cgardner
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 p.1 #15 · How would you handle this | |
Photos are a very personal thing and its unrealistic on your part that the client will always like your choices 100% of the time. The hot button for selling photos is vanity and what they think is the most flattering might not match your choices.
I've managed publishing/printing operations for many years and its pretty much par for the course that customers will change their minds and make changes in the proof stages on things THEY have designed. Also I learned if you show a customer two proofs, they will want one in the middle, so the more different layout options you offer the greater the likelihood the client will want a different one.
I also understand the merits of your approach of making the finished product the first thing they see. My first job before getting into publication reproduction was working for Monte Zucker as an assistant in the early 1970s. He never showed proofs for weddings. He didn't even make proof prints for himself. For a 50 photo album he'd get the 120 or so negatives we'd shoot developed, examine them on a light table then have 70-80 of them custom printed in 10" x10" and matte sprayed for tipping into the finished album. Then he'd invite the client for a viewing, showing them one print at a time. In most cases he would sell every one and increase the 50 shot contract amount by 50-60%.
So I think your strategy for putting together the final product on spec. is a sound because it will generate more impulse inclination to buy the product, but you just need to accept that part of that business model is anticipating the need to make remakes in your pricing. Once you do it for one client, all others referred by word of mouth will expect it.
Thus a solution in your case would be to do what we do when estimating printing jobs; anticipate the fact there will be changes make X % of the time and include the cost as an overhead factor in pricing all the work. Over time you'll be able to get a handle on what the "X" factor is, but even taking the worst case, X= 100%, the time / cost of it inserting a new photo and making a new print shouldn't raise the overall cost very much if it accurately reflects the cost of your time and talent.
You might also take the opposite tack. Include the cost of a remake in the up-front price, then provide a discount if there are no changes. If someone wanted a change and you said "Well how about if I give you a 20% discount to take it as is?" some might take the offer and you'll avoid the reprint. It would also open the door if you do make changes to say to offer the first version at a discount to send to the grandparents rather than it winding up in the shreader. You'll wind up selling two that way and more than recoup the cost of the remake. Just mentioning the idea of sending copies to the grandparents opens the door for selling more copies than the client might have considered.
There are many opportunities to make lemonade out of the lemons here if you can just get past thinking doing a remake is a bad thing. Handled well it can open the door to sell even more 
Chuck
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