Wednesday Wisdoms

Every failure is a golden opportunity to improve. Lost a job to someone else? Use it as inspiration to work harder.

Overage fees for changes/additions are our responsibility to request financial coverage that is not already included in our approved budget.

Dealing with financials before agreeing to or starting the changed work is one of the many “unsaid” standard business practices covered by the photographer/director/producer.

I’m in a situation where we’re working with a client who constantly asks for changes. At the same time, they never mention the budget or how much the changes will cost. It’s always up to us to ask, inform them, explain the implications, and then get permission. It feels awkward, but it’s something we’re expected to do right away. Don’t make the changes and then ask—that’s riskier. Ask immediately because they want the changes to happen quickly. Make sure to cover yourself, even adding a bit of padding to account for potential changes. If this is a client who constantly makes changes, try to set yourself up to protect yourself.

The secret to success for photographers is not to show their ‘cards’ under pressure. Relax and always remind yourself that everything gets done in the end with a great supportive team. Diva photographers are a thing of the past, and no one wants to work with them, whether they are high-profile and talented or not. People want a light-hearted, fun set with NO DRAMA.

Bidding a job must clearly spell out all the details that our numbers are based on. We risk paying out of our pockets if we ASSUME clients will know our bid-based parameters, such as shot count, the production building time needed to avoid overages, how many rounds of retouching changes are included, etc. Risking miscommunication is our timely responsibility to manage before it occurs.

I’m seeing a lot of trouble happening with photographers because we tend to assume it’s hard to cover everything. We assume that clients are going to know our restrictions or understand what we meant by specific dates, production costs, or other details. Everything needs to be spelled out clearly, including timing and scheduling. Do clients understand the schedule? We have to stay on top of it to ensure they do, even if we’ve already stated it or made it clear in an email. Don’t assume anything, whether it’s how many images you’re going to shoot, how many images are included in usage, or anything else related to your production. If you’re doing a big production and need the client’s approval by a certain date because you require a specific amount of time to start and finish before the shoot date, that has to be clearly stated in the bid and reiterated in an email. Make sure clients know everything, and don’t assume they understand anything.

You can’t be everything to everyone. Success is to have a portfolio that speaks highly to specific clients. Don’t try to bid on every job. Instead, win every job you bid on.

The #1 way to stay in front of clients is free and available at our fingertips, and yet we tend to ignore half of what we need to do- ENGAGEMENT. Sorry, I know it’s time-consuming, but why spend time and money on other marketing resources and ignore the one tool most guaranteed to work? Be your-human-self with comments and views, actively connecting as a real person.

If I were asked what the most important tip for a photographer is, I’d say something you might not want to hear. You hear us, Ranee and me, talk about this all the time on AskSternRep and SternRep: engagement on Instagram. Instagram—give me a minute, please. I know it’s the one place where we’re almost 90% sure clients are active. Where else are they actively engaging? Nowhere. Emails? LinkedIn, maybe? But on Instagram, they’re definitely there.

However, it’s not enough to just show our work. We have to engage with them so we show up in their stories and feed. We have to be the active ones—that’s the key. I know it might not be what you want to hear, but it’s really, really true. Please don’t hate me for saying it!

A general good “sales” rule:  Ask questions instead of overloading your clients with information.

USAGE RENEWAL prices based on duration options are not split perfectly into divided values. 

Two reasons:

1. We prefer the client to choose the more expensive, longer-term option.

2. Images may be more powerful, holding higher value when seen for a shorter time.

I deal with a lot of client requests regarding usage licensing rights, and they often want to know the price difference between various durations. It’s important to understand that the cost for different durations isn’t simply a matter of dividing a longer period by the number of shorter periods within it. For example, the cost for one month isn’t just one-twelfth of the cost for a year.

The impact of using an image for a shorter period, such as one month, can sometimes be greater, so we need to raise the value for shorter periods of time. It doesn’t work to just evenly divide the cost over time, and clients might not realize this. They might expect the price for a shorter duration to fit into the longer duration’s price equally divided, but that’s not the case. It’s important to know this and price your services fairly.

Don’t take it personally means treating your business like a business. You are a corporate business owner and rather than taking it personally, take it all like a CEO would and ask yourself how you could’ve done it better. See where you can take responsibility and make improvements.

Facing A Fact: Our 3rd party email promos are not getting through due to the client’s email filters. 

Lessons to be learned:

-Even though this has been true for a while now, hearing it directly from a client makes it even more real. 

-We cannot rely on email promos as our single source of marketing.

-We can use the ‘clicked on’ info as even more valuable to see who is seeing our work. 

-Outdated promotion tactics have a place, but we have to stretch out and find less capacity ways to reach out.

I’ve been in denial about email promos actually landing in our clients’ inboxes. I received an email from a client, an art producer at a company, and this is what she said: “I think they’re more likely to open an email from me, as third parties have some tough email filters to get through and land in an inbox.” Of course, we all know this, but I haven’t really been facing the reality. I send out a lot of emails and spend money on them, but the promos might not be getting through as often as I thought.

I still think they’re worth doing, but they’re not landing as much as they should because of these companies’ email filters. One solution is to ask my contacts to send out the promos themselves. Another approach could be to use Instagram DMs or to engage with clients we’re already connected with on LinkedIn, perhaps posting or sending promos there. We need to find other ways to get our images seen by people who might not know us yet. I have to accept this and figure out alternative methods to reach our audience.