I don't know how Nick kept his day job throughout this.
He must have been distracted with thoughts on photography, business, sales and somehow keeping it all together and compartmentalised.
If I had known Nick at that point, I would have told him, “Pack it in mate and just enjoy shooting. Forget about making money from photography and just shoot because you love it.”
The desire to make this work never went away for Nick and his thoughts returned to IPS before his big breakthrough…
Here's Nick again and his thought process…
“I can't spend too much time away from Hayley and the kids doing these sales sessions. Can I still make it work?“
“I've got a great job, a BIG mortgage and I commute to and from work – I need to take all this into account.”
“I don't have a lot of spare time but the extra income would be great.”
“I really want this to work!“
“Everyone has told me IPS will work”
Here are the things holding Nick back as he saw them:
- Time to do the sales sessions
- Purchasing more product samples
- Mark up on goods means my prices have to go up
- Time on the computer to order what families purchase
- Which samples to order and have on display
- Where or how to display my samples
- The back and forth with clients to set up the sales session
- No space at home to deliver the sales sessions – plus the kids in bed or playing
- Driving to and from meetings with clients means less time at home
He had to weigh up if it was worth sacrificing time for ‘potential' money if he was going to give IPS a proper try.
After weighing everything up – how much more time he'd have to be away from the kids and Hayley, he decided…
It just wasn't worth it.
Nick told me, “I came to the conclusion that something needed to change. I work full time and have 4 kids, so IPS wasn't an option. Whatever the solution was, it had to involve online sales since it was my only option.“
“I have a great job, I don't want to sacrifice that.”
“I love the time I get with Hayley and the kids, I really don't want to sacrifice that either.”
“The whole idea about making money from photography is to make my life better.“
The whole idea of photography was to have more time with his family – not less. Nick wasn't prepared to jeopardise family life for anything.
Ready to chuck it in. Give up.
At this point Nick was down and out.
He knew the only way this could work was if selling online would generate enough income to make this worthwhile and profitable.
Here's Nick again… “I started my business thinking I was doing everything right. I'd read all the photography business blogs, listened to all the podcasts. I'd set everything up exactly how all the ‘pros' said to and then I waited for all this business to pour in with people spending thousands on product sales. Because you just have to sell products, it's the only way to make money.”
“I decided products were not right for online sales. I felt like the impact of large framed prints and canvases were lost… kind of like the difference between seeing a photo of the Grand Canyon compared to actually being there. It's going to be a million times more impactful being there. So Digital files it was.”
The scary thing was, Nick says, “I couldn't find or hadn't heard one expert who was promoting selling digital files as the way to go for a successful photography business model.”
I'd love to say Nick had an epiphany or an a-ha moment when all became clear but it wasn't like that.
He was feeling flat… didn't know what to try next, if anything.
He let things lie and tried to stop thinking about photography as a business again. It was tough – he was seeing Facebook notifications from Groups he was a part of.
New podcast episodes from Sprouting Photographer, Photography Business and Marketing Podcast, PhotoBizX would pop up in his feed all talking about photography business.
Man, he so wanted this to work!
His thoughts would wander back to online sales and how he could make it work. There's got to be a way to make photography a viable 2nd income.
Nick had an idea.
Something new to try
Back to Nick… “I listened to an interview with a film photographer living in Hawaii (at the time), Jonathan Canlas. He had this method of selling his products online where he would run a 30% off sale for a week after making the client's gallery available.”
“Doing this encouraged people to make a quick purchase.“
“What if I could apply this to online sales but with digital files only. Would that work?”
He gave it a try and sure enough, it did work. Kind of.
Clients were inspired to take action and purchase within the discount period. Awesome right!
The major problem was no one was spending enough to make this a viable business. Sales were still in the low hundreds.
Maybe Hayley was right when she said, “Who the hell is going to pay over $1000 for photos?“
Nick's thought process was, at least these sales were happening within a short time after the shoot but how, oh how, can I encourage my families to spend more?
This is when everything fell into place.
The Triple Package Elevator Formula was born.
Sales immediately went from $300 – $600 to over $1000 – it was a clear message, this works!
You can see Nick's first 3 sales using the Triple Package Elevator Formula. Some of the other sales were the same but part payments had already been taken and a couple were from his older price list. The other two $1015 sales were also from his NEW method.
That clear message came at a time of reflection…
Nick was sitting on the toilet. Yep, true story. It's the only peace and quiet he gets at home. His cubicle of serenity away from the kids. He was on his phone, flicking through Facebook.
I'm not sure if that's gross or not. I kinda think it is but I expect he's not the only one on his phone in the bathroom.
So Nick's sitting there… mindlessly scrolling through his Facebook feed when, “BING”… a PayPal notification pops up… $1015 portrait sale!
That's three in a row from three family shoots!
He yells out for Hayley.
She didn't come running but Nick kept calling till he found her… excitedly with a massive smile plastered across his face he says, “This is working!”
Neither of them could believe it.
Nick shows his phone to Hayley… “Look, three in a row, all three families went for the top package!”
Nick was pumped and excited to keep booking and shooting.
He wanted to know if he really had found a way to encourage clients to purchase his top package every time.
Booking after booking it was the same result.
Top package.
Top package.
Top package.
The Triple Package Elevator Formula works!
He couldn’t believe it.
He was surpassing his best expectations.
He felt like he had uncovered the psychology behind getting photography clients to naturally want to purchase his top package.
Clients were doing what he thought they would.