2 Questions To Ask Every Wedding Photography Prospect
#3: They work well on many different settings…
Summary: "2 Questions To Ask Every Wedding Photography Prospect"
Two great questions that you can ask a potential bridal client to find out what she's looking for and what she's willing to invest, without asking her directly.
Are you a wedding photographer, struggling with a decline in positive responses from brides on the telephone? Do you find it difficult to encourage them to talk freely about what they might be looking for in a photographer, or even how much they might be willing to invest? Do you wrestle with the challenge of how to book weddings?
Don’t worry – you are not alone! Many photographers find it difficult to get past that initial question of “how much do you charge” to find the important information and discover if the prospect would be a good fit for their business.
Ask Questions First, Shoot Later
One of the key tenets of good salesmanship is to ask questions – lots of them! If you think about it, the person in control of the conversation is usually the one asking the questions (although this is obviously not intended to invoke any comparison with an interrogation, of course!). In order for the salesperson to make a sale or convince a potential bride to commit to an in-person consultation, the salesperson must be in control of the conversation at all times.
The most effective way to achieve this is by asking the questions.
When I answer the telephone to find a bride on the other end, the first thing she will usually say is, “How much do you charge to photograph a wedding?” The only way for me to take immediate control is to deflect the question, without appearing to ignore it, by saying something like, “Thanks for calling today, before I can give you an idea of the investment, would you mind if I find out a little more about your wedding plans, so that I can give you the correct information?”
Who can say “no” to that?
When she says, “Sure, that will be fine, thanks”, I can start to ask all kinds of questions about her engagement, wedding plans, bridesmaids, family etc. This demonstrates that I’m genuinely interested in her and her wedding, and gets her thinking in an emotional way.
Powerful Question #1
At some point in the conversation, I want to find out two very important pieces of information to help me decide if this person is a good fit for the studio:
- What she’s looking for in a photographer…
- How much she has to spend…
Rather than ask her outright, I find it much better for the sake of rapport to encourage her to speak about these topics naturally, without her feeling as though I’m trying to squeeze as much information out of her as possible! This is where question #1 comes in:
How is your search for a wedding photographer going for you?
The answers to this question can be very illuminating indeed, and it can save us the trouble of directly asking her to volunteer what she’s looking for. If she says that we’re the first place she’s called or spoken to, then I can simply ask her how she happened to call me, and what did she like about my work or the website etc. The ensuing conversation is then an ideal platform for me to educate her about the unique service advantages of working with me.
Powerful Question #2
If I can get her talking about her experiences with other photographers, then the next question on my list is designed to really get her to open up to me about what she is really looking for and, very likely, about her budget too:
How do you feel about what the other photographers had to say about their services and packages?
More often than not this is where she might elaborate on some of the things she didn’t like, for example a particular photographic style, or the cost of the collections etc. She might focus heavily on the “high” cost of the photographers she’s already talked to, in which case there’s a strong chance that the price is going to be a major determining factor. She may even reveal her planned budget at this point, or at least make reference to it, which is when I can ask, “If you don’t mind me asking, what have you allocated in your wedding planning towards the photography?”
Once I have a feel for what she’s looking for (or at least the directions she might be leaning towards), and the approximate budget she’s working to, it’s relatively easy to decide whether or not I want to pursue the prospect any further, or politely let her go (remember, we can’t possibly work with everyone who calls us!).
What You Can Do Now
If you don’t already have one, write a list of all the questions you can ask a prospective bride. You want to have at least 25-30 questions, and they should be in a sequence that makes the conversation seem unscripted. Print off the list and keep it next to the telephone. That way, it will be handy the next time someone calls. Remember to make good notes on her answers and to use her responses to formulate other questions you may not already have thought of. Above all else, this must seem like a friendly conversation, not an interrogation, so be sure to word the questions in a conversational way, that’s easy to say and uses everyday vocabulary.
I hope you find this useful, and I would be interested to hear how you get on with this approach, or if you have anything to add or suggest. Comments are always welcome, so please take the time to let me know what you think.
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This is really great advice. Thank you for making these suggestions. It’s amazing how easy these questions are to ask (once you know).
Good informations. Thnx. Always need a verbal arsenal to be the most helpful to the prospects