How do you get your clients interested in purchasing prints?

I'll get right to the point.

Our business is relatively new (7 months) and since it was new and we lacked a portfolio we started out using SmugMug and dirt cheap prices both for the session and for prints.

Our current method for portrait sessions and weddings has been to advertise up front that we require a session fee AND a minimum purchase order on prints through Smugmug before we release the digital files to the client. We started out doing this to cover hosting costs for Smugmug while providing clients with a very professional quality print (BayPhoto) so they can see the quality difference compared to getting prints from Walmart or a kiosk somewhere.

Most of our clients understand this immediately and have no problems whatsoever.
Some of our clients are utterly flabbergasted and feel cheated that there is an additional fee either before they book a session or even after the session is over, even though we've made the print quota very clear.

This makes me think several things are happening:
1) Those empty headed and/or penny pinching customers will always be present regardless of the way we advertise.
2) Because our prices are currently low ($80/hr + $25 print order before release of downloads) we are marketing to a client base that is used to always looking for a deal rather than being appreciative that professional quality prints are available at their own time and without print packages.
3) We need to advertise differently. Possibly by raising the price and saying downloads are included, which I don't want to do because it minimizes print sales and potentially displays our work on terrible quality prints.

We are currently at a crossroads with our pricing and advertising since we saw enough business last year that we're making a huge investment to upgrade our equipment in preparation for the weddings we've booked this year so we can create a stronger portfolio and start charging a lot more. With this investment, we'll be launching a blog/portfolio website as our primary website and changing our logo and image, so this would be a good chance to totally change the way we advertise.

ANYWAY,

How do you guys make the purchase of prints appealing to your clients? Do you charge enough upfront and always include downloads? Do you offer packages? Are clients more ready to accept print costs as additional once you get over the $100/hr mark?

Help please

Edit:
Here is our current website: http://www.tesarphoto.​com/
We'll soon be using ProPhoto4 to create a blog/portfolio as our main site and slashing SmugMug to only client galleries.
We've also been using a T3 and 50D until next week when two 5D3's and some L lenses show up, if that is any consideration in your replies.

If you are trying to get people to purchase prints online, you are fighting a mostly losing battle.

You need to do in-person consultations where you guide them to the right pics and the right size for them.

When you are charging low end prices, you are getting low end customers, who generally don't want to pay for nice prints and wall art.

My suggestion is to seek out the successful high end photogs in your area and call them. feel them out for how they do business and how they charge.
You can even meet them and pretend to be getting engaged or married and see their sales approach. Then mimick them, and price your self the same or slightly under.
You don't have to let them know your going to be competing with them.

Trust me on this, Costco execs visit Sams Club all the time and Vice versa.

Fester wrote in post #15467579
My suggestion is to seek out the successful high end photogs in your area and call them. feel them out for how they do business and how they charge.
You can even meet them and pretend to be getting engaged or married and see their sales approach. Then mimick them, and price your self the same or slightly under.
You don't have to let them know your going to be competing with them.

Trust me on this, Costco execs visit Sams Club all the time and Vice versa.

I find the idea of leading on a competitor in order to game their sales approach extremely distasteful. Visiting a public retail outlet is one thing; outright subterfuge and misdirection is quite another. Speaking from personal experience, those inquires also tend to be rather transparent from the other end.

Perhaps a better choice would be to conduct research and approach photographers with an established, successful model; I'm sure there are those who aren't your direct competitors and have some free time that would be happy to lend some advice.

Adam Jones wrote in post #15467722
I find the idea of leading on a competitor in order to game their sales approach extremely distasteful. Visiting a public retail outlet is one thing; outright subterfuge and misdirection is quite another. Speaking from personal experience, those inquires also tend to be rather transparent from the other end.

Perhaps a better choice would be to conduct research and approach photographers with an established, successful model; I'm sure there are those who aren't your direct competitors and have some free time that would be happy to lend some advice.

+1 Very poor taste.

Fester wrote in post #15467579
My suggestion is to seek out the successful high end photogs in your area and call them. feel them out for how they do business and how they charge.
You can even meet them and pretend to be getting engaged or married and see their sales approach. Then mimick them, and price your self the same or slightly under.
You don't have to let them know your going to be competing with them.

Trust me on this, Costco execs visit Sams Club all the time and Vice versa.

Is that the way you arrived at your sales approach?
Can you give me your number so I can do this and see what you do? If we meet at a Coffee shop will you buy the coffee as well?

If someone Suckered me into meeting them and I worked them out, I'd make sure it was a meeting they would not forget.
That's frankly a low down unprofessional and piss poor approach.

Different when you are visiting a store thats open for anyone to wander through and maybe even engage staff when there are multiple around but to take a sole proprietor away from his work so you can swindle them out of information is a low act and reflects very poorly on your moral code.

I learned years ago that if you ring someone up and say you are starting out etc ( and of course you aren't in their area) and you were wondering if they could possibly spare some of their time to show you what they do or what you would like to know, The ones that will tell you to Fk off have nothing worth knowing anyway and the ones that say come on over, you will learn a lot from.

I have done that and been run out of places but mostly welcomed like a lost mate.
I usually only ask when I am in another city completely and generally people will spend more time with me than I'm comfortable with.

I have had great sport with clowns ringing me and asking me questions because you can pick 99% of them 30 sec into the conversation. They simply ask things that the customers never do.
As soon as I sus them out I give them all sorts of Misleading info.
Funny how all of them will swallow up the stupidest things you tell them.

If they want to waste my time, can't complain when I waste theirs.

RobTs wrote in post #15467425
This makes me think several things are happening:
1) Those empty headed and/or penny pinching customers will always be present regardless of the way we advertise.
2) Because our prices are currently low ($80/hr + $25 print order before release of downloads) we are marketing to a client base that is used to always looking for a deal rather than being appreciative that professional quality prints are available at their own time and without print packages.
3) We need to advertise differently. Possibly by raising the price and saying downloads are included, which I don't want to do because it minimizes print sales and potentially displays our work on terrible quality prints.

Seems to me you have the problem sussed very well.
All you need to do now is come up with answers and implement them.

AS far as all this fear of customers makeing terrible prints and ruining the shooters reputation, When have you ever First hand heard account of this or actually seen said actual prints being passed around and people saying the photographer is crap?

Personally I have NEVER heard it once.
At christmas a friend of the extended family was showing round some prints she had made of her daughter from dancing school that she bought on disk. Most of the prints were fine but a few were crap. She told my sister in law that the pics were fine on the computer, and the lab she took them to was no good so she went to another one and they did the other prints for her.

There is always the preconcieved idea that the pics will always be crap unless the photographer sends them to his lab. Sounds like a combination of people believing their own sales pitch to me along with a helping of forum mantra.

Most labs I come across these days are fine. Yes some are not but MOST are.
In any case, all you need do is have a list of reccomended labs on your site where people can get Quality prints.

Trying to change what your clients want to buy based on some flawed notion that is parroted endlessly with about .001% of factual accounts to support it is not good business strategy.

Raise the price of your downloads to be commensurate with the price of your prints and don't concern yourself with what they buy, just make sure they are buying something.

Currently the price of downloading the gallery alone is more than the price we ask for a print order plus downloads, because we are trying to make it appealing in that way.

I think you may be right about print quality though. We do get about half our business from referrals at the moment, but I don't think that any of those referrals were based on the quality of our prints. It is also in our contract that we don't guarantee print quality from labs other than our own, so there is no trouble there.

Perhaps we could charge a higher price upfront and advertise that price as less if they choose to buy prints from us?

To sell prints you need to show prints and show them in their best light. Than means, in person, not online.

Years ago I knew a wedding photographer that would prepare a large print of the bride on speculation and bring it to the reception, displaying it on an easel and lighting it properly. He nearly always sold it to the bride and groom, or to the parents.

I think the people are having issues with buying prints on line even though they are coming through you. I think you would be far better served including the print prices in what you charge, tell the people they get $x worth of prints, then show them your print costs, on your own company designed stationary or advertising media. It accomplished the same thing but doesn't make you look like a cheap photographer.

So instead of charging $80 for a session then $50 in prints, charge them $150 and tell them $50 in prints are included and give them the price list of what you charge for the prints. Even if you continue to order them through Smugmug or wherever, they will be returned to you and you can look professional in how they are presented to the customer.

Like others have said, when you show people in person with them sitting there, they are more apt to order photos than when they can go order them later or have time to think. This is how I was when getting pics done of my kids, and how everyone I know works. you build excitement and cash in.

By the way, I'm in the same boat as you and have also been pondering how to change things up. Sounds like we have the same customers! I read this article about one high-end portrait photographer who would do the shoot and then book an appointment for his clients to come back to view the results. He had this special client room set up for this. It looked like a typical living room (only with large blank spaces on the walls around the fireplace, etc.). The photographer had an HD projector and could display "framed" pictures from the shoot at various sizes right on the walls to show what these pictures of various large sizes would look like, hanging on the walls of their living room. The clients typically spent at least $500 on prints from these sessions. That's a little different than my clients who ask what's the smallest print they can get where they can still see their child's face...and complain that $9 is too expensive for a fridge magnet! There's an initial investment to create a setup like this, but it sounds like it would be worth it in the long run. Maybe you don't need something quite so fancy but can show sample prints of different large sizes to coax the clients into spending more on these larger prints.

Raise your price. Cheap stuff attracts cheap people. Working for cheap people is no fun. You must be shooting a ton just to make some sort of liveability. I mean $1200 for a 12hr wedding with two photographers... including engagements? Good god man!!!!

When you have to resort to price as your value proposition, you have entered into the commodity world. And in that world, you will only lose to Walmarts and Sears.... and Craigslist Photographers.

What you need to do is pair up with a photography/business mentor locally and seriously rethink your business model.

delhi, I know our prices are dirt cheap right now, especially for the quality we've been able to squeeze out of a 50D and cheaper lenses!

With this investment in a new website and equipment, we aim to drastically increase our price before the year is over. Seven months ago was the first time I'd ever accepted money for a photograph or had even photographed a stranger, so we started very slow with no portfolio. We don't want to change our pricing until we've used our new equipment for awhile and have a new face for the business.

Also, this is only a weekend hobby for us, so we are not depending on the income!

mikeinctown, sdipirro, I am starting to lean towards that very thing. We need to order a bunch of prints and bring a physical portfolio to every session. I think when we launch our new site we'll switch to a pricing model that incorporates a print credit and order for our clients through SmugMug or offer them a credit. Or ditch SmugMug altogether and order on our clients behalf through a different lab. I've heard good things about ProDPI.

Thanks for all the replies, they've been really helpful so far.

No excuse for not getting paid fairly for your time, hard work and expertise.

I can never understand that. If you don't live off it, shouldn't you be charging even more for your time? I mean if you already have a FT job elsewhere why would you want to get up and go out to do shoots on days off for little money.