Have you ever wondered when’s the right time to share your pricing with clients? Should you put it on your website, or email it to them immediately after they inquire? Or should you wait until you’re further in the inquiry process?
Wonder no more. I’m breaking down the steps to share pricing with clients today!
Of course, this process is different for different people. But today, I’m giving you the steps to share pricing with clients that has worked for me, and why.
1. Don’t Include Pricing on Your Website
I promise, there’s a reason why. Don’t have a pricing link with all of your prices laid out on your website, because when you do, the potential client has no reason to contact you. When that happens, you don’t get the data that you need for your business.
Instead, you want people to contact you first before you give them your pricing. Believe it or not, we have had clients spend 30% more than they originally planned to spend on photography once they booked! Sometimes, people have a budget in mind, but once they come to know your value, they’re willing to spend more.
That being said, it’s important to have conversations with potential clients through the inquiry process so they understand the real value of the service you’re providing.
2. Ask Questions on the Contact Form
It’s REALLY imperative that you use the contact form to ask basic preliminary questions about clients before they book. Meaning, you’ll ask questions like:
- Where they heard about you
- Where they’re located
- Who referred them, if someone did
That way, you can build a list of how many inquiries you’re getting versus how many bookings – and that’ll allow you to create statistics.
But if you don’t have any questions, you wouldn’t have any idea. You might not get anyone contacting you and feel like you’re doing something wrong – but that might not be the reality.
3. Send a Questionnaire
The next step is to learn even more about the people inquiring. Once they’ve filled out a contact form, I send them a follow-up questionnaire. It’ll have questions like:
- Who they are
- How they got engaged
- Who they are as a couple
- What they’re looking for in their photography
- Who their planner is, if they have one
Everything you can gather about them will really help you not only with your business statistics, but also during your inquiry call AND if you work together!
4. Send the Pricing After They Fill Out the Questionnaire
After the potential client fills out the questionnaire responses, that’s when I send them my general pricing guide.
Some photographers will have clients get on a phone call before they give them their pricing. Personally, I like to know pricing before a phone call. As a consumer, phone calls feel high pressure to me.
Will this decrease the number of phone calls you have? Yes, probably. But that’s not a bad thing. When you’re early in your photography business, it’s okay to get on a call with everyone who inquires with you. But once you get to a place where you’re receiving several inquiries a day, and not all of those are truly interested in working together, it saves a lot of time to be picky with who you hop on a call with.
Why? When I hop on a call, on average, it takes 45-60 minutes. When I’m on a call, I’m giving the potential client 100% of my focus. So if they don’t book, it’s safe to say that was an hour of unpaid work.
So I really want my leads to be interested. I want to give myself the best chance to serve them well… and that starts with me getting to know them really well through contact forms and questionnaires, and them sitting with my pricing before we hop on a call.
As a side note: In our general pricing guide, the potential client can look at the sampling of offerings. I sell a one-hour pricing mini-course that talks about how we create our offers based on a mathematical formula, which I can then tweak based on what we discuss on a call. Check it out if you’re interested!
5. Prepare their Contract and Proposal
When we get off the phone, the last step is creating a contract and custom proposal based on our phone call. I’ll send it their way in the hopes they’ll choose us as their photo team! 🤞🏻
This process might seem complicated, but it’s really not! We use Dubsado (use the affiliate code CatherineG for 20% off here) to manage this part of our business. You can set up this workflow within the program, and that will save you so much time on the backend… so you can then serve your clients better!
Grab the FREE Pricing Guide
Before you follow these steps to share pricing with clients, you need to be confident in what you’re charging!
Do you know why you’re charging what you’re charging? Do you know if it’s enough to keep you profitable? I have a free resource that will help you figure it out!
Grab my free Pricing Guide to help you:
- Understand the WHY behind your base prices so you feel more confident in pricing
- Decide WHAT to charge for your photography
- Cover your expenses so you remain profitable and sustainable
Check it out below ⤵️
