Sarah Petty: The audience of summer camp is filled with photographers from all over the world. Some have been professional photographers for decades, and others are newer at this. The key is they are surrounding themselves with people who are going to lift them higher. There’s something to be said about being in the same room watching someone else follow the same process that you’ve been taught and seeing how it unfolds. The light bulb moments and ahas through the eyes of photographers like you are a learning experience in and of themselves. Today, I’m going to share their biggest takeaways, which should help you no matter your level of experience with sales presentations.
Heather, welcome. Introduce yourself, and share your biggest takeaway.
Heather: I am Heather with Heather Hughes Photography. I’m based on the Virginia Coast and I specialize in families, seniors and events. I had a lot of takeaways from summer camp, the biggest one was definitely with the sales presentations. The way that you listed out what it was that they wanted at the end of the sales presentation and didn’t say the number out loud made a big difference for me because it is really hard to say those big numbers.
Sarah Petty: It is. I do that to create value for them before I say the total price. I’m curious, how do you give the price to your clients?
Heather: In the past, I would go through each one and list out the price and then get down to the end and say the total price amount. I think it made it hit a bit harder. I liked how this was a little bit softer.
Sarah Petty: The words we use are so powerful. I love that. Anything else?
Heather: Another thing that I had written down was during the presentation, narrowing down how many images I show my clients. And showing them the best one instead of a lot of variations of the same image.
Sarah Petty: I try to not ever show any that aren’t great. Amy’s images were all great, but sometimes what I think is the best one isn’t the best one. Every presentation has nuances. Great insights, Heather. Thank you so much.
Dawn, I can’t wait to hear your takeaways.
Dawn: I am Dawn from Port Huron, Michigan, and I had so many takeaways from summer camp, but I think my biggest one was watching our wonderful coach, Amy Yang do the family session. She posted her plan on the wall, and that was my biggest takeaway. I’ve actually used that since then, and it made my session go so much smoother. I was so intimidated in the past to have something like that because I thought people would think I wasn’t prepared. Watching Amy execute it gave me the confidence to just step into that.
Sarah Petty: So what Amy did was sketch out the poses that she wanted to shoot on a piece of paper and posted it on the wall for her to see during her session. When she did it, we’re all thinking, what’s she doing? She went over to the wall right next to the session where the clients could see it, and she took Scotch tape and stuck this piece of paper with all these sketches on it on the wall. When she did that, what were you thinking?
Dawn: I couldn’t believe that she actually did. I was like, “Oh my goodness. Isn’t she scared that they think she’s not prepared?” They didn’t even think twice about it. It resonated with me and helps me know that I am prepared for the session. To see that happen in Amy’s studio was just magic.
Sarah Petty: When you did it, did you feel good doing it? Was it easy for you to do after you saw her do it?
Dawn: Yes, it was. I’m not intimidated by it anymore. To put it in my workflow to ensure I’m not missing anything just correlates with the rest of what I do. It’s just another piece of the puzzle that makes it so much more important.
Sarah Petty: What was your other takeaway?
Dawn: I love the importance of when you share about presenting the photos in projection. I had never seen that in action before. To see that and to see the client’s reaction to it so big was so exciting. It inspired me.
Sarah Petty: I love that. Both of Amy’s clients immediately started crying. So I started crying and Amy started crying. When I first heard about this concept 20 years ago, I thought, “Oh, this sounds salesy, this sounds high pressure.” And it’s not. It’s beautiful. It’s a gift that we give to our clients. Dawn, thank you so much. Those were really great takeaways.
Nicole, welcome! What were your takeaways?
Nicole: I’m Nicole McCarson and I have been in photography for about 15 years in various ways. This was my first summer camp. The biggest thing for me, being a visual learner, was being able to take everything that we’ve learned through your program, and actually see it visually done live. My favorite thing that I’ve been trying to implement more since then is the staying in the emotion in the sales session. You kept it rolling and it wasn’t too salesy. It was serving your client. The way you worded things and spoke to them was awesome.
Sarah Petty: I love that. You said keeping them in the emotion. What do you do now or what have you done in the past that’s different?
Nicole: Money, especially at this level, has always given me anxiety. Before I fully got into peak, I would hold my breath before telling them prices. Now, I almost over share and I make sure that they are fully aware and they know what to expect in the consultation before we even get started. So that in the sales session we can focus more on what they want and the images and the emotion and the experience we had versus being so mindful about pricing.
Sarah Petty: All of these things are not to be tricky or deceiving, but it’s to help them make a better decision. I love that takeaway, Nicole.
Hillary, I’m so glad you’re here. Welcome.
Hillary: My name is Hillary Gustaveson and I am in San Diego, California. I mostly photograph babies, children and families. I’ve been a photographer for 26 years and running my business for 17 years. I had two big takeaways from summer camp. I really liked watching the process in person versus watching training videos. That was really helpful. Having the pricing card, the way that I’ve been doing it is when we come to the ordering appointment, I hand them their card and they’re constantly during the ordering looking at it, and I thought, “Is she going to show them the card?” And then I saw the difference in not showing them the card right away. That was huge.
Sarah Petty: I love that.
Hillary: And then having the session layout Amy had taped to the wall was awesome. Seeing that was so helpful for me.
Sarah Petty: Seeing it was so cool. I love hearing takeaways from someone who’s been in business 17 years. So great.
Lisa, introduce yourself.
Lisa: I’m Lisa Leonard and I have been doing photography for about 10 years now, but I’ve only been in business for a year. This was my first summer camp so there were so many things that I have taken away from this that I’ve already actually implemented and seen a bit of a change. One of the things was the albums. I love that you talked about the album right away. There’s so many good images that you’re going to want so putting the album on their radar is genius. I think just that repetitiveness of it’s going to be in an album really solidifies in their mind that they don’t have to pick and choose. And they can fall in love with the pictures even more.
Sarah Petty: I love it. I’m so proud of you. Lisa, thank you.
Sarah Petty: Fabulous Shalicia. Welcome.
Shalicia: My name is Shalicia Johnson and I’m from Madison, Wisconsin. I do child, family, pet and high school senior photography. I’ve been in business for seven years and following Sarah’s model, I’ve been in business for four years. I have three takeaways from summer camp. Amy having her shot list on the wall was genius because she’s prepared.
The second one was just making sure that you have a sales plan done ahead of time so that the sales session goes really smoothly. I’m totally guilty of having the price card out at the session, and I’m never doing that again. And when you were done with their order total, you just silently showed it to them to let mom digest it. I thought that was really cool.
My third takeaway was to throw a series in the presentation that is easy to cut. Those are things that are relatively inexpensive in the expanse of our model. They are the least costly things that can go. When they do that, it empowers them that they did cut it down. It’s kind of just a strategy really. I’m going to try that for my sessions coming up in the fall.
Sarah Petty: Thank you so much for the amazing takeaways.
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