Nektario - got your PM. Thank you. At a glance your response looks pretty good. I will PM you back soon of course to discuss in more detail.
Morgan - I too had a similar scenario just a few days ago. A call came into our business from a very substantial end user client which was then routed to me. The client was very vague indeed and just said that they had been tasked with saving energy! I asked some basic need creation questions and was able to get myself an appointment which was in fact yesterday. Using my technique I was able to understand clearly what the clients needs are and why they are wanting to save energy. I was able to briefly show how our products and services can very much help them to save energy and money and I now have a second appointment with this person, their energy manager, and their director who controls the budget for their company. Even better is that the second appointment is at my offices where I will be doing a full demo of the services that will apply to their company and meet their need. What I will now do is develop a value proposition based entirely around their need. They have already asked to raise an order to get some remedial works done and ultimately we are looking at a significant project which will likely be £100k + worth of work, and more importantly we will be tied in to this significant client for many years to come as we can demonstrate the value in our ongoing maintenance support.
As I previously mentioned, brides are a different type of prospect. If you expect to draw brides from the general population, as in search results, blog posts, wedding directory listings, etc., odds are you won't get the chance to drill down and uncover exactly what their specific needs are. You'll get inquiries like the OP did, generally. Reply back with "I'd like to speak with you more about exactly what you're looking for blah blah" and those leads will fall off the earth because they don't want to put more effort into their inquiries. They've fired off 25 or whatever inquiries and have now gotten back 20 "congratulations! I'm available-happy to meet with you - prices start at - you can download my price list at" generic responses, and the bride feels satiated. Mission accomplished. A full plate in front of her in her inbox. She feels she's got her pick to choose from.
Write you back, needing to sit down and ponder on what her deep most needs are to embark upon a round of email exchanges with you? Or peruse the replies she's received and check out prices and compare them? Which do you think human nature will compel her to do? Put more work into a conversation with you, or go the route of least resistance? Keep in mind I'm talking about a general cold inquiry someone dashes off in an email while they're supposed to be working.
Z&J, referenced as the photographers in the creative live gig, don't wait until their email response goes out to build any alleged value. I'd think that starts way before, even before anyone lands on their web site. They did mention that they're not into SEO, so any value they have in the eyes of their prospects stems from them being referred by others. They also admit they get the low to no interest, and low budget, inquiries, which they screen out. So they're qualifying prospects to a degree.
They just changed their focus on their website, they say, to be more about them. Whether that new move works out remains to be seen, because that wasn't what got them to where they are now. Making it all about the bride was. They still appear to do that.
But it's not just that because others do that and it doesn't seem to work for everyone and that's because there are other elements at play. Off the top of my head, I'd say that what also helps them is that they're both very good looking people, in shape, dress cool, very young and attracting their own age group. They play up their faith a lot and I'd imagine that flies well in Tennessee where they're located. With bubbly personalities and plenty of buzz on their side. Their Facebook strategy paid off in tagging people with circles of friends also getting married.
Fair points there. As I said, I am no wedding photographer so my real world experience of this market is nil. My views and opinions have only been based around my own experience of sales but I am confident that my strategies and techniques will have success in any industry, but of course the level of that success will vary.
I certainly bow down to the experience of you wedding photographers as you will know first hand what your clients are looking for and how to work with them. My guess however is that many professional photographers are extremely poor at the sales side of things and that developing these important skills would be invaluable and would help to boost their business.
Thank you so much CT for all your time and insight! Of course I never heard back from her... but will def use your ideas more in the future if I ever get another inquiry.
gravygraffix wrote:
Thank you so much CT for all your time and insight! Of course I never heard back from her... but will def use your ideas more in the future if I ever get another inquiry.
No problem at all. My pleasure in fact. I have learned so much from FM and the people who use the forum. My photography has improved very much so as a result of this forum and the advice of others and so I am only glad to be able to give something back and help others when I can. I hope that my insight does indeed help you and others to secure more business in future.
