Taking a Prospective Email to Booking a Wedding

Please share with me what normally happens for you to get a prospective client that is communicating with you by email to booking them with a paid deposit.

Most of my gigs have been through word of mouth, we are still looking to book our first complete, no connection to us, stranger. We have about 5 prospective clients with email conversations right now and I am starting to wonder if they ever will book, they sound genuinely interested but how do I get them to the booking phase?

I have two types of email enquiry generally. Those who are just seeking general information, prices and it is clear that they are shopping around several photographers and those which are more genuine enquiries who are double checking availability and have already seen my site and "love" my work (the most commonly used phrase).

With the first I will always try and call them if I have been given a contact number. It make it much more personal than by email. If not I reply with an email answering any questions, including my prices etc and directing them to my portfolio on my website. If they like my work and I am available and in budget then they will get back to me.

With the second again I always try to call and talk them through the package etc, if not I email reply answering any questions and offer to meet them (where possible) and show them some samples. Meeting in person for me is as good as a guaranteed booking (only once have I not taken a booking after meeting with someone).

I think one thing I don't so as such is "sell". I answer queries and show people my work, if people want to book then I that is entirely down to them rather than me "trying to close" a sale.

get them to meet you first without giving away your prices via email...invite them over for coffee, etc, bring out the pricing question to the last - you will be able to tell if they liked everything on not. Create barriers to entry.

If you really want to create barriers to entry, you should have your prices out in the open from the get-go. There's no better roadblock than money.

I have 5 prospective clients lined up for this year and none of them have actually booked yet, they all seem quite interested. We started doing this two years ago for friends and family, charging a minimal price, every single one of them was a favor for how much money we charged. Now we are getting interest from many different people if we book 2 of these 5 prospective clients we would be making more than we did in our previous 6 weddings combined, so I think part of it is that we feel we will never actually book them. Our prices are on our website and these people all know our prices, so i guess I am just being impatient.

I am also just looking for a few tips if they are out there to be had!

when you put out the prices out in the open, people compare you and other photogs by prices. Not by your style, or your customer service, or anything else you may offer, no. They start itemizing your packages and that's exactly what you need to avoid. That's why they haven't booked you yet - they are comparing what they can get for the same money (or less) somewhere else.

Put the starting price on your website, that's a barrier to entry. Create packages so people cannot easily put price tags on every item when they compare each package.

Well I didn't do the pressure thing, so I wasn't into meeting people until the only deciding factor was my personality. Laying it all out there was my preference, and saved me lots of hassle.

I don't think people are going to choose you for your price if you're not cheap.

Svetlana wrote in post #11708987
when you put out the prices out in the open, people compare you and other photogs by prices. Not by your style, or your customer service, or anything else you may offer, no. They start itemizing your packages and that's exactly what you need to avoid. That's why they haven't booked you yet - they are comparing what they can get for the same money (or less) somewhere else.

I find myself on both sides of this argument. You don't want to be judged by price alone but you don't want to waste hours of your time (and others time) when they simply can't (or aren't willing to) afford your lowest priced packages. So, if price isn't directly listed on the web site, I think it should be at the forefront of the conversation.

Of course everyone is free to do what they they think is best for their business. But after I changed my packages and only give out the starting price to the client (which is on my website anyways) and don't send out the price list before the meeting, I've closed 100% of my inquiries, before I was lucky if I closed 50%.

Svetlana wrote in post #11711400
Of course everyone is free to do what they they think is best for their business. But after I changed my packages and only give out the starting price to the client (which is on my website anyways) and don't send out the price list before the meeting, I've closed 100% of my inquiries, before I was lucky if I closed 50%.

I think the idea of putting the starting price is a great idea. It gives clients a good feel for your pricing and yet doesn't give too much away.

I can tell you how we book our weddings but it's different for every photographer. For example, you post your entire price list on your website but we only include a starting price. Some photographers don't post a price at all. We generally take a very hands off/low pressure approach just because that's our style.

When we get an inquiry, they're typically asking for the entire price list. We first see if we're available on that date, and if we are, we email the price list and basically ask them to meet up to get to know each other and look at more photos. Some email us back at that point and some do not. Some people ask a lot of questions over email before agreeing to a consultation and some just agree to meet up right away.

We then have a consult and basically try to get to know the couple, talk about how they met, where they're from, their family, whatever they're willing to talk about. Then we show some pictures, some albums and then let them ask us any questions. After that we basically tell them that in order to reserve the date we need a retainer and signed contract.

Once we get home, we send them a contract and tell them that once they're ready to book they can send us the signed contract and retainer. At that point, most people send it in but some do not. We book about 80% of the people we meet up with... but probably only 30-50% of inquiries turn into consults (less if we're pretty booked up already).

Thank you everyone for your input. Its hard because I just spent several hours in emails and phone calls and the girl knew the prices all along and just at the end said we were out of her price range, but our work was outstanding and she really loved our style. I am not sure if she was just being nice or is having to settle for a company she didn't like as much only because of price. I KNOW TOO MANY people who settled on price as their final deciding factor and paid for it in the long run...not getting pictures, bad customer service, bad pictures etc. I have had so many friends of people who we did wedding for say they wished they had of had us instead of their cousins buddy Sam who liked taking pictures and they were too cheap to spring on a real photographer. I guess its just hard when joe blow is willing to take pictures for $300.

spesmeadeus wrote in post #11715201
Thank you everyone for your input. Its hard because I just spent several hours in emails and phone calls and the girl knew the prices all along and just at the end said we were out of her price range, but our work was outstanding and she really loved our style. I am not sure if she was just being nice or is having to settle for a company she didn't like as much only because of price. I KNOW TOO MANY people who settled on price as their final deciding factor and paid for it in the long run...not getting pictures, bad customer service, bad pictures etc. I have had so many friends of people who we did wedding for say they wished they had of had us instead of their cousins buddy Sam who liked taking pictures and they were too cheap to spring on a real photographer. I guess its just hard when joe blow is willing to take pictures for $300.

Sounds like she was doing what photographers do to prospects. Instead of letting you sell yourself to her, she was trying to sell herself to you. She spent all that time trying to get you invested in her and liking her so that you'd cave on your prices.

Smart girl.

Generally speaking, if I didn't have someone signed after a 10 minute phone call and/or a handful of emails plus one 30 minute meeting, I wasn't going to get them signed at all. And that's without pressure of any kind on my part.

I've received about 20 email enquiries last month and this month. All of them are price shoppers. Some of them don't remember when/where/who they have submitted the quote request lol.

UnikPix wrote in post #11734007
I've received about 20 email enquiries last month and this month. All of them are price shoppers. Some of them don't remember when/where/who they have submitted the quote request lol.

Of those 20 how many did you book?