Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] It's late November. I just got back from an amazing work retreat with some girls from my mentoring program. I have opened up the sustainable photography program for more students and if you're interested in that, please send me a DM on Instagram or book a call with me and let's find out if it's right for you. A little while ago I asked on Instagram who gives disc counts and a surprising amount of people said that they do. And to me, this kind of feels like the time for discounts. We just finished with Black Friday and that whole weekend around that, everything seems to be on sale before Christmas, 10%, 20%, even 50%.
[00:00:44] And I want you to think about why you give discounts if you do, if it's to increase your revenue or to make more sales, or if it's because you're feeling like things are moving too slowly and you wanted to pick up. So before you give discounts, or if you already are giving discounts, find out why. What's the goal of you giving discounts? And as with everything else, please believe me when I say that I am not judging you by any means. A few years ago, I wanted to start selling albums and when I calculated the prices, it was just so expensive to me and I felt like no one is ever going to pay for this. I felt awkward and ridiculous saying the price. So I gave all my wedding clients 50% off and most of them bought, if not all of them. But afterwards I realized that the discount I gave was so big that I didn't make any money. I'd actually spent hours and hours designing these albums and I didn't make any money. Probably I even lost money. And it's so easy to get kind of carried away and get excited about people buying and booking and then afterwards realizing that, oh, I'm not making any money now.
[00:02:11] So you need to know what kind of a discount you can offer while you're still making money and while you're still making enough money. Because hopefully you have set your prices based on what you know they have to be. And if you give away a too high discount, you probably have to make more bookings to make up for it. So if you want to do discounts, you have to find out how many more bookings you need to make up for it. But there are different kinds of discounts. In a way. Sometimes we give a discount and sometimes our clients ask for it. Like what I just explained with the albums, that was me. That was my feeling that the product I was wanting to sell was too expensive and I gave a discount without anyone asking me for it. And other times I've been asked to give a discount so many times, and that triggers a different kind of feeling. The first feeling to me was, this isn't worth it. I need to do something or give something extra to make it worth it or to lower my price. And the other one is someone else kind of telling me that that you're not worth the full price, it's not worth paying what it should be. And I have so many stories around this, and it's usually been the clients that I work with, with the most money that have asked for discounts. And sometimes it's not even a big discount, but it's just the feeling that it leaves me with is just horrible. I'm not sure if you can relate, but I'd love to talk with you about this. So send me a DM on Instagram if you can relate. But one of my clients, I went to their house. We had this great meeting, and I was sure that they were going to book, but then I didn't hear anything. And then when I followed up with them, they're like, oh, yeah, we really like you, and we think you're way more professional than anyone else will come across, but you charge more. So if you can accept the same price as the other ones, we have a deal. And I was like, that doesn't make any sense, and that's not how it works. And I just turned them down. And these clients, they were in this amazing, expensive house, and they had really fancy jobs, and they had everything. And there was me struggling in the middle of probably 2020, the Pandemic, and it was like, how dare you ask me for a discount when we've already talked about how challenging times are now. So that was one example. And another example was this one couple who asked me for a discount for me to come to their wedding. And it was a few hours drive. And I told them I don't remember, but let's say I told them it was going to be $250 for me to drive to them. And they're like, no, we have calculated it based on these parameters, and it should be 220 or something like that. It was a ridiculous amount, like $30 or $20 or something like that. And I was like, It doesn't really work like that. And I wanted to tell them, no, I'm not going to be working with you when you're like that. But there was something weird where I just couldn't say no to these people. But in the end, they ended up paying the amount I asked for, which was way too low. That's so easy to see in retrospect. And then when I came to their wedding, they'd bought this expensive new sports car to come get them after the wedding. They were having their wedding on an island, and they had bought the island, and it's like, okay, so you're arguing with me over, like, 20, $30, and you have all this money.
[00:06:07] And that, of course, makes me, as a service provider, feel really terrible. But it's also really rude because I figured out how much I need to charge.
[00:06:23] And then they want to negotiate that. And of course it's up to us if we want to accept it or not. But so often we'll feel pushed into a corner and have that fear of, like, if I don't agree to this, then what if I don't get another assignment and I'll have nothing? So I really want you to think about how much you need to charge and to stand firmer in what you want and what you need for this to be worth it, for you to feel worth it. And I kind of made up like a rule after this that if you have a nicer house than me, a nicer car than me, nicer clothes, and a bigger paycheck, you're not allowed to ask for a discount. Because if someone genuinely can't afford it, then they're in a completely different situation than if they can't afford it and they just don't want to pay. And you wouldn't ask for a discount from a service provider that you respected, which is such a paradox, because it's like, it's okay to try to bargain with someone who you feel is cheap, or if it's someone who's already struggling. But if it's someone that's doing great and is making a lot of money, then you respect them in a completely different way. I just think that's really interesting anyway. So the easiest invoice you ever send is the one that someone is expecting. So if someone has booked you for a photography assignment and you send their invoice, then they're completely expecting that. And if you feel the need or if you think you still need to give a discount, you need to figure out why.
[00:08:10] Is it because you don't think it's worth it? Or is it because you want to be nice?
[00:08:16] I completely understand the need and the wish to give our clients more to show you appreciate them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I want you to consider giving your clients a bonus. Something that they're not expecting, something that they wouldn't pay for rather than to give away actual money. Do you see how that's different? Because the invoice that they're expecting, that's for the amount that you need, that's the amount that they want to pay you. But if you lower that, then you're getting less money, and they were wanting to pay you that anyway. So instead, if you want to give them something, give them something that is separate, something that you're not selling or something that they wouldn't pay for. Sometimes after my clients have chosen which files they want, I'll give them a couple of extra because I know they didn't choose these ones. They're maybe just some scenery photos or some detail photos, and it's just like a nice extra bonus. But I'm not losing any money by giving them those. Another thing that I want you to think about is another thing that I see happening all the time is okay. So here we have this Facebook group that's full of referrals from one photographer looking for another photographer for their inquiries. At least for weddings, I see that all the time where someone is saying, oh, I'm free on this date and there's no charge for accommodation because I have family there, so I can stay with them. And if you can make your service cheaper, then that's great, that's a great win for you. But you shouldn't base your prices on that. You should charge what you need to charge, and then if you can make it cheaper than that, that's great. That's great for you, but that's not a win for your client, that's a win for you.
[00:10:24] If not, you're artificially lowering the price of what you do.
[00:10:29] And that's not a good thing. And it also shouldn't be a reason why other photographers should pick you. In a way, they should pick the most expensive one. They should pick someone who makes it easier for them to make a living, for them to charge what they need to charge, and not to choose the one that can make the best deal.
[00:10:49] Another thing that I want to talk about is swaps where, oh, I'll do this for you and then you'll do this for me, and none of us have to spend any money and we'll both get something out of it. I know it's easy to think that that's a great win, and sometimes it is. But so often one person is getting the better end of that deal and you have to think, is it worth it? Is it worth it for me to spend my time doing this when I should be out there making actual money? And what are you telling yourself about your services being worth it if you're not willing to pay for something similar yourself? What are you telling yourself about your services if you're not accepting money for it? Again, sometimes it's a very even swap and there probably isn't anything wrong with that. But so often it can end up being a bit awkward. Maybe you're not really getting an amazing service in return and it's going to feel really awkward for you to say something about it because you didn't pay. Maybe you're not giving your all to your client because they're not paying and then they don't realize how good you actually are. So just check in with yourself to see if it's worth it. If you're able to deliver what you actually should, what you normally do, and if you're getting a good deal in return because your own thoughts in terms of wanting to pay for things, that's actually really important to think about.
[00:12:37] How is your willingness to invest in yourself, in your business, in quality products and services, in your own life? There's something about the energy around that. I've had a DIY business for the longest time where I felt that it was too expensive to pay for things and I did things myself because I felt that all this is cheaper. But I forgot to think about how expensive it is to not have a quality brand, a quality website, a quality service, because I'd been so scared to spend money on it. And the funny thing is, as soon as you start investing, as soon as you start spending actual money in your business, your whole mindset changes, everything around your business changes. And it goes from being this side project that you are barely scraping by to make happen to being this amazing thing that you've actually invested in, that, you know, I deserve to get paid to do this and the need to give discounts will go away. It's amazing how that happens. And that was definitely the case for me. I started doing education slowly in the end of 2019, early 2020. And then after launching my first course, I realized how made up it felt, how little I was investing. I had my course just on a Facebook platform.
[00:14:19] I had just made some kind of random branding by finding free fonts and free colors and free everything.
[00:14:32] But then I finally invested in a brand, in a website, in everything I needed, and everything changed. Suddenly it didn't feel awkward to ask for money because it was almost like I was suddenly this real business with big investments and I had to make it worth it. And my business felt like it was worth it to spend money on. So if we go back to that, you wouldn't ask for a discount from a service provider you respected. It's a little bit like that where if it shows that you're expensive, fewer people will second guess your pricing.
[00:15:14] And you yourself, you wouldn't put up with it because you know, this is worth it. I'm worth it. My brand is worth it. Okay, over to something a bit different. I'm doing a new one week course next week. It's included one, one call with me and the price will increase daily starting tomorrow, wednesday, November 29. So do sign up today and you'll still get the Black Friday deal. Go Ingvild Kolnes.com, five sales, five days with Hyphens in between. Or you can just check out the link in Bio to get the link and also to be sure that you're following me on Instagram and that you're on my newsletter so that you can catch the December Advent calendar that I'm planning. Okay, so when is it okay to give discounts? First of all, it's your business.
[00:16:10] You can do whatever you want to. You don't have to listen to me whatsoever.
[00:16:15] But I'm doing this, I'm saying these things to help you make an educated decision.
[00:16:22] If you want to give discounts, why are you giving them? Is it because you feel you have to? Is it because you want to? And if you do, what are you left with? Do you have to do more sessions to make it worth it, then do you have to take a lower paycheck at the end of the month or year?
[00:16:44] What are the benefits in doing it and how is it hurting you? I usually also recommend having a strategy behind your offers or especially your discounted offers. So if you give a discount, maybe it should be because it's something different than what you normally offer so that it's not competing against your core offers.
[00:17:06] Some businesses will also give people a discount to get them in the door to get a new client. But I want you to think about what kind of clients you'll get if you do that. Are you going to get the kinds of clients who are not really willing to pay?
[00:17:21] Because then you might be just doing a lot of work and you're not getting enough in return.
[00:17:26] Maybe you give discounts to your repeat clients because as you might know, it's cheaper and easier to work with existing clients than it is to get a new client. But at the same time, you want to be careful, because if your clients expect to get a discount every single time, will it still be worth it for you to work with them?
[00:17:47] So you have to think about that really carefully before you give discounts. And also, what does discounts really say about your business?
[00:17:56] I think it depends on why you have discounts and on which things, which products, which services.
[00:18:04] Because there's a difference between offering a lower price on a rare mini session versus having a regular sale all the time.
[00:18:14] Will your sale or your discount attract bargain hunters?
[00:18:19] Or is it a reward for loyal clients?
[00:18:22] For example, for me, if you want to work with me, it's generally a big investment, but sometimes I do group workshops at a low price to give people the option to see how it feels to work with me and to give people some results so they can see the value.
[00:18:39] So if you can get this result from just a short one week course, imagine what you can get if you work with me for a year, for example.
[00:18:48] So as a one on one service provider, like a photographer, that's not so easy. But maybe you can do mini sessions, maybe you can do some photo courses for parents to do at home sessions with their kids. Maybe you can offer some phone presets. So there's a lot of things you can do, even if you can't give away cheap photography sessions. The final thing I want to talk about is if there is any way you can fix this need to give discounts.
[00:19:21] First you need to find out why you want to give away something. Is it because you're worried that your clients aren't happy? Is it because you feel like it's not worth it? Once you know why, then it's easier to do something about it.
[00:19:39] Second of all, a more concrete approach is to take the payment up front to stop yourself from giving a discount because it didn't turn out as you wanted. Maybe you didn't get enough shots of a specific thing. Maybe you took too long in delivering. Maybe there's something that happens and if you've already charged the money, if you've already taken the payment, then it's unlikely that you're going to give money back unless you get an actual complaint. Which again, see if there's a way you can fix it without the need to give money back. Because whether you have an unhappy client or you just have a need to give something extra away for appreciation, or because you feel like you're not good enough, see if you can find some alternatives to giving away money. Maybe you can give away some extra files, maybe you can give away a print, maybe a little bit of extra time at the end of the session, deliver the products or the files earlier than expected. There are so many things you can do to make your clients feel like they got more than they paid for without lowering your prices. I also want you to calculate your prices. I feel like this is my go to for everything, almost. But you need to know what you have to charge to make it worth it.
[00:21:03] So elopement photographer have just guessed at a price, taken a look at what others are charging and done something similar. But you need to know that it's worth it. You need to know what you need to charge for you to make a living and once you know, it's going to be so much harder for you to give discounts because you'll know this is what I need to charge. For me. Knowing what I needed to charge changed so much. In my business, if someone's not willing to pay the price, then that's their loss. I can't be there and do everything for everyone. It's not my problem that they're not willing to pay. And it's not your problem either.
[00:21:46] Finally, please remember that charging money is not a bad thing. It's good. It gives you options and the power to do nice things for people. What about instead of giving away free photo sessions or cheap photo session, imagine what you can do if you have a decent revenue and paycheck every month.
[00:22:09] And also do sign up for the course. Five sales in five days. The price will increase every single day starting tomorrow. And right now, you'll get this course. For such a bargain, it's just a no brainer. We start next week. And you also get a one on one call with me for free. See you then you you just listened to an episode of Sustainable Photography please share this episode with a photographer you care about.
