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My Pricing Strategy

So one of things was asked about the little gift card was, Hey, what does the person? What incentive does the person who has the cord have to give it to their friend other than the fact that they just love their friend? That was a great question, and I forgot to mention it. So I figured I'd start right off the bat as part of going down a list of marketing questions and what they get. The person who gets the who has these cards? The senior. If just one of these cards comes back to me, they get a $50 credit on their account. Okay, now I tell them up front. If two cards come back to me, I'm not giving you 100. Okay, you only get to use one card. And the friend, let's say the friend who, who they give it to, comes in and uses the card, and let's say they happen to do it in the month of October, whenever I'm given cards and I give them a stack of cards, well, they've already gotten a $50 credit. They not going to get another credit, so I only give 1 $50 credit away to the person who gives t...

he card or who receives the card. That makes sense so far. Okay, Good. The other thing that I do is I have incentives whereby if just one card comes back, you get one of these. If three cards come back, you get one of these and one of these If five cards come back, you get that. If all 18 cards come back to me, which has never happened, by the way, um, I'm gonna give you this new car. No, I'm just kidding. I'm gonna give you this crazy, wonderful product, which is an album, and we're gonna be talking about that, probably on the last day of showing you how I designed these albums and things like that. So that is what they get is for a stuff. Some of the things that I give away, things like cell phone covers, you know, for their different types of cell phones. Another thing is these dull tag with their picture on it, and the most popular is accordion. While it's which is kind of a gift, you know, keep safe type thing with all the different. While its images on it that Accordions down into this nice little package thing like that. And so those are some of things that you know you get. It's stuff that you can price ridiculously high because all you intend to do is give it away. It's, you know, who cares that I sell that for 50 bucks, and that's expensive, Okay, because I don't really want to sell it. I just want to give it away, makes sense and have all kinds of stuff in the studio that's like that that I give away as opposed to selling. So there you go. That's sort of back to the on a budget. Okay, So jumping in to our next segment pricing strategy and what I do, let me tell you about my pricing strategy. Here's what I do. I have no sitting fee, I have no packages, and I sell everything ala carte now right off the bat, that is almost dynamically, 100% opposite of probably 80% of the professional photography world. Because people call on the phone. One of the first questions they ask me ask me is how much is your sitting thing? You probably experienced that what is your sitting fate. My answer. I don't have a sitting thing. So do you see how that instantly separates me from the rest of the world? Well, how much of your packages? Which the range. I don't sell packages and, you know, sell packages. No, everything's priced individually. So why, That is probably the question on your mind right now. Why would you do that? Why would you want to be dynamically 1% opposite off everybody else? Well, let's talk about each one of them. No sitting fee is like I said, 100% opposite off every other studio out there. It allows me to literally advertise again, back to the communication free sitting. That's part of my encouragement. My persuasion. Mike, Mike Getting them to say whom I want to go to this guy. No commitment. Sort off. We're gonna talk about that in a minute. Average I get to literally say, free sitting free sitting. I get to say that word because that's what it is. So that sets me apart. And it is an advantage. Okay, So be careful. Whenever you are in your studio and whatever you make a decision to do something, be careful that it isn't if it is a negative, that you can turn it into a positive. So if someone says, How much is your sitting and you say, Well, don't just simply say we don't charge a sitting fee. Well, no, we always We have free sittings. See, that's an advantage to the customer when they say, Well, how much of your packages? Okay, well, we do not have packages that I think I went too far. It's very difficult to please everybody with a package, all right, and packages are, frankly confusing. I don't know if you've noticed that or not, and packages or limiting. And we're gonna talk about this in just a few seconds in more detail because I have noticed that photographer start out. Maybe with I don't know, three packages. Let's say then then they like people come in and they'll say, Okay, well, can I? Can I exchange? I see 25 sevens and one A but 10. We'll only need 45 cents. Can I can I exchange? And so they get a few questions like that. So what do they do? They create another package because to make that person happy and then after a little while that they people say, Oh, I don't need any five of seven Onley 18 attends. Okay, so they create another package and I'm telling you, I have buddies that I have seen their broke pricing brochure and it's 56 pages. It's package A, B, C D E f g h I j k l M N o p Q r S T, u and V. You know, and I'm like, That is just ridiculous. One guy that I know literally He went through the entire alphabet package, ABC all the way to Z, and then he had package a package BB. And I'm like, You have got to be kidding me. So it's confusing, and it's hard to make everybody happy with the package. And they're limiting, as we as we talked about earlier this morning in that if you have a $500 package, people are going to Onley spin up to a certain limit because you are putting a ceiling on it. Allah cart is very simple and very easy. To explain to people is very simple to say. A pretence cost this much. Father sevens cost that much and just let him have whatever it is that they want makes sense. Now I'm gonna let you all throw some objections at me in a little while, but let me show you what I'm talking about. So here's on ABC studio, OK, and we've decided we're going to sell packages. So we got tacky J 1 11 before thine for Abe attends 65 700. While it's, it costs this much. We've got package be. We've got package. See with that package D How's that looking? It might be pricey and might be cheap. It all depends on your area and where you're from and your expertise and all those different factors. But that's how everyone else does it. And so, yes, there is a certain comfort level in doing it like everyone else. And that's okay. It's what everybody acts for, isn't it? They go. How much of your packages? So it's an easy, easy sale sell over the phone. Customers are used to it. Thus, it's the course of least resistance. So, as photographers, that's what we do. We go well and we're gonna sell packages like everybody else. And so we have our little packages up. It ensures us a certain dollar amount. These all the positives is for as having packages because we think, man, if I could get $500 out of every senior, that would be awesome. I'd be so happy. But at some point it becomes limiting, and we'll talk about that. You have better sales because of the deal mentality. That's another reason why a lot of people tell me they do packages and they say to themselves, Well, you know, people say, Well, I'm getting a deal. See, this just looks like a deal And so because it's the deal mentality, they will say, Well, yeah, I sell packages any other anybody I know I'm throwing this to the Internet world reasons. I'm gonna talk to them if they want to throw me reasons why tohave packages anything that you guys could think of. Here's a reason we we have packages. I've tried the Ala cart Kark. It didn't work with anything like that, and the answer is no is OK. I'll take. That is no one thing. We just wanna tell the Internet audience when Kirk is throwing out the questions to you. If you could just put your answers in the live tab, and Lorraine and I will be checking the live tab. So in that live room, that's where we'll find. So I'm taking Is there or necessarily? It sounds like I handled all the reasons why a person would have packages. And you may be sale saying right now. Well, Kirk, that all sounds good. Why in the heck we have Allah court. You have a question? Yeah, We have someone said easier to project cash flow. Yeah. Okay, that's great. There's another reason why you might wanna have packages with that. I'm not saying that this is absolutely not. Get rid of packages. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm about to show you why me? Follow. Go ahead. When several a cart and then a person say, Wait a minute, I'm gonna buy trade by tens. So I have a discount. Yes, exactly. That's what I mean about you. Normally, the client's already trying to make their own package even when they're trying to buy a la carte. Yes, I understand that. And let me show you how I handle that. OK, watch this. So this is my actual senior portrait. Priceless what you see on the screen right here. This is the This is the piece of paper that I give them. So I asked the question Why? I like art. Okay, Well, Allah card to me is is a very simple markup. Alright? And a button cost me this much, and I'm going to sell it for that much of 57 costs me this much. I'm going to sell it for that much. I have to do a lot of thinking, OK? The lab literally cells to me individually, so I turn around and sell it to the customer individually. Okay, It's easy to explain if someone says I want a but tens. I want to a pretend 135 or seven. How much is that gonna cost? I don't have to go. Well, that that kind of fits my package be, but you know, it doesn't really fit my package. C no boom. A pretends 55 57 45. Boom added up. That's how much it cost you. Okay, so it's really easy to explain. It's really easy to order. Okay? It's really easy. One. How many a potential want to a pretends. Okay to a pretend boom 55 each. 110 Moving on. Um, it's easy to sell this way. We'll talk about that in a second, and you have theologian of being a mawr established person. Okay, think about it. If you're gonna go to you know, when they talk about boutique coffee shops, do you imagine going to a boutique coffee shop where you go in and it's gonna come with the coffee and you get the doughnut and you get No, It's everything I oftentimes think about. There's this steakhouse in New Orleans. It's awesome. And do not get your big potato with the steak. The steak is a price. The potato is a price. Would you like some green beans or something inside with that? That's a price. Would you like a rolled in a role? That's a price. And that's how the Mawr quote unquote exclusive, expensive You know, boutique, whatever type places. It's all priced individually, and so for that reason, that's the illusion of what I want. So the next problem becomes exactly what would public policy is that people say, Wait a minute, Wait, wait one minute. There's no deal. The deal mentality is gone. And when we get in a little bit in a little bit to my order catalogue, which I'm a show you exactly how all of that works, you will understand the deal mentality. How I handle that Because it's custom deals. Everybody can have their own custom deal, and that's what selling individually does for you, in my opinion. Now, a few things that help promote the deal if you can see this on the screen, is this. If you notice they're literally three prices listed in that in the category, there's the super special. If ordered with a one week price that's in the red box, there's the special If order before June 1st price. And then there's the regular price. All right, so if you notice, let's just pick on a But tents, a pretends are listed as 2 50 regular price. Okay, how many times do you think in my entire 51 years of life existence in my 30 plus years as a professional photographer, do you think I have ever sold a but 10 for $250.0? Not one time, not one time. I just don't I couldn't even do it there's no way. So is it a really price? Now? It's not. It's there to make the other to look good. Okay, now, how many times if ordered before June 1st, let me kind of help you understand that for my situation, I photographed seniors from October through and sort of into May the year that they graduate. That's when I do seniors, and the reason I do it that time of year is because of the weather. Now there's some people out on the Internet world right now who is saying, Well, my goodness, there's no way I could do seniors in January. It's just too cold here. It's snowing and it's blizzard and it's horrible. And you're right, you're absolutely right. And the reason you do seniors in the summertime is because of the weather. The weather tends to dictate what happens in your area. Same thing happens in the South. I'm from very, very south Louisiana, where right now it's hot outside. In fact, I was joking with creativelive peeps yesterday. When we walked outside, I was like, Whoa, this is what we call deep winner. OK, I should have brought the big jacket. OK, It is cold out here. And so where is so when it's hot? Hot outside. There's no way nobody wants to go outside. Everybody has air conditioning. You open the door. This thing of heat and the humidity slaps you in the face. You instantly start sweating and you do not make pretty senior pictures. So I don't do him in the summertime, all because of the weather. So when I start doing seniors in October, it's constantly getting cooler and cooler and cooler. The winner is probably 50 degrees. Okay, Unless we have a cool front of 40. All right? And so I photographed all through that time. Okay, Then they grow. And this is in the year that they graduate. So come, they usually graduate. Lissie in the middle end of May write something like that. And so by June 1st they are done. So this special before June 1st discount is like After June 1st, all bets are off. This is what I tell people. After June 1st, all bets are off and you have to pay $200 for neighborhood. All right, So before we get already told you, I never once have ever sold a $200. So how many times do you think I've sold? $129 But 55% 5 times a 5%. Five times 25%. Okay, I can tell you right now, never. I've never done it of different. And this is what I want. This is called, in my opinion, reasonable. Reasonable has to exist in your business. You have to have reasonable. Let me let me explain. Reasonable. If I was to tell you if you was to hear this statement Oh, I'm gonna go to Curve Oak Lane for my wedding pictures because he's so reasonable. What does that mean? Easy to work with. I got easy to work with. What is most probably it means cheap. That is the most common answer. It's not the only answer, though. Okay, Because let's say I charged for the sake of conversation. $99 to photograph a wedding. Is that reasonable? It's strange. Right? Cheek? So I'm photographing weddings. I'm doing tons of weddings at 99 bucks. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Right? I would. If I make a mistake, I don't get this perfect shot of the bride and say her our father, do you hear? The excuse is gonna be, well, the only charged 100 bucks. So because I was reasonable, I'm excused. What if I What if we carry that to the opposite In what if I charged $10,000 to photograph a wedding, which I don't, by the way. But let's just say I did $10,000 to charge to photograph a wedding. And I did not get this perfect photograph off the bride and her father to her standards. And she came to my studio and said, You can get a good picture of me and my father at the church. And I said Tough. Sorry. Is that reasonable? No. How long am I gonna be in business? Not long. Okay. What if on the other hand, I was to say, Oh, sugar, it's waiting. Phone. Well, we talked like that in Louisiana. Sugar. Let me tell you something. Call the charge up. Frantic church. Go get your dress clean. Rent Dad's tuxedo with shop. Did you get it from ABC? Tuxedos. No problem. I got an account there. I'm going and get his tux and rent the cherry to talk to. You. Want the priest in the background. Talk to him. I find out how much I gotta charge for that. And what, Wendy, would you be available Sunday? Can we do it on Sunday? Or That's right. The church on Sunday. Okay. We doing on Saturday? Saturday. Good. And we're gonna recreate the scene, and we're gonna redo the photograph. What if I was willing to do that? Would that be reasonable? Anything. Whatever she wanted to do if I was willing to do it, to make her happy would be, in fact, reasonable. But look, I better be reasonable, right? I'm charging $10,000. You see what I mean about reasonable? It has to exist. Let's flip that around. What if I charge $99 I did not get the perfect shot of the bride and she says, Well, you don't get a good shot of me and my dad like I wanted, and I was to say, Oh, sugar, don't worry about it. Go rent the talks. Go get your coat dress clean. Go get the church rented. Good. How long am I gonna be in business? That's over. Reasonable. There's too much reasonable. Too much reasonable cannot exist in a business. Not if you want to be successful. You have to have the right balance of reasonable. It has to exist, though you can't have no reasonable. And you can't have too much secret the life, by the way. Balance. Balance. Okay, okay. So when it comes to what I do is for us high school, senior portrait and reasonable. I understand that if they do not order within one week notice the super special deal is they have to order within one week if they do not order within one week. It says that the price of that aid but 10 is gonna be $129. Is that reasonable? It depends on the way you look. You gave him a chance. I did see me. And you have had this conversation actually before. But I could not do it. This is my personality. I could not do it. I could not do it. If it was $ just $5 more. I could not do it. Thus the second number doesn't matter because I know up front that I'm not gonna charge him that. So this is this is how it has it ever happened? Yes, it's happened. Two weeks goes by, they come in. Oh, my goodness. I'm sorry. I lost track of time. Never place an order. What could we do? It is I'm so sorry. I know we're going to pay the higher price. What? And the little girl who was waiting on the customer comes to the back. They used to literally come asked me. But they know exactly the answer to the question. Now they're going back and they're late. Watery. They just pretending that Come ask me a question and then they'll come out and they'll say, Okay, we talked to Kirk. And here's the deal. He loved recession. And if you place an order today, your whole order, you can go ahead and order from the red box prices. Oh, see, he's one. The good guy. I always want to be the good guy in business. I want to be the guy who people go guys. So nice. Thank you so much. I mean, I literally have had this conversation with people. I'm not happy, Kirk. I can't believe this is and I'm aggravated on water. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What would make you happy? What would make you happy? What do you think of some of the things they would say? Go ahead. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Making how much cheaper you wanted? 29. 20 bucks off you got? Let's do that. That's gonna make you happy. Are done. 20 bucks. Are you happy now? Awesome. Let's do this. Go ahead. What else you think they might say? I've done that, by the way. Yep. What would make you happy over the camp? Need another print with this? What? To a pretends that one? Yeah. Okay. Done. Consider it done. I won't make you happy. I've had people say I want a Saturday appointment. No problem. I mean, that is how far I'm willing to go to be reasonable. But in my area, I am I'm or expensive photographer. Now there. Some people in the Internet world right now looking at this thing and going holy cow. 55 bucks for a neighbor. 10. And he's the expensive guy. Yeah, but that's different all over the world. Some places on the cheap guys, some places on the expensive guy, Whatever. Whatever you are in your world, reasonable has to exist or else forgive it man. Forget it. Get people Stop spreading that. If you go, we've laid. Just tell him I don't I don't know. I've never had a problem with. You know, I have seen this before. Probably a couple years. You have a pdf from price on your website. And how do you approach like the client comes the kinds, Cole. How do they get this? Priceless. And how do we wouldn't understand about this? You go explaining, because do we were gonna have, in fact, during the last segment correct today. Last segment. Today we're gonna have a pretend conversation with one of you guys has the customer, okay? And we're gonna have a, like, a phone conversation, and we have a sale session, and we had a really pretend. So you're gonna get to hear me do it literally. So hang moves on that. Okay, so that is when it comes to pricing some of my theory, some of my reasoning. Do you have a question? Yes. A lot of people online have overwhelming response of the client wants that digital files to be happy. Okay, let's list. Let's go there. Since that was one of the top ones that people wanted. All right, let's go there. Right, right this minute. So here's listen to me. Digital world. Here's the most important question you can ask when someone says I want the digital files se. What do you want them for? So who was to be Who wants to be Pretend you want to be the Brittania. Okay. What do you want? More? I'm being in the voice of dude of Honor. Okay? I want them to go to Walgreens and Wal Mart to make some pictures. Really? Yeah. What? Why would you do that? I mean, this is how I make a living. Oh, I mean, this is I How would you feel if I brought my ground meat into Burger King and said here? I already bought this at WalMart. Could you cook it up for me? Would you do that? Would you be the kind of person that would do that? Why are you doing that to Thistles? What I do for Look, look at me. Look. Do you see that? I like to eat thistles. How I eat and and you're gonna take food from a I mean, I just don't understand. Why would you want to do that. Didn't you know that before you came to my studio? That I mean, I sell pictures. I'm a photographer, and I sell pictures. I just don't understand. What? Why would you want to do that? Okay. I never wanted me. Oh, get get all, Like, I don't mean I'm about some pictures from you, too, but, I mean, it's just so expensive, and I'll go. You didn't know my prices ahead of time. What? We talked about this on the phone. Yeah, you know my prices. I mean, I'm trying to understand. Let me tell you something. Seriously, that's a fun story. How many times do you think really happened to me? Maybe one. Because he said the expectations. Absolutely. I set all this up ahead of time. But let me tell you what realistically could be a real person that was going to say so I can go get imprinted at Wal Grains That but realistically, they're going to say I want them for the experience. There you go. You say no problem. Problem? Look. See? That's right. I pick way would be happy to make it for you. What? We sell pictures just just for Facebook. They're sized perfectly for Facebook, all you have to think about it or anything, You know, because Facebook has all kinds of crazy algorithms stuff that make you pictures look funny. What? We fixed that for you. So that when you uploaded to Facebook of Bright So, yeah, I would be happy, Happy? Happy to sell you that. Yeah, absolutely. No problem. What else do you want him for? They do place an order on a sizable Warner $2000. Awesome. And then they say, but also with the digital files. Because I've spent a large chunk of change with you. Nail. I'm going to go toe Walgreens. Okay. Again, if if just the odds of that happening in my world, I don't know. But if it was toe happen like that, I may say something to them about, Really? I mean, why wouldn't you have me? Do you not like what I did for you? Do you not like, Look at look at the I love him, but I'm cheap, okay? If they are that kind of person and really if they have spent my my average, then I become less and less inclined to be the jerk pause that I'm just gonna say it, you know? Say, what would make that? That would be me going. What would make you happy at this point? We don't have to do. You spent $2000 with me. You know, this is how I make a living. And now you wanna you know, something Super Vent was Is that the right word? You know, you wanna undercut me or you want to go have imprinted yourself. What do I have to do to make you happy? You know? And if there was to say, well shown all coming for 100 I'd probably do it. I mean, I just spent $2000 for God saying, Well cares, you know? So I mean, does that answer Is the Internet world happy with that answer? I mean, I think that this is so often we have to retire again. We talked about that earlier. We get like this with the customer. I want to buy the digital files. No, no. Why? How about that simple? Why do you want I can't tell you the number of this. This is my most most popular answer to do You sell the digital files. What do you want for my most popular answer? Uh, I don't know. I'm like, Well, where did you get the idea to ask for that? I saw it on the head and that you saw that on the Internet. That What do you think people going to do with the digital files? Let me tell you what happened. Sugar. What happens if you take the digital files? You don't know where to go. Get it printed professionally. You then take the desk. You're sticking in a drawer somewhere. When you drop it in the drawer, it scratches. You try to get it in your computer later. It doesn't work. Hey, we handle all that for you. This is why you're hiring me. I'm a professional photographer. I handle the archival of your stuff. I've candle the printing of your stuff. I do all of that for you. It's a services. And what I do this hard look likely? Yeah, just what I do. So I mean, to me, it's just being kind and reasonable back the reasonable with people, and that's that handles that problem. Do I get to scratch now? So I get it. I get so Yeah. Okay.