Selling Photography to Businesses
March 22nd, 2010
In a tough economy, selling pretty pictures to a business person is a hard sell. It calls for a different approach: Don’t focus on selling photography – focus on selling value. It’s all about Return On Investment.
Did you know that quality photography is one of the highest ROI investments for websites? If you’re a product photographer, seek out reports on the ROI of good quality photography, and then go out and pitch companies who could use a facelift. Show them the reports. If you can demonstrate that hiring you will pay for itself, you’re in the door!
I worked for two years as a nightlife photographer. When I started in Salt Lake City, nobody was getting paid to go out and shoot club events. Clubs and promoters traded access for photos. In response, I built a list of fans, and a rolodex of media contacts.
When I was able to show clubs and promoters that I could solve two business problems for them: bring in more fans, and get them press, they stopped laughing at the sticker price and started to hire me – and I earned more revenue licensing the photos to that rolodex of media contacts than I earned selling the service to the clubs and promoters.
Now there are crews of nightlife photographers covering dozens of events every week in Salt Lake City.
Whatever your specialty, somewhere there’s somebody who could use your services to solve their real-world business problems. Find them and when you pitch – don’t pitch photographs. Pitch solutions.