Santa's Magical Summit. Real World Photographer's Review
From Professional Photographer Ted Linczak.
I wanted to give a quick shout out to Larry!
My wife and I have run a full time wedding and portrait studio for 13 years now, and we are slowly making the move to more and more portrait work. I’m pretty selective about the educational workshops I invest in, but we knew we wanted to start offering a Santa Christmas portrait event, and who better than to learn the ins and outs of this system than from the CREATOR of the system!
We even built out a new studio on our property for the large purpose of hosting this kind of session. It was important for us to learn the profitable way of how to make this a benefit for our business, and that’s where Larry came in.
What I most appreciate about Larry’s approach is that much of his process relating to sales is not only applicable to the Santa angle, but to all kinds of portrait work. With so few people out there teaching photographers how to make an actual living selling art work for respectable prices, his workshop was a breath of fresh air.
Aside from the in-depth look at the Santa process itself, here are the two big takeways from Larry’s class that have really changed our approach to the portrait sales process:
1) The focus on ART over PHOTOGRAPHY. Ditching the typical photography mentality of selling photographs and instead focusing on selling unique and custom artwork created with the client in mind. It really changes the ballgame completely, and allows for much higher sales averages in the end.
2) How much money are you leaving on the table by NOT selling all you can?
That was a question that Larry asked that literally made me sick to my stomach when I really thought about it. The ramifications are staggering! Could it be that we were missing out on a few thousand dollars from each client because our system wasn’t as good as it could be?? At the end of the year, that can add up to tens of thousands of dollars! What an eye opener!
Personally, we have been on a journey whereas 6-7 years ago we were selling digital files for nothing. We slowly began making the transition to learning how to sell in person, and going from $500-750 sales to $2000-3000 sales averages in the past several years. This current summer portrait season has seen our average climb to $3940.
Just this past week we had our largest single portrait sales session total of $7640, with a $4300 sale that morning, and a $3500 the next day. That is the power of selling from an ART perspective!
I give much kudos to the new perspectives I’ve gained from Larry’s class. It’s definitely making a positive impact on our sales approach. Don’t just think this class is for Santa alone. Sure, that is the focus, but the principles are applicable to a whole slew of photography genres.
My apologies for the long winded post, but I think you get the idea. Larry’s course is a great investment for those serious about building a sustainable and profitable portrait business!