THE CLOSET IS NO PLACE FOR A WALL PORTRAIT By Jeff Smith Achievable Wealth

You have spent countless marketing dollars and hours of your life creating and selling a beautiful wall portrait to your new client, what is your next step? Trying to sell a frame, right? We have be told for years how much additional profit can come from a client’s order selling add-on items like frames, but what typically happens? The cost of the frame is usually beyond the budget of the client (that just went over their original budget buying the wall portrait in the first place). This is a reoccurring theme in today’s economy, with Americans having no chance of a “house refi” to pay off over spending on credit cards.

SUCCESS IN PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY AT AMAZON

Many photographers might think, “I made my money on the wall portrait, I don’t need to sell a frame!” This may be true, but what is a client going to do with a wall portrait without a frame? Put it into the closet so it doesn’t get damaged, right? Isn’t this a bit like a car dealership selling a car without an engine or without wheels? You might own the car, but you really aren’t going to get much use out of it since it will be up on jacks in your garage. This type of thinking is what causes clients to look elsewhere when they need a photographer again, because you weren’t looking out for your clients best interests, you were looking out for your own!

For any of you that have read any of my books, you might be thinking, “wait a minute you talk all the time about making money, aren’t you being a hypocrite?” No one likes to make money more than I, but I make money by looking out for my client’s best interests, even if they don’t understand what their best interests are. My clients come to me because I am a professional, not a huckster trying to take advantage of them. If I am in a sales room and a client is looking at a extreme close-up image and is talking about a 24x30 I am going to ask some questions as to why someone would want to see a face in a portrait 3 or 4 times life size. While I might make less money on a 16x20 or 20x24 (if that is the proper size for the pose and their home), but I would be a schmuck to sell too large of portrait just to make more money.

Photographers that don’t make sure their portraits leave in a frame miss out on another important advantage of having a portrait up in someone’s home rather than in their closet, referrals! Whether you call it an ambassador/models program for seniors or doing samples for families and children the best way to turbo-charge your referral program is to systematically give your work away, so potential clients can see their friends in your photos. How much would a large billboard in the middle of a client’s living room who entertains frequently be worth to you? I paid the rent for the first few years of my studio by photographing families in the right circle of friends and then doing whatever it took to get a wall portrait up in their home (yes I gave a few away with portrait order that didn’t include one) because there is no better adverting in the world. I tracked 15 family sessions generated from one family I greatly discounted a wall portrait for to get it in their home. I think it was worth it and so did my landlord that wouldn’t have gotten his rent without them!

We only photograph seniors, but we sell wall portrait to almost every senior we photograph. Each portrait comes with a frame, a simple frame, but a frame all the same. I have worked with Levin Frames http://www.levinframes.com for years and they helped us selected 2 simple sample frames, one in walnut one in black to include with each portrait. The client has bought the frame in the price of the portrait, if they bring in another frame we will switch it out for them, but no wall portrait leaves the studio without a being in a frame. Stan, owner of Leven Frames, has a great software program for selling not only frames but wall portrait for studio owners. It’s called autoframe and provides your sales person the ability to proportionately show wall portraits in a variety of settings and once the size is selected the portrait can be display in any Levin Frame. It is a great tool for selling larger wall portraits and up selling the framing.

Insuring that a wall portrait is properly displayed in our clients home is our responsibility. We are the professional, we understand that if they don’t frame it when the excitement of their purchase is the highest, they never will or at least not for a long time and a Wall Portrait does neither the client or you any good sitting in the back of a closet!

You have spent countless marketing dollars and hours of your life creating and selling a beautiful wall portrait to your new client, what is your next step? Trying to sell a frame, right? We have be told for years how much additional profit can come from a client’s order selling add-on items like frames, but what typically happens? The cost of the frame is usually beyond the budget of the client (that just went over their original budget buying the wall portrait in the first place). This is a reoccurring theme in today’s economy, with Americans having no chance of a “house refi” to pay off over spending on credit cards.

Many photographers might think, “I made my money on the wall portrait, I don’t need to sell a frame!” This may be true, but what is a client going to do with a wall portrait without a frame? Put it into the closet so it doesn’t get damaged, right? Isn’t this a bit like a car dealership selling a car without an engine or without wheels? You might own the car, but you really aren’t going to get much use out of it since it will be up on jacks in your garage. This type of thinking is what causes clients to look elsewhere when they need a photographer again, because you weren’t looking out for your clients best interests, you were looking out for your own!

For any of you that have read any of my books, you might be thinking, “wait a minute you talk all the time about making money, aren’t you being a hypocrite?” No one likes to make money more than I, but I make money by looking out for my client’s best interests, even if they don’t understand what their best interests are. My clients come to me because I am a professional, not a huckster trying to take advantage of them. If I am in a sales room and a client is looking at a extreme close-up image and is talking about a 24x30 I am going to ask some questions as to why someone would want to see a face in a portrait 3 or 4 times life size. While I might make less money on a 16x20 or 20x24 (if that is the proper size for the pose and their home), but I would be a schmuck to sell too large of portrait just to make more money.

Photographers that don’t make sure their portraits leave in a frame miss out on another important advantage of having a portrait up in someone’s home rather than in their closet, referrals! Whether you call it an ambassador/models program for seniors or doing samples for families and children the best way to turbo-charge your referral program is to systematically give your work away, so potential clients can see their friends in your photos. How much would a large billboard in the middle of a client’s living room who entertains frequently be worth to you? I paid the rent for the first few years of my studio by photographing families in the right circle of friends and then doing whatever it took to get a wall portrait up in their home (yes I gave a few away with portrait order that didn’t include one) because there is no better adverting in the world. I tracked 15 family sessions generated from one family I greatly discounted a wall portrait for to get it in their home. I think it was worth it and so did my landlord that wouldn’t have gotten his rent without them!

We only photograph seniors, but we sell wall portrait to almost every senior we photograph. Each portrait comes with a frame, a simple frame, but a frame all the same. I have worked with Levin Frames http://www.levinframes.com for years and they helped us selected 2 simple sample frames, one in walnut one in black to include with each portrait. The client has bought the frame in the price of the portrait, if they bring in another frame we will switch it out for them, but no wall portrait leaves the studio without a being in a frame. Stan, owner of Leven Frames, has a great software program for selling not only frames but wall portrait for studio owners. It’s called autoframe and provides your sales person the ability to proportionately show wall portraits in a variety of settings and once the size is selected the portrait can be display in any Levin Frame. It is a great tool for selling larger wall portraits and up selling the framing.

Insuring that a wall portrait is properly displayed in our clients home is our responsibility. We are the professional, we understand that if they don’t frame it when the excitement of their purchase is the highest, they never will or at least not for a long time and a Wall Portrait does neither the client or you any good sitting in the back of a closet!