The Top Sales Team Ever! & A Few Apologies

Good Afternoon Everybody,

Sorry for the late post today.  We got back from Indy about 12:45  a.m. this morning - - a pretty long day yesterday.

PASS Premiere Last Night

Nevertheless we had a great time visiting my buddy, David Jay, and hear the line up of speakers at the PASS Premiere tour [link].  Turns out last night was the 2nd to last stop with the your going on to Nashville tonight. Nashville readers – try to stop by!

The setting was quite eclectic – an old renovated theater in the newly restored Fountain Square area near the city.  Hey, what better place to have a premiere ;~)

The program kicked off around 6:15 p.m. and wrapped about 10:45 p.m.  The cool thing about the program was that food was served at one of the breaks – YES, real food was served.  That’s the first time I have seen that at ANY seminar series.  DJ is such a first class guy.

Promise Tangeman [link], a marking consultant from Phoenix gave a great program on branding and offered some solid insights on how to begin building your brand.

Here are a few quick hit tip from her energetic program:

A Photographer needs to -

Focus - Identify your strengths. 

Define a Style – Identify your personal profile - what you like, quirks, how you feel. Brand yourself in how you dress. 

Have and Show Confidence - Need to display your confidence on your website and blog.

The highlight of the evening was meeting and visiting with Zach and Jody Gray [link].  I got to tell you flat out, these two energetic, creative, successful wedding photographers out of Nashville, TN brought the house down for LaDawn and I.  It was the first time in a long time I heard someone talking about business success and not bokeh, F-Stops, or shutter speeds - no technique, all sales and marketing!  It’s what today’s photographer needs to hear too.

The secret of their success is relationship building with their clients and continuing that relationship long after the wedding.  In four words – they had it nailed!  Engage - Connect - Court – Continue: these four touch points make up the secret of their business success.  Over the next few weeks, I’ll share with you what they had to say – very important stuff here.

They’ve scheduled a few workshops for the Fall to so check out their website right here for more details. Also, check out their blog.  They post a brand new tip or technique every Tuesday – here is the link.

Good to meet you guys, Safe Travels.

Finally, DJ wrapped the program with a preview of the new PASS system – a very innovative way to show and share your images on-line.  I’ll tell ya’, I love the social marketing aspects of this new methodology.  I see it as an easy add on to my wedding coverages.  More details here.

A Few Apologies Are In Order

Hey gang, yesterday I did a Business day Thursday blog post that really ruffled a few feathers over in England.  I had mentioned that I saw this great idea over at LoveMyDress.net [link] about hiring a wedding reporting for your wedding and mentioned that this might be a great service photographers could offer their clients. 

Annabelle, Leah, and Liz, friends of Emma Woodhouse, were quick to respond to my post with comments.  They thought maybe the tone of my post was in some way diminishing this great idea inspired and conceived by Emma who offers the service in England.

Let me say right now that I apologize to these three persons personally, Emma and anyone else who thought I was in anyway less than respectful to Ms. Woodhouse or diminishing her very original idea in any way.  In fact I love the idea and think it is one of the most original new ideas I’ve head for weddings!  And yes, I do believe it adds richness and texture to the wedding memories as well.

I think the point where I might have miss-stepped was in my somewhat casual disregard of hiring a pro (writer) for this service and offering the service yourself.  Putting on their shoes for a moment, I can see why they would be upset with my post.  That was not my intent.

I’m first one one to agree that hiring a pro is the best way to go with any of your wedding plans.  I was mostly just blown away with the “wedding reporter” idea in the first place and thought it would be a good idea for a bride to consider if she could find the service offered by anyone. 

The problem, at least here in the states, is that I know of NO ONE offering this service at all.  My motivation was to make the service available to brides. My first thought was that wedding photographers might be the ones closest to offing that service because of the fact that we are story tellers to begin with.

I personally would like to hear more about the idea from Ms. Woodhouse and have a conversation (maybe even a webcast) with her about it.  I would also welcome Annabelle as author of LoveMyDress.net, as a panelist too if we all thought we could pull this off considering major time zone differences and all.  I think it would be a fascinating discussion about weddings and very informative for the listeners. 

Again, my apologies to Annabelle, Leah, Liz, and Emma for consternation I caused with yesterday’s post.  That was not the intent.

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Hey gang, that’s it for today.  We’re looking forward to the long weekend spending time with family and friends.  I hope you do to in your part of the world.  Everybody have a great weekend and may your pixels be shining as bright as possible this holiday weekend ;~)

See ya’ next week,  David