Photography requires pursuit of zero-tolerance

Team RV performing at the Peachtree Dekalb Airport's Good Neighbor Day Airshow

Core essentials to success:

1. Be honest and truthful
2. Deliver on your promises
3. Stay customer focused

Most people dislike salespeople who waste their time. Not being prepared with something of value and a purpose can make it more and more difficult for you to get appointments.

If you have done your homework you will be able to leverage the customers resources from within their organization.  To do this you must know their goals and objectives.

Just imagine starting your meeting with after studying your website and some of your companies materials I understand your purpose to be ...  You can ask them if this is a good assessment. If you have done your homework you know you are on target.

I want to propose something today that will help you achieve this goal.  What I am proposing will help you and this is how it will benefit you.

If the customer decides to do business with you and you deliver as you have promised, you will be able to leverage this experience to get more business.  You are proving your trustworthiness.

Overtime you will build a reputation to get more customers, but also raise your awareness with your competition.

Zero-Tolerance

Every year 32 NFL teams compete for the Super Bowl Championship. All of these teams have the best football players they could find.

Last year the NY Giants did something different than other teams had done in the past. They brought in consultants who were not football players to help them win.

Team RV, the world's largest air show team, provides an exciting and memorable performance that combines precision formation flying and formation aerobatics.

Afterburner the global leader in Flawless Execution℠, offers three strategic quality management solutions – Equip, Embed, and Empower, a set of business process improvement principles inspired by elite military professionals and military fighter pilots that revolutionize the way you look at and do business in today’s fast-paced environment. They took their fighter pilot training and helped the NY Giants understand it isn’t about trick plays or new plays, it is about executing the plays flawlessly that will set you apart.

Many photographers I know are very much like their NFL counterparts.  They continuously are working on their skills to improve them. Just like some of the NFL teams that never are making it to the Super Bowl are photographers who are a struggling franchise.

Last year’s Super Bowl Champions are put under the microscope of all the other teams. They look for things to copy and look for weaknesses to exploit.

When you do things right it doesn’t become easier, sometimes it becomes harder.

Very Old Example

Many years ago there was this guy that rose to be one of the greatest leaders of all time.

Here are some of the things he did:

1. Healthy Diet—As a very young boy he was eating very healthy and avoiding junk food.
2. Remained pure and spotless—He was a gentleman all his life
3. Knowledgeable and easy to understand—he was well educated and also was an excellent communicator
4. Servant’s Heart—lifted up others around him

The political leaders of the day found out about his skills and had him as part of their leadership team.

He rose to such prominence that it infuriated many who wanted that power. These people spread rumors. They told lies about him in order to tear him down so they could get his job.

He was fired and thrown in jail for things he never did.

He would get out of this situation and rise again to the leadership teams only to have this happen again and again.

The reason he continued to rise is he didn’t become vengeful.  He continued to be honest and truthful. He delivered on his promises and he was focused on being a servant.

By the way the name of this guy was Daniel and you can find him in the Bible.
The men chosen to serve the king were …

"in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace." (Daniel 1:4)

The US Army Silver Wings from Fort Benning.

Grow your business

Remember that to grow your business is not just about finding the newest thing, however this is important to know, it is your flawless execution of doing the small things right every time.

Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. WOW them by giving them something more. Be careful not to tell them everything you are going to do. Be sure you can go above and beyond their expectations.

Ask good questions and do all you can to get to know your customer. When you do this you will be thinking of ways to help them even when you are not technically working on their account.

Are you overestimating your trustworthiness with your customers? Research shows that customers don’t trust their vendors as much as vendors think they do.

While you may do everything perfectly, many other vendors will not. Because you are a vendor you are often tarnished by their performance. They don’t want to get burned.

Be sure you help your client know your value. You need to find ways to show them how you are helping them. Sometimes this is entering your work into competitions and showing them it is winning awards. Sometimes it as simple as asking them if their sales went up after the campaign you helped them with.

If sales went up compare this to past campaigns.  Let them know you care about results as well as they do.

Love to Buy -- Don't like to be sold

If you are like most people you like buying things, but you don’t like being sold to by a salesman.

Shoppers in Savannah, Georgia.

Shopping Tips

Now we have heard of shopping tips and here are some just as a reminder:

1. Plan your spending and avoid impulse buys
2. Don’t grocery shop when you are hungry
3. Larger is not always cheaper and smaller isn’t always cheaper
4. Buying emotionally because you deserve something is dangerous
5. Buy things before you run out—this allows you to shop for sales cycles

These tips and more are given to help people control their spending and stay within their budget.  When you are able to live being debt free you discover a peace about life that is missing when you are always just one paycheck from homelessness or bankruptcy.

When you help people make a wise investment, you are looking out for them as a customer. You need to know all the shopping tips for customers, so you don’t fall into making mistakes.

Ye Ole Fashion Ice Cream in Charleston, SC. People love to buy ice cream.

Sales Mistakes

1. Not knowing your product
2. Not knowing your competition
3. Selling without establishing the needs of the customer
4. Failing to qualify a lead
5. Neglecting to collect customer data
6. Going to market too soon with product
7. Tunnel vision on the BIG sale client

When you have bills to pay you can become the desperate sales person. This is why it is recommended that you have enough money in the bank to pay your bills for the next six months.  This cushion can help keep you relaxed and better at closing the deal.

People love to eat out and find their favorite places like Kona Taeng On Thai located in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

Sales Tips

1. Face-to-face: More important than ever is the time you actually see a customer or prospect in person.
2. Find something in common. When you do find something in common this can help relax everyone.
3. Use YouTube or Vimeo. You can post short videos where you talk to people and give them some tips. This helps to give you visibility, credibility and worldwide exposure.
4. Blog. Create a blog and give a tip to help your customers. You need to do this regularly and a minimum of once a week is a good starting point.
5. Actively listen. Just listening to someone to help you find a quick way to sale your product is a mistake. I listen to what they see their long-term and short-term goals are for their business. If you are actively listening you will be asking clarifying questions that show your interest, but are helping you understand their problems. Their problems are opportunities if you have a way to solve them.
6. Become a partner. You should be helping them see you as someone who is part of their team to help them achieve their goals. When you are helping them achieve their goals you will be achieving your goals as well.

Shoppers taking a break in Savannah, Georgia.

Value Added: REALLY?

When the salesman is pitching the "Value-Added" concept, there is an assumption. The words assume you have to buy something in order to get the value.

This idea is totally dead today in sales. To compete today you have to establish value before the sale.

One of the ways restaurants and other food establishments establish value is in sampling of their food.  But no matter your industry you have to establish in some way your value before the purchase and not something "Value-Added" later after the purchase.

Sampling

One great example of how music recording artists sale their music is to look on iTunes.  Notice you can preview the music before you buy.  They are establishing value before the purchase.

In visual communications it is very easy for the designers, videographers and photographers to have enough work to keep them busy that is not worth showing anyone for future work.

I had a lady come up to be at a party this weekend and talk about wanting understand how to get more business.  She was a designer working for a small agency. I talked to her about what she was doing.

She said what most of us in the business complain about. The work they are doing is not portfolio worthy. She was concerned the longer she stayed at this job the harder it was going to be to get any other job later.

To get a job in the arts you must show the work they will hire you to do.

Personal Projects

The solution is basically a personal project. This is when you do a project the way you think it should be done for yourself. At the end of your project you will have something to show that establishes your value to the customer.

Projects will most likely involve others and I recommend finding an organization to work with, because you can trade out your work for access.

You can do it pro bono or maybe work a deal where they contribute to the costs. Your purpose is to create a body of work that will show what you can produce.

The key if doing work that someone can use is for you to truly have artistic control to show what you can do when given the opportunity. Free will help you maintain more control.

The more they foot the bill the more artistic control they deserve.

I went on a trip to Haiti and most of the time I was in a meeting.  Not very exciting, but nonetheless I was in Haiti.  This was many years ago and I just put together a quick slide show to show the photos to music.

Later after this slide show I explored using a digital recorder and added interviews on another project.

Now I was adding another layer to the services.  I wasn't going to stop here I continued to add more value to my own personal projects.

I decided to create some tutorials with the computer that were then output as video.  Here is an example of this project:

I hope you are seeing the evolution. It takes time to continue to add value.

The key is to continually look for things that will give more tools to your clients to communicate their message.

I even explored and added to my tool belt 360º tours.

Click on the image for a Panoramic interactive image

I still wasn't satisfied. I then went out and shot some video to add to the still images on my trip to Mexico to cover the coffee growers.

WOW THEM!

If you want to get cool jobs then show your potential and your present customers what you want to do for them--don't tell them.

I will give you a few key things that will make this work for you.

1. Find something you have passion about. 
2. Don't do a story on something everyone is doing or has done
3. Be sure to show it the way their customers might use it. 
1. Put it in your blog
2. Create a DVD
3. Maybe create a coffee table book 
4. Show it as a magazine story layout
4. Know what you need to charge to do this type of work

Struggling and being successful both bring stress

Stress from taxes

Early in my full-time freelance career I would have sleepless nights.  No jobs on the calendar yet I could see the bills on my calendar.

Every April the IRS helps me to evaluate my year and help me to project earnings into the New Year.

The good news is every year I have watched my business grow.  I credit the stress as the major factor of growth.  I feared failure so much and how it would impact my family that it motivated me to take on cold calling and other aspects of business not so exciting.

The first couple of years I had so many expenses as compared to income that my taxes were not that much.  As the years went by the taxes increased each year with the income.  Some folks will be upset about all the money going out to the government, but for me I was excited that I was finally paying taxes.  Early in my career it was pretty common as a newspaper photographer to make so little that I got most all my taxes back.

The hard part in recent years is being successful in a terrible economy.  I am aware that every job I get is really a blessing.  However, the IRS expects those who are self employed to pay quarterly taxes based on their last year's earnings.

I am having a good year and doing OK, but I have to admit it the stress of knowing the economy is so fragile and my clients may not have work really makes me worry about something I have really no control over.

A different perspective on taxes

What is common for every business just starting to large corporations is your present business may disappear not because of you, but for reasons beyond your control. You need to always looking for new business not just so you can grow your business, but also to make up for the inevitable loss of business from customers who can no longer use your services.

What are you doing to stay a float and get new business?

Measuring your efforts of marketing

Do you know your ROI—Return On Investment?  While often we can use this to measure a financial purchase for your work—like a new camera or lens you need to also look at your time.

Let me talk about four things I do to connect with customers and potential customers.

Front of my latest postcard

Postcards

First of all this is one of my first things I used to get my images into people’s hands outside of sitting down and showing my portfolio.  My friend Tony Messano helped me with a template to use.  Tony also gave me some great insight into using postcards.

back of the postcard

“Everyone has one good photo in them,” Tony would say, “so put some other photos on the backside of the same shoot to show how much variety you deliver—it will help set you apart.”  

I have purchased and created a database of names that at one point was close to 6,500 names.  With the poor economy this has shrunk to 4,700 names.  I need to work on this as well.

I mail the postcards quarterly and sometime have gotten behind.  The advantage of these verses using email is the person has to touch the card before it goes into the wastebasket.  

My hope is that it gets pinned on the wall with other examples the art directors keep. 

My latest e.Newsletter

e.Newsletter

I have been sending this out for many years now on a monthly basis.  Sometimes I was excited about a new topic and sent out more than one a month.  This has proven very helpful.  I give away photography advice and tips I am picking up.  I am no longer just a photographer but considered an expert, because of my sharing of my knowledge.

This does pretty good and I can track it to see who looked at the email, whereas the postcard I just put out there.

My Website

Website

This to me is my online portfolio and more.  The main reason I have it is for those folks looking for a photographer can maybe find me and see my work and based on what they see hire me. 

This is a very static way to market.  I use my postcards, emails, Facebook, Find a Photographer links on National Press Photographers Association and American Society of Media Photographers to drive people to my website.

Besides the photos it also has all my e.Newsletters, videos, bio and links to make it more of a resource tool for folks that visit. 

I can track the number of visitors to the website using Google Analytics.  Here is a sample of the last month of visitors.

Google Analytics

Blog

The largest traffic I get daily is my blog.  I am posting 3 or more times a week similar things that I used to only send as an e.Newsletter.  Blogs are not like spam in the people chooses to revisit and often will subscribe to get emails so they know when I have posted new material.

The number of folks coming to my blog each day and month are 10 to 20 times that of any other thing I do. 

Here you can see the analytics showing the past month.

Blog Analytics

Summary

You cannot pick just one of these to do.  All of them help each other and build my brand.  I ask folks when they call to book me where they found me and believe it or not all of them are getting me jobs.  But the one thing I hear the most often is after they discover me and go to my website they are impressed with the depth of material there that can help them.

Use Google Analytics or something similar to track visitors to your website, blog and e.Newsletters and you will know your ROI score.

Active Listening

Vince Stanton attempts Troublemaker during the Professional Bull Riders Atlanta Classic at the Georgia Dome.

From Wikipedia

Active listening is a communication technique that requires the listener to understand, interpret, and evaluate what (s)he hears. The ability to listen actively can improve personal relationships through reducing conflicts, strengthening cooperation, and fostering understanding.

When interacting, people often are not listening attentively. They may be distracted, thinking about other things, or thinking about what they are going to say next (the latter case is particularly true in conflict situations or disagreements). Active listening is a structured way of listening and responding to others, focusing attention on the speaker. Suspending one's own frame of reference, suspending judgment and avoiding other internal mental activities are important to fully attend to the speaker.

“The Most Dangerous Eight Seconds in Sports,” is how, National Geographic writer, Zoltan Istvan describes bull riding.  Death is a real possibility to the bull rider.  The bulls are 15 times the size of the rider.  Imagine a defensive lineman in football being 15 times the size of the quarterback.

One of my photography friends is also a bull riding coach.  His name is Maxy Pinson.  When you meet Maxey you see a well-dressed and groomed elderly gentleman.  He is from Oklahoma and in his earlier career was a scientist for the oil industry. 

Reuben Geleynse hangs on to Long John during the PBR Atlanta Classic at the Georgia Dome.

I was fascinated with Maxy’s career and really interested in what a coach does to help a cowboy ride a bull.  I think what he teaches these bull riders parallels what we need to know about being a good listener.

Maxy teaches the bull rider to focus his "full attention" on the bull’s head.  “The bulls head will let you know what the bull is doing and going to do,” says Maxy.  You cannot take your eye off it.  You have to stay focused for 8 seconds to ride the bull.

Active listening requires you to make eye contact and listen so as to understand the message and not just hear the words.

You cannot allow yourself to become distracted by whatever else may be going on around you, or by forming counter arguments that you'll make when the other person stops speaking. Nor can you allow yourself to get bored, and lose focus on what the other person is saying. All of these contribute to a lack of listening and understanding.

You also need to communicate to the person you are listening.  Sometimes just an “uh-huh” or nod will let them know you are listening.  This isn’t saying you are agreeing, but communicates you are listening.

An occasional question or comment to recap what they are saying not only helps them know you are interested but will remind you to stay interested.

Let them finish their thought before interrupting.  This can be very distracting to them and irritating as well.  If you find what they are saying getting you emotional, this is a good time to say something and to clarify what you are hearing.  “I may be misunderstanding what you are saying and find myself taking this personally, is this what you are saying ________?”

WE REMEMBER 10% of what we read 20% of what we hear 30% of what we see 50% of what we hear and see 70% of what we discuss with others 80% of what we personally experience 95% of what we teach others --Edgar Dale

For me the first step to becoming a better listener was acknowledging that my personal style of communicating has been less than stellar.  While I was getting better at getting my ideas across as I matured, my relationships were not getting better with people.  I had to stop and evaluate my communication style.  It needed an overhaul.

I can see that the successes I have had in life have usually been when I practiced “active listening.”  There are still many relationships where I need to do a better job implementing these skills. 

What I have discovered is Edgar Dale is right, I remember more of what I need to do to be more successful by writing and sharing what I have discovered on this blog. 

While you might get something out of the blog, just the very nature of writing these posts has helped me improve in so many ways.

Bart Jackson attempts to ride Smokin Joe during the PBR Atlanta Classic at the Georgia Dome. 

You will go down just like the bull rider if you don't actively listen to those who need your attention.

What will they buy? —Not what do I have to sell?

Are you selling prints, DVDs and digital files or are you selling the memories you capture?

Too often photographers look only at the cost of making a photo—pushing the button.  In the days of film many of these same photographers would try and sell a 25¢ piece of paper.  Both then and now these photographers miss the point—the medium is only a vehicle. 

Photographers of people sell moments.  The better the photographer is able to raise the feelings in the beholder’s mind the monetary value of that image is increased. 

The door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman isn’t selling appliances—he is selling a clean house.

The key for photographers is to realize they are not selling pictures, but what those pictures capture.  Even in advertising photos of products, the great photos help capture a mood and create a craving with the audience in some way. 

Photography has five stages in selling

1.    Attention

2.    Interest

3.    Desire

4.    Need

5.    Action

You need to in some way have their attention first.  There are many ways to get this. One of the best ways is through a referral from a happy customer. This is based on relationships.  The relationship you as a photographer have built with a client and the excitement they have and want to share you with their friends is by far in my book the best way to get someone’s attention.

Great images will also get someone’s attention.  These are often done through your advertising.  You must get your work in front of someone to get his or her attention.

The next step is creating an interest in your product. Your referral will use their testimonial to help you create interest.  They will tell their friends about how you impressed them in some way. 

Many photographers may have celebrities in their portfolio, some photographers have exotic locations and as you can see these things create an interest in the photographer and their work. 

This interest should lead to desire. This is where they start to inquire and want to know more and are engaged with you.  You have to move them from seeing you as a commodity; otherwise they will just look for another photographer.  You have to establish a real need for your services. This is where your ability to demonstrate to them how you are the best choice for them. This may be how you communicate your ability to take care of them and you might demonstrate this by just how attentive you are in the sales process. 

Questions for yourself:

·      Did you offer them something to drink?

·      Did you listen and ask thoughtful questions based on what you heard them say? 

·      Did you have good eye contact with them?

·      Did your greet them with a genuine smile?

·   Are you conscious of their time and clear and succinct in your answers to their questions?

If you established your ability to meet their need then it is on to action. The client wants to sign the contract and hand you the money to make it happen. If you find you are seldom getting to this stage where the client is taking the initiative to close the sale for you—then a real need for "you" was never established.  You are being seen as a commodity and that someone else can fill the need as well as you.