How to NAIL Consultations with Photography Clients
5 Tips to Improve Your Client Sales Calls!
How to Master Consultations with Photography Clients and Deliver Your Sales Pitch
Do you find yourself feeling nauseous at the thought of doing consultations with photography clients?
Consultations are a great way to get clients over the line and book with you. They are personal and generally short calls or in person meetings to discuss what the client is looking for.
But if you don’t feel confident booking these kinds of meetings, or feel so nervous it’s hard to speak, this can be really hard!
The good news is you’re in luck with this tutorial! Joy Michelle is here to tell you in this tutorial how to gain confidence and pitch your sales like a high-profile photographer!
5 Tips to Become better at Sales and Consultations in Your Photography Business
Firstly, What is a sales consultation?
Most of the time, clients want to meet you, their photographer, in person or on a video call before committing to booking your services.
A consultation is simply a meeting with you potential clients to talk about what they want, what they need and answer any questions they might have to get them to book with you.
They just want to know who you are and probably have a few questions that you can easily answer face to face. You can put your prospective clients minds at ease and let them know you care about their photos.
Especially if clients are booking for their wedding or another really special occasion, it’s great to be able to speak to them and let them know you are the one to take these photos for them.
The consult is a time to connect, build trust with clients, and get them set up with the right photography package.
#1 Make the Consultation Easy and Juicy
Make this meeting a short and sweet so neither of you work this up to being a bigger deal than it is. Scheduling a short call is much easier to commit to for your clients than a drawn out pitch.
Get clients to consult with you by saving specific information for consultations only. You can do this with pricing, by only sharing ball-park or average pricing before the call, but only talk specifics when on the consult.
This way you get clients to commit to meet you, which is how you can show them why they should choose you.
#2 Asking the right questions
Find out what the client cares about most by asking good questions during the consultation. You can talk about you and your photography as well, but listening to the clients will be the most helpful for you.
As a wedding photography example, asking clients: “What photos are you most looking forward to seeing on your 10 year wedding anniversary?” And then listen to how they answer the questions.
You can then cater your pitch and package around what is most important to them.
#3 Don’t talk about something you could easily show them!
If you are wanting to talk about lighting, locations, or tones make sure you have visuals to show them along with the pitch.
It’s so easy to have physical books to flip through at a meeting or slides to present online which feature the types of images you are talking about.
Visuals speak louder especially when discussing photography, and clients want to see what you mean.
#4 Give them the next steps at the end of the consultation
The end of the phone call or meeting can seem super awkward. The clients have the information and you have answered all their questions, so what now?
The clients probably don’t know your sales process or what to do next, so make sure you tell them. Give them the next step in the booking process and make sure they know how to get set up as your client.
This is a great and easy way to close the meeting professionally while maintaining the relationship you’ve built throughout the consultation.
Consultations with Photography Clients Tip #5: Give Clients a date hold
You can offer clients a temporary ‘date hold’,which might help them go away and think about the commitment to book with you. You can give them 72 hours for example to book that date or it becomes free again.
This works great for weddings but can also be useful for mini sessions or other types of photography sessions you are offering.
You have limited time slots and you want them to make a decision, but it’s often hard for them to do so on the spot in the consultation.
Allow them some (limited) time to go over the information and make the decision.
Building relationships build business, and consultations with photography clients are a great way to do this.
Consultations will help show your clients your personal touch as their photographer and calm and concerns they might have.
Want to improve your photography? Read THIS comprehensive guide!
Which of these tips will you use in your next consultations with photography clients THIS WEEK?
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