We’ve all experienced it. The client loves our work. In fact, they gush over it. We get along like old friends. We make plans to hang out and vacation in the Alps after all this is over. We both love dogs and tacos and unicycles or whatever. They friend you on Facebook and envision how your work is going to look on their walls. They just need to go home and think about it…..
And they book someone else. Someone who sucks. Someone whose work is lame and uninspired. How the hell could they pick that guy instead of me?
Sure, someone might have undercut you. Not much you can do about that save better communicating the value of your brand. But they already loved your brand. I have a theory.
I believe that a client can walk away from their favorite photographer if someone else better addresses the thing they are the most afraid of.
I think often we spend time chit-chatting, or building rapport, or selling ourselves. We may not put much attention on understanding why exactly the client is hiring a photographer, what they expect us to deliver on, and what they are concerned about happening (or not happening). Sure, they may love your photos, but they could probably love a lot of people’s photos. What they have are needs and fears – the person who manages them is getting the job.
- trr
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This is exactly why I ask potential clients, “What’s your fear when hiring a photographer?” so that I can address what they are afraid of right then and there. I’ve lost too many jobs for fears that I could’ve have discussed and got the client over.
Clients don’t exactly tell us “Hey, this is what we’re afraid of…”, so how do you know what fears to address?
I would ask them what they are afraid of or concerned about in plain English. Opens a lot of doors.
- trr
It is exactly that, art of communication and reading between the lines Elizabeth.
Also more weddings one have, more client meets and experience, closer to your customers you are – giving you those answers.
More answers you get then by talking about their fears, asking them directly would be funny, but if you talk with them about your plans for those uncomfortable things, more likely they start to talk about them as well.
How is it that you find exactly what it is they are afraid of? I ask questions like “What’s the most important thing you want to remember after your wedding is over” in my questions to brides and grooms and I feel like that is kind of in the direction of what they may be afraid I don’t “capture” but finding their fear – I think that is a little hard for me to materialize into a question. Any advice? Great post today – Of course it totally hit home
I couldn’t agree more. This happened to me, in the UK I was charging a relatively expensive price, and this client was a friend of a friend, so I thought with a word of mouth referral like that, I was in for the money! They ended up going with another couple of photographers who were truly awful, you’d usually see that quality at 20% of the cost of what I was charging… I thought, that makes sense, for whatever reason, they went for the cheaper guy. But then I visited his site…. He was, to the £, exactly the same price! I couldn’t believe it! But when chatting to them afterwards this photographer they chose was the grooms best mans photographer the year previous…. Now, I may have had lots of fault not selling right etc, but I think that knowing, and seeing someone work previously, speaks volumes to a clients fears, appeasing them. Thanks for this Todd, and a couple of the other commenters, I think I really am just going to ask… What concerns you most? Thanks guys!
Just to tag up on this I totally think it is worth asking what they are afraid of with respect to the wedding. Often it has nothing to do with photography but they might be afraid that their mom won’t be happy with their choices or something like that. If we are only focused on the nuts and bolts of what we do we’ll never understand that. Asking honestly can build the right kind of rapport to get them to tell you the actual truth that they are making decisions based on.
Great post
One of my questions AFTER I have been booked (for weddings) always asks about the ONE image they care most about, but I think asking that BEFORE being booked could help steer in the right direction too 
Great post. Asking the client what they fear is a great idea.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately! Thanks for writing on it. I think sometimes we get scared of asking these kinds of questions for fear of not knowing how to respond correctly.