... that's fine a small portrait collection might just fill the bill - and the price point for their wallets.

You actually have help in promoting this product from the likes of Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware even Target carries matching shelf frame combinations. I was in a Pottery Barn recently and there it was a collection of family photographs displayed on the wall in their store. Folks, this is what one of the nation's most successful retailers is "suggesting" their customers may find decorative and attractive to display collections of images. Why don't we do the same? Heck, we are the photographers shooting the families for the clients in the first place.

It's an easy putt for birdie - just display this kind of decorative image collection in you studio or wherever you present your work to your client. Let them see and experience how exciting and beautiful an "image collection" can look. Price a collection with for example; 2 8x10's and 2 5x7's with simple frames (just like Pottery Barn). Include the simple shelf/ledge in the price, and presto, you have a very cool new product to offer your client.

Now change the shelf, the frames and expand that to senior portraits, baby portraits, and anything else you can think of. Folks, this is pretty good fuel for your sales fire, hits a price point that doesn't break the bank, and has great customer appeal thanks to the "cross promotion" from popular retailers like Pottery Barn.

Hey gang that's it for me today. I hear the wind whistling through the grape vines of Willamette Valley. I see the morning dew on the grapes, I smell the bouquet of the soft Pinot Noir's. Man, I've got to hit the road;~)

See everybody tomorrow for a brand new series - You Light Up My Life. Check back tomorrow to see what I have up my sleeve. See you then. -David