So I had a consult today for a booking later this year and the bride goes, “your prices are very reasonable, when they are too low I start to wonder…” (mind you my wedding packages currently are $3500-5500)
This got me thinking. Let’s say you’re a fabtastic photog… your shiz looks HOT. But you can’t sell anything and you’re like wtf is going on. You’re borderline thinking that this job isn’t for you, because quite frankly you’re just discouraged.
That’s how I get when I don’t sell. Selling is an addiction to me. A bad bad addiction.. the days I don’t sell.. i get depressed, the days I’m a selling machine, it’s like I’m high as a kite, rolln’ in on cloud 9. Yes, I realize that this is not exactly normal behavior, but for the sake of this blog post we’ll act like it is.
So… I don’t know if you know this or not, but I suck at portraits. Not necessarily shooting them but the marketing & the selling of portraits. I don’t understand how I can sell a wedding like it’s no one’s BIZZZZ-NASS.
When it comes to pricing and selling a freakin’ portrait session, it’s like waking up in a frat house the morning after the biggest party of the year, completely dead. Silence! I wake up, feeling dazed & confused, and start to feel like, oh shiz maybe I shouldn’t have done that, and all those promotions I ran last night were not the brightest idea to do..
The emails don’t come in and i’m like WTF. WHY. I mean I run some awesome specials, $75 for a portrait session. I would book that in a heart beat. This doesn’t include anything but the 1/2 hour session, everything else is a la carte.
But, $75! You can’t find someone with my style, that cheap. At least… that’s what I’m telling myself.
So it’s Saturday morning, 9am, I’m sitting across from this bride thinking the sales karma force is on my side today becuase YOU, YOU My friend have just answered my question on how come i can’t sell a damn portrait session.
They think something is off. I’m not a budget bride’s wedding photgorapher, but I market portraits like I am which sends up a red flag. I’m going to do a test, and mark up my portrait sessions, sell them same way I sell weddings and I’m willing to bet, that I’ll start to notice an increase in family sessions… what do you think?
Are you low-ballin’ yourself? Don’t do it. TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. It may sound like a good idea at the time, but it’s going to lead you down a path of wtf’ness, and no one wants that. 😀