The Client Relationship

The basics of how you might view winning a client, and the actual reality of the same relationship from the clients perspective as well as my top 10 things to consider.

I get emails every week from people asking how I manage to bring in so many new clients all the time, as well as keeping the ones I have to build my business. For over 12 years I have given business seminars in many countries including America, Switzerland and England, quite literally talking all day about this very subject.

However, one thing that I wanted to share very quickly here is the basics of how you might view winning a client, and the actual reality of things from the clients perspective.

To be successful you need to be able to give your clients what they want, you may perceive that to be a set of amazing images. However, just doing that is not going to get you across the line. You are a professional photographer, so it’s your job to produce high-quality photography, its not a main selling point.

Clients may well have a library of image assets already that have been built up over many years. Part of why they contacted you may well be to do with the fact that your ‘style’ fits in with what they already have in play within their business. The most important thing to remember here is that it’s not all about you and what you want, it’s about them. I know this sounds like a very obvious thing to say at this point but I speak with a lot of clients and some that have come to me in the past and commissioned me to reshoot a project because the initial ‘new photographer’ that they choose came in, ignored the brief, and produced a totally different set of images that they needed.

Here’s a very simple graph to explain a few key points and where many people fail to understand why they are not getting the right clients when they are producing good work.

It looks at ‘Photographic ability and style’ over ‘Reliability and trust’

Four Basic Approaches

Your style is important and it should be consistent, not changing all the time, however, you need to be professionally capable enough to shoot off that style should your client require it.

Reliability and trust are how your client feels about you, can they trust you to get the job done, get it organised. Will you be able to fix the issues that crop up along the journey and do you have a track record of being able to do this professionally.

You will be representing their company at times, can you do that properly?

Do you have a reputation for getting it done.?

Mr Blue

He’s a great photographer, really good images and a strong style that he likes to use all the time. He is not great at communicating and answering emails and does not really know how to quote for a job properly. He believes that clients will choose him based on the body of work in his portfolio and that he is not a ‘numbers guy’ The client has no idea what’s happening most of the time and they can not get the shoot signed off because the quote is too loose, missing too many items they would normally expect to see, and there is no real planning for how to complete the project is being suggested.

Mr Yellow

He’s on the up and up, his work is competent and he is serious about what he does. A little inexperienced on some things like quoting and usage but he applies himself and has learned that talking it through with the client not only helps him understand what’s required for them but also educates him so that he is always getting better. He is on the road to building a business.

Mr Red

He’s the dream, great work and a vast amount of experience with big brand companies. Solid track record, and he has seen most things and can look at a brief and know exactly what questions to ask and how to approach the planning so it makes sense because he has built up years of expereince in his field. The client can take that information and get the sign off for things to move forward quite easily. The only downside is that he’s a busy and its always touch and go on his availability.

Mr Green

A solid body of work and has been building his experience over the years so he understands the clients and how they need to work. He has not seen it all yet but he has a good idea of what ‘it’ might be, and what he needs to do to get it over the line. He has built a good body of clients that’s growing each year. He does not think his work is outstanding but he is confident that it’s improving and each year he grows. One of his main goals all the time is to give his clients ‘consistently’ what they need and understand the best way to do that. In many ways you coiuld see him as Mr Yellow 3 years further on in his journey.

“Ninety percent of your business is how you conduct yourself”

If you focusing entirely on your work only and believing that it alone will get you the clients that you want, then you are Mr Blue and it’s going to be a very slow burn probably.

If you are Mr Yellow then keep going and build that knowledge along with your technical abilities as its just a matter of time and you will grow.

Mr Red, well he’s not reading this because he got bored 2 paragraphs in and he really does not want to take on more work. He is good but his main fight is to constantly try and stay ahead of the pack and maintain his position. He will do that technically in his work but will only get stronger through the clients he works for being part of their team.

If you are Mr Green then the chances are you the one getting most of the calls from new clients. They love what you do and it’s obvious that you are capable. You have a solid body of clients already and you clearly do understand the process. Perhaps you have not seen everything but you are growing for all the right reasons and its these factors that attract clients to you because they need the safety of that.

One final very important point is that we did not mention ‘cost’ here. If you talk to your clients correctly and you deliver something that adds real value then cost is something that is a negotiating point, not a deciding factor. If you do this correctly then your clients should always view you as an asset, not a cost.

Remember You’re in business so act like a business at all times.

“Ninety percent of your business is how you conduct yourself”

Here are my Top 10 quotes on how to think about your business.

1 “People say you only live once. That isn’t true. You only die once. You live every day so make every single day count.”

2 “Definition of ‘tomorrow’: a mystical land where 99 percent of all human productivity, motivation, and achievement are stored. Most businesses don’t grasp today.”

3 “To get good at something, it takes 10,000 times of doing it to become unconsciously competent, so get on with it.”

4 “People say, ‘If I shoot everything, I’ll get more work.’ That’s a mistake. You need to specialise from the very start.”

5 “Your brand is you and what you shoot. Your professionalism is your business card. How you make your clients feel is your trademark.”

6 “If you don’t have a clear vision of what you’re going to do, what you’re going to shoot, and how you’re going to shoot it, then you don’t know what your market is. If you don’t know what your market is, you don’t know who your clients are. If you don’t know who your clients are, you’re shooting in the dark.”

7 “One of the hardest things: When you start a business, you don’t anticipate the fact that you lie, and the one person you lie to most is yourself. You’ve got to get that under control and be honest with yourself. If you really want to achieve something you will find a way, if you don't then you will always find an excuse...”

8 “If you’re losing customers based on price, you’re on the freeway with everybody else doing the same thing in a whirlpool charging less and less. That’s not going to end well. If your customer is going to base purely on price, that’s the wrong customer. Don’t be a cost, be an asset...”

9 “You will never experience success and never truly understand success until you’ve been through failure. Failure is education. It shows you not just how to do something, it shows you what doesn’t work. Plan to succeed but expect to fail. I’ve built failure into my business schedule because it will happen so prepare for it so you can overcome it and grow as well as learn.”

10 “Don’t try to be the next me. Be the first you."