Nicole (00:00)
In today's episode, we're chatting about the inquiry process, not only what we do, but why we do it and why this is the most important step in converting qualified clients. Stay tuned.

Nicole Begley (00:14)
I'm Nicole Begley, a zoological animal trainer turned pet and family photographer. Back in 2010, I embarked on my own adventure in photography, transforming a bootstrapping startup into a thriving six-figure business by 2012. Since then, my mission has been to empower photographers like you, sharing the knowledge and strategies that have helped me help thousands of photographers build their own profitable businesses. I believe that achieving $2,000 to $3,000 sales is your fastest route to six-figure businesses;

that any technically proficient photographer can consistently hit four figure sales. And no matter if you want photography to be your full-time passion or a part-time pursuit, profitability is possible. If you're a portrait photographer aspiring to craft a business that aligns perfectly with the life you envision, then you're in exactly the right place. With over 350,000 downloads, welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast.

Nicole (01:13)
Welcome back to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Nicole Begley, and today we're diving into the inquiry process. Now, most photographers focus all their energy on the sales session, but by the time the client reaches that point, the sale has usually already been won or lost. The inquiry process is where the real sales magic begins. Now, the next episode, we're going to go into more sales details and really

That sales process is a multi-step process that starts with our inquiry process. So today we're diving deep into that inquiry process. So if you're getting ghosted, dealing with price objections or struggling to book high value clients, the problem isn't your sales skills. The problem is often your inquiry process is not setting you up for success. So we're going to talk about why the inquiry phase is the most important step in the journey.

how your website is either helping or hurting you with that process. The biggest mistakes photographers make when responding to inquiries, the number one most important question you need to ask every potential client, this is my favorite part, how to handle objections even before they come up in the sales process and why first impressions matter to help you personalize your inquiry response and build trust and excitement with your client.

Nicole (02:35)
So let me know if you've ever had this happen to you before. You get an inquiry, you send over your pricing and then crickets. Your client totally disappears and you're often thinking, oh my gosh, it's definitely my pricing. I was too expensive. Or maybe you're thinking, did they like somebody else better? Did I say something wrong? How could I have kept this client? What's going on? But I would say nine times out of 10, we often go back to, my gosh, I'm just too expensive. I need to lower my pricing.

But most of the time clients don't ghost because of price. They ghost because they didn't see the value in what we offer. And often that starts with how we respond to that initial inquiry. And often even before it can start with our website because before a potential client even reaches out, they've already formed an opinion about your business based on your website. You guys websites are mission critical.

And even if you're working on getting clients from referrals, like say my best friend worked with a photographer and they said, my gosh, you need to go use this photographer. And I say, yeah, of course. I'm probably then going to go to their website and maybe their friend talked all a big game about how great you were, but then you go to the website and there's a major disconnect because your website's hard to navigate. It's hard to use. It's dated. The pictures are horrible. The user experience is challenging. And then while they're

their thoughts of your business, their impression of your business is going to go down.

So what are some of the most important things we should be looking at at our website?

Number one, make sure that you are showing what you wanna sell on your website. That means if you're selling artwork, albums, premium products, make sure those are all over your website. so many times I see photographers having a website that's just beautiful pictures.

And when your website is full of just beautiful images, people assume they're just getting the digital files. We need to visually communicate the experience to our respective clients, not just the images. So take those images and do some beautiful mockups on your website of those images on the wall of those images and albums. Now, where can you get those mockups? Couple different places. You can definitely get them.

from some of your vendors sometimes. They'll have Photoshop files. You can drop your images into a mock-up or you can also look on Creative Market or Etsy. Just look for the term photo mock-ups, wall art mock-ups, album mock-ups. And what those are is often Photoshop files or sometimes Canva files that you can just go ahead and put your image right into it and then it's this beautiful room.

And this is actually one of the benefits of the new world of AI. There are some beautifully designed rooms that don't exist in real life, but allow your client to just visualize your artwork in this beautiful high end space. So if you are thinking like, my gosh, I've created artwork for clients, but I don't have any place to photograph them. Like my house isn't like a showroom. Their house isn't a showroom. You know, you can create the

imagery that you want to create by using these different mock-ups and create the feeling and the level of experience and create the luxury that this artwork can be by using those types of tools. number one, your website needs to show what you want to Number two, clients don't know what they want until you show them. Most people come to us thinking that digital files are what they're going to purchase or maybe

For the boomers out there, they're gonna think they want some loose prints. They don't know that artwork's an option. The problem we are solving is not, don't have artwork on my walls. The problem that we're solving that are causing people to reach out to us is they want photography.

They want a set of images of their family at this point in time, of their dog, of their relationship with their dog, of their high school senior. Whatever it is you photograph, they want that moment captured. What our job is, is to show them that, we're gonna create these beautiful images. Now, what can you do with these images? Here's how you're going to enjoy these images in everyday life from here on out. So we're gonna show them all those different things.

Make sure your website shows what you wanna sell and clients don't know what they want to buy until you show them what's available. And then last but not least, make that website user-friendly. Can clients easily find the information they need? Does it clearly guide them towards the next step to book you? Avoid the clutter, overwhelming information and confusing layout and just make sure that it looks pretty negative space.

You know, it's not too much text. see so many websites that just have lines and lines of text and it's not broken up and it's not easily scannable. You guys, our attention span is shorter than ever. Make sure it is easy for your clients to get the information they need and you're not bogging them down with information that they don't need.

All right, let's move on and talk about some of the biggest mistakes photographers tend to make during this inquiry process. Number one is responding with just a price list. If your inquiry reply goes, hey, here's my pricing guide. Let me know if you'd like to book. Well, you're setting yourself up for rejection because clients don't yet understand why your pricing is worth it. So they're going to default to comparing numbers to like an all-inclusive photographer down the street that includes everything for $200. The other

huge mistake that I see people make is replying to slowly. Clients often are inquiring with multiple photographers. If you wait days or weeks to respond, they've likely already moved on. And I can't even tell you how many clients come to me and they're like, yeah, I reached out to other photographers. Some of them never even got back to me. So a quick and professional response immediately positions you as a high end and organized business.

Mistake number three, not asking the right questions. The inquiry process isn't just about giving them the information. It's about getting you the right information to help guide the sale. You need to understand what they care about, what they want to have created so that you can know how to position your offer effectively, which actually brings us to the most important question that you need to ask every single inquiry. For the longest time, I thought the most important question was,

How do you want to display your images? Which got us talking about the different products that were available and how they could start to imagine different ways to enjoy these images. And that's still an important thing to ask them. I still recommend having that as part of your inquiry process. But the question that I think is most important to ask them is what's most important to you in this experience? And that's

simple question shifts the focus from price to the value of that experience. It gives you the insight of to what they're valuing, What do they care most about? The quality, the convenience, the artwork, capturing the relationship.

Because when you find out what's most important to them, you can customize how you respond to them. So if somebody reached out to me and they said, and I asked them, what's most important to you in this experience and choosing a photographer? And they said, I want to make sure I have somebody that knows how to create beautiful artwork. The artwork is the most important piece to me. Great. I'm going to talk about

where I source my artwork from, how it's the best in the industry, it's not available to the consumer market, that it is museum quality, yada, yada, yada. I'm gonna go into all the features, but most importantly, the benefits of what those features give them and just talk up the artwork and how this is a customized experience and we're gonna create something beautiful. Versus if I ask that same question to somebody and they say,

The most important thing to me is just to create some images of me and my dog because I don't have many of the two of us together and this dog's been with me since college. So through all these different big monumental times in my life. Okay, I'm going to talk to that client very differently than I'm going to talk to the client that said they're most interested in the artwork. To this client, I'm going to talk about, my gosh, I completely understand. You know, talk about a relationship you had with the dog and how

how it's so important it was to capture it. talk about how the session's going to work, what you're going to capture, how you can create those memories in a beautiful album. And you're going to create all these details and, create images that really show that bond and that relationship. You're still offering the same thing to both of those clients, but you are adjusting your messaging of how you offer it, what you offer, highlighting different value of what you offer.

based on what they find most valuable, what they are really looking for. So those are the three really biggest mistakes people make in this inquiry process. Another one that they make also is maybe not addressing objections early enough. So of course there's, I'm too expensive, I just want the digitals. But there's also industry specific objections as well. Things like,

If you are a pet photographer, my dog has to stay on leash because they're going to see all these beautiful images on your website of dogs behaving themselves beautifully off leash outdoors. I have owned two terrier mixes, both of which were flight risks because if they see a squirrel, they are gone even though they have a great recall in most situations. In certain situations like that, not so much. Always a flight risk, never allowed off leash in a non-fenced area.

So if I didn't know how pet photography was done, I would be concerned that I'm not gonna be able to get the images that I'm seeing on this photographer's website because my dog needs to be on leash. That is an objection that needs to be all over your website because that needs to be addressed before they even reach out to you. How about my dog's too hyper and won't sit still? My dog is shy and nervous around new people. My dog's too old or sick. I have multiple dogs. I don't think we can get them to cooperate. So.

We have all these potential things, and this isn't just for pet photography. Let's talk about some objections for other types of photography. For family photography, maybe it's, want to lose weight before I do the photos, or my kids won't behave or sit still for photos, or my partner hates having their photo taken. I don't know what to wear. What if my toddler has a meltdown? For maternity or newborn, I don't feel comfortable showing my belly in photos. I'm too tired for a newborn session right now. That is legit.

I'm worried about germs around my newborn. There's just so many different things. If you do a headshot or branding photography objections, I hate having my photo taken, I don't know what to wear for my headshot, I just need a quick cheap headshot. Those are things that we need to address in our inquiry process and we can address it in a few different ways. We can address it on our website messaging, we can address it at our inquiry responses.

We can address it on our social media and blog content. And then of course, we can also address it in our pre-session prep guides. If you're just addressing it in your pre-session prep guides, you are missing the mark. And even if you're just addressing it in the inquiry response, I think the two most critical places to address this is in your website messaging, any social media and blog content. Because if people have these objections, they're just not even gonna reach out. They're not even gonna start the process of inquiring.

And of course, yes, we need to bring it up again when they inquire during the pre-session prep guide, because these are important aspects that they need to be aware of that we need to make sure that those objections are not there any longer.

So another important thing about our inquiry process is that first impressions matter and personalizing your inquiry response goes a long way. So remember people connect with people, not businesses. So show them who you're working with. Include a short personalized message in your email so they can get a feel for your personality. Maybe you can use a video inquiry response.

You know, this is a great way to build trust before you even meet. And it also allows people to immediately decide if they connect with you or if you don't. Now, before you freak out about that, they're going to do it anyway. So why not just allow them to make that decision early in the process? Because if you're waiting until you've already booked an in-person consultation and then they meet you and then they're just like, don't really like this person. then you've wasted everybody's time. So like,

As humans, we immediately start to make decisions on who we connect with and who we don't. I forget what the stat is, but it is within seconds. So by creating that personalized inquiry response, that they are able to see you connect with you. And then when they do connect with you, they're more connected because they know that they have that connection with you. And they are going to be much more likely to continue down that inquiry path if you are able to do that. So get back to them quickly.

Let them know who they're working with. Create some sort of customized, personalized response so that they can see who you are. Now I can hear you guys saying like, my gosh, Nicole, what, what if I'm like, you said to get back to them quickly. Couple of different ways you can do this. You could have it built in so that when they fill out their inquiry form or your contact form, it immediately goes to a new page on your website that has a video of you just saying, Hey, thanks so much for filling out my inquiry form.

Here's a little bit about my business. Here's what the next steps are. Here's when you can expect to hear from me. So they're getting an immediate response and then you let them know when they can expect to hear from you again. So in today's world, people are looking for immediate responses. We are so busy. If somebody sends you an inquiry response and you don't get back them for three days, they're likely to forget they even sent you that inquiry response if they didn't already choose somebody else.

That is a great way to kind of really build that connection faster and hopefully see more inquiries go through to actually booked clients.

All right, so let's talk about kind of the overview of what an inquiry process could look like.

The first thing that's going to happen is that client is going to reach out to you. So how are they reaching out? it email, website form, DM? They're going to reach out. They usually know very little about your process, experience, or value. You might have that on your website. They might have read it. They might have not. So you can't assume they know anything. Often their initial focus is going to be on cost, but your job is to shift that to more experience and results. So your goal in this first step is to respond quickly.

Like I said, you don't have to be on call all the time. Maybe have an automatic reply that lets them know when they can expect an actual reply. Acknowledge their interests and get them engaged. Get them excited. Ask them about who you are photographing. And then we can move into the process. I'm gonna go through like the exact questions I ask here in a minute.

So that first response that we're getting back to them is just really important because it's going to set the tone for the entire experience and a poor response or somewhere where you just respond, hey, thanks for inquiring. Here's my price list. Makes them compare on price alone. So we want to create a response that makes them feel seen, valued and excited to work with you. So what this next step is really kind of depends on what your process is. You can either have clients book a

call with you, book a Zoom call with you, meet you for an in-person consultation. I find that especially an in-person consultation can be a little bit challenging for people to commit to before they've really committed to the process, right? That's a lot of time out of their day for something that they're like, I'm not even sure if I can afford it. How much does this cost? So generally we need to have some sort of conversation with them prior to that, like,

getting them scheduled time on their calendar. And even scheduling a call, that's again a big commitment in today's society where people are so very busy. So what's kind of the best way to do this? Well, there's a couple different ways, but think about it from your client's point of view. Ask yourself the question, how can I work through my inquiry in a way that allows the client to get some pretty quick responses, allows them to get answers to their question at their own time,

allows me to paint the picture of what it's like to work with me. So this could be again, something like they put in the inquiry form, they go to a page, you have a video, you have more information for them, and then you're letting them know that I will reach out to you via phone, via text, via Zoom, whatever it is. You can have a little spot in there, they can schedule a call if you want. But I think it's really important to make sure we're trying to make this as easy as possible for clients. One way that you could do this,

that I don't see a lot of people doing that you could create something. There's a program called Video Ask. It's free up to a certain number of responses. For most photographers, you probably could get away with the free account and you can put it on that inquiry page. So they put in their inquiry and then it comes up on that inquiry page. It's a video of you saying, hey, thanks so much.

Like basically, you're just asking them a couple of questions. Like, let me know who are going to photograph and then they can text audio or video back. And then like you can kind of have a little bit of a conversation with them. You can ask them, you know, what's most important to them in their experience? Have they given any thought to what they wanted to do with their images? And you can just kind of go back and forth a little bit and you can then respond directly to that video ask, which they would then get an email of you making a video. And then you can have them if they really want to.

Sometimes you can get them enough information that they're ready to book right then and there, or you can get them to get on a planning call. So just different ways to think outside of the box, always asking ourselves, how can I make this process easier for my clients? And of course, easier for us too. But really we want to look at it from the client's perspective because everyone is busy. So here's kind of how I like to craft a good inquiry response. So a nice welcome personal connection.

the engagement question to shift the focus away from price, highlighting the value of the experience, and then introduce a pricing strategy. You don't need to give them all your pricing at that point, and then whatever the next step is. So it could sound something like, client's name. Thanks so much for reaching out. I'm so excited to hear about your session. I would love to know a little bit more about who we're photographing. And before I dive into the details, I'd also love to hear more about

what's most important to you in choosing a photographer. Because remember, this is what allows us to shift our messaging. And then you can highlight the value of the experience. know, my clients love that this is a full service experience. I'm gonna help you from planning the session to creating beautiful, tangible products. Or you can talk about, I focus on custom artwork.

but we also include some digital files because I know you want to have it all. So like here's where you're leaning into the messaging of what makes you unique, how you stand apart from other photographers. And then maybe you want to give them a little bit like a Goldilocks of pricing so they know generally what they might expect to spend, but you don't need to give them all your pricing. So you can say most clients invest between X and Y and love to create custom artwork, custom albums, and then also add on digital files or

Most of my clients, everything's customizable. Most clients spend at least X number of dollars on their experience. But you never want to list a price without a context. Like let them know what they can kind of expect to get with that. And also letting them know that it's custom. So if you have a range, there's a range. If there's, you know, kind of a minimum amount that you don't want to leave the house for less than say most clients spend at least that amount of money on their session.

So that's kind where you want to go for pricing. And then last part, I'd love to chat and learn more about what you're looking for. The next step is to set up a quick call where you can go over all those details, no obligation, takes about 10 minutes and then give them a way to book that. So again, quick, personalized, easy information. That's the general flow that you would want for that. And then from there, you can go on to book another call where you can...

really kind of have that as the full session planning call so you don't have to book another call with your client. You can talk about, you know, their decide where you're gonna shoot, what they wanna create, date and time of the session, like all of those things, take payment, the whole nine yards, or sometimes people maybe wanna hear a little bit more about it, make a decision, and then you would do an actual planning call once they booked.

Nicole (24:19)
All right, as we wrap this up, I want to send you away with a little bit of homework. I want you to go find the last inquiry email that you sent and reread it. Ask yourself if you just sent a price list. Ask yourself if you built the value. Ask yourself how you could have improved the process. And then go make those improvements with your next inquiry. All right, that's it for now. I will see you in our next episode.