Sarah Petty: Last week, I did something I’ve never done at our two-day summer camp event we host every year for our Peak Performance Coaching students. I sold for one of my students. She created the photos for two clients and I stepped in and did the selling for her. I am bringing that student, Amy, on to share the inside scoop about what happened. Welcome, Amy Yang. Amy is a student, but also a coach leader in our Peak Performance Coaching program. We have about 8-10 of these leaders who are running six figure businesses. Every summer, we invite our Peak Performance Coaching students to come to one of our students’ studios somewhere around the country.
The host photographer is responsible for getting the client, doing the session, and I do the presentation. Were you nervous about getting the clients?
Amy Yang: I was a little nervous only because I wanted to make sure they were “Sarah-worthy” sales. I know I can get $2-3k sales, but I wanted someone who was going to invest a lot more.
Sarah Petty: Your speciality is newborn photography. And that makes it a little trickier because you have to find someone who just had a baby within a couple of weeks of this date, and then someone who’s willing to let 60 to 80 people watch both the session and the presentation. And you want them to be a right fit client. Will you talk a little bit about what actually happened the week before? Because it was less than ideal, and then I can gush on what an amazing job you did to actually get two amazing right fit clients booked.
Amy Yang: We were doing the final consultation with the family that I had booked the week before. The dad was supposed to be there, but wasn’t. So I did the consultation with the mom and it went so well. But she texted me later that evening and said her husband had shingles on his face and didn’t want to pay for portraits with them there. I didn’t really know what to do because now I needed someone else. I really hit my network harder than I ever have before.
Sarah Petty: So you found a family and you had the consultation on Monday. And we were there on Tuesday for the session. How did you book the brand new perfectly precious newborn twins?
Amy Yang: One of my actual clients who had booked me was due in six weeks, and delivered early. So she texted me five days before you guys all came and I asked her if she would come in and let me photograph them in front of all of you guys.
This was the first time I ever photographed her family. She was actually our pediatric nurse at our pediatrician’s office when I had my twins. So that’s how we sort of knew each other. And she had said many years ago, “If I ever have another baby, I’m coming to you.”
Sarah Petty: And then the other one, you had photographed just the mom for a business portrait, but neither one had been through your whole process, which is what made this great. This was their first time seeing the presentation this way.
Let’s start with the first family. They were the first session on day one. And we really talked and strategized with you on how to serve them at the highest level, in a way that also gets you a nice order. We always go into this session with an intention of how we can serve them, with a plan.
One of the things that I loved that you drew out just on a white notebook paper, the poses that you wanted for the sales plan we talked about. You had it all drawn out and just taped on the wall. For me as a viewer watching you do this session, it gave me this feeling of, “Man, this lady’s awesome. She has a custom plan for us and puts us in these cool poses.” Did anything open up for you from what we talked about or how you might do this session differently to get a higher sale?
Amy Yang: I always draw out my plan for every session because I just never know where it’s going to go and I don’t want to forget anything. What I didn’t think about was then fitting those into particular art pieces. You guys sell the four a lot, and I’ve never sold the four before. Andrea came behind me and reminded me to take the verticals for the four. It’s just a little tweak that I can make in my flow that helps. You can’t sell it if you don’t shoot it, which is something I know.
Sarah Petty: The four is a product that we offer, and we teach people to offer. It’s got two verticals and two horizontals with each parent, with each child. So when you have two parents and two kids, it’s really easy because you get mom with both and dad with both. We do it black and white, snuggly relationship images. And again, you can’t sell it if you don’t get it.
One of the things that we did after you did this session was sit down and strategize with the images. And this happened in 24 hours. So we had one group of people downloading the images, editing them, and building a starter presentation that then Amy and I sat together on and put the finishing touches on for day two.
When I saw the images that were given to me, I thought they need an album, because how can you let go of any of these? They were so beautiful. That was my big aha with that one. At that point, what insights did you have? How did you feel about what we were going into, to present?
Amy Yang: The thing that I really found that I don’t do as much as you were doing is giving them lots of options. That was really interesting to me, because I’d never thought about it from the perspective of they don’t know that they want it if I don’t show it to them.
Sarah Petty: Everything is reverse engineered to give them all of these pieces of art. There is a piece for the daughter’s room, son’s room and something for the whole family over the sofa or mantel. It’s like they couldn’t say no to any of the things. And something else was when we were building the presentation and I said to leave certain images to cut because I still want them to see it. But it’s an easy one to sacrifice.
Amy Yang: Yes and it makes total sense because it takes the pressure off of them. We are on their side, but we also want them to feel like we are here to help you figure out what you do want and you don’t want. We’re not just here to put only the greatest of the great in front of you, and you feel like you have no choice but to buy everything.
Sarah Petty: Part of that strategy is to get them comfortable knowing that I’m here to help you. I want to help you make the right choice so I can really demonstrate that. And so the first client comes in, we show her the presentation. She starts crying and then I start crying. I used to hate that, but it just is such a moment that it makes me feel so good. Forget about the money. We just gave this gift to another mom. We know how hard being a mom is and all the things in life, and we just made her cry over images of her family that she loves so much.
Everything in the order went pretty smoothly. We had a few hiccups that I’m going to actually unpack in its own podcast. But we can talk about them at a high level here. One of them was that when we got to the end of the order and I gave her the total price, I had forgotten to add the album to the total. The first time, she was ready to pay it immediately. So I knew we were not with super price sensitive people, but then I added $3,000 more dollars. I told her if we need to cut, let us help you do that and she said she needed to a little bit. She cut two things, and then we were quiet and we let her work through it in her mind.
How were you feeling in that moment of trying to massage that order and when she was feeling some like, “This might be too much,” and she was working it out, talking it out loud, and we were just quiet letting her?
Amy Yang: I’m totally comfortable in that situation. Because at the end of the day, I am there to help her be comfortable in what she’s ordering. If she had cut it all the way back I would’ve been fine with that. I want her to get what she wants and to be happy with what she purchases. So I’m fine sitting in the silence letting her think it through, because I do the same thing.
Sarah Petty: We landed at $11,000 pre-tax, and she was good with it. I could tell by her body language, she wasn’t going to go back and change her mind. She was confident. She was very much a right fit client. So we’re wrapping up and she mentioned a stepson that we didn’t know existed, because she jumped in the day before to fill in. Normally you would’ve had her come in and done an in-person consultation but we couldn’t make that happen this time. When we heard that, we were like, “Uh-Oh.” Was it at the very end or did it come out somewhere in the session?
Amy Yang: It was during the ordering, because we were talking about the size for the family picture, and she was like, “Well, I can’t make it bigger than the picture of my husband and his other son.”
Sarah Petty: We knew right there we weren’t going to offer something bigger. In our mind, we knew this potentially could change the game. She could go home and this could change the order, which is actually what happened.
Amy Yang: She gave me a call a few days later and was like, “Hey, I was talking with my husband and he is uncomfortable spending this amount without his other son being in any of the portraits.” And I was like, “Absolutely, totally fair. Let’s relook and see what we want to remove, and then let’s schedule a time where you guys can bring the other son in and we can do the whole family picture.”
We ended up cutting it back. So they’re going to come back next summer, and we’re going to do another portrait of the entire family.
Sarah Petty: What did that order end up being?
Amy Yang: $4,000.
Sarah Petty: It’s not common that they call and cut back, but we know why, and we didn’t find it out up front. We didn’t plan for it. You still served the client and they’re thrilled. They’re going to be a lifetime client for you.
Amy Yang: I’d rather cut the order back, make her happy, and have her be a lifetime client, than to leave her in a place where she felt like I strong-armed her into staying with the original order and I never see her again.
Sarah Petty: The second session, that mom had a specific goal when she came in of what she wanted and had a budget. Watching you wrap those twin babies was such a treat. It was a three hour session because there were two babies. What did you expect that order to be?
Amy Yang: I expected an album from her and then one 30 and 12 portrait.
Sarah Petty: You needed enough images for an album, which is why it took so long. And then you needed that perfect, beautiful big image, which there were 20 for her to pick from. You also did some of their faces in black and white and presented them in a square that she ended up buying also. Being respectful of the client and her budget, we always want to show a little more in case they want it. What was her budget about?
Amy Yang: It was about $4,000. And her order ended up being $6,000.
Sarah Petty: She also cried during the presentation and loved everything. She picked the wall portrait. And then we were getting ready to make the final decision and we’re quiet. Again, everybody behind us is so nervous. And she gets out her phone, she’s doing some calculations, and she was like, “Yep, I want those too.” She gave you the card and paid in full. What did you learn from that sales presentation?
Amy Yang: Again, showing the extra. I knew what she wanted and we had kind of laid it out already. So I would’ve only shown her the 30-inch wall portrait sizes and I wouldn’t have shown the black and white faces as a wall piece. But she saw those and had to have them. Such a light bulb for me to show them things that are easy cuts, to just make them comfortable in the process.
Sarah Petty: So you made about $10,000 in one day for two sessions. Looking at the whole thing, do you have a takeaway or two of what you’re going to do differently for future sessions that’s going to increase all of your orders and serve your clients as well?
Amy Yang: I’ve actually had a couple of sales sessions since you guys left, and I did implement showing them more options. I showed a four and I sold it. It’s not just giving them more options. It’s emotionally walking them through, why did I choose these images? Why do I think you are going to love this image in 10 years? I have the fortunate perspective of knowing what it’s like to have little babies that grow up. So I can look at that mom and be like, “Oh my gosh, you are going to want this.” Walking them through that was a big thing for me, because I don’t normally comment so much on, why do I love this one?
Sarah Petty: I love that. And it gets the client in the emotional point. Because it’s not just about them buying more. It’s really just loving on them and loving on their kids.
Amy, thank you so much for sharing this. You served your clients and we had some fun.
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