I DON'T LIKE SALES. MY CLIENTS DON'T LIKE SALES

In a utopian world, it would be effortless to get people to give you money in exchange for what you provide for them.  In this land of rainbows, and elves and unicorns, it would just happen.  Money would be deposited in your bank account, simply because you exist to do whatever it is you do.  You would have a new client at whatever frequency you desire, and never once, for any reason, would you ever have to "sell" anything. 

Of course in the real world? Get over yourself.  If you think you can build a business that doesn't involve "sales," then you're either a magician, or an idiot.  

I've heard it before... "my clients don't like feeling sold to," or "my clients don't want to be nickel and dime'd."  Guess what - no one on earth wants to feel "sold to," or be "nickel and dime'd."  No one.  Sure, those can be a low-level function of a "sales" process, but if that's your view - you're severely limiting your business perspective.

MORE SALES THAN YOU THINK 

Let's start by looking at what "sales" really means:  

A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. Signalling completion of the prospective stage, it is the beginning of an engagement between customer and vendor or the extension of that engagement - Wikipedia

In a photography business, there are essentially two common functions where "sales" is manifested.  

1) The process of booking clients AND

2) The process of providing products (usually prints, canvases, albums, etc). 

It's pretty much impossible to create a photography business without #1, and while you could create a business without #2, you'll have to decide if that's worthwhile.   The problem for most photographers is that they confuse "sales" with sleazy, manipulative tactics they may have experienced somewhere along the way.  What if, instead, we adopted a more effective definition of "sales?"  What if we looked at sales as:

The process of discovering your clients problem, and providing them with a solution that meets their needs. 

If we redefine what "sales" means, how does that change the way you look at both functions above.  How might that change the way you approach booking clients (especially since we've already established that it's difficult to build a business without paying clients).  

SOLVING PROBLEMS 

If the "process of booking clients," was about discovering your clients' needs, and providing them with a solution that meets their needs, how would that change the way you approach prospective clients?  Would it change how and where you meet with them?  Would it change the conversation? 

I think it does.  I think that the process of booking clients becomes less like an interview, and more like a consultation.  I think that booking meetings (or consultations) become less about showing clients your sample albums, and slideshows, and cool ipad presentation options, and more about understanding who your client is, and how you can solve their "photography problem."  

By the way, I've said it many times, but I'll say it again.  People who come to you, do not have a "I need pretty photos of my wedding" problem.  They don't come to you because they have a "I need a super cool photographer to be at my wedding" problem.  Their problem has little to do with photographs, or photographers.  Instead, I've always believed that people resonate with photography for the important moments in their life because they have a: "I want to remember the way I feel...." problem.  

They want to remember the way they feel when they first put on that wedding dress.  They want to remember the way they feel when they first see each other at the opposite ends of the aisle.  They want to remember the way they feel when they promised to love each other forever.  They want to remember....   

Solve that problem, and you'll never run out of clients. 

QUIT BEING IGNORANT 

And what about #2 above? Can I be brutally honest?  There are hundreds of reasons that photographers say that they don't sell products. "I don't like selling prints." "I don't have a way to do in-person sales." "I can't......"

Here's the thing - there is a valid model for only selling your services.  There truly is.  Generally, it's known as commercial work, and it's often work-for-hire.  But for most photographers, the aversion to #2 has nothing to do with "sales."  In reality, the aversion is either ignorance, or laziness. 

Yes, I really just said that.  Let's be clear - I'm not saying there isn't a model that doesn't involve selling, but I am saying that that model has nothing to do with making people feel "sold to," or nickel and dime'd, or whatever... Guess what - a problem-solving sales model doesn't do any of those things either.  A true sales model adds value to your clients - it doesn't subtract it.

If that's your objection, giving up on "sales" doesn't have to be the answer - and yet so many photographers do.  So many photographers give up the opportunity to add value by providing something tangible to their clients - something that meets a clients needs - because they "don't like sales."   

I don't think it's that they don't like "sales," I think it's just that they have no idea what that really means. 

ARE PRINT SALES DEAD?

Once upon a time, photography was a means to an end.  You commissioned a photographer to create a portrait, something you hang on the wall.  You didn't pay someone to produce a negative, you paid them to provide you with a finished piece that you could hang on your wall.  

That finished piece was the key - because not only were cameras "rare" (by today's standards), the skills, techniques and materials needed to create the finished piece were even more hard to come by.   Photographers, and print-makers, could charge a premium because they provided something you couldn't get on your own. 

Today, photography is still a means, though to a very different end.   Cameras are not rare.  Prints are not rare.  In fact, many would argue that prints aren't even necessary.  We take our photos with the camera in our phone, save the images in the cloud, and share them with our friends on Facebook.  Printing has little to do with photography.

As a photographer, this leads to an interesting dilemma.  All of the previous barriers to entry are gone.  Everyone has a camera, and almost no one cares about prints... right? 

Right? 

Well, there's a pretty good chance that if you don't care about prints, and don't care about selling prints, then your clients won't much care either.  That's fine, but what if you're leaving something on the table.  I'm not just talking about money - what if you're leaving on the table an opportunity to add value to your clients.

Solving the right problem. 

What do you do that helps people remember the way they feel?  How do you help tell their story?   I don't happen to think that handing over a disc of images is necessarily the best thing for a client.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not fighting against providing digital files - that's really a fight that's just not worth it anymore - at least for weddings.  I just don't happen to believe that what really helps people remember the way they feel at their wedding, is a disc with a few hundred (or thousand), color-corrected digital files.  

Sure, I provide my clients with a disc, so that they have an archive of the images from their wedding day.  And then I do what I was really hired to do - which is to help them remember, by creating something meaningful - an album.  

 Portrait clients don't hire me because they want a disc of files.   They don't hire me to simply provide them with a disc (or gallery) of photographs.  Sure, they want to be able to share those images, but they are commissioning me for much more than that.  They want something tangible that helps them remember.  That's why people purchase large wall prints and canvases.  It's why they purchase books, and put prints in frames and put them on their desk.  

You are the expert

Here's the thing, I still think that clients come to us because we offer them something they can't get on their own.  Of course they can get 4x6 prints, and 5x7 prints, and 8x10 prints.  They can even order their own books, or canvases, or framing.  That's not the real value.  The fact is, I don't think it's about the "photography," and I don't think it's about the "products."  I think it's about solving your clients problem.

By the way, when you're the expert, and you solve your clients problem, they will pay you accordingly.  When your expertise, and your skill, and your talent, provide something of real value to a client, the result is that you end up making a profit.  Often, we think that the problem we get to solve is "my client needs pretty photos."  If that's the problem, then really, shooting and turning over the files is a great solution.  For some clients, that's likely the case, and you can build your business on that.  (By the way, my experience has been that the only profitable clients in that category are commercial clients.) 

On the other hand, if the problem is "I want to remember the way I feel at my wedding," or "I want to remember this stage of the life of our family," then you have an opportunity to add real value by providing something tangible.

Opportunity looks a lot like hard work. 

This is probably the most important part of the question.  Of course, I never thought I'd quote Ashton Kutcher on this blog.  Then again, he was paraphrasing a quote from Steve Jobs, that was borrowed from Thomas Edison.  Here's the point:

Many photographers have built viable, valid business models based on simply turning over the files, and not adding any value through tangible products.  It's your business, and you can do whatever you want.  At the same time, a lot of photographers don't even bother with what we commonly call "sales," because it's hard.  They don't even bother because it requires developing a plan, and knowing what you're doing.  They don't even bother because it's simply "easier" to just "share" all the files. 

My take? Be someone that takes the opportunity to add value.  Be someone that makes your clients better.  Be someone that makes their lives better because you're willing to do the hard work of giving them REAL value in their lives as a result of what you do for them.  That's a business model that will NEVER die.

 Are print sales dead? Sure, if by print sales you mean finding a way to sell a bunch of 4x6's and 5x7's and whatever.  If that's what you're referring to, then yes - that strategy is dead.  On the other hand, if you find a way to add value to your clients, then no - adding value to your clients will never be dead. 

IF YOU WORK FOR FREE, IT'S HARD TO MAKE MONEY

If I gave you a $5 bill, and asked you to go to the store and buy me $10 worth of stuff, would you do it?  Maybe you're nice, and maybe you like me a lot, so maybe you would. What if I gave you a $20 bill, and asked you to go buy me $50 worth of stuff?  You'd really have to like me a lot...

Now, what if you made a living going to the store for people (stay with me a minute)?  What if you paid your mortgage by going and getting stuff for people at the store, and they paid you for it.  What if that was how you fed your children, put clothes on their backs, and planned to pay for their college tuition.   

It seems less likely, if that were the case, that you would take my $20 bill and go get me $50 worth of stuff right?   You would be losing money like crazy - money you could be using to add value to your family.

Yet, photographers do that very thing ALL. THE. TIME.   Every single day, photographers create the most crazy rationalizations for why they don't charge what they're worth.  Every single day photographers come up with the stupidest reasons that it's okay to get paid less than their value.

"But I can't get anyone to give me $75 to go and buy them $50 worth of 'stuff' from the store, I can only get them to give me $40, and $40 is better than $0 right?" 

NO.  It's not better.  Because every time you take that job, you lose money.   

Unfortunately, so many photographers don't see that.  Why not?  Because my analogy isn't really fair.  It's not that you're asking people to give you $75 to go buy $50 worth of "stuff."  You're asking people to pay you for your service, your talent, your expertise, and everything else that makes you, YOU.  It just happens to include (in this example) $50 worth of stuff.  In reality, you're asking people to pay you $2,000, or $5,000, or $10,000 to do what you do.

The problem is that if you allow someone to give you $2,000 for something worth $5,000 in your time, talent, service, expertise and products, the exact same thing is happening.  You lose.  

And here's the thing.  As much as I like my clients, I don't like them enough to write them a check for the privilege of shooting their wedding, or portraits, or whatever.  As much as I like them, I don't like them more than my family.  

Amazingly, so many photographers don't even know what they've lost because they don't know how to value their time.  

Now, let me be clear:  There are plenty of times when there is value to your business (or your life) to doing something, even when you aren't paid cash.  Sometimes that's okay.  Sometimes you add value to your business in ways that can't necessarily be measured in dollars.  In those situations, it's okay, because you're not really working for free.  The important thing is, YOU KNOW YOUR VALUE, AND YOU KNOW THE VALUE TO YOUR BUSINESS.

On the other hand, photographers often dramatically undervalue their own work by discounting or giving it away, for no reason other than the fear of standing up and saying "this is the value I bring to you, and this is the cost."  When that happens, you end up in a place where it becomes almost impossible to build something profitable. 

Of course, it's your business.  You can do whatever you want.  If that's what you want to do, fine - but let's not call it a business.  Let's at least call it what it is.  A hobby.