Category: Getting Down to Business

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Getting Down to Business

Bring Your Clients Sunshine…

The Arctic Circle in the middle of winter gets no sun. So on Day 31 of no sun, Tropicana (the orange juice people) brought them the sun. Check it out. You can’t help but smile when you watch this video because of people’s reactions.

The video made me stop and think about what I can do as a wedding vendor. Tropicana took the time to think about their client’s needs. 31 Days, no sunlight. They need some sun to brighten their lives – even if it is an artificial sun. So they took the needs and addressed them. It made them heros. Do you think that if you lived there and you were walking through the grocery store and saw Tropicana orange juice, you would probably pick it up over another brand? (I’m assuming it would cost a lot – I’m sure it isn’t cheap to buy orange juice in the Arctic Circle.) How about those of us that don’t live somewhere so remote? Will hearing this story make you give Tropicana a try the next time you’re at the grocery store? Simply because they did something cool?

The other interesting thing to notice in this ad is that you don’t see the product at all until the very end, and you see them passing orange juice out to happy people – you assume for free – as they enjoy their sun for a moment. The visual lasts for a second or two, and you’re feeling really great when you see it. Then you see the Tropicana logo, which has thankfully returned to their original logo after last year’s controversy. The whole thing is barely about the product itself. They aren’t selling you on it being yummy orange juice, how delicious it is, the nutrition value. They are just showing you that they went out and did something cool for this small town without sunlight for 31 days.

It is a soft sale. It is warm and fuzzy. It quiets the lizard brain.

Now think about your clients — what are their needs? What is that one problem they might have right now that you can address, even if it isn’t in the realm of what you normally do? How can you, as a wedding vendor, bring your clients sunshine and those pure joyous smiles to their faces? How can you reach out and make the experience of working with you full of joy? What can you do that isn’t selling them on the product, but rather on the experience of working with YOU. Something that makes YOU unique?

Standing out in the crowd is key. There is only one YOU and no one else can duplicate that. Give a unique experience, and you’ll be the buzz for a long time.

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Getting Down to Business

WordPress + Scribe SEO Plugin…

Copyblogger is one of my favorite sites to read, full of so much good information about building a better blog. So when Brian started talking about a WordPress plugin to help improve your blog’s SEO, I was really curious and couldn’t wait for it to come out! Scribe makes copywriting for SEO so simple and easy! Check out the Copyblogger post about Scribe for more details!

I’m using it along with the All In One SEO Pack Plugin, so when I finish writing a post I add a Title, Description, and Keywords there, this is something the SEO Experts in Salt Lake City Utah advised me. Then I choose “Analyze” on the Scribe Plugin, and it reviews what I wrote and makes suggestions of things I can do to help my SEO for my post.

No more trying to write an exact match domain by Silver Dollar SEO Madison post stuffed with keywords. Just write naturally. Then take a minute or two with Scribe to help make your SEO rock! It will show you what the search engines will think you’re writing about, and suggest changes based on what text people use when they search for things online – helping people find you!

All of this comes with a very, very small price. I can tell you that since putting this into place on my wedding photography blog, my inquiries *and* bookings have increased, so it has definitely paid for itself! Matter of fact, I’m considering paying for a full year in advance! Definitely worth every penny!

Scribe will come in 3 plan levels at 3 different monthly price points:

  • Advanced: 300 evaluations a month (around 100 pages or posts) for $97
  • Publisher: 120 evaluations a month (around 40 pages or posts) for $47
  • Starter: 30 evaluations a month (around 10 pages or posts) for $27

    • But until February 26, 2010, at 6:00 pm Central, you get the Advanced plan for the Starter price – only $27 per month (and you keep that price for as long as you stick with Scribe).

    You can’t beat that. It is one of the best deals around, and as more and more people research & plan their weddings online, you want to be up there at the top!

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Getting Down to Business

{Get Real} Sales Workshop – Coming to Houston!

I’m so excited to share this with you!

You’ve read the funny tweets and wedding wisdom of @planningforever; we’ve looked forward to the {Sales 411} of @saundrahadley – now get both personas together and improve your sales practices for your small business. A Regal Affair presents:

Saundra Hadley’s {GET REAL} Sales Workshop – Tuesday, March 16, 2010 in Houston, Texas!

Get Real Sales Workshop - Saundra Hadley

What’s in it for You:
This one-day workshop will be chock full of applicable sales techniques that will let you leave the door and immediately implement positive changes. It is comprehensive, fast-paced, blunt, collaborative, profound, humorous and will take you to the next level of Closing the Sale with your prospective clients.

You ALREADY know that selling your services to clients is getting more challenging than ever before. An increase of competition compelled with a decrease of consumer spending and a difficult economy has left all of our small businesses in an unsettled state of mind. It’s time to analyze what we can do to be more effective and closing more sales is a definite step in the right direction.

Who should attend?
Photographers, wedding planners, stationers, bakers, hotel coordinators, videographers, newbie’s to the industry, and more. Check out https://www.dreamengine.com.au/news/tips-writing-effective-video-script/ for more details. If you are in the wedding industry and a professional who is selling to the consumer; this workshop will help you.

What’s so different about this workshop?
To be sure that the topics covered are geared towards “you” and “your needs”, a questionnaire will be sent out prior to the workshop date for you to fill out. From the feedback, your concerns and challenges will be incorporated and addressed in the workshop curriculum.

CAUTION: Only concrete principles and specific examples of sales tactics will be taught to increase your sales closure rate. Fluffy talk, abstract theories that only nuclear engineers can apply or empty promises of you increasing your revenue by hundreds of thousands of dollars will NOT happen. But what will happen is for you to hit the ground running and make some serious changes that will affect your bottom line.

Another workshop for our industry? Really?
There are only about a hundred new workshops for our industry, right? At first glance it appears to be a little saturated. But take a closer look. Years ago you would have to wait for a monthly professional meeting or worse, a once a year, large event conference that would cover every topic from A to Z. Small workshops that focus specifically on an area of business that you need assistance with is a much better use of your time and investment dollars.

Schedule
9 – 10am Networking (continental breakfast)
10 – 12pm Workshop with Breakout Sessions
12 – 1pm Lunch (provided)
1 – 3pm Workshop with Breakout Sessions

Curriculum
Face the Fear
The Process of the Sale
Getting the Inquiry to Consult
Pre-qualifying
Marketing “Sales Words”
Top Sales Mistakes
Overcoming Objections
Never, Ever ….
The Consult Magic
Winning Proposals
Closing the Sale
Tracking your Sales Cycle
Selling in a Recession (Sucks)

Limited seating available. Hosted at the Christine Tremoulet studio, the future home of the Delight Wedding Collective.

AND!!! Join us Monday evening, March 15th, for networking fun at the Get Real Sales Tweetup!

So? Who is in???

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Getting Down to Business

Don’t be the Uncle Bob of Your Own Business…

So you’re a professional photographer, right? And if someone shows up to your wedding, portrait session, whatever and whips out the fancy camera they just bought at Best Buy or Amazon and starts firing away, you’re probably going to be thinking to your self something along the lines of, “Awww… how cute. But my photos will be much better because I’ve got mad skillz at photography, YO!”

(What? You don’t talk to yourself like some bad-ass photo rapper? Well, whatever. I do. Run with it.)

The point is, you know what you’re doing. You know your skill set, and the long hard hours that it took of practice to get to where you are at. And 99% of the time, your photos will be better because of it. Sure, there is always the one person that is just kind of a natural that will show you up, but they won’t know how to deal with a tricky lighting situation or how to balance flash with ambient light, so whatever. YOU are the SUPERSTAR!!!

So why the heck are you designing your own logo? Your own business material? Trying to create your own website or blog from the ground up from scratch?

How is that any different then the person that dropped $1500-3000 to have a camera as fancy as yours? They are not an expert.

Yes, you’re artistic and creative. But that doesn’t mean you know all the ins and outs of what makes a graphic design truly sing, or that you should spend hours and hours learning CSS and how to code HTML, PHP and smoosh it all into a awesome blog.

You’re a photographer (or a wedding planner, a cake artist, a caterer – whatever you are) — not a graphic designer or a website developer. Know what you’re good at. Hire someone else to do the rest. Leave it to the experts.

It is the same thing you expect of your clients every single day.

Oh, In case you were wondering – Uncle Bob: Definition, and what you usually get. Don’t do that to your business.

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Getting Down to Business

You Need a Friend or Two… Emergency Planning for Wedding Vendors

Finally

If you follow me over on Twitter, you may have seen my post earlier today about the fact that it is the two year anniversary of me having major – nearly life-saving – emergency surgery today. Some of you may know the back story already. For those of you that don’t, feel free to check out the November 2007 archives. Oh, and that photo above? It is from 2007. Not today. I’m all healthy now!

As a wedding vendor, you have to take care of yourself. It is absolutely essential. Most of us are running a one person show, and if we’re not we’re still in a position where our client booked us and expect us to be there. You don’t really have an out. Especially as the photographer.

Have you spent some time thinking about what you will do if something happens and you can’t be there?

The fall of 2007, I was sick. I knew I was anemic, I had no idea how badly. I was seeing a doctor, but in hindsight he was doing a horrible job of taking care of me. When you’re sick and you’re scared, and super anemic on top of that, you might not be thinking so clearly, so I didn’t fire him and seek out other care when I should have. By the way, if you’ve never been anemic, the best way I can describe it is 1 margarita drunk. You can function, but things are a little swirly and just not right with the world. It isn’t that fun though – I don’t recommend it.

So here I am, super sick, and the only way to fix it was to give me three blood transfusions and do emergency surgery. The emergency surgery had a 6-8 week recovery time; I wasn’t even allowed to drive for 4 weeks. And I had a wedding scheduled for exactly ONE week after the surgery.

Fortunately, I used to work with the IT department of one of the big three law firms in Houston, and I also worked for two web design companies. For places like this, disaster recovery is essential, and worrying about the “what ifs” has always been a part of my business plan.

When I got sick, I already had a network of other photographers in Houston. I only had to make two calls, and I had found a replacement. I was also fortunate because I had a clause already in place in my contract that in the case of extreme medical emergency and if time allowed, would allow them the opportunity to approve the replacement, and if they did not, I would give them a complete refund of all monies paid. (Obviously this won’t work if it hours before a wedding and you need someone to step in for you, but I had a week.)

Going in to surgery knowing that all of my shoots were covered was a HUGE load of weight lifted off of me. My clients still were taken care of. Something like this can be business killer if you don’t have a plan in place to take care of your clients.

ShootQ is also now a big part of my business because of my “what if” planning. If something was to ever happen to me on the day of a wedding – lets say I was in an accident( I almost called lawyers from https://www.mycaraccidentattorney.com/tempe/, seriously) and in a coma – my husband could log in to ShootQ and find out all the information needed about the wedding. He has a phone list of other Houston photographers to call. He could get on Twitter and start posting on my behalf. He could do whatever was needed to make sure the wedding was covered. Of course I would want him to rush to my side, but I would want to know that those calls were made first. Elaine & Brittany have this power as well.

An emergency like this can – and often will – happen to ANY of us. Matter of fact, I’ve stepped in two times as the primary photographer and two times as the second photographer in an emergency situation to help out other people. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

What is your emergency plan? Do you have a list of people who could step in in your place and take care of your clients if anything happened to you? Do you have an emergency clause in your contracts with your clients in case you ever found yourself in a bind?