Help - need clients

swintonphoto

Hey everyone. I am need of some help. I just relocated to Manhattan Kansas because I am doing some more schooling, and have relocated my studio there. However, I am having a hard time getting business to start up - I am not getting too many calls, and the ones I am recieving are not scheduling. I have not had such a hard time in the past. I ran the business for years in Utah previously and did very well. I am advertising in the University student newspaper, all over the internet, and have a real good studio location for visibility. Anyone have any other ideas that won't break the bank because I could be in some real trouble soon if things don't improve...:uhoh

Art Scott

Manhattan = Aggieville if I am correct...Hmmmmm the town where all the students spend evry nickle on partying.....:D...ok get away from aggieville and into the normal part oftown...dillions usually have a public bullietin board, hit the bookstores (don't know if there is a borders or not but they have public bullietin boards, health food stores also......inother words get some printed flyers out and also youmay need to stretch into the neighoring towns.....main things I remember of Manhattan are Tuttle Creek Lake and the Blue River Pub (I am not postive of the clubs name...way too many shutter cliks ago...but a great venue for concert photos and women).....I would also hang flyers around aggieville, I seem to remember seeing them on posts outside of the clubs and bars.......

Remember also YOU'RE THE NEW GUY IN TOWN and going up against the settled-in known by everyone photog(s)....so it will be tough....have you tried to get a press release in the local paper (non student local that is)........does Manhattan have a local tv station or are they pulling in from Topeka, Lawrence, KC and Salina....Small tow to the west and Wichita from the Southwest.......try getting some sort of press release from them also.....show up at every event in town...go out and shoot the town and carry B-cards by the thousands

Small town people are skeptical by nature and when they ask what brought you to Manhattan and you tell them more schooling that sets you up for failure if you are not careful...because the small town person does not want to support you if you are not going to become a permanent resident.....also that means they would spend their money with you and not the long time friend photog........You're kinda viewed as an illegal if ya know what I mean.....:D

Good Luck!

swintonphoto

Thanks for the ideas Art - My wife is a teacher at a local school here and has lots of kids that play on the sports teams. We go to some of the games, and I was thinking of taking my camera to take photos just to be seen doing it - with business cards in pocket. Is there any sort restriction on taking photographs of kids sports teams without having consent?

RustingInPeace

It's Just A Contact Sport
Sales (and that's what this business really is) is a numbers game. In my mind, there are two kinds of sales-people. You have proactive sales people and passive sales people.

Proactive sales people are far and away, no matter what the industry, the most successful. A proactive salesmen goes out and actively prospects for business. I don't have enough in any post to give you my playbook, but I can give you my basics.

1. Join a networking group. BNI, Letip, etc. This is very low cost. My group is only $20 a month and 1 hour a week of my time.
2. Look at other local groups. Chamber of Commerce, Toastmasters, Rotary, etc. Investing time in your new community pays big dividends. You NEED to meet people that can help you be successful.
3. Create a mailing list. I made a goal adding 5 people a week to my newsletter list.
4. Work your current clients for referrals to their friends and relatives. Not the weakassed "if you know someone recommend me". I am talking about a systematic approach to, from the first contact, making them clear on the fact THAT EXPECT REFERRALS! Clients need to be trained.
5. Create opportunities to sell. When you deliver a job. Make it a special moment. I always try to drop off projects at the clients place of business.
6. Set a goal of meeting 1-2 new people a day. When you meet new people and engage them in conversation, the question "what do you do?" always seems to come up. What are you going to say? Can you explain it less than 30 seconds? That's how much time you have to make an impact. My response is "I'm a photographer My specialty is documenting the special moments in people's lives".
7. Work the phones
8. Track your referral sources (in a contact manager) and recognize and reward them.
9. Track and know your numbers. How much do you want to earn? What is your average profit per sale? How many leads does it take to get one closed transaction? How many outgoing calls / personal contacts does it take to generate 1 lead? It's pretty basic math at this point to know what it's going to take.
10. Make a basic marketing plan and execute it.

Passive Sales People always under perform. You can run ads, put up signs, do blind mailings, rely on search engines and never generate an acceptable return. Passive sales are generally the east profitable.

Art Scott

swintonphoto wrote:

Thanks for the ideas Art - My wife is a teacher at a local school here and has lots of kids that play on the sports teams. We go to some of the games, and I was thinking of taking my camera to take photos just to be seen doing it - with business cards in pocket. Is there any sort restriction on taking photographs of kids sports teams without having consent?

It might be a good idea to check with principal...just to keep y0ur Wife out of hot water....driving around wichita today (running errands) I saw several parks with "little" league football happening....it might be worth your ti,me to cruise the town and see what is happening on the weekends in this way and as I said before get some flyers out and about...also check out the gallery scene to see if you can get a showing of some sort or check with the "nicer", hipper resturants and see if they would allow you to hang a few prints with a b-card holder attached...try the bridal shops......many years ago I used the nail shops and hairstylists in the nice parts of Wichita to create cleints by putting flyers there also......remember Rome wasn't built in a day and your business will take some time also........

Good Luck!

caroline

RustingInPeace wrote:

Sales (and that's what this business really is) is a numbers game. In my mind, there are two kinds of sales-people. You have proactive sales people and passive sales people.

Proactive sales people are far and away, no matter what the industry, the most successful. A proactive salesmen goes out and actively prospects for business. I don't have enough in any post to give you my playbook, but I can give you my basics.

1. Join a networking group. BNI, Letip, etc. This is very low cost. My group is only $20 a month and 1 hour a week of my time.
2. Look at other local groups. Chamber of Commerce, Toastmasters, Rotary, etc. Investing time in your new community pays big dividends. You NEED to meet people that can help you be successful.
3. Create a mailing list. I made a goal adding 5 people a week to my newsletter list.
4. Work your current clients for referrals to their friends and relatives. Not the weakassed "if you know someone recommend me". I am talking about a systematic approach to, from the first contact, making them clear on the fact THAT EXPECT REFERRALS! Clients need to be trained.
5. Create opportunities to sell. When you deliver a job. Make it a special moment. I always try to drop off projects at the clients place of business.
6. Set a goal of meeting 1-2 new people a day. When you meet new people and engage them in conversation, the question "what do you do?" always seems to come up. What are you going to say? Can you explain it less than 30 seconds? That's how much time you have to make an impact. My response is "I'm a photographer My specialty is documenting the special moments in people's lives".
7. Work the phones
8. Track your referral sources (in a contact manager) and recognize and reward them.
9. Track and know your numbers. How much do you want to earn? What is your average profit per sale? How many leads does it take to get one closed transaction? How many outgoing calls / personal contacts does it take to generate 1 lead? It's pretty basic math at this point to know what it's going to take.
10. Make a basic marketing plan and execute it.

Passive Sales People always under perform. You can run ads, put up signs, do blind mailings, rely on search engines and never generate an acceptable return. Passive sales are generally the east profitable.

Hi Chris,
I just came across this post, a little late maybe, but these are some good wise words and although not all applicable to my personal situation have given me a kick up butt to get on and do a few more things. Thank you

Caroline

Felicia

I'm part of a moms support group and we like to do fundraisers to sponsor our favorite charities. One way to generate business is to approach a moms support group and offer some sort of fundraiser deal. That would give you instant exposure to new clients who would see your work and would want to come back for more.

RustingInPeace

caroline wrote:

Hi Chris,
I just came across this post, a little late maybe, but these are some good wise words and although not all applicable to my personal situation have given me a kick up butt to get on and do a few more things. Thank you

Caroline

You're welcome. Just trying to give a little back. Life & business have been good to me, and kinda feel I owe the world a little something.:D

3rdPlanetPhotography

Looks like everyone has given you all the good advice already so I won't repeat. I'm not too far from you (St. Louis). I can tell you in my experience here in the hillbilly midwest that every bit of paid advertising sucks. I've spent over 10k in the past two years for absolutly NOTHING. In fact I spent a LOT of money for a huge ad with yellowpages.com and it was a complete rip off.

My BEST business has been a vendor contract with David's Bridal. Yes it's paid but I get to meet and talk to people whenever I want. Plus every new bride gets my brocures and cards.

I guess most of what I'm trying to say is don't spend your money on magazine ads, online ads, or anything else. Have nice looking website number one. Get out there and talk to people. Spend as much time as you can shaking hands and introducing yourself and explaining what you do.

I've found meeting and greeting to be the most profitable for my photography business... in fact I'm cutting this message short because I have a box of flyers to deliver.

Good Luck

wxwax

RustingInPeace wrote:

You're welcome. Just trying to give a little back. Life & business have been good to me, and kinda feel I owe the world a little something.:D

You sure did,. Your post is great.

Only one thing challenges/puzzles me. How do you diplomatically arm-wrestle clients into giving referrals? Seems like you're asking them to promote your biz, when the relationship is normally about you serving their needs. I can't grasp how you pull if off without annoying them.

caroline

wxwax wrote:

You sure did,. Your post is great.

Only one thing challenges/puzzles me. How do you diplomatically arm-wrestle clients into giving referrals? Seems like you're asking them to promote your biz, when the relationship is normally about you serving their needs. I can't grasp how you pull if off without annoying them.

Hi
When you have done a good job for a person and they are pleased with the results you don't need to arm wrestle. They will be proudly showing the pics you have taken to friends and family so its easy to ask them to mention your name, as photographer, when doing this. It doesn't have to be a formal "request for referals" but if you think you could be doing more work for client A, then you could give them an incentive by offering a discount on future prints for new clients introduced by them.
They wont be annoyed, they will feel special and want to help.

Caroline