Adrian Tan
November 30th, 2014, 02:55 PM
I guess the main thing I tell myself is that it's not a sales pitch. I hate making sales pitches. I believe, rather, in laying out information and letting people make up their own minds. The main thing they want to get from the meeting, after all, is a sense of who you are, and whether they could get along with you.
I'm usually really open, and just looking to answer whatever questions they have, and trying to get some idea of who they are, what they like, etc. I ask about how their wedding planning is going, and see where the conversation flows from there. At some point or other I'll simply ask, "So what questions do you have for me?"
I find the main things I end up talking about are:
-- (1) details of my packages;
-- (2) specific questions I want to know about -- what type of wedding, and then whatever unusual things to expect;
-- (3) general things I want to mention to them -- editing time, how my pricing works (I generally use staggered payment instead of pay everything before the wedding);
-- (4) discussing the details of their runsheet, as much as they've planned it. Now, this sort of thing might be better discussed at a second meeting before the wedding. But I often find that's it helpful to discuss in advance. For one thing, the earlier any information, the better. But it also forms a useful structure to the conversation, because as they talk, you'll keep finding jumping off points to talk about other things, and then you can come back to discussion of the runsheet;
-- (5) I generally don't show many samples, if any, and prefer not to. They've already seen lots of samples after communicating with me by email before the meeting.
Now, there isn't time to talk about everything. So if you have to limit the topics for discussion, which ones should you concentrate on?
I've recently been thinking, in fact -- would it be better to use the first meeting as educational, as a lesson?
Some couples have been saying to me recently that they don't understand the huge range in pricing: photo/video can cost from $500 to $20,000. They don't understand why video costs what it does. And as someone else said in this forum recently, they often want good quality video, and are prepared to pay for it, but are ill-equipped to judge what it is! (I've encountered this attitude with respect to other things as well -- people wanting to have good quality wedding rings, but not having any idea in how to assess quality of gemstone.)
So might it be better, on a first meeting, to teach the couple? To talk about what to look for in judging the quality of a video? Is it even worth breaking down your own costs and explaining why you charge what you do, or is that unwise, for whatever reason?
I'm usually really open, and just looking to answer whatever questions they have, and trying to get some idea of who they are, what they like, etc. I ask about how their wedding planning is going, and see where the conversation flows from there. At some point or other I'll simply ask, "So what questions do you have for me?"
I find the main things I end up talking about are:
-- (1) details of my packages;
-- (2) specific questions I want to know about -- what type of wedding, and then whatever unusual things to expect;
-- (3) general things I want to mention to them -- editing time, how my pricing works (I generally use staggered payment instead of pay everything before the wedding);
-- (4) discussing the details of their runsheet, as much as they've planned it. Now, this sort of thing might be better discussed at a second meeting before the wedding. But I often find that's it helpful to discuss in advance. For one thing, the earlier any information, the better. But it also forms a useful structure to the conversation, because as they talk, you'll keep finding jumping off points to talk about other things, and then you can come back to discussion of the runsheet;
-- (5) I generally don't show many samples, if any, and prefer not to. They've already seen lots of samples after communicating with me by email before the meeting.
Now, there isn't time to talk about everything. So if you have to limit the topics for discussion, which ones should you concentrate on?
I've recently been thinking, in fact -- would it be better to use the first meeting as educational, as a lesson?
Some couples have been saying to me recently that they don't understand the huge range in pricing: photo/video can cost from $500 to $20,000. They don't understand why video costs what it does. And as someone else said in this forum recently, they often want good quality video, and are prepared to pay for it, but are ill-equipped to judge what it is! (I've encountered this attitude with respect to other things as well -- people wanting to have good quality wedding rings, but not having any idea in how to assess quality of gemstone.)
So might it be better, on a first meeting, to teach the couple? To talk about what to look for in judging the quality of a video? Is it even worth breaking down your own costs and explaining why you charge what you do, or is that unwise, for whatever reason?