Have you noticed the world’s plainest blog yet? Building good vibes and google juice with our clients and friends.

Cheers, Ian

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Some people had an unexpected take on what I said in my recent email about being “generous” with clients.

All I meant was that in an age where images are “free”, maybe you should ensure your clients get a lot of them – a lot more than an album-full! I also suggested that the better they bought the more generous you should be.

What I didn’t explain was that I’d detail everything in my pricelist so that my bonuses, if you want to call them that, would add value to my “better” and “best” “packages”.

Some people thought I was suggesting you look for ways you could SURPRISE your clients with your generosity.

That wasn’t my intention but it’s an excellent idea. Although being generous isn’t something you think about, is it? It’s just something you do, or are.

If you’re going to surprise people it needs to be real … not just over-delivering … not just trotting out the same thing for everyone, which they’ll soon learn to expect.

It needs to be a reflection of both you and them.

I’m writing this at the beach with four friends. If I wanted to impress them with a little surprise I wouldn’t buy them the same gift. I’d give them something that showed that I know them as individuals.

Every successful gift demonstrates your insight into the person you’re giving to. That’s why books and music are so hard if you don’t know the person, and why your surprise bonus needs to be individual.

Cheers, Ian

PS Having said all that the chocolate dipped Magnum Classics I just brought back from the shops went down OK.

PPS I don’t think I’d treat the high-res files as my generous surprise.

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In light of Ian’s newsletter a few days ago (well worth a read!), here’s a timely little story from one of our clients reinforcing what he was saying…

From Paul Maven

I did a wedding fair two weeks ago. One of the other photographers came over to have a little spy. “Oh, Queensberry” he uttered, looking down his nose at my samples. “Too expensive them, can’t sell them”.

Later, he came back and I asked him how things were going. He told me that he had two almost definite bookings. One on Lindisfarne Island and one on the 29th December.

“Actually”, I told him, “those two couples have just booked with me, because ‘nothing we have seen so far compares to the Queensberry books“.

I confirmed four bookings at that fair and all of them stated that the quality of the books as a major reason why.

No price on quality, I suppose.

Cheers, Nigel

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