Lost Clients, How to Respond?

[sk66]

I avoided this post for a while thinking it was another unhappy client/hack job post...Glad to see it's not.

I'm with the others...You didn't loose clients...getting "established" takes time...5yrs on average for a new small business. Your work looks good, your prices are "cheapish" but not give-away...The high res disk seems too much IMO...and minimum 2hrs is a bit much for time(but not charge).

[banannarama]

Thank you everyone for taking time and responding to my query. Without a doubt, this has inspired me to keep my chin up and market myself better!

These really lifted my spirits and inspired me to work harder and think clearly about my prices and services:

Originally Posted by gturner

I am not a fan of calling it an "investment" - but thats just me.

The time and price is not going to change, studio or not. You still need to feed yourself and deliver a top quality product.
Price yourself fairly, produce top quality and offer good value and then you have a benchmark for yourself and your clients. You look like you want a serious business, so stick with that mindset.

Originally Posted by IABoomer

Be confident that you've priced your product appropriately and accept that some people want the world for nearly nothing. The ones who value what you do will buy from you, often multiple times.

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

It's easy to panic when you 'lose' clients... but remember you didn't 'have' them to begin with. they're just inquiries. Think of how many people walk into Macy's every day and leave without buying anything... if Macy's dropped their prices every time that happened it wouldn't have any sort of reputation, and would quickly be out of business.

If you've taken the time to figure out your cost of doing business as you should when establishing your charges, you should know that accepting less is going to cripple you. Work on your marketing and advertising and move on.

I know it's easy for us to say 'stick to your guns' and much harder to do it when you perceive that you're failing, but its no time to ring the panic bell just yet. If this turns into a repeating pattern, ie you're barely managing to book and close any deals at all, then you have to evaluate your prices again and also your product... but give it time.

I read a quotation here on these forums sometime ago, and I can't remember who it was by, who posted it or exactly hat it was but it was something tot he effect that 'if you're closing on more than a third of all inquiries, your prices are too cheap'

Originally Posted by sk66

I'm with the others...You didn't loose clients...getting "established" takes time...5yrs on average for a new small business. Your work looks good, your prices are "cheapish" but not give-away...The high res disk seems too much IMO...and minimum 2hrs is a bit much for time(but not charge).

Originally Posted by filemanager

What you're offering sounds underpriced to me!

Originally Posted by nokiN

You didn't lose any clients.

You failed to convert a couple of prospects into clients.

Business, marketing, sales, and people (BMSP) skills are as important as photographic skill.

You will need to get face-to-face with prospects, and I agree drop the term "investment".

I think a minimum of 2 hours is to much to ask for just portrait clients, and I think it is a mistake to include a hi-res disc before the client has attained a significanrt minimum purchase of printed products.

I also do not recommend guaranteeing a specific number of photos to choose from and even at that, 100 is to many except for wedding clients.

I don't think you can offer portrait and wedding clients the same package.

Thank you all very much. I hope this stands as inspiration for others out there.