CHAPTER 15:

THE SECRETS TO SALES

Sales is much like marketing, except that instead of selling a potential client on using your studio, you are selling goods and services to a person who is already your client. Think of marketing as “outside sales” and sales as “inside sales.” Only certain specialty areas deal with inside sales, primarily portrait and wedding photography. However, even if your specialty is not one of these, you'll be able to use most of the theories and practices outlined in this chapter in your marketing work — so don't skip it!

A nature image by Jennifer Wu.

LET THE SELLING BEGIN

When I train new employees in sales, the first question I ask them is, “When do you sell the portraits?” Often they respond with the answer, “at the proof viewing,” or what we call “the design consultation.” Then I make a sound like “Oooonk!” and I say, “Thanks for playing!”The correct answer is that you sell the portraits from the moment the client calls you for information or comes through your door as a walk-in or a scheduled studio visit all the way until they've taken their pictures home, hung them on the wall and received your thank-you note in the mail. Every moment of client contact is a moment that you are selling portraits. Or, if you neglect to create a positive relationship with your client, these can turn into moments when you are unselling portraits.

ANSWERING THE PHONE

Do you know what your single most valuable marketing, sales, PR and customer relations tool is? Neither did I when I started my first studio. It's your humble old telephone. Every call you receive is a golden opportunity to get, keep or satisfy a client.

But simply answering your phone can be a challenge when you're a one-horse operation and you need to be in the field, in the studio and out pounding the pavement. Especially when you do all this and keep your day job, too. But getting a real live human being at the other end of the line can be a strong positive influence on your potential clients and can sometimes mean the difference between turning them into your next booking or driving them to one of your competitors. Realistically you won't be able to answer your phone every time it rings when you're just starting out. So what can you do to make sure you don't lose clients who get your voice mail when they call?

• HAVE A PROFESSIONAL, UPBEAT OUTGOING MESSAGE. State your studio name, your specialty and the time frame in which you will most likely get back to your caller. If your studio is in your home, it's doubly important to have a professional sounding outgoing message. Don't try to be cute or clever. Ideally you should have a phone line dedicated to your business so family members don't accidentally answer your business calls.

• RETURN CALLS WITHIN THREE HOURS. If you're on location or at another job, return calls during your lunch or on a break.

• CONVEY TO YOUR CALLERS THAT YOU'RE HAPPY TO HEAR FROM THEM. Even if you're in a rush to get back to your shoot or your job, you should appear as if you have all the time in the world. Being harried or seeming busy will not make potential clients think they're important or otherwise impress them — it'll simply put them off.

• NEVER GIVE ONE-WORD ANSWERS.

“Do you photograph birds as well as dogs and cats?”

“Yes.”

“Should I bring more than one outfit for each child?”

“Yes.”

“I don't see any kumquats in your book. Have you ever shot kumquats before?”

“Yes.”

Do you see all the opportunities being thrown out the window here? The inquisitive potential client got an affirmative response in each case but was not engaged and was given no reason to choose that photographer to do her pictures. The conversation should have gone more like this:

“Do you photograph birds as well as dogs and cats?”

“Why yes — in fact, I shot a cockatoo last week. It was a beautiful bird. I did some macro shots of his face — it's amazing how expressive a bird can be, especially considering they have no lips.”

“Should I bring more than one outfit for each child?”

“Oh, yes! Bring a bunch of things, and we'll pick out the most photogenic outfits at the studio. If you want to do some really dramatic shots, bring black clothes for each kid. And swimsuits can be a lot of fun for a whimsical shot.”

“I don't see kumquats in your book. Have you ever shot kumquats?”

“Yes, I shot kumquats and pomegranates for Megafruit International, and I did a kumquat catalog for the Fruit of the Month Club. We did some really creative shots and even dressed the kumquats up in little Santa suits — it was the fruit for December.”

See the difference?

• DON'T JUST ANSWER THE CALLER'S QUESTIONS — ASK YOUR OWN. How many kids do you have? How old are they? Are they into any sports? Tell me about the history of your widget division. What types of images have you used in your annual reports in the past? The more interest you show in them and the longer you keep them engaged, the more likely they are to hire you.

• REPEAT WHAT THE POTENTIAL CLIENT SAYS IN YOUR OWN WORDS. Let him know you have heard his message and understand his needs by repeating whatever he tells you, but in your own words. Don't just parrot it back to him or you'll come off as insincere.

“My first priority for this catalog is to show all the different colors the widgets come in. I want the widgets to look as large as possible. And we need to be able to show them in a way that makes them look special, because people see widgets every day and they look at them without really seeing them.”

“I understand. We'll highlight all those designer colors, and we can get a hand model who has very small hands — that will make the widgets appear bigger. And you want us to shoot the widgets in a very graphic, dramatic way, so that the widget buyers actually stop to look at them and appreciate them instead of glancing right over them.”

• SHARE A TIDBIT OF INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF.

“I have a collection of antique widgets I inherited from my grandfather.” “When my daughter was your daughter's age, she liked to ice skate, too.” I started shooting with a Brownie when I was only six months old.”

Sharing information about yourself helps the potential client see you as a person, identify with you and feel a connection.

• DON'T ACCEPT CALLS WHEN YOU CAN'T GIVE THE CALLER YOUR FULL ATTENTION. In these days of the cell phone, it's tempting to take calls in the field or at your job. But the only thing worse than getting a message machine is getting, “Oh, hi, I'm on a shoot, I can't talk right now, I'll call you back.” That, or a lot of ambient noise, a connection that's cutting in and out or a distracted photographer who's trying to drive, groping for her palm pilot and cursing other drivers all at the same time. So unless you can devote your full attention to a call, let the machine get it. When you return the call, make it worth the wait.

And here's my pet peeve: When you do answer the phone, don't say, “Studio, this is Stanley.” Tell them what studio! It's another opportunity to expose them to your name. “Kowalski Photography, this is Stanley, how may I help you?” This conveys the impression that you're professional and friendly.

“Building Reflections” by Kerry Drager.

TAKING CONTROL

We all want control. Every single one of us, all the time. It's just that some of us take the direct approach — insist on driving, for instance — and some of us are more subtle: “Gee, why don't you drive?” Or, “Oh, shouldn't we take the freeway instead of the side roads?” The folks who you assume don't want control are often the most controlling of all.

The desire for control does not make you a bad person. It does not mean you have a personality flaw or a character disorder. It just means you're human. Taking control in situations where it's appropriate is not only generally a very good idea, it's also welcomed — especially by those who are counting on your expertise.

When you are doing a proof viewing, you are the expert. You're at the wheel — you should drive, confidently and unapologetically. Yes, of course, selecting portraits is a very personal thing, but while your client knows when she has a positive emotional response to a picture, she probably doesn't know as much as you do about what visual elements make a good portrait, how to group different shots together to tell a story or what sizes and treatments will look the best on her walls. She wants and needs your guidance. I've found very few employees who were unable to become good salespeople with training, but the ones who never succeeded all shared one thing in common: They believed nothing they could say would influence (i.e., control) the outcome of a sale.

“People are just going to buy whatever it is they want anyway,” one young design consultant told me. Clearly, I needed to prove her wrong in a very tangible way. I decided to figure out what our least popular product was — our wallet prints — and instructed everyone at all the stores to sell that product hard for the next four weeks. As an added incentive, I gave away a cup of Starbucks coffee for each set of wallets sold. We wound up increasing the wallet sales by 500 percent, thus proving to the pessimistic employee that what we say to our clients does affect the outcome of a sale.

The point is, we can and should take control of the proof viewing and share our professional opinions with our clients about their portraits. We'll make bigger sales, and the client will be happier with her portraits. I guarantee it.

SERVICE, NOT SELLING

When it comes to customers, there are two types: those who expect and want service, and those who expect and want anonymity. I learned this one day from an employee who was attempting to learn sales. She was in her eleventh hour: If she didn't improve her performance soon, I was going to have to let her go. She was especially bad at information calls and walk-in visits.

“Approach them, greet them, acknowledge them, chat with them, ask them questions, tell them about the studio — engage them,” I told her. “Treat them the way you would like to be treated.”

She giggled timidly and said, “But I'd like to be left alone.”

My employee craved anonymity.

I asked her to describe how she would like the visit to go if she were a potential client who dropped into our studio to decide if she wanted to have her children's portraits taken there.

“I'd like to take a peek at the walls and see what the pictures look like. I'd like to get a price list, and maybe a brochure, and take them home with me and decide for myself whether I wanted to shoot there or not. I wouldn't want anyone schmoozing me or selling me.” She viewed any greeting or attempt at engagement as an intrusion, and the service people as the intruders. She couldn't imagine what life was like for the other type of customer — those who want and value service.

“If I came into the studio and no one engaged me, I'd feel slighted,” I told her. “I'd want the full-service treatment: the greeting, the story of the studio, the questions about the names and ages of my children, and suggestions on creative ways they could be shot. If I were treated like that, I'd probably book a shoot on the spot.”

From that moment on, I stopped telling my employees to treat people the way they'd like to be treated. I started telling them about the “two types,” and that no matter which type they were, they needed to learn to view their actions in engaging the clients and potential clients as providing a service and not as intruding. I think we all need to start with this assumption and approach each potential client as if she were a full-service type. Try to connect by making small talk (no, small talk is not a dirty word, it's an art!) “Do you have children?” “Is it still nice and warm outside?” Then if she gives you a one-word answer, a cool smile, averts her eyes or seeks out another part of the studio, at least she knows you're available should she have any questions.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?

We are all motivated by different things. Some of us are motivated by money. We have mouths at home to feed or we need a new yacht. Some of us are motivated by our own or some external concept of success. Some of us are motivated by the need to feel liked or to be viewed as a good person. While each of us is motivated to some degree by all of these things, usually one motivational factor overshadows the others. No matter which it is for you, you can make it work in creating a successful sales career.

“U.S. Troops” by Stormi Greener.

MONEY

It's great if the carrot at the end of your stick is the green stuff. My money-motivated design consultants tend to be extroverted and energetic in the extreme — qualities that are a real boon for people in sales. The potential pitfall for our money-motivated brethren is that they sometimes start to see their clients as giant dollar signs. These guys need to slow down, take a beat and remember to enjoy their relationships with their clients as much as they enjoy getting their commission checks.

SUCCESS

Like money, success is a powerful motivator. For some, success is having the highest average sale. For some, it's generating the most leads or closing the most sales. I had an employee who judged her success with a given client by whether she got a hug or not when the client was through with the portrait process. (She almost always got a hug, and probably not coincidentally, she had a very high satisfaction rating from the clients and a high average sale.) One employee I had noticed that people seemed to be happier with their overall experience at our studio if she taught them one little thing about our philosophy or product each time she saw them. She liked to explain to them why one image might have a superior composition to another very similar image in their take, or why we do tri-tones instead of straight black and white, or why we like to place the eyes of a subject in the top third of the frame. By teaching them something, she was able to connect with them on a level that was both personal and professional, and give them added value. Whenever I'd say to her, “How's your day been going?” she'd say something to the effect of, “Great! I taught a client about the rule of thirds today!”

BEING LIKED

Those of us who are motivated by the need to be liked can turn this desire into a successful sales career if we recognize that the key to being liked is to know what our customer wants and needs — even when she herself sometimes doesn't.

SELLING UP

“Selling up” is a technique whereby you establish the client's comfort level — usually they will tell you when they come to their photo session what size and number of portraits they have in mind — and then guide them gently past it. My old boss at a theme party company was a master at selling up. Her clients would come to her with a theme and a budget in mind. “We want a Hawaiian Luau and we have $2,000 to spend on decorations,” was a typical request.

Kristi would put together a proposal showing them what they could get for $2,000. Say, four Tiki huts, four sun gods, a hundred leis and ten floral centerpieces.

“Great, we love it, let's go for it,” the client says.

“I also put together a proposal showing you what we could do for you for just $500 more — it would really fill up your meeting area beautifully,” says Kristi.

Suddenly the client has a visual of her party with everything included in the original proposal, plus twenty tropical-colored streamers, floral centerpieces with tropical fish in the vases and two potted palms with twinkle lights.

“Wow,” says the client. “It's only $500 more than we were planning to spend, let's go for it.”

“And I can throw in a dugout canoe to hold your roasted baby pig for $150,” says Kristi. And so on.

If Kristi had started out by telling her client, “Yes, I can do a Hawaiian Luau for $2,000, but I think you'd be happier with our $2,650 version,” the client probably would have insisted on sticking to her original budget. But by showing that she was willing to do a good package for $2,000, and then showing what could be done for an additional fee, she was able to guide the client into a higher comfort zone.

The same principle can be applied to the selling of photographs. Say your client is interested in getting one-year birthday portraits of her son. She wants something to hang on the wall over her mantle that will really show his personality.

“You mentioned you were looking for a 16″ × 20″ (41cm × 51cm) for over your mantle. I've picked out one shot that I think is a lovely stand-alone image,” you start out.

“Yes, I love that one!” the client agrees.

“And this image is strong enough to stand on its own. But if we use this image as the centerpiece of a collage with this serious expression on the right and a laughing shot on the left, we can show off more of his personality,” you continue.

“Oh, I like that, too,” says the client.

“And these three-quarter-length shots could be mixed in an alternating pattern to create a collage of nine shots to give us both a range of expressions and some action, and this would have great visual impact as your focal point for your living room,” you finish.

You've shown your client exactly what she's asked to see, and you've opened her up to some of the other possibilities that may give her even more of what she is looking for.

MEETING OBJECTIONS

When you first start selling your product, you'll hear objections from your clients — reasons why they can't buy that specific product at that specific time. You'll probably think each objection is new and unique. But after you've been selling for a while, you'll realize that you're hearing the same few objections over and over. With a little experience you'll be able to overcome these objections, because you'll know exactly what to say when they arise. Of course, the objections you hear will be determined by your specialty and position in your market. Don't be afraid to use the same answers over and over again to overcome objections if those answers work for you. You may feel like a broken record each time you repeat yourself, but you have to remember that it's news to your client. To give an example, a common objection heard by any photographer/designer who sells wall art is, “Oh, a 16″ × 20″ (41cm × 51cm) is just too big. I only want an 8″ × 10″ (20cm × 25cm).”

A possible response: “Well, it's interesting about sizing for wall portraits. Most people hang pictures that are way too small for their walls, and the portrait looks like its just swimming there all alone. An 8″ × 10″ (20cm × 25cm) would be an appropriate size for a powder room or as an easel back for a desktop or shelf, but you said you were planning on hanging this portrait over your couch? An 8″ × 10″ (20cm × 25cm) would really get lost.”

That's a mouthful, and you may feel silly repeating it several times a day, but it's true. The client will understand what you're saying, and you'll sell them a 16″ × 20″ (41cm × 51cm) that will look dynamite on their walls, and they'll send you endless referrals.

LOOK AND LISTEN

If you listen carefully and pay attention to body language and attitude, your clients will actually communicate to you exactly what it is they want to hear. Think of their words as the text, and their other, nonverbal cues as the subtext. There is as much, if not more, to be learned from the subtext as from the text.

MIRRORING

Often when two people are getting comfortable with each other and start to establish a rapport, they will start “mirroring” each other — one crosses her right leg over her left, the other crosses her right leg over her left; one leans in, the other leans in; one scratches her nose, the other scratches her nose. It happens all the time, but we hardly ever notice it. Start to look for examples, and you'll be amazed at how often you see it. Usually it is impossible to tell who is originating the action and who is mirroring it. After a while it becomes like a dance, and the action flows back and forth between the two people.

SETTING THE TONE

Instead of falling into the mirroring dance unaware, begin the client contact with the intention of setting the tone and creating the mood of the meeting yourself. Encourage a feeling of rapport by smiling, leaning in toward your client and making a comment to which the client will likely respond by nodding or agreeing. (Isn't there a nice breeze out today? Are you going to the fair this year? Isn't it easier getting downtown now that they broadened the freeway?) Ninety percent of the time, you'll find that the client will follow your lead and mirror your rapport-fostering behaviors.

This was graphically illustrated for me once — by, of all people, a graphic designer. I was half an hour late for my appointment with her, the air-conditioning in my car was on the fritz and I'd been stuck in traffic on the way to her office. When I got there, I was agitated, hyper and smelly. But after spending fifteen minutes with her, I felt strangely calm and unstressed. I commented to her on my way out the door that she must be an unusually calm person to have had that affect on me. She laughed so hard she snorted through her nose. “I'm sorry!” she said. “I'm not calm by nature — I'm a bundle of nerves! But when you came in I knew you were wound up, so I intentionally visualized myself calm and at peace, and I deliberately behaved in a calming manner.”

Her graphic design was almost as good as that one little piece of insight she shared with me.

DEVELOP YOUR OWN STYLE

I have seven different design consultants who sell portraits at my various studios. They're all excellent — and they're all very different. One gal struck me as too timid to do sales, and I instructed her store manager not to let her do any design consultations. But as fate would have it, we were short-staffed during the holiday rush and the manager had no choice but to call upon this employee to sell. I bet you can tell where this is going — the employee had the highest sales average of the company. Her soft-spoken manner and genuine love of her child subjects helped her create instant rapport with the clients and inspire absolute trust.

“Lavender Fields” by Brenda Tharp.

Another design consultant with a great sales average teases the clients and uses something of a harder sell, but in a joking way. “Oh, come on, how can you live without this shot?” is one of her common comments. Our clients love her — they ask her to come to their houses for dinner and tell me that whatever I'm paying her isn't enough. Now, if one of these gals tried to imitate the sales style of the other, I'm convinced that her sales average would drop precipitously.

“You have to do it your way, or it's not sincere and it won't float,” says photographer Abby Grossman. “If it's not you talking, and if you're not talking from the heart, you won't sell anything.”

ASSESS YOUR PERSONALITY

Think about your personality traits and determine which you consider to be assets: Are you funny and outgoing, serious and compassionate, supportive and encouraging? Use these assets to find your own personal ways to develop rapport with clients.

People buy from people they like. And people like people who like them. I look at every stranger as my friend — I just haven't met them yet. I use my natural enthusiasm and silliness to establish bonds with my clients. You need to define your personality traits and cultivate them. This will help you in all your relationships — not just your business ones.

PAINT A PICTURE WITH WORDS

When you're selling wedding photos or portraits, it's a harder sell than most because the very things you're trying to get people to give you money for don't even exist yet. Your client is looking at proofs, which are either small photographic machine prints, thumbnail images on a computer monitor or a PowerPoint presentation. You need to be able to paint a picture with words for your client about how these images are going to look enlarged, framed and hanging in their homes, or in photo boxes on their coffee tables.

You can't just say, “This would be a nice grouping,” or “This would be a great 16″ × 20″ (41cm × 51cm).”

You need to say, “Framing an individual shot of Billy and one of Debbie with the kissing shot of the two of them in the center would give you a lot of visual impact, and it would really tell a story about their relationship. If you framed them together in a vertical format, it would fit on a wing wall or in your powder room. And this family shot would be so elegant against your marble mantle piece with the earth tones you're all wearing.” A picture is worth a thousand words, but when you don't have the pictures yet, sometimes you need a thousand words to describe them.

SUGGESTIVE SALES

“Do you need a little easel-back shot for your husband's office? Father's Day is coming up.”

“Do you think the kid's grandparents would like this shot?”

“I bet you could take care of half the people on your Christmas list right here right now!”

“This would make a great Valentine's Day gift.”

These are simply suggestions. There's no hard sell involved. And yet, when you plant these seeds in your clients' minds, you're sure to harvest a larger sale. My employees wait until the client has already selected their own portraits. Then they tuck in the suggestions while they're writing up the order. This helps keep confusion to a minimum — they're not trying to select portraits for their homes, offices, friends and relatives all at once. It also gives them a last-minute excuse to pick out one or two more of the shots they liked and wanted but almost took a pass on. In my experience, the last-minute shots picked out for Grandma or Dad never wind up in the hands of their intended recipients. Mom keeps them for herself.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU'RE MAXIMIZING YOUR SALES

When I opened my studio I did my own design consultations for the first three years. I always had a great time working with my clients, they were thrilled when they got their pictures and often they placed a healthy reorder down the road. I thought I was doing a great job. My average portrait sale was $1,400.

When my business got too big for me to keep doing sales, I was apprehensive about delegating this duty. I didn't think anyone else could do it as well or have the kind of rapport with my clients that I did.

The first person I hired to take over design consultations had worked in the retail industry as a buyer and had never done sales of any kind, but obviously her practical experience served her well, because she quickly brought the studio's average sale up to $2,200. Still, her clients very rarely placed reorders, and with alarming frequency, she'd get morning-after calls from clients with buyer's remorse wanting to reduce the size of their order.

I secretly thought that my result was the better one, until one day the two of us attended a seminar on portrait sales sponsored by Art Leather. The speaker asked the attendees, “Do your clients place a lot of reorders?” Many of us answered in the affirmative. “That's good, right?” he asked. “That's like extra money.”He paused, looked over the crowd and said, “Wrong. If you're getting regular reorders, that means you're not maximizing your sales. Do you ever have clients call you back the next day and wish to reduce their orders? That's good, because it means you're maximizing your sales.”

A portrait by Ibarionex Perello.

LOTS OF LITTLE SALES ADD UP

Everybody loves making a huge sale. It's fun! It's exciting! And for some reason, the clients who make the really big purchases are usually the easiest to work with.

But if we put extra effort into making every small sale just a little bigger — by turning a diptych into a triptych or a 5″ × 7″ (10cm × 13cm) into an 8″ × 10″ (20cm × 25cm) or simply by getting them to spring for that Christmas gift for Grandma — over the course of a month this effort can add up to more than a little extra cash flow.

For example, let's say you average sale is $100, the equivalent own a portrait studio and your average sale is $100, the equivalent of three 5″ × 7″s (13cm × 18cm). You have an average of fifty clients a month, giving you a gross of $5,000. If even just half of them add one extra shot, upsize from a 5″ × 7″ (13cm × 18cm) to an 8″ × 10″ (20cm × 25cm) or add two sets of wallets, your average sale is suddenly $120 for a whopping $1,000 bigger monthly gross. That means increasing your gross 20 percent without a single new client walking through your door.

ADD-ONS

Add-ons are additional products that complement your portraits: premade frames, wallet books, photo boxes and albums, mats, greeting cards, etc. Having add-ons available for purchase can further increase your average sale and give your clients a higher level of service.

DON'T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS

I once had a woman come into my studio for an informational visit to decide whether she wanted to shoot with me. It was a gorgeous summer day, one of the three or so we get in Minnesota in a given year, and all I wanted to do was go to the lake with my dogs and enjoy the weather. The woman, I'll call her Jane, was ten minutes late. The lake was calling me. The dogs were milling around my legs and whining at the door. By the time Jane arrived, I was milling around and whining at the door. I took one look at her, sized her up and decided she wasn't worth a lot of my time. I assumed she wouldn't spend a lot of money on portraits. So I didn't bother asking her the names and ages of her children. I didn't ask her how she'd heard about me or where she'd seen my work. I didn't bother with relating to her at all — that would have taken away precious lake time, after all. I tried to rush her through the studio visit and I didn't even offer to schedule a shoot for her. I steered her toward the door and said, “Well, if you don't have any more questions, I'll walk out with you.”

Luckily for me, Jane wasn't going to let me get away with it. “Am I keeping you from something? You seem distracted,” she said.

The words wake-up call flashed across my brain in giant letters. I suddenly was able to look at my behavior through Jane's eyes — rather than mine own or my dogs' — and the picture wasn't pretty.

“I am so sorry,” I said. “Please, let's sit down and I'll go over the information packet with you and we can look at the schedule book.” I backed up, took a breath, and asked her to tell me about her kids and the person who referred her to me. We had a nice visit, she booked a shoot and the woman who I had assumed wasn't going to purchase a lot wound up being my biggest sale that year. And came back in subsequent years until her kids graduated from high school.

Ultimately, to be successful at sales, you need to be good at relationships, expressing yourself verbally and listening to both the text and the subtext. You should be able to take control, be self-motivated and both lead (set the tone, guide the client to the best purchase for her) and follow (repeat to the client in your own words what you hear her say). If you can do all of this not only will you benefit financially but you'll have lots of happy repeat clients as well.