Sweet Dreams

[by Blake Discher]

Suddenly you’re wide awake in the middle of the night. The nightmare was horrible, worse that that monster you thought was under your bed when you were six years old.

In the dream, you received a call from a potential client, all they said was, “Good morning, we need a photographer for a project. Please answer this one question: why should we hire you instead of one of your competitors?”

Still dreaming, you’re stammering a bit, your blood pressure rises, you’re scrambling to compose your thoughts, perspiring.  In a defensive attempt to slow the conversation and wrestle back control, you blurt out the question you always ask: “Tell me a bit more about the project so I can better answer that question.”

The person on the other end of the phone said: “No. All I want is that single question answered. Our decision on whether or not to hire you will be based solely on your response.”

That’s when the dream became unbearable and you force yourself awake.  But staring into the darkness, you’re asking yourself, “How would I answer that question?”

You’re not selling a commodity unless you want to be.  In what ways is doing business with you different?

We complain constantly about customers beating us up on price.  But imagine for a minute that they didn’t care about price.  Have we so conditioned ourselves into believing that every call will eventually become a negotiation on price that we are somewhat unprepared to demonstrate our value instead?

So what is your value?  How are you different?  Your value could perhaps be reputation, ease of doing business with you, or the speed at which you work, resulting in less interruption of the client’s business.  Maybe it’s your grasp of the latest technology, the ease of ordering prints from your studio, or your people skills, meaning you’re experience helps you to be comfortable with any CEO of any company.  Or perhaps even something as basic as talking about the awards you’ve received from high-end competitions that the client might be aware of.

Whatever your differentiation is, talk about it during the call.  Sell your value.  If you focus that sales conversation on price, the price will likely fall.  If instead you focus the conversation on value and how you are different (read: better) than your competitors, the price will likely rise.

There’s an old saying in sales:  Sell the sizzle, not the steak.  The reality in our changing industry is that the sizzle is your value.  Not your photography.

Sweet dreams.

Blake J. Discher does a lot of stuff, the most satisfying of which is being the father of a six year old who is quite convinced there is a monster under his bed.  To see what Blake does, have a look at his lifestream at www.blakedischer.com.

Non-marketing Uses of Social Media

[by Blake Discher]

Most of us are now using Twitter and Facebook as marketing tools with varying degrees of dedication and success.  Did you know you can use social media to keep current about industry news or any other topic that interests you?

I remember at first being overwhelmed by the vast amount of “information” coming through my Twitter feed and someone recommended SocialOomph.   It’s great for filtering out the Tweets that are of no interest to you and best of all, there’s no need to have one eye on your feed as you sit at your computer doing other important tasks such as marketing or post work on your images.

To use it, create a free account at the site and then set up alerts to track keywords in the public Twitter stream. SocialOomph will monitor Twitter and periodically email you a digest of the tweets that contain those keywords.

I have alerts set up for the keywords “ASMP”, my Twitter ID “bdischer”, another of my companies “go-seo.com”, my blog “groozi.com” and several other keywords to help run my business.  On a personal level, because I have a few vintage Triumph sports cars, I also have alerts for “TR6” and “TR4”.

Even the free version of SocialOomph is a bit like Photoshop in that there are so many things it can do you could spend hours setting up all sorts of social media reporting.  At the very least, you should set up keyword tracking; it will help you to more efficiently manage the vast amount of information flowing on Twitter.

Blake Discher is an SEO expert, photographer, vintage sports car driver, and best of all, father of a six-year old boy. Check out Blake’s lifestream at http://www.blakedischer.com.

Setting Sales Goals

[by Blake Discher]

In my negotiating seminars I always make a point of letting my audience know that in order to be successful, I think we must be salespersons first and photographers second.

My sales career began when I sold franchises for a quick-print franchise.  One of the first things I learned was that all successful salespeople have clearly stated goals that they continuously work to achieve.  We’ve all heard that saying: fail to plan and you’re planning to fail.

Each month, set one important goal: how many new potential clients you’ll initiate contact with to show your work, commonly known as a cold call.  Don’t just set the goal, write it down.  Better yet, print it out the number on a letter size sheet of paper (with a large enough font size to fill the height of the paper) and tape it to the wall in front of your desk.

Don’t think for a minute that cold calling will be unsuccessful in the summer because those potential clients will only be on vacation.  In this difficult economy vacations are shorter and less frequent.

When you accomplish this month’s goal, make the next month’s goal more challenging.  You’ll find you’re making more contact with potential clients that will inevitably end up with more requests for estimates.

Setting goals helps you in three ways: they help you remain critically focused, they help you to “stay on track”, and accomplishing them help give you the necessary confidence to accomplish the next, more challenging, goal.

Your “sales pitch” will get better and better the more you practice.  You’ll get more comfortable selling yourself and develop your own style of selling.  You’ve probably heard it already,  emotion is the “secret weapon” used by successful salespeople.  People buy emotionally and justify the purchase logically.  Make your cold calls friendly and smile while your talking, the person will “hear” that smile on the other end.  And most importantly, let them know why you’re a good fit for them.  You need to always be selling!

Good luck!

Blake J. Discher is a photographer, SEO consultant, and educator. He speaks nationally on the topics of web marketing and negotiating. Visit his lifestream at www.blakedischer.com.

Are You a Good Listener?

[by Blake Discher]

When you’re on that call talking to a potential new client, remember to count to two before you answer any questions or ask new ones.  This two-second buffer will help you to be a better listener because you won’t need to be thinking about what you’re going to say next while the other person is talking.  The best negotiators are good listeners first, good at selling second.

Blake J. Discher is a photographer, SEO consultant, and educator. He speaks nationally on the topics of web marketing and negotiating. Contact Blake at b@blakedischer.com.

You Need to be a Salesperson First

[by Blake Discher]

Even in these stressful economic times, your business will be more successful if you are willing to recognize one fact:  you need to be a salesperson first, and a photographer second.  Many photographers take great photographs, but far fewer excel at sales.  When I speak to audiences about negotiating, I’m always quick to point out that sales skills are what help you to demonstrate to the client why they should hire you instead of your competitor.

Know your prospect:

One of the first things I do when a potential new client calls is to take a very quick look at their website during the early stages of the call. I’m looking for details that will help me to determine how they use photography, how sophisticated their use of design is, and the overall “look” of their brand.  I’m learning as much as I can in those seconds about the company for two reasons: first, so that I can talk about the site and show them that I have an awareness of and interest in their company.  Second, it gives me a sense of how much value they place in their “image” in the marketplace.  The more value they place in their image, the more they might appreciate the value I can bring to the photography they’re after.

Sell your value, not your product:

By value, I mean the things I do that differentiate me from my competition. You’ve heard it many times, sell the benefits, not the product.  Your product is photography, but what you need to share with the client are the benefits she will get in working with you.   Do you work quickly?  Then talk about how non-disruptive to the client’s facility you are during the shoot.  Do you bring along a monitor?  Then talk about how she’ll be able to see the shots as you take them and can be assured your getting what she wants.

For the client, photo shoots are stressful.  You’re reassuring her that you are the correct person for the job; that she can have complete confidence in your ability to pull off a successful shoot.

Remember, if you focus the conversation on price, the price will likely fall.  If instead you focus the conversation on value, specifically the value you bring to the project, you’ll help the client justify in her mind why she should hire you for the shoot — even though your price may not be the lowest.  Marketing guru Seth Godin says it best,  “You need to increase your value. If people don’t want to pay, it’s because you’re not delivering enough value for the money you’re charging. You’re not selling a commodity unless you want to.”

Blake J. Discher is a photographer, SEO consultant, and educator. He speaks nationally on the topics of web marketing and negotiating. Contact Blake at b@blakedischer.com.

Don’t Forget to Ask For Referrals

[by Blake Discher]

One of the best and least expensive ways to grow your business is through referrals.  But for a variety of reasons, most people are reluctant to ask for them. Maybe it’s fear of hearing “no”.  Maybe they think happy clients will just spread the word about “their favorite photographer” without any prompting from you.  But we’ve all heard that time-tested axiom that states an unhappy customer will tell ten people about lousy service, and a happy one will share with perhaps one other person about the great service they’ve received.

After every shoot, once the images are delivered and the client is happy, I’ll always ask the question, “Hey Brian, I appreciate the opportunity to work with you on this project, the shots look great, and I was wondering if their was anyone else you knew that might use this type of photography?” This is the best time to ask, everyone has a good feeling about the recently completed project.  The names Brian gives you are incredibly valuable leads.  In a sense, John has “vouched” for you and your product.  Referrals carry immediate credibility.

The next thing I do is call those people John referred and say something like, “Hi Cheryl, I’m a photographer here in Detroit and I just finished a project with your friend Brian Jones.  It turned out great and he suggested I introduce myself and my photography to you.”  If you repeatedly get Cheryl’s voicemail, don’t worry, you can leave that message and follow with an email with some samples of your work and a repeat of that introduction, being sure to mention the referrer, her friend Brian.

Then, be sure to update the people that give you referrals.  It’s one more legitimate reason to make contact with an existing client, and people like to know you appreciated their help.  Something like, “Hi Brian, I just wanted to thank you again for referring Cheryl to me and give you an update about how that worked out.”  This sort of “reaching out” to your existing clients will help to keep you “front of mind” and they might even send you more business just because you’re keeping in touch.

Good luck!

Get Powerful Info for Pricing Jobs

[by Blake Discher]

When a new potential client calls on the telephone, one of the first things I do is look up the caller’s website.

What I’m looking for are two things:  their level of design sophistication and how they’re currently using photography.  These two bits of information can give valuable clues to what sort of budget he or she might have for photography.

Lack of pleasing design and imagery might be a good indicator that I am talking with someone who has likely not historically spent money for higher end professional design or art.  It might mean they’re used to working with budgets that are small or doing the work in-house.

Ideally, the client’s website makes good use of color, makes use of an attractive font, and it’s navigation is intuitive.  It will also look as if it was created specifically for them instead of being made from a template.

Most of all, I’m trying to determine to what extent they use excellent photography.  Does it look as though they’ve done a lot of it in house using a point-and-shoot with no lighting?  Does it look professional? Do they credit the photographer?

This analysis takes just seconds and can be done during the initial part of the conversation.  If it appears they haven’t worked with a photographer of your skills, you’ll know you have to spend a lot of time talking about the value you bring to the project.  Put another way, you’ll need to convince them that you’re the correct person for the job and worth the money.

Remember, if you focus the conversation of price, the price will likely go down.  Instead, focus the conversation on value, what you can offer that everyone else cannot, the price will likely go up.

Good luck!

Please Release Me

[by Blake Discher]

Many photographers forget  that their websites are a form of advertising and as such the individuals in the images must be released.  ASMP has Property and Model Releases on it’s site, available to anyone, at www.asmp.org/releases.  I keep copies of the simplified release in my camera bag and in my car’s glovebox.  That way, even if I’m carrying a point and shoot while visiting a park with my son, I have releases handy.

Read These!

[by Blake Discher]

Non photo-centric blogs that get my nod:  Photographer Bruce DeBoer (@brucedeboer) writes an absolutely superb blog about creativity.   Marketing guru Seth Godin’s blog at is read by just about every member of ASMP’s National board.  And for the latest in technology, both current and speculative, check out www.gizmodo.com.

It’s hard to not be inspired to greatness as you view any of the TEDTalks.  The TED folks have a blog that I read just so I know when a new recording is posted to the site for viewing.  If you’re after some immediate creative inspiration, check out this TED talk.

Flash Site? Use Off-Page Optimization

For me, the search engines (primarily Google) bring me about 60-percent of my new clients each year.  I work hard to keep my site high in the rankings.

You should optimize your site for the keyword phrase that you think clients needing your type of photography will enter into the search engine.  But what if you have a Flash site?  That probably means you have minimal control over your page’s text content, or body copy, and that is exactly what search engines need to index your site.  See my related Strictly Business Blog post, “Content is King.”

I know, Google and Adobe recently announced a partnering effort to help the search engine index Flash content, but it relies on true text in the Flash element, not bitmapped text created in an image editing program such as Photoshop; not a perfect solution.  And yes, they’re now reading the data contained in .xml files that sometimes accompany Flash elements, but it’s still a bit clumsy at this point.

So what to do if your site relies heavily on Flash?  Consider utilizing what’s generally referred to as off-page optimization.  One method of off-page optimization involves getting links to your site from other websites.  Ideally, they’ll need to be from “relevant” websites, or more specifically, from other photographers or sites that are about photography.

Here are two things you can do to get incoming links that don’t require a lot of effort.  First, when you produce images that will be used on your client’s website, request not just a credit, but a credit that is a link back to your site.  These end up being one-way links, and from an SEO standpoint, they’re very valuable indeed.

Second, exchange links with other photographers.  These links to your competitors should of course be somewhat discreet, but note I didn’t say invisible, that will get you penalized by Google.  My site has three pages of these reciprocal links to other photographer’s sites and all of us are benefiting from the exchange. Be sure to build your incoming links slowly over time, and ideally exchange links with photographers who already rank highly in the search engines.

Good luck!

Didn’t Get the Job? Say Thanks!

Want to be remembered by the potential client with whom you’ve just had an unsuccessful negotiation?  Take the time to send a “Thank You” card.  That’s right, a snail-mail Thank You card.  Create a one off, nice looking card on your color printer on nice paper, and hand write a note, something like, “Thank you for the opportunity to provide an estimate for your upcoming project.  Although we couldn’t work together this time, please keep me in mind for future projects.  I am confident that together we would create compelling photographs that show off the best that [insert company name here] has to offer.”

These days, very few photographers take the time to use the US Postal System, instead opting for the more impersonal, faster-to-send, email message.  This sort of tasteful, snail-mail contact after a  failed negotiation will differentiate you from your competitors and provide another opportunity to show your work to the client.  I’ve done this for years and it works; I’ve been contacted for subsequent job estimates and was awarded the work.  Good luck!

Content is King

In the world of search engine optimization, or SEO, content is king.  What we’re talking about is human readable HTML text on your home page.

One of the major search engines has stopped considering the “Keyword” META tag because of keyword spamming by website owners in an attempt to manipulate their search rankings.  For example, a photographer might have repeated the word “photographer” or “photography” many times in the tag in their effort to rank on the first page of the search engine results page, or SERP.

So what do search engines analyze to determine what a web site is all about, and in turn determine where it should rank?  Human readable text.  This puts a visual artist such as photographers in a sort of quandary:  should I design my site for aesthetic appeal or search engine friendliness?

I think the answer depends on which segment of our industry you work in.  If it’s editorial, PR, or corporate, I think internet search is a crucial piece of your overall marketing plan and your site should be designed with search in mind.  And that means including body copy on the home page.

Your body copy should include your “keyword phrase” which is the search term you believe potential clients would use to find a photographer such as yourself.  Keyword density refers to the frequency that a keyword phrase appears in the body text.  Generally speaking, to avoid keyword spamming, your text should be naturally flowing and result in a keyword density of about two to seven percent.  There are a number of keyword density checkers available online to assist you with determining the keyword density of a page.

I get about 60-percent of my new clients each year as a result of my SEO efforts.  If you suspect your potential clients are using search to locate photographers, you should consider optimizing your site to help them find you.  Good luck!

A Common Website Mistake

Speaking of Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The content of a website’s <title> tag is what is displayed in the top-most bar of a browser window when someone is looking at your site.  The tag is given significant weight by search engines in their effort to figure out exactly what a site is about.  As I speak to photographers around the country about search engine optimization, or SEO, I notice quite a lot of studio names (such as “XYZ Studio”) or the photographer’s own name (such as “John Smith”) in the tag.

Unless your name is nationally recognized by photo buyers, you’d be better off thinking about what keyword phrase potential clients would use to find a photographer that produces work such as you create.  So for example, your <title> tag might better consist of “Seattle Editorial Photographer John Smith.”  Place the most important keywords toward the left of the sentence.  About eight to ten words is good.

It is important to make certain your <title> matches your page content, the <description> META tag, and is unique for your website. Every page’s title and content should be unique, otherwise it will be ranked supplemental.

Don’t Ignore This Book Review

The second edition of Tom Reilly’s Value Added Selling: how to sell more profitably, confidently, and professionally by completing of value, not price (McGraw-Hill ISBN: 0-0714088-19, 256 pages) boasts 70-percent new content from the first edition.  I was given my copy by a fellow airline passenger who had finished it while on a flight we shared.  He said, “You won’t believe how valuable this information is.”  When I asked him if he was sure he wanted to give it away, he said, “I want you to have it, it sounds like your industry could benefit by what the author talks about, and I’ll buy another copy for myself.”

Was he right!  Reilly’s “Value Added Selling Philosophy” is based on demonstrating your value to clients during the early stages of the sales presentation, instead of waiting until the time in the sales process that you have to overcome price objections presented by the client.

Reilly helps you to identify your value added, what it is that you bring to the table that perhaps your competition won’t or can’t.  He talks about differentiation: what are your definable and defendable differences?

Reilly challenges you to look at what he calls process support: how easy do you make it for your customers to do business with you.  But perhaps the most valuable part of the book is his seven strategies for dealing with price resistance.

So, somewhere out there is a traveling salesman I didn’t thank enough for his gift of Tom Reilly’s book. In today’s difficult economy, this book is a must read.  I’ve read it and re-read it, and it has definitely helped my business.

Are You Talking With The Boss?

A sometimes overlooked, but very important factor in any negotiation is making sure the person to whom you are speaking is in fact the decision maker.  If he isn’t you ideally need to get that decision maker involved in the negotiation.

One method I use to tactfully determine if the person I’m talking with is the decision maker is to ask him, “Is there anyone else I should email samples of my work to?” Or, perhaps, “Can you suggest any other persons in your company I should send a few samples of my work to?”

Your goal is to try to get the ultimate decision maker involved in the negotiation.  If you still can’t get to that person, then it’s best to “empower” the person to whom you’re talking with “talking points” or “bullet points” so they can talk about your value and essentially sell you to the person hiring the photographer.

Remember, that initial phone conversation is the time when you have to talk about what it is that makes you different from your competitors.  How do you differentiate yourself?  What do you “bring to the party” that others may not?   What I’m really saying is what value do you provide this potential client?

The inability to show your value will only put downward pressure on the total price of the job.  Only with differentiation can you command higher fees, primarily because you will be providing a look, or style, or service that is not easily found elsewhere.

Knowledge is Power in a Negotiation

Part of preparing for any negotiation is preparing yourself. Knowing the market, both geographic and specialty, in which you’ll be competing is critically important.

A very handy tool right on your desktop is your computer. Mine is always on, always connected to the Internet, and I use it when a new client calls for a quote. As soon as the person identifies the company he or she works for, I can “Google” the company’s name, click on the link to their website, and see how they use photography, and their level of marketing sophistication.  In general, you want to get a quick overview of what the company is all about.

During that initial telephone conversation, gather as much information as you can about the client’s needs and wants. Ask open ended questions that will help you to ascertain her level of authority, her motivation?  You need to be an attentive listener; don’t interrupt.  Like my dad told me, “you have two ears and one mouth, use them in proportion.”

It’s impossible to listen and speak at the same time.  If you have to speak, ask open ended question.  Again, your job is to get as much information (read: knowledge) as possible about the client to help you to put together an estimate.  Remember, to understand you must hear and to hear you must listen.

And finally, don’t trust your memory.  Take notes, I use a “telephone cheat sheet” that keeps me on track during that initial phone call.  It’s just a list of questions that I know I want to have answered by the potential client.  My cheat sheet is available in the ASMP Business Practices Book.

Good luck!