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Posts Tagged ‘Sales’

Yes, but…

March 19th, 2009 in Marketing by


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First, a big thank you for the feedback we’ve been getting (BTW, interesting how much of it comes off-line!). A long-time Aussie friend phoned me and said that posts about increasing your sales by pre-designing in PJ were all very well, but he was having trouble getting the booking in the first place! A mate of his, a top-flight photographer, told him that if he could get a couple of thousand for the image files on DVD he should take it and be grateful. He decided to try that tack with a well-heeled lady enquirer … and the most she would pay was $1500. He turned her down.

OK, this is life in the real world.

Reality #1: Go back to my post about how much you need to charge. 2000 Aussie dollars is probably not going to sustain your business unless you can shoot a LOT more jobs. On the other hand, as my Dad used to say, it’s a lot better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick … and like those airline seats, your Saturday is valueless if you don’t use it.

Reality #2: If you become known as the guy who gives them the image files I reckon you’re done. Now you’re lined up against all the weekend warriors who’ll do it for a few hundred. My friend is rightly proud of his photography. Financially and professionally that’s a really bad place to be.

What to do? First, don’t listen to me. Well listen critically anyway! You need to respond to your own situation, your own numbers, your own psychology. But a few thoughts.

1. Most of my friend’s weddings are from out of town. His chances of meeting clients are little or none. His website reflects his good taste, but I can see very little photography and no albums. Nigel would say, “You need a blog.” I agree, and I would display all the albums I sell on it, maybe the way we do here.

2. My friend sells a QBY album with every package. But that album is expensive, and maybe it should be an up-sell. You have no idea how it hurts me to say this (!) but many of our clients offer a cheaper album alternative, or offer packages with no album at all. Have you read my articles on album marketing strategies, especially the one on entry-level packages (please contact Nigel for a URL and password)?

3. The airlines offer cheap seats when the plane’s empty. If Air New Zealand think they can sell a seat for full price you won’t see it on grabaseat. Maybe there’s a lesson there. Maybe you’ll only take bookings for certain packages a few months before the date, so you don’t sell your Saturday below budget unnecessarily.

4. Remember you have two bites at the cherry, pre-wedding and post-wedding. Just because her limit was $1500 pre-wedding doesn’t mean she won’t be prepared to spend more afterwards. But will you get the up-sell if you’ve already given her the crown jewels for $1500?

More questions than answers here, maybe, but something to chew on I hope.

Cheers, Ian

 

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    • Sometimes discounting isn’t the answer!

    February 6th, 2009 in Marketing by


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    We all know that when we discount a price, say by 10% on a $1000 product, we’re kissing good-bye to $100. That is not 10% of your profit. If your profit is $400 it’s 25%. Do you ever get it back?

    You can argue that $300 is better than $0 … and there is a truth in that.

    Instead of lowering the price think about giving extra value. Instead of reducing your profit take something that has a high value with little cost and turn it into an incentive.

    For us it might be an enlargement or extra time. The value part in this is that it gives more to your client and takes less from you.

    If you create a ‘discount culture’, are you saying that you’re charging too much to begin with, because your ability to be flexible suggests you were charging a premium for your services? Does it affect your ability to return to your original pricing?

    If your base price is too high for your client, could you remove something to justify reducing it, then offer back what you removed as an incentive?

    As an example, if your base price is $2500 for 4 hours of coverage, do you offer 3.5 hours for $2350, which may be more affordable? At your discretion, after you have decided you really want this wedding you could then give back the extra half hour at no extra charge. Effectively you haven’t given them a discount, you have given them an incentive.

    This way you get to hang on to your integrity.

    Best wishes, Johannes

     

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    • How to discount

    February 5th, 2009 in Marketing by


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    discount_istock_000005308920xsmallRemember the little domestic drama about how my briefcase and laptop were stolen?

    And how, to judge from my own buying behaviour, not everyone is going to downgrade to cheap and nasty just because of the recession?

    Well, yes, I bought the most expensive laptop bag I came across, but…

    I asked for a discount.

    You’re not to know this but I’m a shrug-and-pay guy. It’s my role in life to pay full retail, so for me to ask for, let alone get, 10% off is unusual.

    But what struck me was how the store projected itself. There wasn’t a sale sign anywhere. Nothing to suggest times are tough, or please make an offer. Just a confident up-market establishment selling quality goods. The sales assistant had to make a phone call to authorise my discount.

    So how do you avoid creating what Seth Godin calls a “clearance sale culture”?

    First, accept that while discounting is something you may never want to do, right now the alternative could be too many people walking away.

    Second, don’t lower your base prices: that sends the wrong message, and everyone gets the discount, even those who don’t need it, such as me (I would have bought anyway).

    Third, if someone asks for a discount, consider whether you’re prepared to “sharpen your pencil”, and by how much. Then do each deal one-to-one (everybody you agree to deal with will feel pleased with themselves and their negotiating skills).

    My earlier posts emphasised the danger of slashing prices and/or under-delivering. You must be clear how much you can afford to discount, but also what for. For example, are you just trying to stop the customer from walking away, or could you negotiate a discount to secure a bigger sale? (Our own discounts work like that – on a volume basis.)

    Cheers, Ian

    PS One of my photographer friends used to get very frustrated by competitors who sharpen their pencils to get the deal. But it seems pretty normal commercial behaviour to me, especially if the outcome is to secure a better commitment from the client.

     

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    • The honeymoon period

    February 2nd, 2009 in Marketing by


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    I’ll be quick.

    In a recent post, Ian said that a couple’s final buying decisions should generally be postponed until after the wedding because they’ll be more enthusiastic about their own photos rather than your samples.

    As someone planning their own wedding right now, I agree! But let me clarify something.

    Couples will be even more enthusiastic about their photo’s in the month or two directly after their wedding (as opposed to six months down the track). They’re still on an emotional high, and that honeymoon period can create some great opportunities for you… Why?

    1 – They’re more likely to play an active part in post-production – get them to do what you need while they’re still ‘buzzing’ about their wedding – it’ll be easier (and quicker).

    2 – They’re more likely to buy more – they’ll be less price sensitive.

    3 – They’re more likely to talk – about you – especially if they’ve got an album to show people.

    4 – Getting an album finished and the order placed means you get paid!

    Honeymoons don’t last forever, so make the most of them while they do.

    Cheers, Nigel

    Come to think of it, Ian posted along similar lines last year…

     

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    • In your customers’ shoes

    January 27th, 2009 in Marketing by


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    Yesterday was a public holiday in Auckland, so we went out for breakfast. It’s the law here that you have to give staff overtime rates and an extra day off for working public holidays. That’s 2-3 times minimum wage, more or less, but still expensive, so it’s become the norm to charge an extra 15% on normal prices. Anyway, here we are in a crowded restaurant and I’m wondering how many of us get annoyed about being nickel-and-dimed like this.

    Not as annoyed as we were on another occasion. After waiting in a long line for ice creams at a city beach, we were told when we reached the counter that they were an extra 15%. To cover the extra cost? Yeah right. They didn’t have extra costs, they had extra opportunities – a hot summer day, holiday crowds and a monopoly position. I reckon they were probably close to doubling their normal margin on a huge sales day.

    …And everything I’ve said is probably wrong. But I’m a customer. I’m not always right but I always have an opinion.

    Times are tough so this is a great time to consider how many of your business policies and touch points aggravate your customers. And fix them.

    Cheers, Ian

    PS I know we’re not perfect, so if you reckon this is the pot calling the kettle black, please leave a comment or email us.

     

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    • Is the sky falling?

    December 17th, 2008 in Marketing by


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    chickenlittleDoing their Chicken Little impression, the media say the sky is falling. Some of our clients are worried, but personally I wonder. Here’s why.

    First, Heather and I have been through it before (no, not the great depression! that was our parents and grandparents)…

    1. The 1984 New Zealand currency crisis (that might mean nothing to you, but our country almost went broke).

    2. The 1987 share market crash.

    3. The 1997 Asian financial crisis.

    4. The 2001 Tech meltdown.

    Sure, they probably weren’t as bad, but we survived them all. In fact in each of those years except 1984 our sales increased. And we all survived SARS and Y2K too, remember? Plus the odd political tragedy…

    Second, things may not be as bad as you might think. We know that some people are finding it tough, and we feel their pain, but our clients generally seem to be doing very well and our sales are strong. We still see the same gorgeous albums flowing through.

    Third, it pays to look at how bad it really is. I just read the IMF’s November World Economic Outlook update (I also checked out the OECD’s stats).

    The IMF expects a 0.7% decline in the US economy in 2009 and a 1.3% decline in the UK. They’re more pessimistic than they were in October, and it could get worse, but how bad would even a 3% decline be? Serious, absolutely – there will be plenty of personal tragedies – but not the end of the world.

    In Canada the IMF expects slight growth. Our own Reserve Bank expects the same, and so do the Aussies. The emerging and developing countries will have to make do with 5% growth.

     The statistics that look the gloomiest are the confidence statistics. I believe how we respond determines what happens to us. And look on the bright side. We’re not in the construction industry, or real estate, or the financial sector.

    Two more things to take heart from:

    1. The real economy isn’t collapsing so much as the financial markets. The Apple share price may be 50% off its twelve month high, but that doesn’t mean people don’t like iPods any more.

    2. In the real economy, money hasn’t disappeared, it’s just got cautious. It’s going to be harder to charm out of people’s pockets. As it happens I’ve just read a speech in which a Kiwi politician talks about the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unemployment was over 20 percent, we had minimal welfare in New Zealand and there were food riots in our streets. (Do we think it’s going to get that bad?) He said, “I’ve seen photographs of the members’ stand at the [race track] in 1932 – the same year as the riots.  It’s full of well-dressed people, and the car park is filled with large American cars and uniformed chauffeurs standing beside them.”

    I am not being flippant about a serious situation. Over the next few days we’ll be posting more about strategies to survive and thrive in the recession.

    Cheers, Ian

    PS Think of this as a time of opportunity. That shy money will find it’s way into new wallets. Some of your competitors will go to the wall. If you keep your nerve and respond constructively, it could be lonelier at the top in a year or two.

     

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    • No surprise

    September 11th, 2008 in Marketing by


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    In no time at all our November 1 cut-off will be upon us, and it will be no surprise to see…

    • Album orders coming in with title pages that have 2007 (and even 2006) wedding dates, and
    • Clients who absolutely must have them by Christmas!

    In other words – almost certainly – stone cold sales, and – probably – missed opportunities…

    How can you avoid this happening? Be proactive!

    Steve told you how he did it. Here are a few other suggestions, none of them rocket science:

    1. Book an appointment with your clients as soon as possible after the wedding, and wow them with a slide show. It will take just a few minutes with Photojunction Remix and you’ll have them weeping in their seats.

    2. In your slide show, show them an album, not the images. That’ll take you an hour or two in PJ Remix and you’re half way to the sale.

    3. Don’t give your clients anything to take away until the album order is finalised. If you give them a stack of prints, or a DVD of images, you satisfy their emotional need without finalising the sale.

    4. Remember Sales 101 and ask for the order before they leave.

    5. Treat this as an opportunity to upsell, not just to settle what they committed to before they saw their own photographs.

    Note that first you have to be proactive on yourself. Work out your cunning plan. Try it out on real live clients. Use the experience to make it better.

    We’d love to hear about your own sales strategies.

    Cheers, Ian

     

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