Wedocharge more than most studios. We have a Dodge Viper, a Harley, and
a huge variety of very large, very expensive sets, so of course we are going to
charge more than other studios that offer just a few painted backgrounds. While
many local studios have assistant photographers taking all (or at least a portion)
of each senior’s session, I photograph each session myself—and, not to toot my
own horn, but my clients are getting to work with an experienced professional
who is the author of numerous books, articles, etc. The clients who choose my
studio expect to pay for those benefits, and if they suddenly discovered we were
the cheapest studio in town, they would feel like something was wrong. Con-
versely, because everything about my studio reflects our quality and pricing,
clients who are looking for a bargain know that we’re not a good fit for them
and seek other options. That’s how it should be. Not every client is a good fit
for what we do and there’s no point wasting our time, or theirs, trying to fit a
square peg in a round hole.
Look at your studio, the work you create, the price you charge, and the basic
description of your best clients. Be honest—this doesn’t do any good if you let
your ego overrule your logic. Once you define your studio and your perfect
customer, every single thing that the buying public sees should reflect that
image and be appealing to that particular type of client. If you do this, your
phone will ring—and the callers will be exactly the type of clients that are look-
ing for a studio like yours.
Take Control of Your Business.
The next step is to train your staff to qualify callers to ensure that when you take
a session, you will have an order. In our studio, we have an extremely high rate
of paid sessions ordering. With all the senior portrait sessions we do, fewer than
ten clients failed to order from their paid sessions last school year. These nine
families didn’t order because they left every part of the scheduling process up
to the senior—and when they received all the information we sent to their
home, they didn’t read it. As a result, the parents had no idea how they were
ordering and how much our packages are. This is a problem that is inherent in
senior portrait photography, because the decision-maker is oftennotthe person
who is actually the buyer!
The reason we have so few people who fail to order is because we have
planned every step the client must take to go from a potential client to a satis-
fied client. What does this have to do with head and shoulders photography?
Well, until you take control of your business and earn the respect of your clients,
you will never be able to control your sessions. Until your potential clients re-
spect you and trust your company, they will never follow the suggestions that
ensure the success of their session.
Many photographers spend their entire professional careers never under-
standing that thebusinessaspects of their studios and thecreativeaspects of
112 JEFF SMITH’S GUIDE TO HEAD AND SHOULDERS PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHYClients who are looking
for a bargain know that
we’re not a good fit.