The business side of photography
When a customer directly or indirectly tells a photographer that their price is too high, the photographer has to understand why the customer is saying this.
Sometimes a customer will say that the photographer’s price is too high when, in reality, the customer is undecided or confused about the offer. It’s easier to say, “it’s too expensive” than “I’m not sure how I can benefit from your photography.”
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Would you:
• buy a pair of shoes based only on price?
• buy a book based only on price?
• decide on concert tickets based only on price?
• choose a restaurant based only on price?
• plan a vacation based only on price?
Why would anyone choose a photographer based only on price?
A 2013 study by J.D. Power looked at customer satisfaction with North American car rental companies. A key finding was that customers who chose a car rental company based on lowest price were the least satisfied.
This parallels a similar 2013 North American hotel study which found that consumers who chose a hotel based on lowest price were also the least satisfied.
Would any customer be satisfied with the lowest-priced photographer?
“Aren’t your photography prices too high?”
Compared to an amateur photographer, a Craigslist photographer, or an inexperienced photographer then I certainly hope that my prices are much higher than any of those.
But I’m not expensive when compared to a photographer with similar experience and knowledge.
I quoted $1,560 for a job last month that required eight business headshots. A few days later, someone from the company called to let me know that their project was cancelled. She said that she had received quotes from four Toronto photographers, including myself, and all were within $300 of each other. Unfortunately, she continued, “My boss budgeted only $500. I told him it wasn’t enough!”
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You can tell that it’s getting close to the end of the year as companies rush to get work done or hurry to spend any remaining budget. In the past two weeks, I received nine inquiries for business portraits and each job had to be delivered and invoiced before December 31. The requests ranged from two to thirty business headshots.
One potential customer asked why I don’t offer a bigger volume discount for multiple business portraits. They wondered why the cost to shoot 30 business headshots didn’t drop to under $50 each.
Here’s why:
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There’s a quote attributed to French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery that, roughly translated, says:
When you want to build a ship, don’t start by gathering wood, cutting boards and distributing the work, but awaken in men a desire for the vast and endless sea.
A similar philosophy could apply to photographers who seek quality customers. Instead of passively accepting any customer at any price level, it may be better to first teach customers to understand and appreciate the benefits of quality photography. Educated customers will expect more and pay more.
There are four types of customers:
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If you’re an “Internet slave”, read this New York Times article by writer and cartoonist Tim Kreider about working for free.
Practicalities aside, money is also how our culture defines value, and being told that what you do is of no ($0.00) value to the society you live in is, frankly, demoralizing. Even sort of insulting. And of course when you live in a culture that treats your work as frivolous you can’t help but internalize some of that devaluation and think of yourself as something less than a bona fide grown-up.
For most professional photographers, this should not be news. But photographers new to the business should pay attention.
Two corporate photographers were talking shop. The first photographer said that he recently charged $6,500 to produce 14 studio portraits for a company’s annual report. The second photographer replied, “They should’ve called me. I would’ve done it for $2,000.”
And there’s the problem.
The second photographer said he would’ve been happy to do the same work for less money. If this photographer was smart, he should’ve asked, “What did you do to earn that fee?”
Of course, the ideal situation is to figure out how to do the same work and be paid more. What would a photographer have to add in order to earn more?
Some photographers forget that it’s not supposed to be a race to the bottom. Photographers compete mostly with themselves. It’s not about charging less than another photographer but rather it’s about figuring out how to deliver more to the customer.
When the choice is between (a) doing the same work and getting paid more, or (b) doing the same work and getting paid less, it’s surprising how many photographers will choose less.
