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The vast majority of time, the thing that holds a quality photographer in place as a commodity, caught in the constant loop of self-doubt after each missed booking, is the confidence that they can be more than they are. Instead, they fall back on worrying over price.
Consider this scenario. You get an inquiry for your photo services. You spend time answering their questions, you feel good about everything, but the prospect stops short of booking. You begin to replay everything in your head. What did you say? What did you not say? Were you too friendly? Not friendly enough? But everything was going so well! You built rapport, she was earnest about wanting photos, where did it fall apart?
Did I scare them off with my price?
It was the price, wasn’t it? It had to be. Maybe my price was too high. Should I lower my price?
You know your price is solid. You know your cost of doing business. You’ve done market research in your area. But the prospect didn’t book with you. And it wasn’t the first time. It has to be your price.
Or maybe you didn’t do a good enough job justifying your price and the customer didn’t see enough value. It felt as though you had her. But she didn’t book. Now it’s back to price.
This is how the vicious cycle of pricing confidence sets in. The first time you budge on price, you have begun the spiral to the bottom. Once you become known as the cheap photographer, you will have a very difficult time becoming anything else.
This is unfortunate because nine times out of ten, it has nothing to do your price, or “the other photographer” or the client not seeing value, or any of that.
It might well be about price, all right, but not your price. It’s about their price.
A car enthusiast may accept that an exotic supercar has value, but it doesn’t mean he will pay that price. It isn’t his price. We can understand this when we talk about supercars, but not about our photography. Why not?
It isn’t about your price. It is about not targeting the right clients to begin with. You must target the clients who have your price just as much as the client shops for the photographer who has their price. Exotic car manufacturers know this. Their cars do not share showrooms with other cars. They know where their target market lives, works, and plays, yet they wait patiently for their market to come to them. They don’t waste their time and effort marketing to anyone who will not pay their price.
If you don’t want to be jerked around by bargain basement shoppers, don’t target them. Don’t advertise where they shop. Don’t offer what they buy. Don’t make yourself just another commodity on a shelf of lookalike photo takers.
That might sound either overly simply or overly difficult depending on how you look at it. It might mean more research to find out where your target buyer does shop.
- Don’t advertise where they shop.
- Perhaps instead of the local newspaper, advertise in a local luxury boutique magazine. Almost every community has at least one.
- Don’t offer what they buy.
- Maybe instead of burying your pricing at the end of your available-upon-request spiel or copy, you place it proudly and prominently to allow people to save everyone some time.
- Don’t make yourself just another commodity on a shelf of lookalike photo takers.
- Maybe instead of the moderate priced “mini session” that every photographer in town takes, you create a unique luxury experience with a commensurate price.
Yes, this might take a bit of effort. For some photographers, however, it’s not nearly as much effort once they realize how close they are in the first place.
The vast majority of time, the thing that holds a quality photographer in place as a commodity, caught in the constant loop of self-doubt after each missed booking, is the confidence that they can be more than they are. Instead, they fall back on worrying over price.
There is, however, a word of warning.
Before you target your dream client, you’d best be sure to have everything tight – portfolio, pitch, system, everything. A moderate priced sedan will not pass itself off as a supercar by simply changing the hood ornament or driving down a different street.
Meanwhile, as you build those things, you might occasionally compromise, but don’t make it a habit. You will build your reputation around being either the cheap photographer or the expensive photographer, and changing between the two will not be possible later on. Decide right away which you want to be, because that will determine the clients you attract.
Then go get them.