Wednesday Wisdoms

Finding the Right Rep Checklist:

1. Who reps competing photographers you admire?
2. Which reps work with the clients you want to be working with?
3. Referrals work best, so ask those in the biz like a paid membership resource you are on, consultants, and clients for their rep suggestion. 
4. What type of reps branding best fits your style?
5. Start with a “Temp Rep” situation to get to know if you work with the same approach on a project. 
6. What marketing platforms are most important to you, and which reps meet your standards in their marketing?
7. The most important one is the rep’s reputation. Ask around and get some good reports on those you can trust. 

Photographers, don’t let your busy, complicated life in the freelance world get you sidetracked from your pursuit as an A+ level long-term photographer.

Commit yourself to scheduled regular testing to explore and experiment, seeing how far your creative eye can take you.

Testing is that golden nugget to take yourself to the highest level and make it last.

HOW TO GET THE JOB:

Be the director the client will hire you to be, from start to finish.

Have your plan in mind and confidently share it as, “This is the way to go,” to achieve their goals.

There is no need to buffer it with safe comments like, “My opinion is…” when you want to be hired as the creative lead carrying out your creative vision.

When bidding on a job, clients may ask us to dive deeper into the basis of the costs. Put your business mind to work by understanding what the client needs to hear from you. 

Our estimates cover us for unexpected real-life additions like grip truck availability, insurance changes, crew covid testing results, overtime, etc. 

Our bids are not as black and white as clients would assume, so get ready to explain the gray areas in ways that speak their language.

One of the best professional lessons I learned was to keep negatively emotionally charged reactions in check.

Frustration is a normal part of our business but unleashing that onto people we work with is not cool and not professional. Don’t risk it even if it feels rational at the moment. 

A promo type that will work for one client may not work for another; that is why I use all four of these methods to get my promos out.

Four Promo Types:

1. Mass email promo showing an individual project or a specific theme with one or more images. 
2. Mass newsletter email promos are a summary update sharing news with a collection of images. 
3. One-Sheet promo is an attachment on a short email not needing to be scrolled, creating a warmer, more personable email.
4. Printed mailers or leave-behinds with the hopes of being easily saved by clients come in many shapes and sizes designed to show off your work’s branded vibe.

As you may notice, I did not include a pdf attachment on my promo list as they can often be mistaken for dangerous spam materials when sent by strangers.

Every photographer can have that REP MENTALITY mindset, no matter your situation. Your job is to continuously keep your REP (Mentality) excited by actively feeding your marketing supply chain.

Negotiation points to use when clients ask specifically for a eduction in Creative Fees:

1. Scaling down any area of their usage terms.
2. Trimming amount of images, variations, and angles on the shot-list.
3. Reducing the number of final images included in usage terms,
4. Limiting shoot days hours maximum.
5. Time-saving production tasks they take over like prop shopping, producing, retouching, casting, scouting, etc.
6. Predetermined creative concepts/shot list they supply before the shoot day begins.
7. Guaranteed faster final payment and/or larger advance payment before the shoot begins.
8. Bulk discounted rate based on future projects

Photographers come from the training to be a photographer. I get it, but we must treat it as a business for this training to pay off. 24/7, you are now a business owner with a Marketing Mentality, always by your side and ready to go. What company can exist without marketing and self-promotion? We have to open up our sights, taking this where we want to go. 

BID PREP STEP ONE:

Being ready to go with a solid inventory of crew + producers based on different bidding scenarios and locations can help you (me) avoid the regretful danger zone of losing a job we didn’t need to lose. Be ready to reach out without relying on only a few contacts because it could be too late by the time we hear back. Some jobs are pressure-cookers where the fastest one wins! Building a comprehensive crew and producer list has to happen way before the bid requests come in.