Ultimate Work At Home Dads &#187; photography business

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Charlie Seymour Jr is an entrepreneurial evangelist and marketing-success coach helping individuals and companies (up to $100MM) explode their success through online and direct-response marketing. He specializes in blogging, podcasting, photography, video, and Facebook applications. Visit his blog at http://bit.ly/24eYTO to learn more about his successes.

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Fallacies of Marketing

053 The Invisible Touch – Brands and Performance

038 The Invisible Touch – Tiered Pricing

Charlie Seymour Jr — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:16:25 +0000

The First Key: Price

Years ago I learned about the "Sears" method of good, better, best.

Some people are satisfied with enough. Others want more. And still others want the most and the best.

In my photography business, I always offer what one of my marketing gurus called "the Whopper" (named after the sandwich, which was named after the very common word to mean Really Large).

And in this Whopper I offered EVERYTHING. No one in his/her right mind would want this package.

Things like a reception for the bride and groom one week after the honeymoon: we'd get a hotel suite, have drinks and party food, and then show all the wedding images to their 20 closest friends. It would be like going to the Academy Awards and THEY would be the stars.

And let's face it: that COSTS a lot for me to provide so that has to have a High Price as well.

This "package" also had the largest album with the most images in it. And it had a LOT more.

Tiered Pricing, or Package Pricing, Can Earn You More

Not everything has to be offered in a "package," but we often find that offering a package makes you more money.

Why is this?

Because sometimes there are things (like the party I just mentioned) that are only available IN that package and NOT a la carte.

So to GET that party at the hotel after their wedding, they would have to purchase my largest and most expensive package.

And think about it: if they purchase a lower-price package, they are still getting the photographer worthy of charging that top "Whopper" price.

So, for round numbers (and as example only) let's say the TOP package is $15,000 and the next one down is $11,500 – the buyer feels he/she is getting a $15,000 photographer (minus a few things they didn't really "need") for only $11,500.

See how that works?

Tiered (or Package) Pricing can be a great way for you to earn more.

Build this into what you offer and test to see how effective it can be for YOU!

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blogging, Podcasting, Consulting

The Invisible Touch – A Marketing Blog Series By Charles Seymour Jr
For The Index, Click Here!

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Fallacies of Marketing

038 The Invisible Touch – Tiered Pricing

037 The Invisible Touch – The Problem of the Hourly Fee

Charlie Seymour Jr — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:07:26 +0000

The First Key: Price

The problem of the hourly fee hits me from at least two directions – as an entrepreneur who charges for his services AND as the head of my organization who must pay people to help me.

Charge What You're Worth, But NOT By The Hour

If I can finish an assignment in 20 minutes but it takes an equally well-paid person an hour, why should I not be paid what I'm really worth for solving the problem?

What's the old story about the TV repair man who charge a full service fee for banging on the side of the TV in just the right place? "But I had to know WHERE to bang on it, and you're paying for my knowledge," he reported.

I take on marketing consulting assignments the same way. I'm a guy who sees the marketing for a client at about the 40,000 foot level – where should the client go, what strategies should be employed, where do they want to end up?

I'm not the technician who designs a website (though I can), sets up the Twitter account (though I know how), or creates the Facebook page (I've done it many times). I'm the one who says WHERE to go and HOW to get there, and I am paid for that knowledge.

In my photography business, I was NEVER paid by the hour. I was paid for accomplishing goals (wedding photography and albums, family portrait sessions and wall portraits for the family to enjoy for generations to come). You don't get me for $350 an hour to do your photography, you get me for $10,000 or $15,000 to complete the whole assignment.

And I don't take on small projects any longer. If I can't get thoroughly involved with a client, learn what is going on in his/her business, strategies about what what marketing steps should be taken, then I just don't get involved. There are enough others who can do the small jobs.

And here's one other point – those who make real money are paid up front; those who make very little money are paid AFTER they work. It's just how things are.

I get paid up front.

Pay For The Completed Service, But NOT By The Hour

Though many "professionals" charge by the hour (lawyers are a prime example), the client is almost NEVER comfortable with that.

Why do I want to build in an incentive for my attorney to spend more time on my case than is needed?

And I always had that same problem with part-time staff people: I expect certain results for the dollars I spend. I'm not interested in how many hours they spend on a task, I'm ONLY interested in the results in a timely fashion.

I remember a part-time staff member telling me one time that she needed a 20% raise. I had to ask why? Was she going to provide me 20% more results? What would I get for my additional payments?

I wasn't forcing her to work for me, but neither could I afford to reward mediocre results with higher pay.

It's tougher when you're the one signing the checks – you think about compensation in a whole new way, believe me.

So… from either side of the table, hourly rates don't work very well. Avoid them when you can!

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blogging, Podcasting, Consulting

The Invisible Touch – A Marketing Blog Series By Charles Seymour Jr
For The Index, Click Here!

PS: You can find me here:

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Fallacies of Marketing

037 The Invisible Touch – The Problem of the Hourly Fee

027 The Invisible Touch – Perception Is Reality

Charlie Seymour Jr — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:50:18 +0000

What Is Satisfaction

I could share with you some scientific studies to prove my points. I could tell you about sugar pills delivering the same results in patients as the high-cost medicine. I could share with you stories of how some of my clients are really pleased with me, based mostly on their perception of what is good.

But since perception is REALITY, let's just talk about that instead.

We See What We Look For

My wife is a "white-knuckle" passenger in a car. She reaches for the dashboard if she sees brake lights from cars even half a block away. She grips the padded door handle or grips her knees when she feels a car is stopping faster than we are.

And here's the interesting thing: sometimes I can be going 65 miles an hour and that is fine; but 45 miles an hour is too fast (on the same road under similar conditions). When she's uncomfortable, her reality is that 45 is "too fast" and she's quick to tell me.

In my photography business, a client (father of the bride) was ordering some reprints from me and was a bit disturbed by the high prices I charge. However, when I reminded him about the artistic work I do on these images AND that he paid the same price for reprints of his son's Bar Mitzvah images about a year early, he had no problem with it.

So I have to assume that his "reality" was that now that the knew these two points and knew that he wasn't being "ripped off," everything was fine. In fact, he ordered MORE work from me, even at those prices.

WHAT Are We Providing Our Clients?

I had two consulting calls this week and the information I gave was surprisingly similar to each of my clients: I told them that they were not selling the financial service nor the stock nor the life insurance policy… they were selling what these things can DO for their clients.

They have to convey to their clients the RESULT, not the means.

I have a large foundation as a client and they were selling wills, trusts, and legal documents to their donors instead of grabbing people by the heart and showing them what their clients were most interested in: what their money could DO for them.

We Sell What We Show – So Do It With Passion

Our clients look to us to TELL them what to do. They come to us because we are the experts and they want our thoughts. And once they are comfortable with us, they will listen (well, usually!).

So tell them.

Show them exactly what you want them to do.

And tell them when they do it, they will be happy, satisfied, feeling that they've done the right thing.

Your job is to show the outcome and show your client how to be happy, see that future, LIVE in that future that you describe.

Your enthusiasm will help build THEIR enthusiasm… and they'll be more happy with the results simply because they FEEL that they are happier.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blogging, Podcasting, Consulting

The Invisible Touch – A Marketing Blog Series By Charles Seymour Jr
For The Index, Click Here!

PS: You can find me here:

PPS: Do you have trouble writing? Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.

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Fallacies of Marketing

027 The Invisible Touch – Perception Is Reality

017 The Invisible Touch – The Fallacy of Competition

Charlie Seymour Jr — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:15:18 +0000

Fallacies of Marketing

In case after case, Harry Beckwith makes the point that companies really don't compete with each other.

And I agree – to a point.

There certainly were times when two of us were brought in to make presentations and only one of us got it. Were we competing or not?

We Don't Compete Against Other Companies… Or Usually Shouldn't

I have friends who say they have no competitors, just joint venture partners who don't realize it yet.

Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer, marketing partners in Glazer Kennedy Insiders Circle, always maintain that we should build an Iron Fence around our "herd" of clients and customers so that we don't have to WORRY about competing with others.

Those of us who know how to market OURSELVES along with what we do make it clear to prospects that we have no competition because "if you hire someone else, you won't get ME." Egotistical? Maybe.

But I know with my consulting business, when I sold investment real estate, in my photography business… people realize that one of the main things they get when they hire me is ME.

Build Your Own Unique Terms To Describe YOU And What You DO

The example I often tell my clients is: No one can have an "almost" Trinitron for their TV… only Sony. The term is theirs, the quality that goes along with it is theirs, the value of it is theirs.

You need to do the same thing.

Give your special services a name: The FastTrak Marketing System, WalkAbout Marketing System, The Never-Once-Weasle-Out-Of-It-Guarantee-Of-Service Guarantee…. and then make sure you remind your prospects to be sure to LOOK for that service if they ever speak to someone else.

Believe me, Sony will LOVE to have consumers asking LG or Panasonic "how good is your Trinitron?"

You Need Others To Recommend You – Never Bad Mouth Them

And remember: never bad mouth anyone – tomorrow they may need to recommend you to one of their clients and you want to be sure to leave the door open for that!

And forget the "dog-eat-dog" competition you hear about – what you're competing with most is what your prospects already think about you.

Be sure to get them thinking the way you want them to think so that in the end, they can hire YOU and not someone else.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blogging, Podcasting, Consulting

The Invisible Touch – A Marketing Blog Series By Charles Seymour Jr
For The Index, Click Here!

PS: You can find me here:

PPS: Do you have trouble writing? Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.