FocalPower…the blog

A few days ago I was talking with a fellow photographer and we some how ended up on the topic of wedding albums.  We were comparing notes on how the different photographs that we had at each of our weddings handled the album sale after the wedding.  It was quite surprising the stark differences that each photographer used and the result that this had on the incremental revenue gained from the sale of an album.

The general trend amongst most professional wedding photographers is to offer multiple packages that the prospective couple could choose from.  The two main variables that are involved with sizing these packages is the number of hours spent photographing the wedding and the number of album pages that are included .  Including some album pages in the package is the first step to a successful wedding album sales after the big day.

The second step to a successful wedding album sale is selling the couple on the wedding album vision.  Regardless of what it says on our business cards, we are all sales people first and foremost.   Helping the happy couple have a complete memory of their big day is the value they will get out of their wedding album.  The trick is to be energetic and positive while showing them the vision of a complete album that is more than what their package contains.

I learned this trick from the wedding photographer who my wife and I hired for our wedding.   He knew I was a photographer and so was a bit more open on sharing before, during, and after our wedding.  This, coupled with my business sense from selling technology for years, allowed me to pickup on his highly refined sales process for the album.  His process was getting the couple emotionally attached to a vision and then enabling them to make an emotional decision on the wedding album.

Within a week or two of the wedding, he had scheduled a time for my wife and I to come back in to his studio and review the photos.  He had all the keeper photos from our wedding available as 4×6 prints.  All he asked was that we spend 30 minutes or so flipping through all the photos and making two piles:  likes and dislikes.  Then, we were scheduled to come back in within a week to “layout” our album.

When we arrived for the layout session, he had already taken our pile of likes and laid out the ideal wedding album from our big day using these photos.  He sat us down to review the layout with us and show us the options and alternative photos that could be used in certain spots.  Page by page, we saw our wedding day come to life before our very eyes.  Seeing moments of the wedding that we had not observed or had missed during the day itself.  When we reached the last page, it felt like we had experienced the whole wedding day for the first time.  This was the emotional hook.

The photo package that we had purchased included 12 album pages.  Laid out on the table in front of us was almost 30 album pages.  The additional cost for the ideal wedding album was easily a couple thousand dollars.  I could see that most couples at this point would just go with the photographer’s ideal layout and happily pay the additional money.  But my sales instincts kicked into high gear and allowed me to realize what had just happened.  After discussing it over with my wife (who hadn’t realized what just happened even though she has worked in retail sales for years), we went for the ideal wedding album.  We were very happy with our decision.  And the photographer had successfully upsold another client.

The lesson to be learned here for all photographers is to project a positive energetic feeling about the photos every time you interact with your customers. This positive energy will wash away the small flaws that we, with our photographer’s critical eye, always see and sometimes focus on to our detriment.   And this positive energy will not only transfer to the client but also stick in their mind.  You then need to have a sales process in place that times up selling during the most emotional interaction with your client.  This sales skill is not an easy one to learn, but can be learned by everyone who is willing to try.  In the end, you will end up with more business per client and a more successful photography business.

Eventually, you too can retire early to your well earned beach house…just like our wedding photographer did.

Last weekend was the opening weekend for Chihuly at the de Young here in San Francisco.  A huge exhibition of Dale Chihuly’s work at the de Young Museum.

Thanks to the de Young’s policy of allowing photography in the museum (just no flashes nor tripods), this exhibit makes a wonderful photo opportunity; and a great exercise in practicing your low light photography skills.  All of the exhibits are light to showcase the magic of the glass work of Chihuly.  So you will have to have a steady hand a fast camera.

The exhibit runs from June 14th through September 28th and tickets are $15 (which also gives you access to the rest of the de Young museum).  If you are in San Francisco during this period, take advantage of this photo op!

Last week I came across this interesting photo project (thanks to Guy Kawasaki for originally tweeting this!).  The essence of the project was a photo of a various families from around the world showing the food they eat in an week along with how much this food costs (converted to USD).  Unfortuantely, there isn’t any information provided about the background of the project other than it was posted in November of 2007.

I found this project rather intersting from two aspects.  First, the photographic aspect of documenting a family with their weekly food.  It’s more than just the food that they have laid out around them.  It’s the way each family presents themselves along with their food.  And not to mention the interesting aspect of comparing the part of each family’s home that they are sharing with you in that photo.

The second aspect is the social differences in food consumption and cost.  Taking the cost off the table, what does the food that each family presents tell you about their current living situation and lifestyle?  What about the relationship of their food to themselves?

An interesting and insightful project.  What would your family photo look like?