1 Mistake All Beginner Photographers Make | #57

Getting your first photography clients is exciting.

You’ve convinced someone to pay you for your work. That’s something worth celebrating.

After a few clients, you begin to realize it’s a lot of work getting client after client for only a few hundred bucks each. Everyone has low-ticket clients at the start, so what’s the best way to progress to bigger deals? Don’t you want to be making thousands per client?

The biggest mistake I see photography new to the creative business make is selling individual deliverables.

I fell into the same boat. I would offer clients product photos for a hundred bucks a piece. I’d tell them they can select however many they want! Seems like a good idea, right? We give clients the flexibility to choose the number of photos, so in theory, they’ve got a better customer experience.

After all, if they had the power to choose, they could fill their needs perfectly.

The problem is the client doesn’t always know their needs.

A lot of the time, they will ask you what you recommend because you’re the expert.

When I gave clients the option to choose, I would always prefill the proposal for 15 photos and tell them that they can select any number they want. I noticed that 90% of the time, the client didn’t adjust the number from 15 photos. They just signed the proposal.

This got me thinking. Maybe most clients don’t know what they need.

This revelation made me realize that I should start selling larger packages to clients.

Right now, I sell two packages. I sell a basic package and a gold package. Both of these have a lot of photos, GIFs, and a lot of bonuses encompassed all for one price tag.

My basic package is 10 photos and a couple of gifs for just shy of 2 grand.

With this, I include a lot of bonuses like a custom mood board within 24 hours, project tracking, commercial licenses, photoshop retouching, prop shopping, and more.

It’s hard to put a price tag on all of this, but the goal of the package is to have the value exceed its cost.

With these large packages, you’re going to end up making a lot more money per client. This means that you’ll be able to help the clients more and more. You’ll have the resources to use the best equipment. The resources to hire help. And the best part? These high-ticket clients are super easy to work with. Because you charge a lot upfront, they assume you're the expert (which you are). They won’t feel compelled to micromanage you. They’ll be a dream to work with.

I’ll tell you right now that you won’t sell as many clients as before. But if you charge appropriately, you’ll be able to make the same or more by having way fewer clients.

Now just because you offer packages doesn’t mean you can’t do custom solutions too.

I offer custom solutions for clients, but I have a high minimum that they have to meet.

Stop selling deliverables and start selling high-ticket packages.