Let’s say you have just reserved a face to face appointment with a customer recently, you should be very certain to carry these 5 things along with you to assist you finalize the transaction.
  1. Bring A Slideshow: There are software’s you can use to make a good slideshow very fast and easy, start by clicking www.animoto.com/slideshow  before you begin with your sales session. You have to enlighten your customer that making their choices while watching is not important… this segment is mainly for their enjoyment. It’s also advisable to keep a box of tissues nearby just in case. You can study them closely and look out for their response to the images as they slide through the screen... or you can as well consider the option of giving them some private period. I understand my greatest dismay was seeing the response of my customer, but having to see your customer's reaction to your finished work in front of you is really amazing.  It actually motivated me to continue with what I am doing.

  2. Bring Mockups: Take along some black foamy board and make sure its pre-cut into an average portrait, and its sizes ranging from 8x10 to 24x36. Stroll around your customer’s home with them to find out the exact sizes that would best fit various blank walls. They’ll later get to find out how small 8x10s are and will totally agree to demand larger size prints. Leave the portrait replica blank so that their attention would be only on the size.

  3. Bring Samples: The finest idea I learned in sales is to exhibit the items for sale. Do you have large costly albums or huge paintings? If so you really have to start up investment in mockups to show to the customer. While planning for the big samples or mockups you'll also need smaller ones so customers can observe the difference.  For some period I was only selling 8x10's or 11x14 paintings.  When I started exhibiting huge paintings with attractive frames at my meeting point with customers, I noticed customers started buying them.  They would tell me "I need one exactly like this!"  It's because I always display something they can see in front of them and of great quality as this is totally different from viewing images in a catalog. When it comes to advertising your wedding photography this also works as a fact. When I began my business of wedding photography at first, I would always construct a mockup of my 10x10 20 contact album to show to the customer while the prices of bigger albums are visible on my price list page. Initially, I was on a financial plan and secondly, I didn't recognize that buying samples were really a form of advertising my photography. I speculated on the reasons why nobody wanted the more costly albums. When I got a bigger sized album with two times as many pages, I then began to display it to my customers... guess what happened? They also wanted that too! It’s an easy theory but it absolutely works. They cannot order something they can’t see. Truly, I know it’s very enticing to want to acquire the nominal page pattern when you’re just beginning your photography business because you are on a budget, something else you could try out is investing in a mockup album with all the attractive features, names, custom covers, and date stamped, etc., when the price of the mockup album would be inquired, just hand over the price list page you have created including additions. After that, you can use those additions as encouragement. For example, buy "x" numbers of images and acquire one album upgrade for free, or if what they have to spend on the album is little you can remove the stamping and engraved design from the cost, but you are still on the winning side because you’re selling a bigger album. And maybe this advancement will assist you to close the deal. For example, "reserve your wedding appointment with me today and get an upgrade for free ("$x" value).

  4. Bring Printed Proofs: Truly, it’s expensive to get a printed proof, but yet there are possibilities of getting them at reasonable prices and you’ll obviously make back whatever amount you spent in purchasing it. It’s a good system for profitable trading. Evaluate a 5x7 print rather than a 4x6. Guide your customer in making two different sets, the first set would contain the proofs they completely love, while the other set would contain irrelevant proofs. Now choose a printed image from the set of proofs that they love and select one that would fit in the main wall of their home. Afterward, you can select other prints, skilled images, and paintings. If there are any left overprints, you can perhaps dispatch them into a custom cover album.

  5. Bring A Gift: While your customer might have prepared to give you money when they arrive at your meeting, how about them receiving a gift instead? When I was residing in Japan, it was habitual to carry along a little gift whenever you’re going to see someone at his house; I always believed it was a nice expression. The gift really doesn’t need to be big, it may perhaps be a little box of cookies, chocolates, or a nice bottle of wine. Perhaps you can have these gifts personalized with your logo on it but I’ll rather shawl the gift with some fancy paper and have it placed in a gift bag.

July 12, 2020 — Salbine Baghramian