Business Day Thursday: It's All About Sales - A Great Church Directory Shoot: Olan Mills Gets It Right And So Should You!

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I hope everyone is having a great week this week.  We've been busy with all the events we've had this month, and still getting ready for two big weddings coming up over the next two weeks.  This coming weekend I photograph another wedding of one of my past clients, a beautiful young lady whose Bat Mitzvah I photographed a number of years ago. Once again, it'll be great to visit with the family and several of their friends whom I've also worked for in the past years.

Good To Be With Friends

We’re also in the process of getting ready for another very big event at Crystal Lake, Michigan next weekend. That wedding is particularly special for me too since I've been photographing the entire family since the kids been very young.  In fact, I actually began photographing next week's bride before she was even born ;~)  We also had the honor photographing her brother last year. That event took place in Phoenix, Arizona. Again, we had a fabulous weekend with the family.

As a matter fact, I want to feature one of the current projects were doing for the family right now, in one of our upcoming Business Day Thursday's posts.  I’ve been working with the bride and groom for couple of weeks now gathering all their photographs – from babyhood to adulthood – to put together a special slide presentation at next Friday's rehearsal dinner. I have to tell you, the number photographs were working with – nearly 1,000 - certainly turn this into quite a large project. Anyway, it's all good, and I'm looking forward to wrapping the show this weekend.

Thanks For Help Wanted Response

Hey, speaking of this weekend, I want to thank everyone who responded to my "Help Wanted ad" earlier this week. My good buddy and fellow Photoshop Walker, Larry Lohr, caught the notice and said he would be happy to oblige. Larry even called me up the other day tell me he was reviewing my Kelby Training videos just to be sure he was totally up to speed for the shoot. You know, it's nice to know that people make the effort to really get prepared. I'm looking forward to working with Larry this weekend.

Hey gang, I've got a pretty interesting Business Day Thursday post for you today. In the post I’m going to tell you about a recent photographic experience LaDawn and I had which was quite positive from beginning to end. And, I should point out, that you'll probably be surprised by who the predominant players were in this story.

It's All About Sales - A Great Church Directory Shoot: Olan Mills Gets It Right And So Should You!

I think our experience we enjoyed yesterday is important for anyone who wants to run a successful business. The opening title may have startled you a bit particularly with the mention of church directory and Olan Mills in the title. First of all, a clarification – Olan Mills was recently purchased by Lifetouch Inc., the largest school photography company in the world. Olan Mills, for many years, has been a big force in the church directory market. From the street gossip I hear Olan Mills II – now 80+ years old and with no heirs the past the business onto, decided to sell it to Lifetouch.

Lifetouch has been one of the dominant forces in high school yearbook photography for number of years. By purchasing Olan Mills they now become a $1+ billion a year company with more than 20,000 employees photographing a large segment of our society. Yes folks, they've been one of the chief competitors to the small studios for number of years.

Remembering Church Directory Photography Of Years Past

Although church directory photography has been considered at the bottom rung for fine find portraiture for number of years.  I still remember a few years ago when our church produced its church directory,  the photographer had LaDawn and I both lean towards each other and then “knowing gaze off into the distance” much like the photograph of my mother and father featured in a church directory years ago. Let's just say it was a very "50s" kind of portrait – think Ozzie and Harriet.

Anyway, back to my story.  Last evening LaDawn and I headed down to church for our 5:10 p.m. church directory portrait appointment. We met our photographer, Leslie who was quite congenial.  After a few minutes of conversation, he very warmly and graciously invited us into the portrait studio – a meeting room in the church that had been converted to accommodate two weeks of church directory photography.

Still remembering my last “church directory” photo experience, I was not looking forward to what I thought would not be a good thing.  Last night it was different though.  Leslie kept a good banter going to keep us in good spirits as he positioned LaDawn and I though number of poses. I felt none of the poses were in the least bit hokey.  He was really working to get our best expressions and flatter us in every way he could with both decent lighting, good expressions, and confortable realistic poses.

Another thing that impressed me was how he “find tuned” the details of our positions before taking the photograph.  He directed us to turn our heads just a bit, lower our chins when necessary, and position our eyes for a good-looking couples portrait.  I have to say, I’ve been involved in photography for many years.  My first instructor, Monte Zucker, told me that for client to love their photographs they have to look good. And, when you make the client look good with expression, pose, and lighting, the sale will follow. Leslie's attention to detail was above and beyond church directory experience I had seen before.  He was a true professional in the complete process he took in photographing LaDawn and I.

He Worked The Session – No Shortcuts Here!

Not only did he change the light around several times to adjust the contrast that he wanted for each of our poses, he also changed the background from the traditional church directory blue background to a simple black cloth. His lighting set up included a key light a fill light which he was running about a 4:1 ratio. I also noticed a “hair light” above and at the center of the background behind us - good idea to give us good separation from the black background.

My expectation was to be rushed in and out of the portrait session so that the photographer could move on to his next session.  At no point during last evening's shoot did I feel rushed in the least. Leslie made every effort to get the photograph that he wanted while also verifying with us that we approved by letting us look at the back of the camera after each shot. 

After going through about a half a dozen portrait iterations of both LaDawn and I, he then asked to do individual portraits of each of us. I'm thinking to myself, "This is a great technique every photographer should utilize  when trying to maximize image sales to their clients.”  Always remember to break down the groups. He took a couple photographs of me which I actually liked quite well and then asked that LaDawn switch with me and took about three or four of her, a few of which were quite flattering.

In the entire session Leslie took no more than 12 photographs. Digital photography has produced a lot of very large number of undisciplined photographers these days. Lifetouch is a billion-dollar a year company where time is money. By disciplining their photographers to get a nice selection of photographs in the a minimum amount of shots adds to a streamlined sales session and much less indecision from the customers trying to make a purchase from too many images – a god lesson to learn for many of us, me included ;~)

It's not about shooting 1 million different next exposures and hope we get 10 or 12 good ones. It's about shooting 10 or 12 good ones and letting your sales staff sell to those 10 or 12 good ones – very efficient and very profitable.

The Sales Process:

During the entire portrait session I kept a running conversation going with Leslie. He told me has been working for Olan Mills, now Lifetouch for over 25 years. Confidentially, I hear  he is one of the best shooters for the company and trains a lot of the new photographers that come on board.  After finishing our session with Leslie, he invited us into the sales room where we met Tammy.  We would review our images with her. Leslie was shooting with a Nikon D 7000 and, once finished with our portrait session, handed the flash card over to Tammy who loaded it into her computer and presentation software to make her presentation to us.

Tammy was exactly the kind of salesperson you want working for you. Not only was she friendly and outgoing, she hit on many great sales touch points that you couldn’t help but want to buy something from her.  As a student of sales for many years and, feeling I’m a decent salesperson myself, I thought Tammy was one of the best I had met. Her congenial attitude, product knowledge, and product suggestions are traits every good salespeople need to develop. Tammy, like Leslie, has been doing this for a long time. Confidentially, I hear Tammy is one of the top salespeople for the company. I've been through a number sales presentations – from timeshare sales, car sales, and pitches I hear from from the speaking platform to know what a good job when I see it. As LaDawn and I say, “Tammy is a  DH – Definite Hire.”

Lesson’s Every Studio Can Learn From Our Lifetouch Sales Experience Last Evening.

One – The sales process need not be I "hard sell" at all. The sales process needs to take place in the congenial, friendly, comfortable atmosphere. It's the salesperson that makes that happen and that's why, who's ever selling in your studio, better have those traits. If they don't - train them or fire them.

Two – When presenting images to your client, don't overwhelm them with huge numbers of images where many of those images are very similar to each other. We were shown a grand total of 10 images during our viewing session. That sample size of images was small enough so that Tammy could  easily move us through the samples and have us select our favorites in no time. In a matter about 60 seconds we had nailed down the photograph of the church directory image. And then it was on to the remaining eight images to view for additional purchases.

Three – Tammy knew we had three separate decisions to make. First, pic our favorite photograph for the church directory. Second, select my favorite individual photograph. And third, select our favorite individual photograph of LaDawn.  Because of the limited number of images to choose from and because Leslie did a good job, we were able to quickly make up her minds as to which ones we liked the best.

Four –  Show the client the options.

12 years ago I was involved with the company called ProShots. ProShots was a fabulous piece of software whereby you could edit the images before you showed your client but more importantly, it allowed photographers the ability to show their photographs in the frames and even show the framed photographs hanging in the clients’ living room. It was the most wonderful piece of selling software on the planet Earth. Unfortunately it was purchased by Eastman Kodak company  who never really supported it much after the first couple of years after they purchased. The software now languishes in the Kodak archives probably never to be seen again – too bad.

Anyway, once we had picked out our three favorite photographs – one of us as a couple and two individual images – Tammy was quick to preview them in a frame that held all three images. For me, was like déjà vu. This was exactly what I did years ago when we were using a ProShots software. Tammy was using the exact same sales techniques we’ve been using for years. The combination Tammy put together was something that LaDawn and I both took a quick liking too.

Five – Time For The Upsell

As with McDonald's and so many other companies the upsell this is important to enhance profits for any business. McDonald’s runs the gamut – do I want to supersize it, add a cherry pie to the order, or maybe a low-fat dessert?  The important thing is for the salesperson to make the proposition to the customer.

Tammy quickly showed us the three surfaces we could order on our prints – the standard surface, the linen surface, or the deluxe canvas surface. I know what these upgrades cost me from my lab so we decided to waive the surface upgrades. She even showed us few word enhancements we could add to our images too – just not quite right for LaDawn and I, but at least Tammy was working it in a friendly, non-threatening way.

The Sale Takes A Hit:

I love everything Tammy had to show us and I loved how she made here presentation. She showed us the different combinations of images, how we get save money by placing a bigger order, and how we could even purchase our original hi-res digital images. The kicker to the whole process to me was the retouching upsell. Retouching was $40 a pose.  What, I’m thinking, “Tammy, I like you, but that is one CRAZY HIGH Price” to pay for running a quick retouching Photoshop action on an image.” 

That meant that if we opted for retouching on our three images, the additional cost would've added $120 to our bill. To anyone from Lifetouch reading this post, I would suggest to you that the retouching costs are shocking high, take the wind out of the sales process for Tammy and her counterparts, and is a real deal killer.

I would've gladly paid $10 or maybe even $15 for the portrait enhancement – certainly not $40!. We all know that, in most cases, this is nothing more than a simple one or two mouse click in Photoshop.  Our favorite tool for portrait enhancement in my studio is the award winning Imagenomics Portraiture2 software [link]. You probably also have seen many ads for Portrait Professional [link] in the photography magazines. I've never had a chance to try it  but it looks like an amazing piece of software. In any event $40 is way too much money for retouching and turned our warm, fuzzy sales experience quite chilly in no time.

I mentioned this to Tammy but said that she her hands were tied. The prices were set by the company and that's what they were. Since her order did hit a certain level we were able to pick up all the Hi-Res images – all 10 of them – for only $49 additional dollars.  I was happy to oblige paying the additional $49 for the images because, as you know, I’ll run through those Photoshop actions and LaDawn and I will “look marvelous” after some quick Photoshop magic..

In Conclusion:

The main point I want to make in today's post is this.  Decent photography and effective sales techniques are the most important tools you have at your disposal to enhance your sales success in this profession. It goes so much against the grain for me when photographers just put their images online and then “Spin the Wheel of Misfortune”  hoping they get a big order. Folks nobody hoping to get a big order ever became successful in this business. Sure, you’ll pick up a little “beer money” on your weekend shoots but you’ll never be able to make your house payments or your car payments until you take sales seriously. It’s not about being just an order taker – IT”S ABOUT BEING AN ORDER MAKER!!!

Lifetouch is in photography for business. That’s exactly the same reason we should be in photography, particularly if we have family responsibilities and want to pay the bills . If you're in it for fun than that's all good to.  Just don't expect to make a living out of it. If you expect to make a living out of photography and that's more challenging than ever before these days with so many people in it for fun, that you better “know the ropes” when it comes to sales and shooting  so you can deliver premium images and enhance your sales with an efficient and profitable sales process.

We professional photographers put too much of our hearts and our souls into this profession to have to settle  for so much less because we are lousy salespeople. I tried to use Lifetouch as an example in this post today to show you what not just a large company does but, what every photographer needs to do to be successful. If you ever think that Lifetouch taking dollars your back pocket, look again, they are probably selling much more effectively than you are.

The lessons I learned for my church directory experience last night are important lessons every photographer who wants to be successful in this business needs to learn. The time to start learning sales is today. I hope you enjoy the read. By the way my hats off to Leslie and Tammy for a job well done - both photographically and in the sales process. Hey Lifetouch – you’ve got two the best out there working for you.  My hat’s off to the both of them!

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Hey gang, that's it for me today  I know the post ran a little long but, what's new – right ;~)  Just a quick note, you’ve probably noticed that I'm down to blogging about three days a week. But, as you can see, the posts are quite in depth – hope you think the read is worthwhile.

The 3 posts/week is because of my studio responsibilities and trying to get my new book written.  My 2000 words/day quota is pretty ambitious but I'm pretty much on track. Part one of the process is nearly complete. About 35,000 words under my belt right now and I plan to complete another 4-6,000 words over the weekend even though I have a wedding all day Saturday. So, as I said, hang in there with me – I can't wait to see what you think of the book.

Have a great weekend everybody. I hope the weather is great in your part of the world. And, if you're shooting a wedding any where in the world this weekend, keep your brides and grooms and your pixel smiling.

See you on Monday, David

Business Day Thursday: My 5 Step Plan For Better Sales & Profits For 2012.

Good Afternoon Everybody,

All the orders have been delivered. The clients are smiling. The checking account looks happy. The dust has settled around the studio and the game plan is on for a brand new year. So what about you – what are your plans for 2012?

My 5 Step Plan For better Sales & Profits For 2012

I've said it to every aspiring photographer at many of my seminars and workshops. The year is coming to an end.  All the sales and profit dials all get reset to zero. And really, what are you going to do about it?  Too many photographers and business owners will settle into the same old habits that lead many to the same mediocre results as in 2011. Today is the day to resolve to put a new plan into action.  It's confession time and it's time to confess the highlights of this past year.  And, it’s also time to own up to your misses for 2011.

Here is my 5 step plan for better sales for 2012:

1. Review everything about your studio profits or losses - the high points and those not so high - for 2011.  What did you do really well, and where did you drop the ball?

2. List the best things that happened in your studio in 2011.  Maybe it was a new email promotion you started or a new Facebook strategy you tried that worked great.  Now resolve to make those promotions even better for 2012.  Don't leave a thing out.  Sit down yourself, with your staff, your spouse, fellow photographer buddies - anyone you can bounce ideas off of to make 2012 a better year.

3.  Reflect on the near misses for 2011.  What went wrong and why?  Could a small change here or there made a bigger difference in the profit outcome?  Maybe you just need to ditch the idea all together.

4. Introduce new products for 2012.  If you had some big hits in 2011, make them bigger hits in 2012!

5.  Write out your plan for 2012 - and then work the plan.

Hey gang, it all sounds so simple doesn't it?  But why do so many struggling photographers never get around to carrying out any of the five steps above?  Why do so many businesses continue to struggle because of their inaction?  Why don't they choose to take the road less traveled by less-than-successful businesses but heavily traveled by successful ones?

Success comes with planning and hard work.  Successful studios already know that and are well on their way to planning an even better marketing plan for 2012.  I sure hope you will too!  Plan to follow DigitalProTalk throughout 2012.  I promise to bring you hot tips and techniques, business web-casts, and lots more to help your business grow.  It will be a fun and profitable ride!

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  My daughter, Elizabeth is in town and we're hangin' for the next few days.  Have a great rest of the day and I'll see you again tomorrow for a short weekend post.

See ya' then,  David

Technique Tuesday: Light Is Light, Right? Wrong? & Wedding Photographers Unite!

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL holiday weekend.  Ours was quiet and energizing.  I don't know about you guys and girls, but my Batteries were in deep discharge mode before the holidays.  Over the weekend I hardly got near a computer other than the holiday wishes I posted and what I'm mentioning below.

Over the weekend I did discover a very good way to recharge my batteries.  On Christmas morning, before tearing into each others presents, LaDawn suggested we look back over the year and revisit all the high points.  We found it a bit challenging to do it with instant recall - I guess my brain pixels are slowing a bit ;~) So, I headed over to the computer and fired up Google calendar to refresh our memories and review the year.

And what a year it has been!  We were traveling for nearly 20 weeks, like close to 5 months, traveling throughout the USA, Canada, and Mexico.  No wonder it felt busy this year, and me the guy trying to slow things down a bit - whew!  We had some great times, photographed some BEAUTIFUL weddings including LaDawn’s son Joshua and new daughter-in-law Kristen. But more importantly, we met some great photographers along the way and especially the photographers we got to know even better from our Sedona and Napa three-day Experience to our week-long Master Classes.

We smiled and giggled for more than an hour just enjoying the fond memories of these past 12 months.  I think it's a good idea for everybody.  Too many times we dwell on the difficulties in our lives and often forget about or dismiss the true high points of the year.  Hey, we've got New Year's Day coming up in just a few - maybe you could take a peek back at 2011 this weekend…. just a thought.

Anyway, It's good to be back today.  The schedule around here this week is not too crazy, my daughter is coming in to visit, and we have one more holiday party to prepare for tomorrow evening.  It will be a nice few days.

That said, why don't we get on with today's post.  First, I want to give you an update on the "I Do" free wedding web event kicking off tomorrow and then we'll get on with today's technique Tuesday.  Here we go...

Wedding Photographers Unite!

The first of three FREE "I Do" wedding webcasts kicks off tomorrow at 10:00a.m. Each one features a different group of speakers.

The line-up for tomorrow looks great and includes some of my favorite young gun wedding photographers. 

The line-up for this Wednesday, December 28th:

11 am CST - Creating Remarkable Experiences / Becker

12 pm CST - No Cost Marketing / Zach & Jody Gray

1 pm CST - Creating a Successful Wedding Business / Laura Novak

2 pm CST - Picture the Perfect Wedding Album / Joy & Jules Bianchi (Brown)

Remember, you can pick up a DVD of ALL 16 speakers, me included, for only $79, and get $250 worth of super cool goodies to boot.  Whcc, ProSelect, Animoto, Shootsac, PWD Labs, & Successware have put together some exclusive goodies [link]. ONLY for those who buy the "I Do" recordings.

Buy before 11 am CST tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec. 28 to get $250 in goodies, and start making the changes for a blissful wedding business in 2012.

Once again, here is the link for all the info. Or just

REGISTER RIGHT HERE!

Technique Tuesday: Light Is Light, Right?  Wrong?

Today I want to walk you through a short discussion about the characteristics of light.  It's not about one piece of lighting gear filling the bill for all you shooting needs. Hey, you don't just use one lens on a job, do you?  Of course not.  It's the same for your lighting gear too.  You'll have to make choices about what lighting gear to use and when is the most appropriate times to use that lighting gear. 

Let's first talk about the size of the lights themselves. Yes, Virginia, size matters when talking about light.  You’ll get a different feeling from the portrait depending on the size of the light source used to illuminate the image.

Why not hit the PLAY button below and see how the size of your light source affects not just how the subject is illuminated but also how the size of the light impacts your portraits.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  I'm the Master Chef for a party of about 20 guests tomorrow and my Henkel's, Cuisinart, and Kitchen Aid are waiting ;~) Have a great rest of the day and I'll see you tomorrow for another great post, "The Most Important Tool In Your Gear Bag". 

See ya' then,  David

“I Do Weddings” FREE marketing Web Event coming up 12/28, 2011 & 1/4, and 1/11, 2012.

Hello Again Everybody,

Hey, I promised you two great announcements today.  I hope you had a chance to look over the results and all the great images above [link] from our HOT SHOTS competition. So now get’s on with my next BIG announcement!

My good friend, Sarah Petty, the marketing force and genius behind Joy Of Marketing asked me to be part of her next BIG breakthrough web event –>

I Do Weddings FREE marketing web event coming up December 28, 2011, 1/4, and 1/11, 2012.

But instead of me giving you the low down on the event, let me turn it  over to Sarah…

Dear Fellow Photographer,

• It's tough out there.
• Brides haggling over price . . .
• Always looking for a better deal on their wedding photography . . .

They can drag you down . . .

Even make you question some days why you are in the photography business.

Isn't there an easier way to attract higher paying brides?

In my new movie, I'll show you 5 things you can do to create value for your wedding photography.

This is how you can attract the right brides who will pay more.

And there's even more F-R-E-E goodies for you!

Just check out the video to hear the scoop....or keep reading!

I've asked a few of my friends who are leading the industry, along with whcc, to bring you an entire F-R-E-E wedding event!

It's called 'I Do' and it's F-R-E-E online thanks to my lab, whcc.

All you need to do is register here and then tune in for free on 12/28, 1/4 and 1/11.

You'll hear Becker, Julia Woods, Zach and Jody Gray, David Ziser and more teach you how to get referrals, to book the high end brides and to sell without being pushy.

Get your 2012 wedding business off to a fast start by joining us at 'I Do'.

With Joy,

Sarah

P.S. The f-r-e-e event kicks off on 12/28, and we'll be giving away some fun prizes from our sponsors whcc, Adorama, Animoto, ProSelect, Shootsac, Successware and PWD Labs. Plus you can get free templates and resources right now, too, just by signing up for I Do. So be sure to register F-R-E-E here.

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Hey everybody, we’ve all been working on this for months.  It’s probably the most important web event you’ll attend this year and next.  Don’t miss this opportunity to kick start you business for 2012! 

I’ll see you there!

-David

Business Day Thursday: “Planting the Seeds Of Expectation To Reap The Harvest Of Sales Success – Part 2”

Good Afternoon Everybody,

Yep, it’s been another one of those days. I just finished my 2 hour webcast with Charles Lewis, then had to dash to the accountant’s office – it’s tax day today, and getting ready for two big shooting days this weekend sure has made the day fly by.

Anyway, I promised to expand on my Business Day Thursday post from last week, “Planting the Seeds Of Expectation To Reap The Harvest Of Sales Success” [link] so let’s get right to it.

“Planting the Seeds Of Expectation To Reap The Harvest Of Sales Success – Part 2”

Last week I tried to show how important it is in the sales process to plant seeds of expectation for your clients. Don’t you enjoy working with a company that’s promises you that they will go the extra mile for you; that they have so many cool things to tell you about , you can’t wait to hear about them.  I know I do.  Maybe that’s where I learned the importance of such a sales approach.

Last week we left it with the discussion of the wedding album. We discussed how I plant the seed that the client will love the images that I take at their event and will want far more than the original 100 images included in our top coverage.  If I do a good job, and I do at every event, the clients will always add additional images to their wedding selection.  BTW, this is where the “shoot and burners” leave so much of their potential sales sitting on the table.  But I digress.

How many other ways can we plant those seeds of expectation?  It’s easy – I’m also going to talk about our Black and White selections, Wall collages, Grandparent collections – the list goes on and on.

Remember, you’re not trying to make a sale at this point – you are just enthusiastically presenting your other products and services to your new clients.  You’re enthusiasm will transfer to your clients too – they know they will probably want some of the addition products you are showing. That’s what “planting the seeds of expectation” is all about – being excited about what you are about,  your photography, and the creative and innovative products you offer.

The payoff comes well down the road when you are with your clients for their final image presentation.  After the dust settles – they loved your photographs and fine tuned their final selection to a nice sized album – time to reap the harvest of the seeds of expectation you planted months before.

Reaping The Harvest

After we finish with the final selection of the album images, family albums, and additional prints, I simple “bring up” what we discussed months earlier.  It goes something like this.  “You guys put together one awesome album, you’re going to love it when you see it, it’s going to be so beautiful.”  Look more closely at that simple sentence – I affirmed their selections and planted “two more seeds of expectation.”

Continuing I say, “John, Mary, do you remember the Black and White collections we discussed months ago at our first meeting? “Oh my gosh honey, we totally forgot about that!”, they exclaim. “Tell us again, David”, they ask. “Sure”, I answer, “We have three ways you can display your additional Black and White images.  The first is in an album; the second, in our Treasure Box; and the third as a nice multi-image framed wall collage.”  “You know”, I say, “Black and White photographs are just beautiful to view” (planted seed).  All the color is striped away and all the viewer’s attention goes right to the main subject’s in the image.  I continue, “We had a client not all that long ago who put together a beautiful collection of just the special moments of the day. It was beautiful.”  I’ve scattered sample from that album throughout this post.

With that the stage is set to review the images again, moving through the favorites, previewing them as B&W’s and letting the bride and groom select their favorites.  When viewing images as B&W’s, I get to say that it either “sings’ or “doesn’t sing”.  When it works, it works well and the clients can see and appreciate the difference. Depending on the number of images selected determines the best way to showcase the selected images – 20 or more selected are bound in an album; 12 fit nicely in our treasure box, and less than that will easily accommodate a wall collage.

Sales Is Not A Dirty Word

The important thing to note here is the fact that I brought up the idea of B&W’s months ago.  The clients remembered  the experience of seeing the collections then, and was now ready to make a buying decision - all good for your bottom line and your continued success.  Remember, sales is never a dirty word.  It is finding out what your clients wants and then figuring out how they can get it.  Sales is a service that we offer our clients.  If we are not putting our best foot forward all the time and being excited about our products and services, we do our clients a dis-service and our bottom line an even bigger dis-service.

Folks, I hope you give what I discussed here some thought.  Most photographers are not good sale people and that pretty much explains the HUGE “churn” in photographers every year.  Learn to be a better sales person – better yet, learn to offer your clients great sales service and you may still be around in a few years ;~)

Just keep reading, practicing, enhancing and innovating your sales approach.  Planting the “seeds of expectation” is a good place to begin!

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Hey gang, I’m out of here. Have a good rest of the evening and I‘ll see you for a short post tomorrow.

Adios everybody,  David

Weekend Update - Part 2: Only 3 Seats Left! For My Fall Master Class!

Hey Gang,

I just checked our numbers of our upcoming Fall Master Class and my team tells me we have only 3 remaining seats available.  I’m spreading the word next week at Photoshop Word so I suspect they'll go fast. 

If you want to grab one of the last remaining spots you can give Jennifer a call at 800.292.2994 on Tuesday and reserve your seat.  It’s still early enough for you to get a good deal on air fare too.

You can catch all the info on the class right here.  It’s an intense week of sleeping, eating, breathing photography, networking with fellow students, portfolio development and much more. Everyone has a great time.

I hope to see you there, David

Business Day Thursday: Creating Customers For Life Video & Another FREE Webcast Next Week

Good Afternoon Everybody,

We wrapped our last day in NYC yesterday and are heading back home today.  In fact  I'm writing today's post at 30,000 feet ;~)

We had a wonderful visit to New York City enjoying our stay at one of the cities nicest hotels, seeing three of the best plays on Broadway, sampling the culinary delights of a few  excellent restaurants, catching up with my daughter, Elizabeth, and strolling over 25 miles from one end of the city to the other.  It was a wonderful visit!  But, like they say, there's no place like home.  It will be good to return to the wide open spaces of our Midwest backyard.

My Animoto Webcast Was A Hit!

My webcast at Animoto went really well yesterday.  Becky, who you see on the right, co-hosted with me and also said it was an Animoto FIRST – the first time they had done a webcast out of their main offices. We had about 350 folks on line watching and listening.  I was kind of on a time crunch and was moving through my presentation rather quickly but I don't think anyone minded by all the nice remarks that were coming in through the chat screen. Thank you to all that took the time to listen and to participate with your very kind remarks.

LaDawn suggested I run yesterday's webcast for today's Business Day Thursday post for all those that couldn't work the presentation time into your schedule.  I agreed and worked up the video yesterday afternoon. I'll tell ya', you get a special bonus in the video too.  Megan, from Animoto,  did a 10 minute tutorial on how easy Animoto is to use.  So if you are new to Animoto, don't miss Megan's demo.  Megan also mentioned a special promo code to get you 3 months free ($100 value) with a 1-year Animoto subscription.  You'll have to watch the video to get the code;~)

Creating Customers For Life Video

In preparing for yesterday's webcast, I reviewed years of content I had put together about finding new customers, treating them with the absolute best  customer service, building customer relationships into a successful business building strategy.  This video is the 45 minute distillation from my notes.

In the video I cover 6 key areas necessary in creating lifelong clients. They can be summarized as follows; Connect, Engage, Sizzle, Innovate, Serve, and Appreciate.  Why not hit the PLAY button below and get the rest of the story.  I really think you'll enjoy the webcast.

FREE - LIVE Sales Webcast With Charles Lewis Next Week

Mark your calendars and register now [link] - Thursday, August 4, 3:30 p.m. EDT.  Next week I’ll be hosting a sales  webcast with the pre-eminent sales trainer in the field, Mr. Charles Lewis. And next week, I'm letting the world know about it via my newsletter.

I suspect this webcast will fill up quickly which is why I am giving you an early "heads up." If you want to how to double your sales in only two weeks, you need to hear Chuck's program.  Again, here is the link to register for this FREE webcast.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  It will be good to get home even in spite of the high 90's temperatures were having in Northern Kentucky.  I hope it's cooler in your neck of the woods.  Anyway, plan to stop back tomorrow for a short post.  I hope to see you then.

Have a great rest of the day, David

Paint The Picture, Build The Expectation

Good Morning Everybody,

We had a great first day in NYC. In spite of the heat, a nice breeze made walking the city quite nice.  I hear that back in Cincinnati they have 98 degree weather with high humidity making the heat index at 115 degrees, one of the highest in the country!  I’m kind of glad we're in NYC.

We caught up with my daughter, Elizabeth, for diner last nice and plan to spend some more time with her over the weekend.  I've mentioned previously that she's going to school in the city and working for my good buddies at Animoto too. 

One the way walking back from dinner last night, we were making our way up Park Avenue and at about 48th Street saw lots of trucks, lights, cameras, people everywhere.  I t seems we had walked onto the filming of the new Tom Hanks/Sandra Bullock movie, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close [link].  No, we didn't see Tom or Sandra - they had finished their scenes two months ago.  Yesterday evening was the last day for the final scene of the movie- all very interesting to watch.  Hey, you never know what stories will unfold in the Big Apple ;~)

On with Business Day Thursday---

Paint The Picture, Build The Expectation

This post is prompted by our check in experience at our hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria, yesterday.  We travel quite a bit and are reasonably high in the Hilton Honors membership level.  We headed to the Diamond Desk to begin the check in process.  There we met Jackie, I would venture to say the most personable person in the hotel.

We were immediately disarmed by her charm, wit, and a desire to make our stay it's absolute best.  Here is the lesson today.  What was her secret weapon to making that happen for us?  It was her way of constantly building our expectations for our stay.  I have to tell you, when your staying at one of the nicest places in the city, you already have pretty high expectations anyway.  Jackie wanted to take it over the top.

I was a little worried about what room we would be staying in since the hotel was overbooked by 6%.  I was just hoping that it would be better than a broom closet, although a broom closet at the Waldorf should still be pretty nice.  Jackie assured us that we would simply love the room.  She was familiar with it and it was one of her favorites. It was also the favorite of many of the regular guests.  Jackie had my attention - she was working her magic.

She was telling me not to worry, I would love the room.  Secondly she was affirming that others have loved it too. And thirdly she was putting her seal of approval on it with her own past experience with the room. 

Then she took it to the next level.  She sensed that maybe I was still a bit hesitant about the room.  She paused looked at the computer one more time and revealed that an even larger room would become available Sunday morning.  She could arrange us moving into that room if we desired.  Now she had insured our comfort in the rare instance that the room she was pointing us toward was less than expected - what service!

The room she told us that we would love was must perfect.  With the addition of the refrigerator and microwave, we are set for the week.  Add to that the daily continental breakfasts, bootled water every day, and several "adult beverage" vouchers, we are set for the week! We can't wait!

How Do You Build Expectations In Your Own Business?

Do you and your staff build expectations for your customers?  I believe its vital to your business success that you do.  I always said, "One of the best ways to run a business is to make promises to your clients about your products and services, then  over-exceed those promises!

I am always building the expectations for my clients – “You're going to love the album”;  “What a fabulous wedding your planning, I can't wait.”  “Because of your fabulous chosen location the images we're going to get will be amazing”;  “I just wanted to call you and tell you how great the images turned out, you're going to love them”;  "Your album just came back from the bookbinder.  It looks fabulous.  I can't wait for you to see it."

Do you get the idea?  For some it may need to be practiced, but if you truly want to deliver the best for your clients and you do, it's easy to say the words.  Why? Because you ARE keeping your promises and hopefully delivering beyond the clients expectations.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  We are really going to take the rest of the day off and enjoy the sites and sounds of the city.  I'll see you tomorrow of a short post.

Have a good one and I'll see you then,  David

[B]Business Day Thursday: The Engagement Continues…

Good Morning Everybody,

I want to kick off today’s post with some great news.  A few month’s ago I did a podcast with my good buddy Chuck Lewis. Chuck was one of my first major influences in photography back in the early days of my career.  You can find the story in last week’s post right here.

Anyway, the podcast was received with rave reviews and Chuck has offered to return the favor by doing a webcast for all our DPT readers at no charge!  I’ll be sending an email out on the specific details shortly but in the meantime you can get all the info right here.  It will be a great time, I promise!

OK, time to get on with today’s post.  It’s always about the client all the time.  This week we continue where we left off last week.  Please read on.

Business Day Thursday: The Engagement Continues…

Last week I began a sales series entitled “Business Day Thursday: Engage With The Engaged” [link] based on the seminar I saw a few weeks ago presented by Jody and Zack Grey [link], two successful, energetic, young guns from Nashville, TN.  Jody and Zack really have it figured out when it comes to building client relationships.  In fact they're approach is so refined that, in spite of the fairly short time they have been in business, they managed to acquire the depth and breath of knowledge that most photography businesses take years to acquire.

Last week I covered how they deftly handle phone calls turning inquiries into bookings right on the phone.  Once again, you can find the post right here.  This week I’d like to share with you a few of their strategies in how they conduct the client interview.  Again, some solid sales information.  Here we go…

The Client Meeting:

When I heard their suggestions, I was thinking that they were signing to the choir, or had been to a few of my seminars;~)  Here is the their list of suggestions to follow when interviewing your clients.  See how they ring with you.  For me, every point was ‘dead on.”

1.  Show that you value photography with photographs, big photographs of yourselves and family members.

As I look around my studio I see several studio samples but I also see several photographs of LaDawn and I together. We even have a family album on the coffee table that our clients (and we) enjoy looking through.  Why is that? Because we value photographs and what they represent.  That’s important, if you want your clients to value your work.  You better show your clients that you value photographs as well and that photography is important to you. 

It’s not about vanity or pride – it’s about the fact that you enjoy having photographs of you and your family around.  Those beautiful images bring back the memories of the times shared when they were taken.  They show that you value your relationship and your spouse and your family.  You emphasize those feelings by displaying your photographs. You are implying the same for your clients.

2.  Food smells - make cookies, brew coffee.

This was always a BIG one for me.  Since I first opened my residential studio doors for business, I never wanted any strong food smells in the house.  Many readers, including me, continue to operate residential studios.  Can you imagine your clients’ reaction upon entering your studio and getting a big whiff of that pork and sauerkraut cooking on the stove.  Hey, unless its a big German wedding, they just may leave running screaming in the other direction;~)

OK, maybe I’m exaggerating  a bit with the food smells, but as Jody and Zach suggest, don’t you think fresh coffee or baking cookies would offer a much nicer “sensual” experience for your client?  I think so too. 

DAZ NOTE:  For photographers operating a residential studio and who have small children around the house, the “food smell” challenge is a tough call.  I was a single father raising two small children back in the early 90’s.  I really disliked having regular cooking food smells around the house if I had clients that evening – in fact it drove me crazy!

What did I do about it?  Easy, the kids went hungry the nights I had appointments – just kidding!!!!!  My real solution – no more evening appointments – problem solved. Granted, photography is my full time profession so I was available to see my clients during normal working hours.

Let me say, I’m really not trying to treat this lightly.  I talk to young photographers all the time that want to look professional to their clients but want to be good parents too.  Sometimes, it is a challenge to avoid the food smells in your home near dinnertime.  And you know, sometimes it’s OK too ;~)

Anybody hungry yet ;~)

p.s.  I think this especially applies to pet odors/hair as not ALL individuals feel the same emotion as you may about your darling dogs and cats.

3. Hide the sample books till they’re comfortable with you and your surrounds.

During our client interviews I think it’s important to begin the conversation easily with the client to build that trust.  In my studio, just as in Zack and Jody’s, the wedding albums need to be shown.  But, we usually didn’t show the albums until about an hour after we began our visit with our client.

That is not to say that the albums are not close by – they are.  They need to be within arms reach so you can easily move into that part of your sales presentation without hesitation.

4. Keep the sales choices simple.

This is another BIG piece of advise.  I remember visiting with photographers that showed about a zillion album cover samples all on the same size books.  I’m thinking what's the sense in that?  Album cover choices do not make me any money at all!  It’s the size/page count of the finished album that determines the success of the sale. 

You need to build that expectation with your clients.  You need to show fewer but LARGER albums instead of several same size, multi- covered small albums.  We currently show three albums in my studio.  ‘Nough said, I agree with you Zack and Jody!

5. Give a gift to your clients before they leave.

Zack and Jody have me on this one.  We always let the meeting end with a handshake and a smile, sometimes even a hug as we instantly became connected.  I like the idea that they give the client something to leave with.  What is it?  It’s a copy of the book, The Most Important Year In A Man’s/Women’s Life.  In this book the authors share their experiences and advice with couples in that make-or-break first year of marriage. 

What a nice way to let their clients know that they are rooting for their relationship.  And, it’s one more thing that helps build a strong client relationship.  BTW, I purchased two copies during Zack and Jody’s program – one for LaDawn and I and one for LaDawn’s newly engages niece, Chelsea.

That wraps Zach and Jody’s top 5 tips.  Each and everyone of them can help you build stronger client relationships.  You may also be interested in a post I did a previously here on DPT.  It was entitled “20 Pointers For Running Your Business Out Of Your Home - What You Need To Know”.  Here is the link right here. Enjoy the read.

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  Things are pretty much back to normal (or is it the abnormal) around the studio, so the posts will fall back into their regular morning time slots.

Have a wonderful day and I’ll plan to see you for a short visit tomorrow.

See ya’ then,  David

After The Wedding: Salesflow/Workflow Part 7 - 10 Steps To Getting The Order Out The Door

Good Afternoon Everybody,

The beginning of this post has changed about 3-4 times over the last two days as the bear kept nipping at my heals all day yesterday and again today.  I was sure I could get the post up but it was another day of too much going on and too little time to complete the project.

I had a meeting with one of my favorite clients in the morning to discuss her daughter’s upcoming wedding. I photographed this upcoming bride and her sister’s Bat Mitzvahs years ago.  It will be really fun to have the opportunity to be apart of Allyson's exciting wedding celebration and reconnect with the family again in September.

Fifteen minutes before the FUSION webcast was to begin I was just wrapping a meeting with my coaches for next week's Digital Master Class [link].  From that meeting, we went right into the webcast "Fusion Now More Than  Ever" with Ariane Fisher and everyone loved it!  See following post to view it again.

Today I'm working on putting the finishing touches on our PhotoPro Summer School.  PhotoPro Summer School [link] is an unprecedented educational, social, entertaining experience happening in Lexington, Kentucky this summer.  We've got a great line up coming your way July 9, 10, 11, & 12, 2011. You can read more about it in a post to follow below.

So, today I just decided to wait till I had all my ducks in a row before hitting the “POST” button.  The bottom line is this – you have one heck of a lot of content in today’s posts.  I hope you’ll take the time to enjoy all you find here today.  I’ve split all the info into three posts which should populate soon so you can easily bookmark what appeals to you most.  Hope you like the reads – ENJOY!!!

Here're we go...

After The Wedding: Salesflow/Workflow Part 7 - 10 Steps To Getting The Order Out The Door

Today also marks the last in the series of articles I've been doing on studio salesflow/workflow.  After the selling, the rest is pretty easy. 

The last two articles were probably the most important in the series.  I discussed sales.  No, more importantly, I discussed success.  That's pretty hard to come by in today’s market if your a  wedding photographer. Currently, up to 80% of wedding photographers are doing it part time.  That was not surprising to here when I read it yesterday morning right here at the PhotoLoveCat blog.

So I hope you will re-read those last two posts - they are important if you want to make photography more that just a passing fancy.

So now let's move into a bit more of the workflow.  What happens after the client selects their gift images and images for their album?  Time to go to work.

1. The first thing to take care of is the billing.  I review all sales with our bookkeeper who will ready invoices and ask for deposits for the additional orders. 

2. Next I review any special client requests with Jennifer, my studio manager.  It's up to her going forward to get the order out to the client in a timely manner. This meeting will include any special retouching/image enhancement requests, album design preferences, and whatever else we need to accomplish guaranteeing that the order will look spectacular for our client. She'll make the notes and ask for clarifications as needed. Now it's into production.

3. We have Lightroom 3 running on a network in my studio so the process is pretty simple. Here is the link to how we accomplished that right here.  Be sure to check all related links at the end of this article for a follow up Lightroom link too.The first chore is move through all the selected images and get them looking great in Lightroom.  We spend most of our time in Lightroom only heading over to Photoshop for the heavy lifting like exit sign removal, head swaps, liquefy requests, etc. 

4. Once the image adjustments and enhancements are complete, another of my team, usually LaDawn puts a second pair of eyes on these corrections and enhancements. This helps us really fine tune the images.  If something was overlooked or a bit askew color-wise, the review by a second person will usually find anything overlooked with the the first pass. It's a great policy for really having your images the best they can be for your client.

5. The next step in the production process is the album design. This now falls to LaDawn - she is such an expert in this department.  Our software of choice is unequivocally LumaPix: PhotoFusion. LumaPix is simply the fastest design software on the planet earth.  By the way, I just talked with the good folks at LumaPix and we can now offer LumaPix at a SPECIAL PRICE through our Digital Resource Center with the purchase of our Lights, Camera, Action Package.  More details right here.

DAZNOTE:  I posted a very detailed webcast on album design and LumaPix right here - just hit the PLAY button below to watch the show again.  I need to point out that this webcast was aired during my Captured By The Light Tour [link] when we were offering LumaPix at even a slightly more reduced price. 

The PRICE SPECIAL is the best we can do now, but it still the best price anywhere for the software.  I'm not trying to make this a commercial, just trying to avoid any confusion with some of the talking points in the video. 

 

By the way, you can find the first LumaPix Webcast right here – both are a little long but really worth the watch.

6. LaDawn can have a 200 image album design knocked out in about 5 hours - I told you LumaPix was fast!  Once designed, she'll let it bake for a bit and then come back to it the next day for additional revisions. 

Once complete, you guessed it - another "pair of eyes" takes a peek at the design. That's usually Jennifer, but I sometimes get involved at this point. Once again, this second look let's us refine the design even more. It's this policy that let's us push the look of our finished product up to Mercedes Benz level of quality.  Sure all these extra steps take time, but that's the product I choose to deliver to my client.

7. Once the album gets the final staff OK, it's time to render the pages out of LumaPix.  We export the album pages as Quality 12 JPEGS.  It's takes a few minutes of computer processing time but is rarely an inconvenience.  The page images are then transferred over to our printing computer where they are queued up in the QImage software - about $99 and then sent to our Canon iPF 8100. We prefer QImage to RIP software because of it's convenience and inexpensive price.

8. The album pages are printed three to a sheet.  We cut the album pages into individual pages so they can be easily fed through our coating machine.  You've got to coat inkjet prints to guarantee print durability and longevity.  Our coated prints mounted in a Zookbinder’s album have a shelf life of over 200 years!!! That's quite a value proposition for our clients. Now even great-great-great grand-daughter will be able to see the original album in all it's full color glory.  Isn't technology wonderful.

9. Once pages are coated, we do the final trim, check for accuracy one more time, securely package all pages for shipping, and send to Zookbinders for final album assembly.

10. A few weeks later, the album arrives and is checked again.  We gather the rest of the ordered prints, add promo materials (i.e. family/baby portrait offers), check invoice for accuracy, and call the client to set up an appointment for final delivery.  The rest is history - the client loves the finished result and hopefully is showing her album all around town telling her friends and family how much she loves the album and what a great experience it was working with David A. Ziser Photography ;~)

Related Links:

Business Day Thursday: FREE Webcast Today & Running Your Business after The Wedding Shoot - Part 1

Business Day Thursday: After The Wedding - What Happens Next: Part 2

Business Day Thursday: After The Wedding: What Happens Next - Part 3

Business Day Thursday: After the Wedding: Workflow – Part 4

Business Day Thursday Continued On Friday: After The Wedding: Workflow - Part 5

After The Wedding: Workflow - Part 6, Making The Sale Or How To Be An Order Maker, Not An Order Taker

Technique Tuesday: Lightroom Jailbreak - Running Lightroom 3 On A Network

Friday: Lightroom 3 - BIG Crashes and Easy Fixes

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  There's a ton of information in today's post so I hope you enjoy the read and the videos.  Next week we begin my Master Class so things will once again be a bit hectic. Be sure to stop back - I should have some great images for you to see and a story or two to tell.

Have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you next week,  David