Right now 9
For some reason our no's come in pairs or three's
I really thought I knew when they would book and when they won't but I have been surprised a few times when they do book us lately.
Inku Yo wrote:
Oh, no, I understand that, but I'm questioning why 75% is the magic number? That would lean toward you being under-priced for the value you provide.
Ale PM'ed me a question about my 50% booking rate for the last 16 meetings. I told him that more wanted to book, but wanted to haggle prices. They had my rates before they came in, so there were no surprises. I'm sure I could have booked them if I tried, but we were too far apart.
Plus, I had just raised my rates so why should I give someone a $5000 deal with an album when someone just booked me at the same rate for a shoot/burn? It's just not fair to those that truly value what I do and pay my rates without trying to haggle. ...Show more →
I'm sure that some statistician could tell you why 75% is the magic number... I've actually heard 80-85%, but I couldn't tell you why. I agree that its not wise to give discounts either.. so good on you for sticking to your guns.
RichardLavigne wrote:
So.. the theory is that if 100% of the couples you meet with, book you... then you are pricing yourself too low. For example, i could set my price at $1000 and reasonably expect that I'd book every single meeting I had because I'm worth more than that and every couple would perceive that they are getting a deal.
on the flipside.... if you are only booking 50% of your meetings, that means that half of the people don't think you;re worth the price your charging and you may be a bit too high. is this proven fact? NO.
Quick thought: The reason you book or don't is usually not always about price and deals.
Longer thought: Here's the argument: If, at the tail end of your sales process, when you're sitting one on one with the bride and groom and you've done all the work: qualifying, showing, telling, talking, listening, explaining, whatever, and you nudge the couple to sign... the couple says to you, "we need to think it over," "out of budget", "gotta ask mom" - then it's not the price even if they say it is and what it really means is that your sales process is broken somewhere.
There's a fairly prominent videographer who has that problem and we're talking about fixing that for him. We're going over the same things because it could be something that happens even before you ever sit down with them.
I have been surprised lately with a few bookings. Mainly because at the end I was told "well I need to talk this over with my mom, since she is contributing"
So I just assumed that they wouldn't be booking me and now 3 times they called and booked me a few days to a week later.
What have I learned? Don't assume anything.
So far, we've met (in person, over the phone, or via Skype) with four couples, and booked three. Right now, our biggest problem isn't a lack of conversions but a lack of inquiries.
I have 11 brides contacted me for 2012 Got 10 booked. The 11th raved about my work in her first email and asked for a meeting. She never got back to me with a confirmation or responded to any emails. I'm meeting another bride tomorrow. Hoping that will go well. None of my sample albums came in
This year has been a big change for us. We have met with a fair # of people I would say book around 75% of those people. We have also had A LOT more people out of state booking us without ever meeting with us.
We have booked our largest package 4 times this year (for us that is huge because it is basically 3x our largest package in the past) and had never met any of the people before booking it. Feels kind of weird but oh well.
Because of our new SEO campaign we are getting a fair amount of price shoppers so we have to weed through those but we can normally qualify someone before we meet. The major problem we have are prices. Either people can afford us or they REALLY want us but cannot even come close to out prices.
RichardLavigne wrote:
I'm sure that some statistician could tell you why 75% is the magic number... I've actually heard 80-85%, but I couldn't tell you why. I agree that its not wise to give discounts either.. so good on you for sticking to your guns.
As it happens, in my day job I'm a quantitative ecologist... Not exactly a statistician but I know my way around reasonably well.
The 75% mark seems reasonable. Heres why: One of the variables we are dealing with (conversion rate) is a probability. In statistics, this translates to a logistic curve. The link below is a hypothetical curve:
On that particular curve for those particular data (note other curves may vary), you'll notice that the rate of growth (on the X-axis) decelerates at P = 0.5, and starts to really slow at about P = 0.8 or 0.9.
How do we translate this? Given the law of diminishing returns, there is little to be gained by increasing the X variable beyond a probability of 0.8 or 0.9 (once again, for this particular data set). So in other words, we don't increas our photography prices beyond a 75% booking rate because of the law of diminishing returns.
Right now I would say my 2012 bookings are pretty much done unless someone last minute comes along. I would imagine by summer/fall things will start going for 2013. I also want to make it very clear on my website that people need to book soon or else dates go away. Hopefully people get the picture and make an attempt to contact early and not wait around.
I have had a few people in the last couple weeks come back saying they want us and by now the dates are taken.
Oh well.
I'm doing a little better than that: maybe 3 or 4 out of 10. In the area of 1/3 that I meet with I book.
It's a different feeling sitting down and talking with a couple all about their wedding for an hour or two knowing that, more often than not, you'll never be seeing them again.
If you have all the information on your website or if you provide all the information on packages via email along with all the other information then you should be booking at least 60-70%. Photographers who don't do that have a much lower booking rate(10-40%) and they waste a lot of time. The advantage of this style though is in your sales pitch. You would get a ton of brides who can't afford you and wouldn't even come to a meeting if they knew how much you charge. If your sales pitch is good then it is possible to convert at least some of them into bookings.
If you provide all the information beforehand and still can't have at least 50-60% then you need to find out why. Chances are it has something to do with ur sales and presentation or maybe the environment. Clients do like your pictures and they do come in, but you can't close them.
We book 8/9 out of 10 coupels we meet. We have quite a strict 'filtering' process in place. Why Because we're not very good at (and don't like,) 'hard selling'.
We prefer to conduct initial consultation meetings with couples who have pretty much already decided that they wish to book me after being recommended by friends/family or venues, and of course after they have seen our work and read more about my style and approach on our website.
This way we can concentrate on listening to their requirements and obtaining more info and detail about their unique day, rather than simply trying to 'push' what we do and why they should book me over the next guy.
Couples who aren't in this place that want to come and meet as part of their 'shopping' experience are politely advised to go and meet with other photographers first. If they don't book one we are then always happy to meet with them. (About 45% of these end up coming to meet us and most of these end up booking.)
Because we're not very good at (and don't like,) 'hard selling'.