Q&A - 3.5 Ways To Ensure Your First Client Meeting Is Amazing

Issue #25

[Read Time - 5 Minutes]

Quick Caveat - Although I’m discussing a wedding with a bride during our initial consultation, this could apply to any initial meeting with a potential client.

When you sit down with a bride and groom for the first time, you’re going to be tempted to unload the full force of your fantastic photography as fast as possible.

But hang on a sec, Buckaroo. Holster them smoke wagons for a sec and take a look at a few ways to make a solid connection BEFORE you meet.

The goal here is to make the “show and tell” part of your presentation as powerful as possible.

(And NO, I won’t be using any more alliteration. It’s out of my system, I swear)

Q1. How can I make a positive first impression during a wedding consultation?

• Be on time, or better yet, be early. If you’re meeting at a neutral location, secure a good seat with good lighting and have everything prepared. This puts you in control of the surroundings, and control = confidence.

• Show them you’re happy to see them. Stand up, smile, shake hands and tell them how glad you are you could get together. NOTE: I didn’t say, “Thanks for meeting with me.” Saying this starts things from a position of weakness. Instead, try, “I’m so glad we could get together.” This is both true and balanced.

• Listen to them. If you ask them something, listen for the answer and follow up with something BASED ON what they say. Everyone likes to be heard.

Q2. What materials or presentations should I bring to a wedding consultation?

• Bring more than you’ll need. Albums, books, prints, whatever photo samples you use to sell your services - bring plenty. You never want them to see your stuff and feel like, “Is that all?”

• Let them finish with one album, see that there are four more and think, “OK, this photographer has the goods!”

• Bring your rates and a version they can take home with them. I use a cool bound presentation booklet that we both look through together, and then I let them take it with them. I almost always get a surprised look when they realize they can keep it (it’s pretty cool, I admit).

• And if they don’t hire you today, they can easily pass your rates along to a friend…which they often do.

• Also, don’t try to be too salesy and “close” them on the spot. Be classy and confident, and encourage them to look around, if they’d like. If they’re smart, they’ll be back to you.

Q3. How do I handle objections or concerns raised by potential clients?

• Objections will come up, BUT you can keep them to a minimum if you do one simple thing…Address the objections before they come up.

• This might sound difficult or like a mind-reading trick, but if you put yourself in the shoes of the bride (not literally, of course) and run through your pitch, you’ll find those holes where the objections can hide.

• “Are you the only photographer on the day?”

• “What happens if you get sick?”

• “How long before I see my photos?”

• Those are just a few of the common ones. Ask yourself what the bride might be thinking and bring those issues up BEFORE she does.

• If you bring them up first, they are no longer objections.

And here’s your Bonus Question

Q3.5 What happens if a bride wants to book me without meeting up first?

Repeat after me, “I will meet/talk with every bride before I book the wedding.”

You’re going to meet a lot of people at weddings. It’s not uncommon for a guest or a bridesmaid to have seen your work, the way work at a wedding you both attended, love the results and want to hire you on the phone.

Please, just take a little time to talk to each other before you move forward.

You don’t have to have a lengthy meeting or conversation, especially when it’s a bridesmaid or a sister of a wedding you shot. They know you, and you might know them, but people are different (even sisters).

It’s essential that you learn more about THEM and their desires and preferences.

Besides, meeting with a bride is fun. I know that’s not what you signed up for when you chose to be a wedding photographer, but it’s an important part of the selling process, so you might as well find a way to enjoy it.

Every wedding you shoot begins with a meeting with either the bride and groom, the bride and her mom, the bride and her whole family, or just the bride alone.

I DO NOT recommend booking a bride without talking with her first. And let me tell you, it will be oh-so-tempting to do so.

You’ll get a call from a bride, and she’ll say something like, “I absolutely love your work and I want to book you for my wedding! Reserve June 5th for me right now, please.”

Even if it’s a Zoom call, you PLEASE have a conversation with the bride first. Find out what she’s like, what she likes and doesn’t like, and how she envisions her wedding day, and what she wants from her photographer.

You need to know if her wedding dreams line up with your ability (or tolerance) to fulfill those dreams.

This conversation is so important because you’ll have access to her wedding day like no other vendor, and the wedding day is not the day to find out that your personalities don’t appreciate each other (that’s a nice way to put it).

It’s good for you, it’s good for her, and it’s good for the groom and the whole family that both of you fully understand and appreciate each other.

Weddings are a big deal and meeting with a potential bride is great way to build rapport and trust.

When you invest your time preparing for a wedding meeting, you’ll see huge returns every time you meet with a bride-to-be.

Every bride is different, and every meeting you have makes you more comfortable with the business part of your photography.

Comfort also = confidence, btw.

“I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been lucky.”

― Oprah Winfrey

Meeting with the bride (and having a GOOD meeting) is one small part of the “inner game of wedding photography. THIS is what I write about each week in this newsletter.

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