The system for how to be a successful portrait photographer
It doesn’t matter how lovely your photos are, you need a complete sales and marketing system if you want to be a successful portrait photographer.
OK, so last time I explained that New Year Resolutions were pretty pointless. I suggested that you need something much more concrete and measurable. No-one ever got successful at anything because they made a resolution. You need a system. I’m now going to share with you the system for how to be a successful portrait photographer. I’ll take you through step-by-step the process I use to bring portrait clients into and through my business.
This system isn’t unique to me. I learned it from Charles Lewis and most of the successful family portrait photographers I come across do something similar. I’ve learned that the people at the top of most industries tend to do things differently to everyone else, although similarly to each other. For example, successful marketing copywriters tend to follow very different rules to your average marketing executive. It’s obvious really. Successful people do things differently. If you do the same as the masses then it gives no-one a reason to choose you.
I’ve used this quote before, but I like it and it fits well here:
“The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong.”
George Bernard Shaw
It’s a great point, although you’ll be delighted to know that I’m not about to stop wearing clothes just because everyone else does!
The magic systems for photography success
The success of your photography business depends on having a tested and proven system for everything you do.
Have you ever wondered how McDonalds, Microsoft, Hilton Hotels and even Sesame Streetgot so successful? Probably not, but I’ll tell you – systems, that’s how.
Wherever you go McDonalds will run a well ‘oiled’ machine (if you’ll excuse the pun!). As a customer, you know what you’re going to get because the staff follow very strict guidelines. Sesame Street was based on intensive and painstakingly detailed testing on children (all humane I promise!) to ensure that they got the right blend of puppets and humans and spent just the right amount of time on education and story-telling – down to the second.
