Have you been wondering how to upscale your photography offerings to break through the $2-3K income plateau?
Tune in as I share my journey and those of my coaching clients who've revolutionized their revenue by offering luxury products and not limiting the money their clients can spend. We'll dissect the steps to perfecting your sales language, the art of asking the right questions, and the secrets to structuring your pricing for maximum profit.
Discover how to double your average sales without adding to your client roster in this episode, where I reveal essential strategies that move you into the $5,000 to $6,000 sweet spot. We dive into the importance of personal touch, showing how real conversations and a luxury client experience can transform both your business and your bank account. You'll learn why it's time to ditch the impersonal price lists and emails, and how to elevate your sales approach to create genuine connections that pay off.
Join us for an episode that's all about boosting sales and growing your business!
Connect with Karinda!
Thanks for listening!
Have you been wondering how to upscale your photography offerings to break through the $2-3K income plateau?
Tune in as I share my journey and those of my coaching clients who've revolutionized their revenue by offering luxury products and not limiting the money their clients can spend. We'll dissect the steps to perfecting your sales language, the art of asking the right questions, and the secrets to structuring your pricing for maximum profit.
Discover how to double your average sales without adding to your client roster in this episode, where I reveal essential strategies that move you into the $5,000 to $6,000 sweet spot. We dive into the importance of personal touch, showing how real conversations and a luxury client experience can transform both your business and your bank account. You'll learn why it's time to ditch the impersonal price lists and emails, and how to elevate your sales approach to create genuine connections that pay off.
Join us for an episode that's all about boosting sales and growing your business!
Connect with Karinda!
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to Mindset and Money Mastery for Photographers the podcast. We help overwhelmed photographers make more money while simplifying their business by mastering their you guessed it mindset and money. Tune in each week for practical and actionable tips to take your photography business up a notch. Let's dive right in.
Speaker 2:Okay, guys, I am so excited about this episode I think I say that on every episode, by the way, so I do apologize if I just say that on every single podcast episode that I'm so excited about this topic. But clearly, I love talking about these things and I love helping each and every one of you. So buckle up, because this is going to be a good one. Today we are talking about those of you that are in that $2,000 to $3,000 slump. It's a really fun phase of business, but it's really frustrating sometimes. If you were in this $2,000 to $3,000 slump, I would do to raise your hand and be like this is me right now. I feel you is this a personal attack? Yes, it's a personal attack, but it's going to help you. So just hang in there and let's listen to this. If you're not at the $2,000 to $3,000 mark, I want you to listen to this still, because I think these are some really important principles I'm going to talk about and I know you're going to take some things away from this episode, even if you're not there yet. So my $2,000 to $3,000 slump this is.
Speaker 2:You get to this phase in your business where you're doing a lot of things right. You're doing so many things right. You have the process down. You're doing a great job. You're doing yourself on the back before I tell you what you're doing wrong. And it's a little bit frustrating when you get to this $2,000 to $3,000 mark and in my experience, photographers get stuck here and I personally got stuck here and I remember exactly when I was there and where I was at and what happened. It's like a sticky spot. It's kind of like quicksand in your business. Like you get there and then you're like I want out. And then you get to the edge and you like get a $5,000, $6,000 sale and you think you're getting out and then all of a sudden you're pulled back into the quicksand. So I'm going to give you some tools and some things to think about. If you're in this place, because you're probably sitting there thinking I need more clients at this phase I know I was and you're probably thinking how am I going to get more clients? And really at this phase I would say more clients is not the answer At this phase my encouragement is to double your average sale and really get into that $5,000 to $6,000 range, ideally Even once you get there.
Speaker 2:Then attack and get more clients. But let's get the business side down first before we dive into really marketing, which I always think is really important. Because there's always this want to put the cart before the horse and go market, but you don't want to market to just get more $2,000 to $3,000 clients. You want to get those $5,000 to $6,000 clients and then market to get more of those clients plus, do less work, make more money. So marketing is not your answer right now, friends. It's really going back into your business side of things and combing through the business side of things. The reason why this phase is so frustrating is because, like I said, you're doing so many things right and you're going to have to go through your business with a microscope, combing through your business with a fine tooth comb, looking for the tiny little things that are missing. So I'm going to share with you three things that I see most photographers doing at this phase that could be limiting your sales right now and your business. So the first thing is not enough preparation for the sale At this phase.
Speaker 2:A lot of photographers I work with feel like they're prepping their clients and giving them the information they need, but most of the time at this phase, I find that photographers are relying really heavily on priceless prep guides, welcome emails and all of these things to substitute real conversations with their clients. If you're doing this, what you're saying is I'm expecting my clients to go home and do their homework and to read and to understand what I'm sending them, and the reality is that most people are not going to read. Most people are not going to read your emails, your prep guide, your priceless. They're not going to understand it, even if they do read it. And if you're listening to this and you're like what the heck are you talking about? If you're going to read my priceless, go back and listen to the podcast episode called why I Ditch my Priceless, and I talk about that. The problem is that people are being giving these resources like here you go, I'm giving you all this amazing information, read it, but they're not reading it. And because they aren't reading it, they aren't thoroughly prepared for the experience and they don't fully have a grasp on what they're going to invest. Ultimately, at this phase, you still are not offering a true luxury, high-end experience, because you're throwing a bunch of stuff in your client's lap and expecting your clients to take care of it, and that's not what luxury is. Luxury is about showing up, providing your clients the information, exactly what they need to know, exactly for them, and just saying, hey, I don't expect you to read this guide, I don't expect you to go through this information. I'm just going to tell you what I know you need to know, in a way that I know you need to hear it.
Speaker 2:And having a conversation. People remember conversations. In today's day and age, people don't remember emails. People don't remember PDF guides that are 100 pages long and beautifully crafted and have the most epic styling advice in them. They just don't. But what people do pay attention to is when you say, hey, make sure that when you're choosing your outfit, to choose a shirt that fits like this and this and this, and let me show you some examples of what's good, let me show you some examples of what to avoid. They're going to remember that because it was a real conversation and, honestly, the reason I think that in today's day and age, those real conversations are so important and actually going through and holding your client's hand and explaining these things to them personally, is because people don't have a lot of conversations with people anymore.
Speaker 2:Think about who you talk to on the phone. Your closest friends and family are maybe like at work. You have work conversations. When you talk to somebody on the phone or you talk to someone on Zoom, you remember those conversations. Those are like real human conversations. When you're scrolling through social media or flipping through your email inbox, you're simply skimming. You're not really taking the time to fully process and read and understand. So I think that's why it's really important in today's day and age to have those real conversations with your clients, instead of just flopping stuff in their inbox and saying here you go, read this. So make sure that you are taking the time to have those conversations in the right way.
Speaker 2:Really, when we talk about prepping them, we need to have those conversations and explain to them what it looks like to work with us. We need to take care of the every need. We need to serve them, tell them what they need to know and the way that they need to know it. And the other thing I'll share with you here, too, is that if you're just sending a price list, chances are your clients don't fully understand what that actually looks like for them. So if you're able to say, based on you, based on getting to know you as a client. Here's what I think you're going to invest in the process, based on what you're telling me you want and you need. That is far more powerful than just sending over a price list and expecting them to be able to process and understand it, guys. So start having real conversations. If you have the emails that go out, that's amazing. Get rid of them. Seriously get rid of them. If you have the prep guides that go out, that's amazing. Get rid of them. If you have the product guides that go out, that's amazing. They're probably beautiful and you spent hundreds of hours on them. I get it. I was there. I did the same thing. Get rid of them. See what happens. Instead, just have the conversations with your clients.
Speaker 2:The second thing I want to talk about is putting your clients in a box or having a ceiling on what your clients can invest. This is a big one, and this relates back to this priceless thing. This is so big because you probably have your pricing set up in a way that you've seen other photographers doing. You probably have packages or set things and chances are that your packages that you're offering or your products you're offering are putting a limit on what your clients can invest. So, for example, if you're at this phase in business, I would ask you this what's the most expensive thing on your priceless? The most expensive thing on your priceless should be in the five figure range. If you want to take a ceiling off what your clients can spend and really step up your sales game, have products that are over $10,000 in your priceless and see what happens.
Speaker 2:The second thing I would ask you is what's the biggest size piece of art you have on your priceless? Guys, if it's a 30x40, I want you to go run to your priceless right now and add at least a 40x60 and bigger. If your labs offer bigger sizes, chances are you're not going to sell a whole lot of the biggest thing you have on your priceless. So if you have a 30x40 on, there is your biggest thing. You're probably not selling a lot of it and you're limiting yourself by not having those larger sizes, even above your 40x60. Add those bigger sizes.
Speaker 2:Look at your priceless, see what the most expensive thing is and ask yourself what would my client have to spend in order to get to like a $10, $15,000, $20,000 sale? Is it even possible that someone could come and work with me and spend $15,000, $20,000 with me. If there are simply not enough products or high-end enough products on your priceless, then that's a good sign that you need to step up your pricing game and take the ceiling off what your clients are investing by offering those bigger sizes, offering those luxury items and also ditching those packages. Those packages are going to put your clients into a box. I'm telling you, ditching packages was one of the best things I did on my priceless. Ditching them stop showing my priceless, stop showing it. But also ditching the packages was so, so valuable. Saying that you think this is putting my clients in a box and putting a ceiling on what they can spend. It's a good sign that you should ditch it.
Speaker 2:And here's the other thing clients want to be served and treated like they're your one and only, and having packages feels like they're going to McDonald's Don't take that the wrong way but like really it feels like you're ordering a combo off of a menu. You might order the combo off the menu because it comes with fries and a drink and a burger, but you might not really want the drink, like I know for me now. Like I go get fast food sometimes I go to Chick-fil-A and I'll get a meal, but I don't really want the drink and I don't really drink the drink because I just drink water most of the time now. So I just have my Stanley cup with me. I'm always drinking water, right? I don't really want the drink, but I still order the drink and get it because it comes with it and because if you order them separately, it costs so much more money it doesn't even make sense. So instead I have a cup full of tea that I don't even drink, right? That's how our clients feel when you're selling them out of a package.
Speaker 2:I remember when I used to do packages out of clients like can I swap this out or can I change this out? I don't really want this, but I guess we can do this. Or the piece of art that was in the package wasn't really suitable for their walls and it just led to all kinds of things. So ditch your packages and really take that ceiling off of what your clients can invest. Now I know I touched on this briefly, but really add those high-end luxury products which high away from them.
Speaker 2:Whenever I finally made the decision to add those higher-end luxury products, I added on Guild Canvases to my offerings and I had been looking at their Canvases for quite some time and I was like, no, they're never going to buy that. Why would I offer that? Those are so expensive, people aren't going to buy them. Finally, I was like you know what, I'm just going to put them on my price list. What's the worst that could happen? And I put them on my price list and for a while people would be like I want a Canvas. And I'm like, no, you don't, and I would steer them away from it because I was so scared of those prices and I was so scared of what people were going to say. But when you have one Canvas on your price list that's $7,000 and you can sell one Canvas and have a $7,000 sale, that's a pretty freaking cool feeling, right? So put them on your price list. If you don't think you're going to sell them, so what? Just put them out there. Not that your clients are going to see your price list, remember. But add them to your offerings Because even if your clients don't buy them, that $7,000 Canvas sure does make that $5,000 sale look like a great deal. So don't be afraid of those higher end products.
Speaker 2:Think about this what if your average sale could be in that, like seven, eight, maybe $9,000 range. Whoa, what would that feel like? I was talking to one of my coaching clients the other day and she was sharing that. I think she said her average sale now is like $8,500 or something like that's her normal. And I'm like holy crap, that's amazing. Can you imagine that being your average sale? That's insanity. That is the dream, right?
Speaker 2:Let's say you have I don't know 12 clients a year bringing $100,000 in revenue and you don't have hardly any expenses and you're just like I could go home happy. Or 20 clients a year and you're making almost $200,000 a year with just 20 clients, two clients a month. What would that be like? So really take that into mind here. Really consider what could your business and your life look like if you sucked it up.
Speaker 2:You put those high end luxury products in your priceless, even if they scare you I get it, they scared me at first. And what if your averages got up into that high, almost five figure range? What if you could have clients spending $20 or $30,000 with you on the regular? What would that feel like? What if your top 10 clients every year accounted for $100,000 of revenue or more in your business? That's the norm now I expect that my top 10 clients every year are gonna account for over $100,000 in revenue. How would that feel? Don't be afraid of those luxury, high end things, guys. I'm telling you it's going to make your sales go up and it's going to skyrocket your business revenue.
Speaker 2:Those are just three very small things that I wanted to share with you today, and I know they might feel a little insignificant, and I'm gonna leave you with kind of a couple of other little tips about being in that $2,000 to $3,000 rep. When you're in that rut, there could also be a few other things that are happening and I'm gonna try to summarize this as best as I can without taking too much time. But what I want you to think about in that rut is that, remember, like I said, you're doing a lot of things right, so give yourself a pat on the back, tell yourself you're doing a good job. But the thing that's standing between you and that $5,000 to $6,000 average could be asking something the wrong way, or not all the way, or a little tiny, teeny choice of your words. That's the other thing I wanna leave you with, and when I say that, I say that because I remember I had one coaching client and she wasn't asking one question.
Speaker 2:At her reveals, she was forgetting to say what will next? Where else are we gonna put these other portraits? She was doing everything right, but she simply wasn't asking for the next wall in her sales. So what did she start doing? She started to ask for the next wall and what happened? Her sales doubled overnight. Now that's such a teeny, tiny, insignificant thing, and to get to that point where we discovered that that was the piece that really made a big difference, we had to examine every freaking little, tiny piece of her business, and this is why I think that that two to three thousand dollar rut is so frustrating. Because that little question to me seems so insignificant and you might be listening to me like, of course, that's common sense. But sometimes those little things that seem like they're common sense that you're missing out on or not saying the correct way or not asking the correct way, that are making or breaking your business and your sales.
Speaker 2:I'm going to encourage you to go back through your business with the fine-tooth comb to break it down back to the basics. Look at your pricing. Make sure your pricing is set up for success. Make sure your pricing can get you those higher sales. Make sure you're not limiting yourself with packages. Make sure that your pricing is set up to get those bigger sales by not putting your clients in that package box.
Speaker 2:Make sure that you're prepping your clients properly for the sale and having real conversations and not just depending on a prep guide, a price list, a product menu or whatever it may be to educate your clients. Take that into your own hands and have real conversations with your clients and get to know them and serve them the way they need to be served. Guys, this even goes back to like understanding what their personality type is. When I do my reveals because I'm prepping my clients so well and I get to know them I do each of my reveals differently, based on my client's personality, and this is the thing I teach my coaching clients. You have to know their personality types. You have to be able to read them and identify within the first few minutes of talking to them who they are and what you need to do to get them to where you need them to go in your business. Serve them how they need to be served. Also, make sure you're offering those luxury items. Make sure you have those high price point items.
Speaker 2:Go back through your business, use that fine tooth comb, break it down and I know you're going to say current. I know what I'm doing. I don't need to break it down back to the baby steps, but you do, and this is something in my coaching program that I think is really, really important. No matter where you're at, when you come to me, I will always break things back down and we will work through every little step. And the reason being is because, unless we break down and work through every little step and check out the entire engine of your business, it's going to be really easy to skip over one little tiny thing that could be making or breaking your sales and could be the difference between those two and $3,000 sales and those five and $6,000 sales. So please keep that in mind. Please don't be too big to say like I can't go back to the basics. Going back to the basics is important and even today in my business, I am always going back and checking on things to make sure my engine of my business is running Comb for your whole system. It might boil down to the tiniest little detail.
Speaker 2:I hope this has been helpful and I hope those of you that are stuck in that $2,000 to $3,000 rut are feeling this and you're like, ooh, maybe those are some things I need to work on. You know this is a bit of a hard topic to talk about only because there could be so many factors that go into play, and so that's why I really wanted to highlight those bigger ones that I see impacting most people. And when I was at Imaging this year, I talked to so many photographers and I found myself saying what's the highest price point? I don't want your products less than maybe like $2,000. And I'm like, okay, this is part of the problem. Offer some bigger, higher end, more expensive products, offer some stuff above that. See what happens to your sales immediately. And I'm not saying that's going to fix it all, because that's not going to fix everything, but it's definitely a small piece of that puzzle and it is very simple for each and everyone of you who are listening to this to go implement in your business right away, without a whole lot of help for me, and just go do that and watch the results.
Speaker 2:If you were in that $2,000 to $3,000 slump and you are ready to get out of it and you want the help and you want the support going through it and coming through your business because, like I said, I get how frustrating it can be. You are my favorite people to work with, so I'm just letting you know I would love to have you join us in our coaching program, master your Mind and Money. You can go to MasterYourMindMoneycom. Forward, slash, apply and apply to join us inside of our coaching program. I'm telling you it's going to take the ceiling off your business and totally unfold an entirely new level once you go through that process and you really comb through the entire engine of your business. I love each and everyone in you and I genuinely appreciate that you would spend your time listening to me pouring into you.
Speaker 2:This podcast is definitely something that I do out of my heart, because I want to help people and also, too, if you haven't grabbed a copy of our book, the Unicorn of Business Book for Photographers, make sure you go grab a copy. The link is in the show notes, so go grab your copy. It really is amazing. People have been sending me messages, they've been getting their book and they've started reading it and they're just loving it, and it has been so cool hearing just the impacts that something like a book has been making in your businesses and in your lives.
Speaker 2:As you've read it, I got a message that said something like I'm realizing by reading this book that I'm not charging my worth. I'm realizing that I need to go really work on showing people what I'm worth and that I'm worthy of charging this money. And also I'm starting to realize that I really need to start doing sales and IPS and that IPS doesn't have to be sleazy and like. That makes my heart happy, guys, because I know that IPS doesn't have to be sleazy and I know it can be amazing for you and your clients and I would love to play a piece in your journey to getting there. So make sure you go grab the book or, if you're interested in joining us in our coaching program, go to MasterYourMindMoneycom for its last supply and let's connect and chat more about your business. I hope you're loving the podcast and, as a DM on Instagram at Master your Mind Money, and let us know what you want to hear more of on the podcast this year. Bye, guys.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to support the podcast, please make sure you share it on social media or leave a rating and review. As always, you can check out the links and resources in the show notes over at MasterYourMindMoneycom. To catch all the latest from me, you can follow me on Instagram at MasterYourMindMoney, and don't forget to join our free Facebook group Photography Business. Tune Up with Corinne Decay. Thanks again and I'll see you next time.