Professional Photo Lab and Photo Printing Blog

One of the most common complaints I hear from photographers is that that their clients only order small gift prints.

To which I always ask “Do you show them anything else?

It’s an easy leap for a client to know what an 8×10 of a single image will look like, but now ask them to visualize how big a 30×40 is relative to their couch, or how two 16x20s and a 20×23 will look above their fireplace and I guarantee you’ll get a blank stare in return!

And yet, that’s what we are essentially asking our clients to do if we put a static gallery of single images up on a website or in a slideshow and then ask them what they would like to order!

The truth is that most of us (and I count myself in this category) have very little power of visualization.

Any of you that have stared at a tiny paint chip and tried to imagine what it would look like in a room in your home know what I’m talking about! It’s HARD.

In fact, these types of decisions can often become a HUGE source of stress. Personally, I stress and agonize for ages about wall paint colors (just ask my husband how many sample jars and 1 quart cans are in our basement!) and I want nothing more than to put off the decision until later.

But in the realm of photography, a delayed decision almost always equals no sale.

How many times have you heard a client say they would “decide later” and come back and order more and then you never hear from them again?

Instead, you want the ordering experience to be stress free, and give them no excuse to say “no, maybe or later” and every reason to say “yes!” by taking all the guesswork out of the equation.

If you do this, I guarantee that your sales averages will soar!

I once heard a well-known photographer on the speaking circuit say that once his studio started showing their clients a mockup of their family image in a holiday photo card template, their sales for holiday cards increased 80%!

And that’s just for a holiday card. With large prints and canvases we are expecting our clients to make a considerably large investment, so it’s even MORE important that we give them something to see.

It’s our job to show them the possibilities of their portraits on their walls.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I created the Photographer’s Wall Display Guides. It’s is a ready-made system to help you help your clients “picture their pictures” and say yes to large prints and canvases and I used it to create all the examples that illustrated this blog post.

If you don’t already have a product like it, I highly encourage you to do some research and invest in either my wall guides or another one that you feel is a good fit for your studio and start creating stunning mock ups for your clients.

At the very least I hope got you thinking about the importance of showing what you want to sell – and by doing so, taking your sales to the next level!

Ariana Falerni is a children’s portrait photographer in the NYC suburbs. She is also the creator of the Photographer’s Wall Display Guides and also pens the popular blog “Becoming Mom” where she writes (maybe a little too honestly) about the topics of motherhood and the business of photography.