How do you get more photography inquiries?
How do you get more photography clients?
Why’d the choose your competitor over you!?
That’s what we’re covering in today’s video!
About Photography to Profits and Humberto Garcia
Humberto Garcia is the world’s leading photography business growth expert. Founder of Photography to Profits and high-performance coach to multiple 6-figure photography businesses. Humberto coaches photographers from his special operations military experience and photography sales and marketing experience. After years of high performance in Marine Special Operations and building businesses, he knows what works.
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Transcript:
00:09 Alright, today we are going over a really important topic because a lot of photographers, they want to make a lot of money, they want to book a lot of clients and they just aren’t able to do their website or social media and we’re going to get to the root of this because when you understand this and
00:26 when you start like putting yourself in this mind space, you’re going to make a lot more money. Not just like a little bit, you’re going to make a lot more money doing this, okay?
00:35 So before we even get started, I’m going to ask you guys in the comments if you see. In the comments of this video or wherever it’s posted, what is a major purchase that you have made?
00:46 Personal, business, anything for your family, travel in the last year. You guys can say fridges, you bought a pool. Like what are some big purchases that you have made in the past year?
01:01 And I’m gonna walk you through this because once we do this, we’re gonna go through and see how this applies to basically like any portrait styles.
01:11 And it’s not really gonna matter, you know, which one it is because it’s all kind of the same, okay? So this morning, I had a- a plumbing emergency.
01:23 Like my- if you guys have ever had a plumbing emergency, like at my like sewer system has gotten backed up, and there was like, you know, crap coming out of the showers.
01:32 It was really bad. Luckily, it’s all clean now. But last night, when the problem started to happen, I went on Google and I just started typing in like frantically.
01:41 Like you know, 24 hour emergency plumber services. I was super in a hurry to get this problem fixed. The first person that could come out because it was Easter was this morning, and I booked somebody and they told me we’ll come out, we’ll give you a free quote, and they came at like 8 30 in the
01:57 morning. And I paid them happily because they solved a huge problem for me the entire time. I was booking this, I just kept thinking, oh my god, I need to get this solved, right?
02:05 Like, my house kind of smells like crap, and this is terrible. All fixed, no more smell. It’s great now, right?
02:12 So I paid these people for a couple hours of their work, and, you know, they probably made $300 an hour because it only took them two hours, but I got my problems.
02:22 Solved. The, I think a couple years ago, I was trying to hire a tutor from my daughter, and I, the only reason I opted in was because I was listening to a podcast, and at the time, like, you know, the podcast was like, hey, if you want tutoring for your kid, like, call this phone number or go online
02:39 and book, and I remember I was reading through. And I thought to myself, I’m definitely not gonna buy this service.
02:45 100%, I’m not buying it. And of course, like, if you guys know me, if you guys follow me, you guys know that, like, my daughter’s education is so important to me.
02:52 I homeschool her. I probably spent a couple thousand dollars outside of, like, private school every single year, just, like, on education.
03:01 So. I’m like the target client. I’m like super in the market for this all the time. And when I opted in, they called me back within five minutes.
03:11 And immediately I told the lady, I’m really sorry. I’m going to dinner right now. Like, I’m not going to be able to book, call me back at some other time.
03:17 And she wasn’t pushy, but she basically said, Hey, really quick. I just, I just have a couple of questions. About Leilani and your goals with her.
03:23 Do you like, do you mind if I just ask you? You don’t have to book right now. And of course, like I teach sales and I do sales training.
03:30 So I thought, okay, I’m definitely not going to book. And I told her you’re not going to get me to pay today.
03:36 And she started asking me questions. Hey, tell me about her. Tell me about Leilani. Tell me about her. What is she doing now to improve her education?
03:45 What subjects are you struggling with? What does she excel at? What do you want to focus on? And by the end of the call, I basically told her like, you’re really good at this.
03:55 You hit on every point. I really wanted. I told myself I wouldn’t buy. And I do this for a living.
04:00 And I pulled out my credit card and paid $1,200. And I got the credit card for a $1,200. And I was like, well, I’m gonna pay $1,200 over the phone to somebody I had seen in an ad like five minutes ago from a podcast.
04:08 Okay? So why am I saying that? Because I had a problem. She identified it. She helped me connect with it.
04:15 She didn’t have to convince me that she was the best. She showed me she was the best and was the best fit for me because she was very interesting and asked me.
04:22 A lot of questions and their website, their landing page, the ad was very cohesive. It spoke to when I wanted, right?
04:29 They didn’t promise me tutoring. And then they like threw me to their blog about all these random things. It was very specific.
04:35 Add going to a straight call to action to give them my info and they called me within five minutes, $1,200 out of my pocket.
04:41 And if you think about it, I valued the tutoring services more than I valued the $1,500 or the $1,200. I might have been $1,500 actually, right?
04:51 Because to me, when I gave them the money, I said, I’m willing to part with this because I’m getting something better in return, right?
04:57 And they’re going to help me reach my dreams and avoid all my nightmares, right? My nightmares being my daughter’s not.
05:02 I do well in school, she’s going to fall behind, she’s not going to be, you know, educated and successful. And my dreams are that she’s going to be in Einstein and be able to do whatever she wants and take over my business and start better businesses than mine.
05:15 And then she got really got to that, right? So very cohesive message talking to one person, right? And that’s the thing about all of this, right?
05:22 I can. Kind of need this the service. I actually called a bunch of people. Nobody answered except the people I paid.
05:29 Those people answered. Other people went to voicemail. Other people, local people went to whatever. This company answered, you know, took my info down and called me in the morning.
05:39 Event space. This is actually, there’s actually a really interesting. Thing about this. And that’s that. This is an example of when you’re just so good.
05:49 Like there are some photographers who are so good that no matter what, like they’re gonna book people. And for me, this is an example.
05:56 I want an event space for May 20th. And I’ve been looking around. And I haven’t been able to find a place.
06:03 But the one place I really want, because I’m familiar with it, I’ve stayed at the hotel. I eat there regularly.
06:10 I drive by it really often. I love it. It’s brand new. This place is the worst customer service ever. They don’t follow up.
06:19 They email me. They barely respond. They, you know, the. I doesn’t even want to take my phone call. This is like tens of thousands of dollars.
06:26 We’ll not take my phone call. And I’m still sitting here out of all the options I have. This is the best price, the best value.
06:33 There’s a place that’s inferior to it right next to it that is not as good as this. That’s double the price.
06:39 So the moment I saw, holy shit, like that’s double the price and it’s not even as good as this. I want to book this and I’m going to book it even despite the fact that they’re not really good.
06:48 They should have called me back. They should have invited me over. They should have sent me a lot more material.
06:52 But they’re just that good. And there are some photographers. These are like the point zero one percent that this happens to.
06:59 They have hundreds of reviews. They have such good work that separates them from people. That is not most photographers. A lot of other event spaces to get my business.
07:07 They’d have to get me to come in and do a walk through. They’d have to call me back. They’d have to be super attentive and they can do that.
07:14 But this is an example because I have different buyer personas like no matter what stage I’m buying, what price point, what my interest is.
07:22 I act very differently when I’m buying these things. Right? This is, I wouldn’t act like this with the plumbing service.
07:27 Right? It was an emergency. I wouldn’t act like this about maybe the tutoring if they were like world class or something.
07:34 But to me, this is world class because this is the best deal I can get and the best quality I can get in the vicinity that I want.
07:41 And that’s super convenient for me. So you can see like, I literally, this guy’s just been like texting an email and being like one sentence things and it’s kind of annoying but I’m still laughing because I’m like, I have to go with them.
07:54 Yeah. And this is what happens in photography too when we get to that. Okay. And the next, the last one was I wanted contract services and for this.
08:04 This one super important contracts are obviously, I wanted a specialist. So I started Googling everywhere. And when I did, I found one domain that had the exact kind of contract I wanted.
08:15 So I’m looking at all these places. Right. Imagine I pull up five websites. This is what your clients are doing when they’re looking for a newborn photographer.
08:23 They’re going to Instagram. They’re going on. TikTok, they’re going on, you know, Google and they’re pulling up five websites. They’re inquiring with a lot of people.
08:30 You know, they, whoever answers first and connects with them first has a big leg up. But one thing that made me like 100% sure I was going to go with them is number one, the domain name and the business and everything was only cater to the ex- act contract that I needed.
08:46 So super specific, right? You know, take that what you will. But even if you do a lot of genres, you know, if you don’t look like the ultra specific expert for every single genre, now you’re competing with big experts in all of them and you’re watering yourself down.
09:01 So that’s why I tell photographers like focus on a niche, get real. So if you’re really good at master, become the best, then you can worry about other things, right?
09:08 Don’t be like 50 percentile in Boudoir, 50 percentile in family, kind of shitty at pets. No, I’d rather you be 100% on one genre than to be like spread out.
09:20 So for this, and then the other thing that really stood out to me was I had a very specific issue.
09:26 Imagine like one in 10,000 people have this issue that I was looking for this contract, right? So a lot of people need this kind of contract I was looking for, but I had a very specific case behind it.
09:37 And not, not case, but I had very specific circumstances, which is like rare, like not many people have this problem.
09:43 And on their form. When I was reading their landing page, they literally had a link that said, by the way, if you also with this also are having this issue in your life, then you should click on this link and they had an entire landing page with the exact scenario that applied to me.
10:01 So of course, I went with them. I talked to the woman 25 years. In the business, like just does everything amazingly well.
10:09 I sent her $2,500 immediately and started the contract service. Okay. So this is for building like a legal contract. Okay.
10:19 And why do I say that? Because the same things happening with Boudoir, right? There are a lot of people. People doing a lot of this and what like what can make you book a lot more clients, right?
10:32 Like what could, like what could you do? Right? Obviously some of these I’ve mentioned like have a lot of social proof, right?
10:42 They have a lot of content that make them stand out as the expert. They follow up very quickly. They do their consults immediately.
10:50 It’s very clear what’s going to happen. They outline all the steps. I feel like I’m in good hands. So I went with this person, right?
10:57 And my question to you guys is like, is that happening? Do people know what’s going to happen when they go to your website and they inquire?
11:03 Do they know the next steps? Do they know what to expect? Do they know that you’re going to be like the super expert guide to walk them through and like make this all super easy for them?
11:13 You know, and that’s the case for a couple of these, right? Some of these event spaces were like, hey, we will do every single aspect of it.
11:19 You can pay us all in house. We’ll do everything. Right? That way I don’t have to like go do 400 things for this event.
11:25 And same thing with the tutoring. They’ll pair me. They’ll match me. They’ll, you know with me make a plan. Right?
11:31 And like, especially with them, they did an excellent consult. They were super fast. Right? Like, if you can add these attributes, right?
11:38 Like, a lot of times when you’re kid, you pretend like with your friends, if you were a superhero, what one superpower would you have?
11:45 Power of speed and flexibility. And to me, this is kind of the same thing with you know, photography studios. If you, but you don’t, you’re not limited to one, right?
11:54 So if you ask me, like, what could make one studio just book like wildfire? I would say following up with all your leads immediately.
12:01 That’ll greatly increase everything. But you’re not limited to one. So what else could you do? Get really. Good at your consults where you’re guiding discussion, you’re qualifying the people on the phone.
12:12 You’re connecting them with them emotionally and you, they’re, you’re building trust with them. That’s going to really grow your business.
12:21 What’s something else? Hey, I’d have the best work possible and the exact niche I work with. I’m going to be the number one, if you are the number one expert in your town, like you don’t have to be like the best in the world, but the best in like the closest 50 miles of work, right?
12:37 And showcasing your work, then you are absolutely going to kill it, right? These, these are like individual superpowers where you’re just so good that no matter what you can write shitty.
12:48 You can barely respond to them and they’re like dying to book you, right? And that happens with very few photographers, right?
12:55 And that’s a, this is one of the hardest ones to get, right? The example I showed with the event space.
13:00 And then of course, you know, just being super competent and being there to service people and responding quickly. Right? To me, these, like out of all the people I contacted, these were the only ones that had an easy form, that had a direct call to action, had exact timeline.
13:18 And they weren’t even the best people in the world. They were just the first to respond to me. So if I told you, Hey, all of your leads are going to be inquiring with a lot of other people.
13:27 And. And if you let someone else in respond first, your chances go down like so much. So all of these, if I can give a photographer, all these superpowers, like you’re going to grow immensely.
13:38 Right? And this is especially useful for the photographers that like, you’re already near six figures. You’re already at six figures.
13:43 None of this is like, have more ad spend. Right? Like go. Do all this crazy stuff. It’s just, hey, like be a perfectionist at these like very small things.
13:53 And you also have to ask yourself like, okay, what other situations do my clients have? Right? This is why you need to have intimate knowledge of your business.
14:02 Because when you really know, okay, I’m really selling to one person. Every single sale is a. One, like a one on one communication.
14:10 A lot of times people market and they create all these ads, create all this content and you’re like selling to everyone.
14:15 Right? And it’s just very generic. It’s like, hey, you know, I exist. I’m the best. I care about customer service.
14:22 But you really have to think to yourself like when these people are alone or talking to their spouse and. They’re behind the closed doors.
14:29 What are they really talking about? Right? You’d be really surprised if you could record some of these conversations, right? For a newborn photographer or a buddwar photographer that woman’s talking to the husband and saying things like, yeah, I’m not sure if I should go with her.
14:42 She doesn’t have a lot of diversity on her portfolio. She doesn’t have a really big following. I don’t, I don’t really know.
14:48 I don’t know how established she is. I don’t know how much experience she has. She’s not really showing, you know, many different people of different body types.
14:55 I’m not sure if that’s going to work with me. Right? And same thing with newborn and maternity. I don’t really know what I’m even going to do with the photos.
15:02 Like, we’re going to get all these photos and like, what are we going to do with them? Right? So as you go through and you’re like really brainstorm these.
15:08 And you think to yourself in all touches that I have, right? My organic social media, my ads, my email follow up, my website, my phone calls, like what real objections do people have?
15:20 And how am I answering them at every point? And you don’t need to like figure it all out in one day.
15:26 But if you can just start chipping away every day. Okay, just adding, building your credibility, bringing your building your expertise and adding this to the flow and just like the aura of your business, you’re going to grow immensely.
15:38 Okay. So. Yeah, this is how people make big purchases. And this is why I asked when we first started, like, what do you guys have?
15:47 What’s something that you guys. As they’re paying for it. And actually, Alison Diller she just commented that she paid a lot for graphic branding and web design.
15:56 I will say that the first thing I told her, like when I saw it, I was like, this is really good.
16:01 Like, she actually got a really, I love it. I really do love it. So you did a really good job purchasing that and I’m curious like.
16:08 How did you make that decision? How did you choose that person? The person you chose is definitely very talented. So yeah, I like that.
16:17 What else did you guys buy that was big? Okay. So yeah, take, take that what you will. I mean, a lot of these things, I know it sounds like very oblivious and like in the nether sphere.
16:28 Like these are like very hard, tangible things that if you start making these small changes and start thinking like that you’re selling to one person on the other side of the screen and the other part of your Facebook group and you’re talking to that one person you’re really going to focus and
16:43 you might even be thinking watching this video like shit. I do all of these things wrong, right? Or I’m. Scattered across a bunch of genres and I’m getting my ass kicked by all my competitors.
16:53 I’m not following up properly. I’m, you know, winging all my consults. I’m, you know, completely mismanaging the follow up, right?
17:02 And some of you don’t have that room because you aren’t the top dog, right? You aren’t the person that’s like, like people will literally pay your.
17:09 In voice link, like through DMs because they just know how good you are. They’ve seen all the social proof. They’ve seen all the videos on TikTok.
17:15 They’ve seen all the videos on your website. You know, you’re just not there and it’s okay. You’ll get there eventually, but you’re not going to get there just randomly.
17:24 You’re not going to wake up one day if you’re not being super intentional about these things and have a killer follow up have a killer or phone script.
17:30 You’re not going to have that killer work that’s going to separate you. And in this industry, a lot of people complain like there’s so many people that saturated and it’s really not.
17:39 It’s not saturated at the top, right? Like there’s a lot of people getting into it. A lot of people that are hobbyist, but when you’re like the top dog at the top of the pyramid, like there’s not many people up there with you.
17:51 And no, it doesn’t matter, right? Like in north Virginia, there’s a couple top dogs. So yeah, I mean, you can say that about any place.
17:58 You really are like competing with yourself. And, and that’s the good thing is that like not many people put this focus into their business.
18:07 They don’t put this level of like thought into it. But if you do, if you even do 50% of what I’m talking about, like you’re going to grow immensely and then combine that with the wildfire of like, you know, being present on organic social media, adding ads to the fire, adding automation email, like
18:24 being consistently inside, like, and you know, being recent touches with people. You’re. Really going to blow up. So that is what week two is really going to be about.
18:35 Actually we’re in week two of the newborn beta, but newborn maternity beta just launched a couple weeks ago. It’s a small group of photographers.
18:42 If you guys remember how the mastermind for Boudoir went so much more touch so much more intimate. You. The people in there are helping us grow the course.
18:53 So it’s not too late. If you’re a newborn maternity family, children’s cake smash. I definitely encourage you to jump in now because if you’re watching this and you’re one of those genres, even Boudoir, like the regular mastermind if you’re sitting on the outside, there’s so many people
19:10 . That I have heard, hey, I was on the outside looking in. I didn’t make a decision for months, years, and the moment they buy and like they get their investment back in a couple weeks or whatever it takes.
19:21 They’re just like, why didn’t I do this earlier? Like, why did I let the competitor in my town do this?
19:27 Why did they blow up? So I’m telling you now that we’re s- thing that can happen is I tell photographers it’s a failure of mine if people don’t book us and they don’t work with us because I just know all the potential you’re gonna have and you know, all the like the jumpstart and the shortcuts you’re
19:42 gonna have ahead of someone like, you know, not doing it. So it’s up to you sales average. I like the studios that are in our class and that work with me to be in like the 3000 and 5000 in uprange.
19:55 And we like to get, you know, for newborn maternity, like one to two inquiries a day is pretty good outside of like model calls.
20:01 And then for Boudoir, you know, can definitely get way higher in inquiries. But you know, newborn maternity is a little bit limited.
20:10 In the sense that, you know you know, there’s a lot of people searching for it, but like not every single woman is, you know, pregnant or has a newborn at the time.
20:19 So yeah, that’s it for this one. Hopefully this inspired you guys open your eyes and I encourage you like, sit down, think about it.
20:27 What have you bought big purchases? Why did you make those? Your purchases think through the moment you started thinking about it when you found the person.
20:36 How did you look for them? And why did you decide on them? Because, you know, as you do that, you know, you’re not selling to yourself, but there’s a lot of different instances where you are a different kind of buyer.
20:46 You prioritize different things and you choose for different reasons. And if- If you don’t want to use yourself, because I feel like I’m a good candidate, because I’m so sporadic with how I make decisions and I buy a lot of different things.
20:58 You know, talk to your clients, right? Like talk to your clients, talk to people that you’ve sold before, that you’ve booked.
21:05 You know, talk to the clients as like an outgoing survey, right? Like after you deliver your product, like, Hey, I really went really really really.
21:11 You want to know, like, why did you book me? What made you reach out? What made you decide to go with us?
21:15 Why did you pay a retainer? Right? And like really find out. And if someone tell, sometimes people will tell you things that are like so precise.
21:23 Like, you know, I saw this one video on your site and it talked about this and then boom, you can go highlight that you go run that as an ad.
21:31 You go repurpose it, you know, you go make it more prominent in your marketing, put it on a bigger part of your website, you know, put it in a tab, right?
21:39 Like repurpose it as you can or start talking about it more in your Facebook group or Instagram group. So that’s it for this one.
Humberto Garcia is the world’s leading photography business growth expert.
Founder of Photography to Profits and high-performance coach to multiple 6-figure photography businesses. Humberto coaches photographers from his special operations military experience and photography sales and marketing experience. After years of high performance in Marine Special Operations and building businesses, he knows what works.
