In-Person Sales: Steps to Better Photography Sales with Rae Barnes

Have you always wanted to start shifting towards in-person sales in photography but you just haven’t found the drive to do so because of uncertainties and fear? Have you already experienced having clients who only purchase digital copies in order to avoid paying for something ‘more expensive’?

Do you want to be able to help yourself and your clients in a way that serves both of you best? Do you want to live life away from the cages of disks and hard drives – a life that will live forever, something that you’ve always dreamt about?

All of us here have a photography journey of our own, and without a doubt, change is something that scares the spirits out of people who once dreamt high. Some people undercharge clients for the service they provide while others assume clients already know whatever it is that they want.

You’d want to have your product the best one you could ever find, but without elevating your service to a greater height, providing a low volume, high touch experience is something you wouldn’t have in this life. 

Listen to this episode and be up for a treat that will serve you in packaging all the glorious experiences up at the same time!

Rae Barnes is an award-winning entrepreneur, a photographer who has been in the industry of photography since 2004. She started as a wedding specialist, won numerous awards, and even got her works published in dozens of wedding magazines for her outstanding imagery. Currently, Rae specializes in family portraiture through IPS, mostly in Philadelphia where she resides. 

In this episode, Rae and Tavis talk about the shift Rae had towards in-person sales as soon as she started doing family portraits. Here, Rae shares tips and stories that will help people realize how doing in-person sales pave the way towards memories that will stay in our hearts for the rest of our lives. 

What you will learn from this episode:

•  Understand why shifting towards in-person sales is something you shouldn’t fear doing;
• Find out how you can help both yourself and your clients in living a life that isn’t caged in hard drives; and
• Discover tips and stories that will guide you in making that shift towards a well-lived and amazingly photographed life. 

“Anyone who is scared to jump to in-person sales needs to realize that most people have no idea what to do with the portrait and they’re just going to live on a hard drive. We, as artists, have the capability to create something for them pretty simply that they will love and treasure forever.”

– Rae Barnes 

Valuable Free Resource:

 How to Serve Best After Shifting from All-Digital to Doing In-Person Sales 

• First of all, do not be afraid of making that shift. Take that leap. Go ahead and let those who want to come to enter your new space.
• When thinking about starting IPS, take note of these things:
• Run your numbers
• Understand how experience can either raise or lower your value
• Provide higher service. Elevate the products that you offer.
• Invest in education for both yourself and your clients.
• Listen and learn from the success stories of different people.
• Have a plan on how you’re going to serve your clients.
• Preferably, have a meeting before the actual session.

Topics Covered:

02:29 – How It All Started: Talking about Rae’s shift towards in-person sales (IPS) – leaving the wedding industry and focusing on family portraitures from then on

07:07 – Rae’s How-To’s: Tips on where you should put your focus on when thinking about doing IPS

12:33 – Listen, Learn, Plan, and Practice: How to exponentially raise the value when photographing your clients’ wishes

18:52 – An Angel in Disguise: A narrative about Tavis and his wife’s experience of having no idea on where and what to start with

21:18 – Digitals Only, Please: Purchasing the digitals alone vs. entrusting all the work to your skilled photographer

22:58 – More on the Meetings: Rae shares how she did business back during the days of pre-COVID

26:27 – Wonders behind Portraits: A story showing how life-changing Rae’s service is for a client

Key Takeaways:

“You kind of have to just rip off the band-aid. Some people feel like they need to go from all digitals, download, online gallery to hybrid and then go to IPS, but I felt like it was just best just to rip it off like a band-aid. Just go ahead and lose the clients that weren’t going to come with me, bring the clients that were, make that jump. Once we got passed it the first few months, it’s been awesome.” – Rae Barnes

“I can’t just continue doing what I’m doing and expect people to pay twice as much for that exact thing. I need to do whatever I can to build the value of what I’m giving to my clients, and I need this to be valuable to my clients. I need them to feel like this is worth it. For me, that meant higher service.” – Rae Barnes

“Our businesses should serve us in how we want to live and how we want to give. It should not be the other way around. We should not be serving our business. Our business should be a tool so that we can accomplish our passions and desires in our lives.” – Tavis Guild

“I inundated myself with education. I’d listen to anybody who would talk to me about in-person sales and how they did it. And the biggest thing that I learned is to have a plan of how you’re going to serve your clients.” – Rae Barnes

“Every time we add a point of contact that isn’t meaningless, we have the opportunity to build value.” – Tavis Guild

Connect with Rae Barnes:

• Website: https://raebarnes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raebarnesphotography
• Instagram: instagram.com/raebarnesphoto

Connect with Tavis and Amy:

• Email: ​hello@guildcanvas.com
• Website: Guildcanvas.com ​
• Website: www.tavisandamy.com
• Facebook: ​The Guild Canvas Club
• Instagram: ​@guildcanvas
• Linktree: https://linktr.ee/guildcanvas