How to Grow Your Business With IPS with Gary and Kim Evans
To some, in person sales (IPS) stands for terrifying, scary, I’m not a salesperson, no one will ever buy anything. But for us, IPS stands for life changing, freedom, revenue generation, working smarter, not leaving money on the table, and client care.
Before a life-changing last-minute decision to attend ShutterFest ‘18, we were shooting mostly weddings and pushing to add more weddings to our year. We wanted to make more money—I mean, who doesn’t?—but the only way we could do that was to squeeze in more weddings each year. As many of you know, it’s just not that easy to simply get more weddings. We were shooting and burning (providing digital files only).
While chatting to several attendees and presenters at ShutterFest, it became glaringly obvious that we were missing something HUGE. Time after time, conversation after conversation, IPS kept coming up. And we started thinking: Why didn’t we offer it? What would our couples think? Is this something we could change? We were photographers in business and not photographers running a business. Without realizing it, we were coasting along just doing what everyone else in our area was doing.
When we considered starting IPS, it was daunting. It is scary to sit in front of your clients and get direct feedback about what they love (and maybe don’t love) about your images, and believe me when I tell you they aren’t afraid to let you know. Do you get butterflies when handing them your price list and walking them through your packages? Yes. Is it intimidating to complete the sale and ask for their credit card? Yes. Starting IPS was a complete mind shift that we had to make. You have to take all those scary feelings, push them deep down and understand by being a full-service photographer that offers IPS, you not only differentiate yourself from your competition, but you really are helping your clients have beautiful artwork in their homes for years to come.
