Pro Tip – Learn How To Sell…
One skill that separates a sucessful professional photographer from a very talented amateur is her ability to sell. By that I don’t mean selling prints or canvases but rather selling the idea of a photoshoot to a potential client or prospect. When someone calls asking for a photoshoot, it’s fairly easy. They’ve seen your work, made up their mind and picked the telephone up. Everything is in your favour. Go get ’em.
What if they haven’t called? What if the phone doesn’t ring? What if all the fancy contact forms on your website never get used? What do you do then?
The answer is very simple: you need to learn how to sell. When the client’s don’t come to you, you need to go to them. That’s why you need to learn how to sell. Picking up the telephone for the first time and contacting that big client can be a very daunting task. Especially when they say no. To win the game you need to adopt the right mind-set, the right attitude. It’s about perseverance, keeping the momentum going when faced with “no” after “no” after “no.”
When the client’s don’t come to you, you need to go to them (Click to tweet)
That’s why I’m recommending this book: “Go For No” by husband and wife co-authors, Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz. (Check out their website: goforno.com)
They were presenting at a conference I attended recently for my wife’s business. It was a very powerful presentation too. Their whole philosophy is simply to turn the cold calling process on it’s head. Very simply put, rather than trying to book a set number of clients each day, instead aim for a number of rejections. Rather than go for a high conversion rate, go for a large number of prospects. They introduce the very novel concept of setting yourself “NO-goals” (not to be confused with “no goals” but rather the number of “NOs” you’re aiming to reach each day).
The book itself is a very easy read and is laid out as the story of a salesman who wakes up in a parallel universe and discovers a much more successful version of himself. Between the two of them they work out the point at which their futures split, each choosing a different course of action.
For the novice entering the sales battlefield for the first time and the seasoned pro alike, this book is a must-read.
Now it’s over to you. If you’ve come across any good sales books, I’d love it if you’d leave a comment and recommend them to my readers.
