Are my prices too high?

[lputman]

Originally Posted by cisgan

Hi guys!

I'm totally new to this forum, so hopefully I am posting this to the correct thread. )

I, too, lost a potential client this week because they thought that my prices were too high. I live near Indianapolis, so a fairly booming metropolis. ) Although, technically, I live in a suburb...

Anyhow... The potential client wanted a CD and I told her it would be an additional $375 on top of the $100 session fee (she had requested a session with her and her husband, her brother, and her parents - really, the session fee should have been $300 for basically 3 different photo sessions). I gave the client a list of my print prices, and she said that she wanted digital files of all the photos so that she could use them in collages, calendars, etc. as holiday gifts.

She replied back that her "family friend" was going to take pictures instead. Here is what I replied to her:

Hi "potential client,"

No worries, I completely understand. When I originally posted on the neighborhood site in June, I was offering free sessions for families, but since then, I've been able to build my portfolio and have started earning money for my time and talent, especially around family portraits. I do appreciate you keeping me in mind for any future needs, and I hope that I'll be able to photograph for you sometime!

I will be offering through the community board a holiday special, so maybe if you're interested in obtaining just a shot or two of you and your husband and goldendoodle (maybe for holiday cards), maybe that would work!

Thanks again for your interest, and take care!
Christi

The way I looked at it, if she wasn't willing to purchase the prints from me, and was going to use my work in all these various ways, I should be fully compensated for my time and talent being put into making sure each image is fantastic. Of the sessions I've completed so far, CDs have contained approximately 60 images, so at that price, she would have been paying $6.25 per digital image. Not bad, in my opinion.

Here is my question for the group - was this the correct way to respond? I am fairly new to photography and have only recently started charging for my services. You can view my work on my website: www.christinaisgan.com to get a sense of my style.

I would greatly appreciate any feedback that you all have! Do you think it's best to give a price per CD or to price it out per image for clients? Maybe by doing it that way, it will give clients a sense of control over how much they choose to spend?

Sorry this is so long... But, I wanted to include my response to my client...
Cheers!
Christi

Welcome to DPS cisgan. You might consider starting a thread for yourself. You post might get overlooked in the middle of this thread and that wouldn't be fair to you and I don't think it fair to the OP of this thread to start on someone else.

[NatalieNorton]

Originally Posted by jdepould

Sounds like you lost a client you wouldn't have wanted in the first place. Not to be callous about it, but cheap clients are usually the worst.

Amen, amen, amen. It's not about getting EVERY client. It's about getting THE RIGHT CLIENTS. I love this thread. I'm going to write a post about this over on the blog. Stay tuned. It'll be up soon.

Happy Shooting!

Natalie Norton
www.natalienortonphoto.com

[spank]

Originally Posted by private

I think he was trying to get something for nothing. You are a professional and you should be paid as a professional.

Agreed, you should be paid for the professional services you offer.

[JerBear]

Sounds like you were victim of gorilla shopping; this tactic of contracting for services and then coming back and demanding more or they will cancel is not uncommon. Chances are, that you would have lost this one anyway, you were caught off guard and did not have a good counter offer ready.

Setting your business up for paying clients:
The first thing you want to do in setting your pricing is to eliminate all of the people who weren't going to pay you to begin with.
When it comes to a consumer's perception of pricing, it's not always the actual amount that scares people. It's whether or not they have to pay at all. Pricing is more or less are they going to pay or they won't. The actual price is incidental.
There's something that goes off in a customer's head when he or she must pull out their wallet. Up until that point, the value you were providing may have gone relatively unnoticed. But when the customer has to break out the credit card, a second thought about the value of a product is given.
Instead of developing your pricing to lure the group of people unwilling to pay for your product, focus on maximizing the yield of those who will. It's a lot easier to get someone to pay 10 percent more for your product than it is to reduce the price with hopes more people will buy it.
You'll want to figure out how to separate the paying customers from the non-paying customers, without alienating either.
One way that works is to give a portion of your product away for free in order to attract interest, then charging the most passionate customers for premium benefits. This lets you test two pricing strategies simultaneously. You get to see how many customers would be interested in your product for nothing at all and learn what about the product people are most interested in paying for.
Offer a promotion in your studio for 1 week. Consider this as part of building your business, not a give away! Offer a 30min shoot and 1 8x10 for free. Take a few poses, maybe individuals as well. They select the one free and will pay for anything else.
What does this freebie do? It gives you a mailing list of all that took part as well as told you who is willing to pay for more and who is looking for a handout in your area. If you were smart, you collected the info on the family such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc so you can contact them for future promotions.
Take the list of those that paid for extras and aim your marketing towards them. For those that got the freebie, you might want to send them an offer the next year, maybe they will be a better position to buy your products.
Once you've separated the paying customers from the non-paying customers, you still need to settle on the right price to charge.
Even when clients begin forking over their hard earned cash for your product, you still don't know if you've optimized for the best possible price to generate the greatest number of sales. Try shopping your competition to see were they are at. Are they a thriving business or are they struggling?
Is there a quick and easy answer? NO
Good luck!

[airbrushjohn]

Originally Posted by private

I think he was trying to get something for nothing. You are a professional and you should be paid as a professional.

i agree! don't give your work away.

[Jesse]

When it comes down to it you want to be paid for the work you do and you've come up with a combination of prices that allow that to happen. So I wouldn't budge on those unless you've seen your client supply really start to dry up.

If someone wants to "archive", "possess", or "reprint" the image I can see their motivation and obviously you can too, or else you wouldn't offer the CD at any price. So how do you make it fair to yourself (not editing dozens of pictures for just the sitting cost) and give them an option to meet their goals?

If they would order a print you would have to make the edits anyways and at a certain point you would make your desired per image editing amount. So, in the course of the negotiating I would offer an archival copy (which I'm sure they'll use for other purposes w/o permission) for each X (size/number) of print(s) of each pose they order...

Arguing that "If it's important enough to archive then it's important enough to print." And your protected from the whole "people who get the CDs don't order prints" problem.

Again I'd leave this off table for closing a deal with a hesitant buyer, you don't want to be obligated to give everyone a CD copy of their print order since it could impact the rare big spender or reorder people.

Also if they do get the CD and print them themselves they will easily see a difference between your (presumably) pro photo papers (which you obliged them to buy) and their home printer (or even from a drugstore lab which didn't honor the copyright), and come back for the Christmas gift print for grandma.