How to not leave "money on the table" with Gillian Devine

This is Gillian’s second show with us. Gillian uses social media a lot as one of her marketing pillars. Today's show is about the extra ways we can make money, the extra money we are leaving on the table while working with our clients.

Sam and Gillian discuss the fact that in many cases our clients want the extra services we offer, but simply don’t know we offer them. Offering these does not need to be salesy or pushy. It can just be letting our clients know these extra services exist.

 

Gillian shares some real examples with us.

1.     Having a lower ticket offering

Gillian says we all should be offering premium luxury services. But there is always a space for a lower ticket offering. These will often be short photo shoots. Gillian says these are great for those who can’t afford your core offering. You don’t need to advertise this lower ticket offering. But you can personally offer it to some leads who clearly cannot afford or are not ready to go for your core offering. She says that nine times out of ten someone who turned down the higher ticket option goes for the lower ticket option. And in most cases, they also go on to become a customer of her other services. Gillian says she always makes it feel exclusive getting access to this lower ticket offering.

It's important to ensure that you make it very clear what the lower ticket offer includes. And only provide that.

 

2.     Add-ons and upgrades.
When someone has purchased a package with you is there anything else you can add on? Gillian says that when she was a newborn photographer she had a one-year photo shoot as an add-on for a newborn shoot. Wall art, books etc make great add-ons for a range of types of photography. You can ask about add-ons at the moment your new client comes on board or later on after the shoot. Explaining that “most other clients” go for an odd on makes clients much more interested in it. Never be afraid to ask if can I offer anything else.
Marcus asks about add-ons for branding. Gillian says she has sold wall art for an office, she has sold a branding book as an upgrade to branding clients. It could also be social media help or something a little different like this. Sam mentions that subscriptions leading to regular brand shoots are another way to upsell. Gillian says most of her subscription clients start on a standard brand shoot and then upgrade to regular brand shoots.

3.     Expansion – Where can you expand your service offering

What services can you expand into as well as photography? This could be video clips, audio, gifs made from images, accountability services, or social media marketing. There are all sorts of areas that you could expand into. A lot of these expansion services often provide extra recurring income.

Having aspirational packages is also a good idea. 10% of customers will want to go for the top package you offer, so having a high-value aspirational package is a great idea and a small percentage of clients will go for it.
Sam says it’s important to be quiet once you have made an offer. It’s very easy to just talk, but once you have made an offer be quiet and wait for the client to speak. Along these lines, Gillian said it’s also important to be super aware of what you are saying to clients. We often say things like “this is too expensive” about one of your services.
Gillian is going to the Societies Convention that is on as this show goes live. Gillian is hosting the business school at this event and a talk on brand photography.
Gillian has a five-day free mini-course coming up, which you can join. You can get hold of Gillian here.

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