Average time to book a wedding gig?

Kinkajou · June 8, 2011

Two questions:

1. Of the people who contact you, what percent actually book you?

2. From the time of first contact, how long does it usually take for a potential client to sign the contract and send the retainer?

Thanks!

tenoverthenose · June 8, 2011

1. Of the contacts that I get where people are serious (not feeling out price) I book just over 75%. I hate to say it, but I can normally tell within 30 seconds of talking with someone that they are not serious.

2. Normally within a week everything is locked down. This is one reason I love ShootQ - I can email a contract, have it signed & returned with a deposit in minutes.

Kinkajou · June 9, 2011

tenoverthenose wrote: »

1. Of the contacts that I get where people are serious (not feeling out price) I book just over 75%. I hate to say it, but I can normally tell within 30 seconds of talking with someone that they are not serious.

2. Normally within a week everything is locked down. This is one reason I love ShootQ - I can email a contract, have it signed & returned with a deposit in minutes.

Huh. So then I guess I'm also asking out of all of those that contact you, how many are serious and how many are feeling out prices?

ShootQ... off to go do some research...

ssimmonsphoto · June 9, 2011

Kinkajou wrote: »

Huh. So then I guess I'm also asking out of all of those that contact you, how many are serious and how many are feeling out prices?

ShootQ... off to go do some research...

I book 19-20 per year. I probably have an additional 4 that contact me, but never respond or move forward with someone else (but I book someone in place of their date after that decision has been made). Then I have another 10-15 who contact me, but are looking at a date that is already booked by someone else, so I refer them off through my QClub on Shoot Q or via email to other non-ShootQ vendors.

I get 95% of my clients through referrals from other clients. So, by the time they are booking me, their decision is already made and they just want to make it official. I would say that 95% of the gigs I book are done so within one week of the first contact. The remainder sometimes take a couple weeks because I don't push them until I have someone else interested in the same date. I also have a lot of clients from out of state and sometimes I have to wait to meet them before their family will shell out the money to book. Others from out of state I book and then might not even meet before the day off because of the distance (it is happening a couple times this season).

As for ShootQ.... I've written a novel about it on dgrin. If I find my post, I'll link you to it. I feel like I'm the queen of trying different studio managers and changing my mind.

wave01 · June 9, 2011

I know when booked our daughters wedding she got married in Atlanta. We had to flew out from the UK to help with the arrangements, we saw 2 photographers and we knew while talking to the 2nd that he was the one and booked him there and then

tenoverthenose · June 9, 2011

Kinkajou wrote: »

Huh. So then I guess I'm also asking out of all of those that contact you, how many are serious and how many are feeling out prices?

I'd say 1/3 of contacts I get are not serious. When I talk about a serious client, I mean someone that has actually looked through my work, read a few blog posts, spoken to a past client, referred by another vendor, etc. If someone does all of that and then contacts me I will probably get the job. If someone isn't serious enough to invest the time to do that, they are not the right client for me. They will not want to hire me, and I probably won't want to work with them.

I want to work with clients that are excited to work with me, someone that will love my work and tell everyone else about it, not just someone that stumbles across a photographer with a date open in the calendar.

Agnieszka · June 9, 2011

tenoverthenose wrote: »

I'd say 1/3 of contacts I get are not serious. When I talk about a serious client, I mean someone that has actually looked through my work...

1/3?? uhm wow .... My brides usually know my work pretty well, even the guys usually do (which I think is quite impressive

) Of the brides that actually come and see me, I book about 95%

A third of them book me on spot, the other ones usually reply within a week. If I don't hear from them for 2 days after my thank-you-for-coming email, they're usually out of the picture.

I gotta also say, that I'm quite picky when it comes to my couples, if I don't get the right vibe at the meeting or in the email, I'll say no to weddings, no matter how much $$ it would be ... after all, *I* have to feel like I can make them happy with my photos also ... I out in a lot of personal investment into my work, and I'm really only happy with the final product when they're happy ...

tenoverthenose · June 10, 2011

Agnieszka wrote: »

I gotta also say, that I'm quite picky when it comes to my couples, if I don't get the right vibe at the meeting or in the email, I'll say no to weddings, no matter how much $$ it would be ... after all, *I* have to feel like I can make them happy with my photos also ... I out in a lot of personal investment into my work, and I'm really only happy with the final product when they're happy ...

That's the best move you could ever make.

In regards to my 1/3 - the fact is that my name is out on a lot of referral lists, and quite frankly I'm the most expensive photographer in my area. So a lot of people get a referral list and send out mass emails or phone calls to "recommended vendors" asking for more information (remember, 90% of my weddings are destination weddings). Many call or email me without ever even visiting my website. They are often just in the early stages of planning a wedding and seeing who is available.

Of course, when someone's first question is "How much do you charge?" I pretty much can rule them out.

Average time to book a wedding gig?

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