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What is ‘perception of value’ all about and how can we Photographers learn from the cosmetic industry?

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Ok “perception of Value” lets break this into pieces. What does “perception” mean? Well one of the definitions of perception on your.dictionary.com is “the act of perceiving or the ability to perceive; mental grasp of objects, qualities, etc. by means of the senses; awareness; comprehension” and one of their definitions of value is “estimated or appraised worth or price; valuation”. So when we put these two together we get perceived value meaning someone using their senses to determine its estimated worth to them… Wow… this got me really thinking as how can we learn from this idea of ‘perceived value’ as a profession?

Then I start thinking as to who really does this ‘perception of value’ thing really well? And then I remembered the last time I went shopping and ended up in the cosmetics department of a large store… the beautiful smells … the well presented ladies encouraging you to try their makeup or perfume … the amazingly designed packaging that leaves an impression of luxury. That’s it they are the masters of this “perception of luxury value” and it reminded me of a test done many years ago in the US. The test consisted of the following; side by side on a shelf were the same brand of perfume … one in a nice bottle at $12.99 and the other nicely presented in a beautiful perfume box at $22.99. Which one sold most?…I at the first time of reading this said … sure the $12.99 bottle had to sell more if it’s the same perfume… guess what I was wrong … the nicely packaged bottle outsold the other bottle four to one or by 400%. The cosmetics industry are the masters at presenting their offerings in away to maximise the “perceived value” of their customers.

So what can we learn from this? How many photographers do you know who present their prints as prints only? How many present their work on CD or DVD only? While there is nothing wrong with this i.e. there is always a market for a ‘low cost product’ there is even such in the cosmetics industry … I would encourage you to think carefully before you depart down this way.

If you are doing an event and it does not warrant a wooden or acrylic frame at least put it in a photographic strut mount or folder and brand this mount or folder with your name. This does not add much expense but it will add to the ‘perceived value’ to your customer when you present them your print.

Now for the sales pitch from my sponsor photovalue.com who always offer a FREE blocking service on their gem collection range of photographic folders and strut mounts … but for the months of January and February we are going one better … normally there is a once off set up charge of £40/€40 for the block but even this will be waived if you quote this blog exert. Just email Hannah or Ronan at sales@photovalue.com and quote the reference : “Blog cosmetics”.

Bye for now… If you have any ideas, thoughts or suggestions on any topics you would like me to blog about please leave a comment here or email me at pvphotoman@photovalue.com

Many Thanks

PV Photoman

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The The Art of Effective Communication when you are selling your offerings

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

 What first came into your mind when you read the headline for this week’s article “The Art of Effective Communication?”

When I was thinking about this a flood of images of the great communicators came rushing into my head, Obama, Steve Jobs, JFK, Michael O ‘Leary (Ryanair boss), Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and of course the one and only Oprah. So what makes them great communicators? Are they just great sales people, selling us their vision for the future remember Kennedy and his vision of putting a man on the moon?  What about Obama selling us the vision of Change “Yes We Can” and of course Oprah who sells us a new story every day. So what can we learn from them. How can we use these abilities to communicate in our photography business?

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Then I came across this great quote by George Bernard Shaw “The biggest single problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place”, Wow that got me really thinking, so does he really mean in this quotation? Does he mean that in the majority of communications we have we really did not get our message across? That we may think we have communicated clearly what we wanted to say and that the receiver of our message absolutely understood it but that they didn’t?  Shock… horror …  George Bernard Shaw says this presumption is the illusion we put ourselves through. So where now? What can we do about it?

Right let’s give it a go…so we have discussed the great communicators…  how difficult it is to communicate effectively and thirdly the need to verify it has taken place. So in our roll as Photographers how can we learn from this and use a proven communication technique when selling our services?

 We all tend to remember short abbreviations and being Photographers we should remember this one OPTICS. So what does optics stand for? Well ‘O’ is for Open questions, ‘P’ is for Preparation and Presentation, ‘T’ is for don’t talk too much, Listen and Watch, “I” is for Interested and Involved and finally ‘C’ is for Closed questions. Don’t worry I won’t labour the Open & Closed questions thing again. To see more about this view last weeks article entitled “When is a Photographer a Sales & Marketing person”.

So ‘P’ for Preparation and Presentation. How much work goes into an Obama speech? How much time does he spend Preparing for it? Obama has many speech writers who full time write his scripts and prepare his speeches. He also practises them over and over again. A great tip given to me years ago was to practise by visualising yourself making the speech or the presentation, this may not be for you but however you do it practise and rehearse your possible sales situation and have answers to all the possible objections you might get. As a wise Tennis Coach once said to me, its “not just Practise but Perfect Practise that makes perfect”. So have you made a list of all the objections a potential customer might give you and practised your responses?

 “T” is for don’t talk too much but Listen and Watch. How many times have you met a salesperson who rabbits on and on and sucks the life out of you? … Better still… How many times did you buy from them? If you are like me, never… However have you ever asked yourself why? If you have had the same experience of me then picture the following…you are considering buying something, you have a need, however the sales person does not know exactly what your need is … in this scenario the best sales people listen to you, watch you to ensure they determine your need and then deliver you a solution you are interested in. I have a very simple rule to ensure I adopt the Listen and Watch rather than the Talk too much and it’s this…  Those of us who are lucky to been born with our full health were born with 2 eyes, 2 ears and just 1 mouth, so use them in this proportion in your next sales engagement.

In summary we were born with

             2 Ears    +     2Eyes            and only  1 Mouth                      

 Picture8   Picture9  Picture10

 So use them in this proportion of 2:2:1 in your next sales situation

 

 

Interested and Involved. When you are showing a potential Bride your past work do you appear passionate about it, involved in its detail? Do you portray the feeling to your potential Bride (customer) that you would be honoured to be part of her big day and that you realise the importance of the day to her. That you will be involved to the degree that you guarantee you will capture those precious memories of what she regards as one of her most important days in her life… she is relying on you to record for her a visual memory of this special day she can keep forever.  Would you buy from someone who was not totally Interested and Involved?

 

Add “S” for Success and you have OPTICS! Follow the OPTICS solution to ensure your communication with your existing and potential customers don’t fall under the George Bernard Shaw curse of being just an Illusion.

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Yeah your right … sometimes the potential client does not look or listen either… I guess that is part of the art of selling … To persuade them too … A quick demo probably get the message across for this guy… but no matter how tempted don’t shoot the customer

Bye for now!

PV Photoman

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When is a Photographer a Sales & Marketing Person?

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

I would argue always. In fact at one time or another every day we are all sales people. One of the key skills learned by sales professionals is the art of negotiation. Nearly every hour of our time awake we take part in negotiations, whether it is negotiating with our partners to watch a match on telly while they want to watch an episode of Coronation Street or Desperate Housewives.

So even if you don’t agree with my negotiation rant, what does a sales person need most? I would argue like any other service provider or business person its customers. As Photographers you have many influencers within just one sale. You have the Bride, The Groom, The Parents and of course the relatives and friends at the wedding day. All of these often have very different needs and quite often these three customers have conflicting needs. So how can we adopt the most effective tool used by great sale people to determine what our customers require? The best sales people in the world are masters of questioning. They use the right type of question at the right time in the sales process. There are two main types of questions, the first being an open question and the second being a closed question. An open question is typically used to probe to find the clients needs and typically starts with a Why, How, What, If, and When. For to a Bride an open question could be “Can you describe to me what style of wedding photography or album you like?” So when you are at the stage of trying to determine what type of album you might be able to sell a Bride the above open question should allow you probe her preferences and in so doing allow you to deliver a suggestion that will meet her requirements. Compare this now to a closed question “Do you like that studio album sample?” Ok there are three possible answers she might give you “No” “Yes” or “Not Sure”. Well all these could mean “No” even the “Yes” could mean “No” because the Bride is just too polite to tell you she does not like your offerings. So when trying to probe her preferences I would suggest you only use open questions.

OK PV Photoman I get it but do I never use Closed questions? No we do of course use Closed questions. Closed questions are very effective when used at the right time in the sales process. Generally I recommend using Closed questions when you are pretty sure your open questioning has allowed you determine what the Brides real needs are. Now is the time to use closed questioning to test if the sale is ready to close. Often we forget to ask for the sale after spending an hour with a possible customer. So use a closed question such as “You like that particular Album and Style of Photography, we have agreed a price at £x, are you going to book me?” There is a possible “Yes” “No” or “Maybe” answer. If it is “Yes” job done and take your booking deposit with a big “Thank you”, if you can add a little sweetener at this stage please do it, this will reinforce to the Bride that she made the right decision. Why not offer her an engagement photo, an extra large frames print or something small. If you get a “No” or “Maybe” its straight back to open questioning such as“I obviously have failed to determine your exact needs, can you tell me why you are not in a position to book me?” Keep then on the open questioning again until you feel you are in a position to try and close again. These closed questions are used to force a decision with a clear Yes or No answer and typically start with “Are”, “Is”, “When” and “Do”. I hope this helps you in framing your questions and can tell you from experience that if you take time to create and practise your open and closed questioning techniques you will close more sales opportunities.

So now that we have reviewed the art of questioning when should we use this skill? Use and practise it all the time even when negotiating what you will watch on television next! Remember its not “Practise makes Perfect!” but “Perfect Practise that makes Perfect!”

Bye for now, see you all soon. We have started to make videos of our wedding albums so if you haven’t yet seen them why not have a look on www.photovalue.com

If you think the negotiation stage ends in this life … Think again … see this great cartoon by negotiations.com

b-heaven_gates

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Introducing my Sales & Marketing tips for Photographers

Friday, December 4th, 2009

Hi all… welcome to my blog.

After lots of persuasion (and a little bribery) from the good folks at Photovalue.com I have decided to start this blog. I am hoping that it will become a useful tool for any photographer and as the photovalue.com tagline goes it’s all about “adding value to the photographer”. I will try to offer some good sound advice on sales and marketing, helping you all to build your business –the more successful you guys are, the more successful the guys at Photovalue.com will be. Value is about much more than just price and includes many facets such as customer service, responsiveness, range and quality of products & services and much more. This blog is another way for Photovalue.com to deliver on its mission and ethos of delivering greater value to the photographer.

If this is to be a success and to become the valuable tool to photographers that I know it can be, I will need your help. This should become a forum where conversation is encouraged, a two way dialogue where comments and feedback will always be appreciated. Help me to help you. Let me know which elements of your business are problematic. Where do you need help? Are there particular areas which you find difficult? I do not claim to know the answers to everything but I do have extensive experience in sales and marketing, strategy development, change management and my academic qualifications go up to Masters level. I am excited to learn from your experiences and to work together for a collective good. This blog will not concentrate on the technical aspects of Photography since I am no expert in that area (I am only learning how to take decent shots now after years of practice). 

If like Photovalue.com you are a running a small business you might have to wear many guises on any given day -looking after; Marketing, Financial, Technical, Administration and PR elements of the business as well as being chief photographer. The photography industry is quite unique. An industry one where creativity is encouraged but there can be little support for the other commercial aspects of the business. I want to help you to reap the rewards of your hard work and to make your business more accessible and profitable.

I know you are very busy people but if you could take a few minutes to register your comments or any topics that you would like discussed in the coming weeks that would be great. Next week I will start the process of bringing some Sales & Marketing thoughts to you via this blog.

Click on the links below to follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

Happy Snapping,

PV Photoman

PS: Please vote for which superhero outfit you think I should wear. All entries will go into a draw to win one of three £100/€100 photovalue.com vouchers. Follow the link here: http://photovalue.com/pvphotoman/

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