The Great Football Fumble

We get asked a ton of questions at our workshops. By far, one of the most popular questions involves that delicate topic of money: Should I put my pricing on my website?

We have strong thoughts about this topic, but first a little story – about the great football fumble:

A few years ago, we were at Cat’s parents’ house talking about how we were going to purchase our annual season tickets for the Texas A&M football games. Everyone in our family – immediate and extended – buys season tickets, and that’s a lot of people! Inspiration struck.  What if we all went in together and moved our season-ticket-holders party to a luxury box instead?  How much more would it cost? We excitedly grabbed our phones and started trying to research the boxes at Kyle Field. 

Our excitement quickly turned into frustration. We could see photos of the box interiors, the menu for the catering options, even a view of the field from the seats. It looked fantastic and expensive! What none of us could find was the season price for the luxury box.

We didn’t want to inquire to get the price. First, we were afraid that the people on the other end of the inquiry form would engage us in high pressure sales. What if once they got our information, they started badgering us, or worse, questioned our allegiance to our beloved Aggies if we didn’t want to spring for a season box? Furthermore, what if once we learned the price, it was completely out of our price range? It would be embarrassing to admit that we couldn't afford it.

So, guess what we did? Absolutely nothing. All the excitement of the previous five minutes had evaporated and we moved on, letting it go, and buying our season tickets as per usual.

The Takeaways:

• Get in the Game: There are a lot of wedding photographers who clearly list their pricing. Make it easier on your future newlyweds to know where you stand by giving them a starting point. If we clicked away from those beautiful box seats because we couldn’t find the price, certainly brides had done that on our website, too. There’s no use in showing them how gorgeous our work is, if the information they want isn’t on the Information Page!
  
  
•  You Don’t Have to Go for the Whole Nine Yards: When we looked at those box seats—we were intimidated by the luxury. Your images could be so astounding that you’re turning away customers who believe that they don’t have the budget for the luxury of your expertise. You don’t have to put every package and every fee on your site – just list a starting price or offer a few tiered packages.
  
  
• Avoid Overtime: There are some clients who won’t have the budget for a professional photographer. If you list the starting price, you won’t have to spend time having a back and forth with them. They will look at your base price and know that it is not in their ballpark.

Our first several years in business, if you asked us whether you should put your pricing on your website, we would have said no, without hesitation. We could hem and haw over the reasons why, but the truth is it boiled down to self-esteem - or the lack thereof. Early in our business, we weren’t confident enough to state our price and let the client decide if we were worth it. We thought that without getting our prospective clients on the phone and warming them to our charming personalities, they wouldn’t understand what they were getting for that price! (Plus, once they realized how delightful we were  - they’d just have to have us, right?)

But the Texas A&M luxury box was a wake-up call. The truth is that our clients are just like us. It’s why we serve a mean meat and cheese tray with our favorite wine at our couples’ Meet and Greet. It’s also why we don’t tone down our sense of humor when we are on a shoot— “Groomsmen, stand close - nuts to butts close!”. Why would they differ from us when it came to wanting pricing information?  Just like our beloved football team, we realized that we must have been losing great clients because we weren’t giving them the information they needed to make a decision. So, we sucked it up, took that scary step, and put our starting price on our website. And, it only got better from there.  Touchdown!

Love Your Art & Conquer Your Fear,
(some things we learned by letting our starting price start the conversation)

Luke & Cat