Craft a High-Value Offer to Grow Your Sales Average
This blog appeared on Rangefinder Online, October 31, 2022
In an episode of The Portrait System Podcast, host Nikki Closser speaks with Bridget Wood of Tallebudgera, Australia, near Brisbane. Wood specializes in mother-centric family photos in the great outdoors using natural light, maintaining a sales average of $5,725. Wood also provides education for other photographers looking to raise their sales averages, and in this conversation, she gives loads of great tips for how to craft a high-value offer to net a high-value sales average.
Not long after completing a degree in Spanish and international business, Wood woke up with a strong feeling that she should pursue a career in photography. The very next day, a friend of hers told her about a photography course happening just up the mountain. She knew she needed to try it and fell in love with every aspect of it. After shooting weddings for a time and then working as a photographer for a magazine, Wood gave birth to her first child and needed to change the pace of her life. She went back to freelancing as a photographer.
At first, she was charging very little, but after seeing photography educator Sue Bryce speak on a WPPI tour, Wood knew she needed to face her fears around not charging enough to be sustainable. It was time to take it up a notch, charge sustainable prices, and begin to outsource the tasks that were keeping her from focusing on her passion, connecting to the clients in front of her camera.
Wood says, “I didn’t believe, on some level, that I was even worthy of receiving the money. I wasn’t good enough. So, until I went and did a lot of work on that, and I had a kind of nervous breakdown crisis. . . I then had to rebuild everything back up and start to honor myself and my time in order to provide better service to get the better jobs.”
Wood says the key to getting those better jobs involves five components for a high-value offer. The first is getting to know very well who your ideal client is so that all your marketing speaks specifically to that one person rather than to a whole crowd of prospective clients. Focusing on one person creates a magnetizing intimacy that addressing a crowd can’t compete with. The second is understanding your unique brand, what you offer, and why you stand out from the rest. When your offer is special like this, people are willing to pay more for it. Third is a customized client journey and the quality of your connection to your client. The fourth is exclusivity. This is not as though you are arrogantly refusing people, but rather you only serve those who really value what you do. Finally, you’ve got to follow through, provide what you’ve promised, and deliver a luxury experience and beautiful images.