Selling your prints after a client session?

[gdrainh2o]

I am new to this forum, I hope it was ok to post this question here.


I've been doing some senior, children and family portraits for a little while now. My customers seem to love the images I produce for them. I don't have a studio yet so I have been putting them up on an online gallery for them to see...email, text and facebook back with customer mostly. This seems to take forever to close the sale and it is kinda frustrating. Plus I want to sell more of course...


Who else can tell me from their experience with all of this, what works and what doesn't?


I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Gale

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

The 'best' technique seems to be what is called 'projecting'. The idea is that you bring your clients in (or go to them if need be) and do the sales session in person. You project the images onto a large screen or wall (some use large TV screens). Ideally, you would have a 'sales area' that is set up for just this purpose. It would be designed to be comfortable for the clients. There are a ton of little tips & tricks to setting up a good sales area...but as you don't have a studio yet, you may not be ready to set this up. Some use their own homes/living rooms.

So you get the clients back in for the sales session...of course, you tell them that it's a viewing session so it sounds better. You let them know that this is the only time they can purchase prints etc.

You run the photos on a slideshow with appropriate music. You want to impress them and induce an emotional response. "They cry...they buy".
They are much more likely to open up their wallets when in that emotional state.

One important factor is that for something like a family/kids portrait, you want to ensure that both the husband and wife are there for the viewing....preferably without their kids. That way, they can't say...."I don't know, I'll have to ask my husband".

 

[MLeeK]

Invest in an ipad or good laptop and start doing in person proofing in their home.
With every session I do ( I TRY to do only 2 in a week) I order a sample for me. I take that sample with me to the proofing session. When I order the sample I order it "strategically" with the client in mind... They often purchase it.
Proofing is done with a slideshow set to music. If you can put it on their large TV even better. Create an emotional attachment to the images. Show them how large displays will look in their home... You'll see a dramatic increase.

 

[jme_cay]

I came on here with the same question in mind. I just recently started a business with my photography and am trying to set up the sales part of it. What about selling through a website, especially for clients who don't live nearby? I like the convenience factor of a website for the client. They can sit in their own home and pick what they want. Also I can make "packages" and set order minimums if I wanted to. Anything else they order would be additional. I can also sell fine art from there. My concerns with that though are 1) the websites I have found allow the client to do the cropping before the order is complete (I think a picture with a terrible crop would reflect poorly on me, even if I didn't do the crop.), 2) I would prefer the print to come to me first to make sure everything is as it is supposed to be and 3) are they too impersonal? Are websites a bad idea for ordering? Should they be used for just advertising? I should point out that I don't have a studio either.

 

[Big Mike]

I came on here with the same question in mind. I just recently started a business with my photography and am trying to set up the sales part of it. What about selling through a website, especially for clients who don't live nearby? I like the convenience factor of a website for the client. They can sit in their own home and pick what they want. Also I can make "packages" and set order minimums if I wanted to. Anything else they order would be additional. I can also sell fine art from there. My concerns with that though are 1) the websites I have found allow the client to do the cropping before the order is complete (I think a picture with a terrible crop would reflect poorly on me, even if I didn't do the crop.), 2) I would prefer the print to come to me first to make sure everything is as it is supposed to be and 3) are they too impersonal? Are websites a bad idea for ordering? Should they be used for just advertising? I should point out that I don't have a studio either.

Website proofing and ordering is very common, because yes, it is easy and convenient.
However, it's not great for high sales numbers. As you mention, the client can sit in their own home and pick what they want. They might get emotional the first time the view the images, but they are unlikely to purchase at that time. Instead, they come back again (and again and again, according to the visitor stats on my photocart). So each time they come back, the emotional impact it lessened and their willingness to make that purchase is also lessened.
We can talk about what is easy, convenient and cool for the clients, but if we are talking about making money to put food on your table, you don't necessarily want what is convenient for the client...you want what will make them spend the most. You want them to have a sense of urgency...that is what makes people spend more than if they can take their time. You can do that with on-line ordering, by limiting the open time of the gallery, or offering a early-bird discount....but it's still not as effective as the in-person buy-now-only type of sales.

Although, the on-line ordering does open up your possible client base to friends & family of your initial client. For example, many weddings have family & guests that come from all over. You might be able to sell more prints if you have all those guests (and/or the ones who couldn't make it) able to buy them from your website.

Check out Photocart. It's an application that is loaded right onto your website/host, so you don't have to send clients to another site (Smugmug etc). You can set it to allow clients to view a cropped version, but it's just a sample crop, it's still up to you to do the actual cropping and there is a built-in message telling them that crops are approximate only. Photocart doesn't send the orders to a printer/lab, so you have to do that yourself...and you also have to arrange for shipping/delivery. So you can certainly have the prints come to you before you hand them over to the clients. It's a very customizable package that has many options and ways to tweak it.
It's a one time purchase, so you don't have to pay monthly fees or commission on your sales.
I highly recommend it, if you want to go with the on-line sales route.
Pictures Pro - Photography Shopping Cart | Online Proofing | Photo Cart

 

[KmH]

Mike summed up well. Tapping into the emotion is the key, as is having an array of nice wall size print samples in the proofing room, like standouts, canvas prints, framed prints, press printed books, layflat albums, etc.

Proofing in person is good for up as much as a 4 fold increase in average sales. Someone that has well polished sales skills can realize an even higher boost in average sales.

It is a real plus to have the deep pockets, grandma and grandpa, at the in-person proofing session too.

 

[jme_cay]

Great, thanks for the feedback. I'm going to most likely go the in-person route, but I am going to check out Photo Cart also. Thanks again!

 

[GerryDavid]

I try to do picture viewings at my studio, usually on a day separate from the portrait since they may be tired out from the portrait session itself.

If they live in the opposite direction of my studio, I will meet them at the local library or even Wendy's if they don't mind me being there, which they haven't yet. I do bring examples of things like press printed books, accordion albums, and pictures showing larger things in this situation. I do have a canvas in my studio to show them off and I have yet to sell one in 4 years. The press printed books have been very popular and more recently large wall storyboards have been pretty popular as well.

I want to try the projector route but this wouldn't be possible if you don't have a studio, unless you are able to "rent" a space out. Perhaps the local real estate agent would let you use one of their unoccupied houses for a small fee.

 

[Big Mike]

I want to try the projector route but this wouldn't be possible if you don't have a studio, unless you are able to "rent" a space out. Perhaps the local real estate agent would let you use one of their unoccupied houses for a small fee.

You could bring a laptop and projector into their home...that would certainly be easier than renting, but it also puts you on their territory, so it might be harder to make the sale. On the other hand, it might be easier to sell larger prints/products if you are in their home.
For example, one sales technique I've seen/heard about, is to give them a tape measure (or at least bring your own (you can get some cheap ones done up with your logo etc)). You then have them measure their walls...or you have them measure the space where they want to hang the photo. According to the photographer who was telling me/us about this...it's almost guarantees that they will buy a larger size than the wanted originally. If you think about it, most people think of photos as 4x6 & 5x7...with 8x10 being a 'large' print. But if you hold up an 8x10 to a space on a wall that is 8 feet x 8 feet.....that 8x10 is pretty tiny. So you use the tape measure to show them how a 24x36 print would look on their wall. Or maybe how a 36 x 48 print would look etc. You may not sell that huge print, but you may sell a 16x20 instead of an 8x10.

There is also software that allows you to easily take a photo of their wall, scale it to size and then insert different sized prints. So they can essentially get a preview of what the print will look like, when it's hanging on their wall.

But yes, a big part of the 'selling by projection' is getting them on your territory, where you can control the situation to put them into a 'buying' mood. So even if you don't have a studio, all it would take is an office room somewhere. Maybe rent an office from a business that isn't using it....or something like that.

 

[xposurepro]

+1 on in-studio sales .. Total control over the purchase environment all the way down to the fragrance .. This month is chocolate month at our studio (stupid candles are making me hungry ... but it's nice and homey) .. If you are producing great images and you're confident in what you want to do a retail studio of some kind is the best investment. The first fear factor is .. I can't afford it. However, unless you're using a hobbyist shoot n burn strategy you only need to shoot like 1 client a month to pay all your overhead ... start with a well structured business & marketing plan and it's really not that big a deal.