If you’re just starting out, then I would suggest that you role play first with someone. Practice how you will greet your callers.

First, make a list of every question you can think of that will be asked of you. Make sure you can answer each of these questions without hesitation. If you hesitate in your answers, you may come across as a novice.

Keep in mind that each time you answer the phone you might be seconds away from making the biggest sale you have ever made. Smile before you pick up the phone. Have a pen and paper at the ready. Write down the caller’s name and use the name throughout the conversation.

Make a phone script and constantly change it to perfect your phone skills. Keep track of how many calls you convert into consultations. Only change one thing in your phone script at a time so you can better identify if the changes you have made are working for you.

Let’s go over some questions that might be asked of you and some suggested responses. When someone calls, for the most part, they will always ask one of the following questions:

• Do you have my date available?
• How much are your packages?

It is important to understand why these two questions are asked more than any other question. The people who call and inquire about your wedding photography services have more than likely never shopped for a wedding photographer before now. This means these are really the only two questions they can think of to ask. While you need to give the person calling you the answers to their questions, keep in mind if you answer with a direct response the conversation will be over.

When someone asks if you have their date available, inform the caller that you are looking up their date. While you are looking up their date, tell them you would love to know how they heard about you. Always ask how the caller heard about you and keep records of this information. This will help you to calculate cost per lead.

If the caller asks about their date first, their second question will be about price. It is important to understand that the caller really does want more information than just your price. They want to be educated as to what they can expect. They want to know all the questions they should ask in order to protect themselves and hire the best photographer they can within their budget.

Divert the conversation slightly. Ask a few questions yourself. Can I get your name? How did you hear about us? Can I tell you a bit about our products and services? Have you thought about what you would like as a final product? These are all great intros into a long passionate conversation.

Your goal, however, is to have a face-to-face conversation. Tell them that they really need to come in and see some of your award winning albums in person in order to get a real understanding of what you are all about.

Ask the caller where their wedding and reception are taking place. Have you photographed at either or both of the facilities? If so, tell a story about the last time you photographed at the facility in question. Inform the Bride-To-Be if she and her fiancé would like to come into your studio to further discuss their needs, you will have a slide show presentation ready of the last wedding you photographed at the facility in question.

Give them two or three times that you are available to meet. If you only offer one time, they will either say yes or no.

Answering Your Phone and Email is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum

Since we know that couples book their facilities before they book their photographer, make sure to take very flattering images of every reception facility where you find yourself. Make prints of these images, making sure to tastefully include your company name and contact information on the image itself, and then send the images to the facility free of charge. Include an invoice with the images. Show the value of the images on the invoice, and then show a 100% discount. List the reason for the discount as “professional courtesy”.

If the images are of good enough quality, it is possible the facility manager will use your images as a sales tool to reserve couples for their facility. In essence, the facility manager becomes your agent. When you have made your vendor images, be sure to deliver them in person. Use the opportunity to build a professional relationship and contact. Let them meet you face to face. Let them experience your passion and professionalism.

Now that you have this general idea of vendor prints, put it to good use. Send images to the florist. Who made the cake? Who made the dress? Who sold the wedding bands? Send them all images they can advertise with. I’ll bet they would love to show your images.

Vendor Referrals is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum

When writing a blog entry about a specific facility you photographed, make sure to include the name of the facility. With any luck, when someone searches for that facility name on Google, your blog and site will appear in the search results. More than likely anyone searching for that facility is also in need of a wedding photographer. You can take this tactic one step further and include the company name of every vendor that participated in the wedding you photographed. Talk about who made the cake. Talk about where your client got her dress. Talk about where they got their rings. Talk about the florist. This may help your blog show up in search results for other search terms other than your own. If you haven’t photographed at a certain facility, but you want to shoot there, write a blog entry about that desire. Write the entry with the knowledge that once you post the entry, people searching for the name of that wedding facility on Google may now see your blog entry come up in their search result.

There is one more thing that you need to consider when writing a blog entry with the intention of including wedding vendors in the entry with the hopes of having your company name show up in search term results. Couples planning a wedding purchase and reserve the services of the wedding vendors they require in a certain order. Understanding this pecking order will make you more efficient.

The first thing a typical couple will reserve when planning their wedding is the location of their ceremony. The second thing they will reserve is the location of their reception. Sometimes the ceremony location and the reception locations are the same.

With their facilities safely reserved, they can then begin to shop for additional vendors. The reason couples do not begin shopping for vendors first, and locations for their wedding second, is because most wedding vendors require a retainer to reserve their services, and in most cases these retainers are nonrefundable.

Whether they know it or not, next on the couple’s shopping list should be the vendors that can only be at one place at one time. The photographer and the band are normally at the top of this list and I would say for most couples the photography is of course more important.

So what does this information tell us? It tells us when we make our blog entries we should always include the names of the facility where we photographed. Of course, we can include the names of the florist and the cake maker in our blog entries, but when it comes to the pecking order of how our clients shop, we know that they are going to normally purchase the flowers and a cake after they have reserved the services of a photographer. This means that you will get very few referrals from florists and cake makers. Your largest source of referrals is going to come from facility managers and catering directors.

If you know the name of the catering director or facility manager, make sure to include the person’s name in the blog entry and make them aware that you have done so. Let them know you are marketing their services. Simply send an email to the catering director with a link to your blog entry.

Happy blogging.

Efficient Blogging is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum