In-Person Sales

I am doing some research on in-person sales for portrait and wedding photographers. I am interested in how photographers who don't own a studio do in-person sales. I am not a full-time photographer, but hope to be in 2-4 years, so I would like to develop some good habits and an effective process. I have tools now that I think work fine for doing 15-20 jobs a year, but would like to see how people who are doing 5-10 a week are doing in-person sales.

If you are using a projector, what projector are you using, what software and what are you projecting images onto?

Currently I use an iPad Pro and Studio Pro App for proofing and selection. For those of you that use similar tools, do you feel your sales of large prints are lacking because you aren't showing 30" prints?

Does anyone use a client's TV for displaying images from either a laptop or iPad? If so, how are you doing that, software, cables...? Do you feel this helps by showing larger images on the TV vs viewing smaller images on the laptop/iPad screen?

I'm not interested in on-line proofing, sales and delivery. I intend to stick to in-person sales.

I would really love to hear from people who are actually doing this and have a process and system that is working for them. I have read a ton of information on suggestions, and have a lot of information on ways to do this, but I want to focus now on tried and true methods that are actually working for photographers.

Thank you in advance!

Are you talking about the consultation with a potential bride and groom to be, to 'sell' them on using your services as a photographer? or are you talking about post-wedding, trying to get them to commit to buying prints / books / etc?

I'm talking about the reveal...presenting them the photos that you took for their session or wedding.

ShotByTom wrote in post #18112768
I'm talking about the reveal...presenting them the photos that you took for their session or wedding.

Got it.

ShotByTom wrote in post #18111814
I'm not interested in on-line proofing, sales and delivery. I intend to stick to in-person sales.

As someone who recently got married, this would be a deal breaker for me. The photographer for my wedding lives in a different state, so nearly all interaction was done digitally. We had a destination wedding, and he posted 5 images to his business Facebook account the Sunday following the wedding. We then had a gallery of around 30 images delivered about 2 weeks later (which we used to make our 'thank you cards' from), and the full album delivered around 60 days after the wedding. In fairness, the 5 image 'quick preview' was delivered via his laptop at the pool of the hotel, but were also released digitally at the same time. We shared his business album via our Facebook accounts, and many of our guests ended up sharing the albums as well.

Physical prints were very much a part of the final product, but the images were all delivered digitally. Had I needed to schedule time with the photographer to see my images, I would have gone with a different photographer as that would have been very cost prohibitive (due to him living another state away) as well as very time prohibitive.

JacobPhoto wrote in post #18112943
As someone who recently got married, this would be a deal breaker for me. The photographer for my wedding lives in a different state, so nearly all interaction was done digitally. We had a destination wedding, and he posted 5 images to his business Facebook account the Sunday following the wedding. We then had a gallery of around 30 images delivered about 2 weeks later (which we used to make our 'thank you cards' from), and the full album delivered around 60 days after the wedding. In fairness, the 5 image 'quick preview' was delivered via his laptop at the pool of the hotel, but were also released digitally at the same time. We shared his business album via our Facebook accounts, and many of our guests ended up sharing the albums as well.

Physical prints were very much a part of the final product, but the images were all delivered digitally. Had I needed to schedule time with the photographer to see my images, I would have gone with a different photographer as that would have been very cost prohibitive (due to him living another state away) as well as very time prohibitive.

I agree the OP seems to have a very strange business model. Maybe there are some people who would like that, but I doubt there are many these days.

What is very strange? I don't understand what you're saying...I am asking about a very small, very specific part of my business model so I don't understand how you came to the conclusion that I have a very strange business model. As far as the example given, that is an exception that would obviously be handled differently. I have the digital side of delivery covered, I'm trying to find different ways to do in-person presentations.

ShotByTom wrote in post #18111814
I'm not interested in on-line proofing, sales and delivery. I intend to stick to in-person sales.

This makes it sound like you have no interest in actually providing online proofing or digital delivery of the final assets.

ShotByTom wrote in post #18112976
I have the digital side of delivery covered, I'm trying to find different ways to do in-person presentations.

This makes it sound like you have a digital solution already solved and are just looking for new ways to approach a face-to-face meeting.

The first quote sounds like an antiquated sales model. The last quote is completely fair.

Before I had an iPad, I had an HP Touchpad that I loaded up with 20 or 30 of my 'portfolio quality' images. When I would go to an in-person meeting with a potential client, I could pull it out and they would see fairly high res final images from previous work, which was much faster and more reliable than asking them to look at my website (which is horribly out of date). Having the tablet allowed me to show them work that I couldn't display publicly yet due to various restrictions / contractual obligations, and also allowed me to customize each presentation I made for the client I was meeting with that day. Most clients liked that presentation. I haven't done it with an iPad as I've cut my new client meetings down substantially, but this was very effective when I was doing it regularly. If you used an iPad, I would say you should try to find a way to lock down some of the functionality so that users weren't browsing around the device. With the touchpad, it was much less intuitive to get out of the 'presentation' mode, so most people left it alone. Swiping left and right allowed them to cycle through the images, and pinch zooming worked fine.

Good luck!

ShotByTom wrote in post #18112976
What is very strange?

nothing really. I've found that people have a very difficult time understanding the wide variety of business and sales models and that something that works for your style might not work for theirs.

There are plenty of people doing IPS for portrait work, but to me it seems less widespread for weddings ... engagements? sure ... Bridal? yeah, why not ... but actual full blown wedding work seems not quite a great fit for the sales model.

Wish I could provide some guidance but I'm more of a commercial photographer weaseling my way into portrait work. Is the app you are using able to show a mock up of the framed photo on the customer's wall? I've seen one that does that and I think it would be key to the sales process.

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ShotByTom wrote in post #18111814
I'm not interested in on-line proofing, sales and delivery. I intend to stick to in-person sales.

ShotByTom wrote in post #18112976
I have the digital side of delivery covered . . .

These two statements seem to be contradicting one another.

Are each of the statements, as written, exactly what you meant to say? .Or, is there another way that one of them could be worded to clear up the apparent contradiction?

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Tom Reichner wrote in post #18113262
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These two statements seem to be contradicting one another.

Are each of the statements, as written, exactly what you meant to say? .Or, is there another way that one of them could be worded to clear up the apparent contradiction?

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Maybe he's not interested in the digital side "with reference to this thread" because he's already got that covered. It made sense to me.

...for those that aren't familiar with the type of sales the OP is talking about, I call the sort of sales the OP does the "Traditional Model." Fashioned from the way portrait photography used to work: clients tend to be high end with disposable cash who are looking for a very specific product: and they don't really care about digital sales.

To succeed in this particular market you need to be extremely confident in your service and product. You aren't looking for a large market share because the people you are targeting spend on average substantially more than the person who wants just the DVD with digital files. I would fail miserably with this sort of business. But RDKirk, a long time and respected poster here, is a master at it. Maybe look up some of his threads or responses, or send him a private message.

banquetbear wrote in post #18113334
...for those that aren't familiar with the type of sales the OP is talking about, I call the sort of sales the OP does the "Traditional Model."

I had seen the IPS acronym a number of times before I looked it up. Confusing to say the least. Similar to how we now call traditional farming practices organic farming when, in fact, it was the original way of doing things.

I pretty much have to provide my commercial design clients with IPS, commercial photography is way more forgiving. If I move more into working with individuals I will probably explore both providing digitals and providing high end prints. I'm really not sure I have the market for IPS around me and it would require some measure of travel, maybe to scenic destinations to capture clients with more disposable income.


ShotbyTom, I'm kinda thinking that with IPS you are targeting something like 1-2 clients per week, not the 5-10 you have in mind. It just wouldn't be possible to provide the level of service required with that many customers, and you probably wouldn't achieve the high revenue targets for each client associated with IPS. In other words, you would probably come off as rushed and halfway prepared, rather than focused on their specific needs with a well organized presentation. I can spend hours and hours preparing for IPS with a commercial client, and expect the same is true for portrait work.

Scatterbrained wrote in post #18113276
Maybe he's not interested in the digital side "with reference to this thread" because he's already got that covered. It made sense to me.

Yes, this is exactly it! I typically don't do shoot-n-burns for portraits or weddings. If that's what the client wants then I am set up to already to do that with custom USB drives and SmugMug. However, almost every potential client I meet with says "I just want the digital files so I can have prints made." Very often, those same people will call me and say "my print doesn't look the same as the digital image, what did you do to it."

That's why I insist on a consultation with clients before booking, to find out what they want and see if I can exceed their expectations. Then I do a sales presentation (for lack of a better term..) to show them how I can exceed their expectations.

If they want prints, then I want to deliver the best possible image for that print, whether I print it or they do. Unless they have computer and editing skills, that's not possible with shoot-n-burns. If they just get a digital image, then their skills determine the final edit, such as cropping to an 8x10 or 16x20, which isn't the same format that I shoot.

I meant both statements regarding digital files. I'm not interested in shooting a session or wedding then telling them to go review the images and download them. HOWEVER, if that's what the client wants and they convince me to shoot that event, I am prepared to do it. I also insist on a presentation of the images after the session, and even with weddings. Usually this is done in the clients home. We have been successful in print and product sales, and that's what I want to focus on.

This is what brought me to pose this question. I like how I'm doing it, but I want to know if there is a better, more efficient way to do it. Right now I use an iPad Pro with Studio Pro App to do the sales presentation. I also have an Epson Stylus Pro 7900 (24" printer) at home, that I will print a few large images, mount them to foamcore, and bring them with me to the IPS. That way I can show them 2-3 of their images on their walls in actual sizes. Studio Pro App has a function that allows you to take a picture of their wall or room and show them a scaled image on their walls.

I've heard some that use the client's TV to show images, others use projectors in the clients home...I don't know how to accomplish that in a smooth efficient way, so I want to see how other people are doing it.

Thanks for the input so far and I hope to hear from others!

Man, if you could color calibrate a Nabi BigTab (24" android tablet) that would be the ultimate in presentation. Beyond that I would just agree that color is a big hang up. I normally convert to sRGB in Ps to ensure the sRGB color profile information in embedded in the image, but it's all for naught if the clients are viewing it on their phones and then printing.