So expect it and get some solid strategies to reply to their request for prices, whether it be on the phone or by email.
How you reply to their request could be the difference between your business thriving and not.
Are you bogged down with trying to sort out your prices for your portrait and wedding photography?
Are you testing or guessing? Or are you testing and measuring?
Who ultimately sets your prices? Is it you or the customer?
It took me many years of test and measure to get my pricing formula right.
Are you pricing yourself to fail? If you are too cheap or too expensive you may be busy but with an empty bank account.
Ideal Clients Aren’t Always Looking For The Cheapest Photography Prices
What do we need before we can set our prices?……………………..we need products.
As a photography business coach I always explain that products are important when you set your prices.
7 Mistakes Photographers Make When They Set Their Prices.
1. Make price stand out more than their Branding/ Positioning.
Many photographers price lists I see make the price in the largest font and even sometimes in a stronger colour.
2. Make their price list too complex.
Price lists are sometimes so complex that even I do not understand them, never mind the general public.
3. Copy other photographers.
Other photographers prices bear no relationship to yours. Their products, photography, overheads, needs and wants are totally different than yours.
4. Set their prices and don’t adjust them regularly.
Once we set our prices we must check on what products sell the most ( our core products) and lift them.
5. Put a full price list on their website.
Should you put your prices on your website?
Hands up those who say yes you should be on the website?
Hands up those who say no?
6. Use a multiplication factor to wholesale cost.
7. Charge by the hour.
Some sources say that you should use a 5 X cost to price your products.
So a 5×7 inch print should be 5x cost…that would make it $15 on your price list. Are you kidding?
You can charge what you want right?
The perceived value of the product determines the price.
1. Perceived value can be the way that you have positioned yourself in the marketplace as maybe high end and expensive.
2. Perceived value can be enhanced with great presentation and packaging.
Example…7×5 loose and in ready to frame mount with acetate and ribbon.
3. It could be that it is printed on archival Art paper rather than on standard photographic paper.
4. It could even be the photography itself that is incredibly creative and has exceptional post production on the files.
SO HOW SHOULD WE SET OUR PRICES?
First we have to ask the question. How much money do you want to earn?
The answer for me was always “ as much as possible.”
Having this open mind, I always drove my business as hard as I could on a daily basis.
Set your initial prices to your own cringe factor.
Then with monitoring your sales, you can gradually increase your core products to a point where the market stops buying
Bernie’s Cringe Factor Method
Let’s Try it
We are finding out what the market can stand the market could stand.
With wedding photography you have a price that will attract the kind of customer that you want. Then by using an effective Album Planning process you increase that total sale by at least double.
YOUR PRICING SHOULD REFLECT YOUR…..
Experience
Talent and photography skills.
The facility that you work out of.
Your mindset.
Your location.
Positioning/Branding
Presentation of products.
Price is just one piece of your business jigsaw.
Getting it right is about “test and measure” and in going to the market, with it and letting the market decide.
In my years of experience as a photography business coach, I realise that there may be people that may look to find the lowest price photographer in their community, and if you feel they are your ideal client , then target them and market to them.
But as a photography business coach I would prefer you to find better clients than market to those who do not value your photography.
Every Success….Bernie
www.berniegriffiths.com
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www.berniegriffiths.com