3 Benefits of In Person Photography Sales
~guest post by Aaron of Addah’s Advice
In Person Sales (or IPS) is the process of selling finished photo products instead of digital images.
Many photographers consider this a new process, but it has been around for a long time.
If you are old enough, you probably remember going to a photography studio like Olan Mills. You would have your pictures taken one day and then a few weeks later you would return, look at the proofs and then order products. This is IPS.
This article is going to cover three benefits of IPS.
#1. Full Service Experience
With IPS you offer a full service experience from helping the client be prepared for the photo session to purchasing the products that will be displayed in their home. Many clients are willing to pay a premium for assistance in choosing products that will look good in their homes. Having samples on hand that clients can experience with their own eyes and hands helps them better know what they might be in the market for.
They also willing to pay to have products professionally printed along with custom design; such as albums and announcements.
#2. Quality Control
IPS also ensures that all of your pictures that are displayed in home are the best image possible. When you partner with a lab, you ensure you are calibrated to the lab’s printers and the client sees how you want the picture to look.
If an item returns and does not meet your quality expectation, you have the opportunity to reprint or to work with the lab so that it is better next time.
When you are offering the digital image, you lose the ability to have any kind of quality control. Friends of ours printed at a local drugstore and thought Donna was truly an awful photographer because the end product failed to meet their expectations in quality.
#3. Higher Profits
This is the most enticing reason many photographers choose IPS. Profits are higher because you are offering the full service experience.
Clients enjoy having you guide them through the process.
For example, if they are in the market for a gallery wrap and they want the image to wrap around the canvas, you can help them make the selection for the image that will best fulfill that desire.
Because you are more intimately acquainted with the process, you truly know which one will work better anyway.
Because you have quality control covered as well, it helps boost return clients. (Let’s face it, if they print at a local drugstore and the image comes back overexposed, leading them to believe you are a poor photographer, do you think they will be repeat business?)
And the last reason IPS leads to higher profits is because you are not capping your sales by offering the digital images, the client’s spending on product determines the limit.
You can read more tips about In Person Sales at www.addahsadvice.com – there’s also a few more days to enter a free giveaway for Fathom Focus – An In-Person Sales App, valued at $99)
