Making Senior Portrait Reps Worth Your Time

Shooter84

Title pretty much says it all. How do you make sure your senior reps are worth the discount you give?

barnyard

I have seen it done a couple of ways:
1) 1 or 2 reps per school, these are go-getters, probably members of the school's sales or marketing club
2) Lots of reps per school, everyone will know at least one rep.

That gets them in the door. Then you have to decide how to reward the rep.

I would ask clients how they heard about me. If at any time they mentioned one of my reps by name, I gave the rep a credit towards their final order. My reps got folios and wallets and ordered their prints towards the end of the season. If they wanted to do the whole order right away, I would take a credit card and we would set a date that I would charge it. I then called them on that date and we went over referral credits and the final balance.

I think it worked well. I shot senior reps in March/April of their junior year, not a busy time for me. I shot the session for free and their reprints were retail and they got credits based on the number of referrals ($10ish per referral, I think, I know I gave a couple reps bigger commissions, but they both sent 25-30 seniors my way.)

Whatever your plan, have it written out, so there are no questions or arguments. I also always gave the rep the benefit of the doubt. If a person never mentioned a rep, but the rep asked if I photographed so and so, I gave them the referral credit.

My very best reps were relatives of past reps that wanted to work it hard enough to get their photos free.