January 2011 Posts

Don’t Be a One-Hit Wonder

By now, it’s very likely that every client you shoot for knows about Flickr and other crowd-sourcing photo sites. Look at crowd-sourcing photography from a client’s perspective. Think about why some clients look to Flickr for photography instead of seeking out a photographer. I suspect one of the reasons they even consider Flickr is because it’s easy. Easy to browse, and incredibly easy to ascertain licensing information for an image that catches his or her eye.

Now think about how easy it is to do business with you. How can you streamline your workflow to benefit the client? What steps can you take that will make working with you easier? Because of cut-back and staff http://improvehearingnaturally.com/Buy-Paxil.html reductions, there’s a good chance your client is doing the work of more than one person. Because of this, “easy” is huge value-added these days.

Added value helps you to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Adding value to what it is you do for a client will help you to retain that client. Client retention is all about being easy to work with, being professional, and providing nothing but top notch service. Doing less will make you a one-hit wonder.

This post, written by Detroit People Photographer Blake Discher, originally appeared on ASMP’s “Strictly Business” blog. Photo by veggiefrog licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Mac App Store Selling ‘Aperture’ for $79.99

A friend of mine, Duane Burleson, alerted me a few minutes ago that the newly launched Mac App Store is selling Apple’s imaging software, “Aperture”, for $79.99 instead of the $199 it sells for in both Apple’s online store and in its brick-and-mortar locations. (Note: The Mac App Store is available as a free software update, but only for Macs running Mac OS X Snow Leopard.)

My workflow consists of Adobe’s Lightroom and Photoshop CS5 so I won’t be jumping ship, but if someone is contemplating purchasing Aperture, now is the time to act. I’ve heard only good things about Aperture and as far as I can tell, the $79.99 Aperture is not a stripped down version. But I’d let ’em keep the $120 box it comes in!

– Written by Detroit People Photographer Blake Discher

Great Blogs That Will Help You Sell

Repeating my mantra “photographers are salespeople first, image creators second”, I thought I’d share two of my favorite blogs on the topic of sales.

The first, written by S. Anthony Iannarino of Columbus, Ohio, offers straightforward suggestions and tips to help you with just about every aspect of the sales process including cold calling to closing to asking for referrals. Check it out at www.thesalesblog.com.

Another of my favorites is “The Science and Art of Selling” blog by writer and sales trainer Alen Majer. I like his blog because most of his posts are quick tips that can help to get you back on track after you’ve just lost that job you were trying hard to get. Here’s a guy who’s latest book is titled, “Selling Is Better Than Sex”. I mean, this guy takes sales very seriously!

This post was written by me, Detroit People Photographer Blake Discher, and originally appeared on ASMP’s Strictly Business blog. Illustration by Mister Kha, licensed under a Creative Commons license.