Have you second guessed your pricing because your bookings were slower than usual? Are you constantly resorting to discounting your photography prices? When business slows down do you start to panic making you default to discounting your photography packages? Let’s take a look at how to stop discounting your photography prices.
The Real Reason You’re Discounting Your Photography
In order to be profitable you have to price your services appropriately. That’s why I dedicate an entire section in the Blueprint Program to teach pricing for profit. I walk my coaching clients through this process too. Once you’re charging your cost of doing business you’ll see an increase in your profits and that will inspire you and give you more confidence to keep going.
Charging your cost of doing business and raising your prices can feel scary. Any time you step out of your comfort zone, it’s scary, but as soon as you book your highest package it’s all worth it. You realize that fear was holding you back and trying to serve you in a negative way. You start to see the positive effects that stepping out of your comfort zone can have and it’s worth it every time. You won’t only grow your business but you’ll grow as a person too! When you step outside of your comfort zone you then grow and stretch yourself and you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
I regularly get messages from my clients once they raise their prices telling me they booked their highest package and they can’t believe it. I know that all they needed to do was get out of their own way. Get over the fear and make these changes in your business.
I’ve Been In Your Shoes
I go through this process as well. Back in the day I was charging less than $100 per session. I couldn’t fathom that anyone would pay me $200. When I raised my prices to $200 I couldn’t fathom that anyone would pay me $300 and so on and so forth. The flip side to this is that you need to realize that some of those things you’re afraid of are going to happen. I had to realize that I was going to lose some of my current clients. They were not going to grow with me. But there were clients that believed in me and would continue to pay me no matter what I was asking.
I also needed to realize that if I was going to uplevel my pricing I also had to uplevel my business. This is a common mistake I see photographers making. They realize they need to charge their worth but the only thing that changes is the pricing and their business doesn’t uplevel with it.
Then you’ll see that disconnect and that’s why people aren’t booking you. When you’re ready to uplevel your prices you also have to be ready to uplevel your client experience, your backend systems, the way you show up to sessions, and the way you style sessions.
Give The Process Time To Work
You also have to give it time to work. Most of you are giving up too quickly. For example, I have a coaching client where we spent her entire coaching call going through her prices, redoing her packages, and really nailing out her ideal client. Then I sent her off and she came back and we did a marketing audit. Then we hopped on another coaching call and she tells me she hadn’t been booking at those prices.
Come to find out she had actually been self sabotaging because she was defaulting to discounting. She wasn’t giving her clients or her leads a chance to book her at those prices. And she realized that it was her fault. That she kept going back to old prices and giving discounts because of a lack of confidence. She was letting fear speak louder than what we already knew would work for her.
So if that’s you and you find yourself immediately discounting your photography, you have to give it time to work and you cannot stand in your own way.
Some Encouragement To Help You Stop Discounting Your Photography
99% of the time your prices are not what’s keeping you from getting booked. It comes down to a lot of other factors that include how you’re positioning your offers, what you’re listing out in each package, and how you’re communicating the value to your ideal client. Are your leads understanding what you’re saying?
Tough love warning ahead. If you’re currently feeling some type of way about your prices or you keep defaulting to discounts I want you to cut the crap. I can give you all the strategy in the world but if you’re not going to get over your fear and implement then you’re going to keep seeing the same results. It’s your choice. You can run a profitable business or you can run a time sucking hobby.
3 Practical Steps To Get Back On Track
- Run your cost of doing business. To make sure you’re doing this appropriately and the way I suggest you do it is to follow my pricing to profit formula. If this is something you’ve gone through before I’ve updated the training so you’re welcome to do it again.
- Create clear, high value packages. Create these packages with your prices after you have gone through the pricing for profit formula.
- Review your leads process. Take a look at everything within your leads process. What information are you sending your leads? Look at your contact form and investment guide. Are you overwhelming or confusing them? Do your emails have too much information?
If you want my guidance come book a power hour coaching call with me. Or you can check out my website and find other helpful information. Now go take action!
