Recorded: Welcome to the Rework with Allison Tyler Jones, a podcast dedicated to inspiring portrait photographers to uniquely brand, profitably price, and confidently sell their best work. Allison has been doing just that for the last 15 years, and she’s proven that it’s possible to create unforgettable art and run a portrait business that supports your family and your dreams. All it takes is a little rework. Episodes will include interviews with experts from in and outside of the photo industry, mini-workshops, and behind-the-scenes secrets that Allison uses in her portrait studio every single day. She will challenge your thinking and inspire your confidence to create a profitable, sustainable portrait business you love through continually refining and reworking your business. Let’s do the rework.
Allison Tyler Jones: This episode is part three in our Are You Overwhelming Your Client series. In part three, we are going to talk about overwhelming our clients with too many choices. Now, just to give you a recap of where we’ve been, in episode 134, part one, “Are You Overwhelming Your Clients With Too Many Words?” we learn to simplify our message to the very basics of what our clients need to know to progress to the next stage of our process. And when we do that, they feel taken care of, guided, and in good hands. Last episode, part two, was too much experience. Are you overwhelming your clients with too much experience? We talked about keeping the focus on the product, wrapping the product in the experience, not the other way around, and referencing that product all along the way. The difference between shooting for a specific product and concept and just capturing a bunch of great images that the client can wait and see what we get after, and then we’ll decide.
Allison Tyler Jones: If we didn’t keep it tight in that shooting part and we’ve allowed that experience overwhelmed to happen, that is going to lead right into the too many choices overwhelm, and the problems will continue. Our sales sessions won’t close, our clients won’t be able to make timely decisions, and the whole thing can just burn down. And we’re just left wondering, why is this so hard? Why can’t people decide? Well, that is what leads us to this final episode in our client overwhelm series, are you overwhelming your client with too many choices? I’m going to be addressing the sales appointment, the mistakes we make by overwhelming our clients by showing too many images and presenting our clients with too many options. First, I want to talk about a book, of course, of course I want to talk about a book. Another book that I loved, which is called The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by psychologist Barry Schwartz, and he explores the modern dilemma of choice overload. Schwartz argues that contrary to popular belief, more choices don’t lead to greater happiness or satisfaction.
Allison Tyler Jones: Instead, they often result in anxiety, decision paralysis, and dissatisfaction. The book is based on the idea that while a certain level of choice necessary for autonomy and well-being, an abundance of options can overwhelm us, and boy, don’t we live in that world. Too many options, Barry, Schwartz goes on, can lead to paralysis, making it harder to choose anything at all. How many times have you had that happen with a client? Even after making a choice, people who are exposed to too many options are more likely to feel disappointed or regretful, fearing that they made the wrong decision or missed out on something better. I would make the case that when clients are overwhelmed by too many choices, they’re confused. They feel like they have to make all the decisions, and their biggest fear is that they will make a mistake. They’re going to spend big money and it’s going to be wrong.
Allison Tyler Jones: So the problem is we try to overcome. We know that clients have these fears. Maybe we do, maybe we don’t, but we’re trying to overcome our own fears, right? So we overshoot the session, we show them too many images, we don’t cull the session tightly enough, and we show them way too many product choices. So why are we doing this? Again, the two reasons, our creative, amazing ADD brain that likes to add. So in culling, for example, culling a session, well, I can’t decide so I’m just going to show them everything, and we end up showing them too many images, or well, I love all these finishes, I love all these swatches, I love all these frames, I love all these choices. My client is going to love them too. Or fear, the fear about our own abilities. If I show them a lot, they’ll think it’s more valuable and buy more, or the reverse, if I don’t show them tons of options, they won’t think it’s worth it. So in the end, we overwhelm the client with too many choices, period.
Allison Tyler Jones: And so we’re airing on the side of too many choices and not enough expertise, not enough taking control. If clients are saying to you, “Wow, the hardest part of that whole thing was cutting down the images,” don’t take this as a compliment. That’s a complaint. Even if they say it nice, if they say, “Oh, the hardest thing was cutting down those images,” that’s your job. That’s not their job. Okay? Now, clients might say, after you’ve shown them a slideshow or you’ve shown them the initial images, “How am I ever going to decide?” Okay, that’s not a complaint because they’re looking at it, they’re seeing images, and they’re excited about it. Clients will say this to you, whether you show them 10 images or 100 images. What is easier to help guide them through, 10 images or a hundred images?
Allison Tyler Jones: Now, I’m not saying that you’re only going to ever show 10 images. Don’t be so literal. Depending on what you’re shooting for, if you’re shooting for an album or wall gallery, you’re going to show more images. If you’re shooting for an individual single portrait, you’re going to show them less images. Okay? So remember back to part two, keeping that product in mind, keeping the end in mind. What is it that we shot for? Same thing. When we are showing them images, if it’s a single image, family portrait above the fireplace, that is a shorter session. It’s a tightly culled edit of the session itself, and you’re not showing them very many images. Okay? The bigger the scope of the project, the more images that they are likely to see, and then the less is also true. So the fear persists though. If I don’t show them tons of options, they won’t think it’s worth it.
Allison Tyler Jones: And so I can’t tell you how many photographers have told me this. I feel like if I just show them more, they’ll feel like it’s worth more. So I want you to make a mind shift with me, that what is the value in what you’re selling? It’s not just more images. Okay? Because more, it doesn’t mean they’re good, doesn’t mean they’re better, doesn’t mean well lit, doesn’t mean that they’re well posed. It’s just more. So more is just more. More isn’t a value. In fact, I would make the case that more is less. So it’s not just more images. To me, the value for my client, and that’s really all that matters, is the value to the client, is the right image in the right place at the right size that personalizes their home and celebrates their family. Okay? So let me say that again. It’s the right image in the right place at the right size that personalizes their home and celebrates their family. That’s the value to the client. That’s not more images.
Allison Tyler Jones: The other value is it’s the right set of images in the right album that tells the right story for the client. So you’re combining your vision, your talent, your eye, how you see the world, how you interpret your subjects of this particular unique family. So you’re collaborating with that client. So your talent, their unique family, and their unique living space, their home, where this image is going to hang, and your expertise because you know what frames are out there, you know what finishes are out there, you know canvas, you know fine art, you know metal, you know all the different types of traits and presentation types that are out there. So it’s up to you to bring that knowledge and that expertise to bear for your client and not overwhelm them with everything. This isn’t an order taking situation where you just lay it all out there and say, “Well, what do you think?”
Allison Tyler Jones: They don’t know. They don’t have any idea what to think. That’s your job. Your job is to help them see that, with your talent in your eye and their unique family and their unique home, how it can all come together in the best way for them. So the solution is your expertise and your opinion. What do you want them to have? So this all starts with a tight edit of the session or culling the session down. So when I’m saying edit of a session, I’m not talking about retouching. I’m talking about editing the images down, culling the images down from a lot of images to very few images. And how you’re doing that is you’re taking that creative agenda from the consultation that you created. From the consultation, you figured out what it is that you were shooting for, what product you were shooting for. You shot for that. And now we’re picking up that piece of paper again. And for those of you who didn’t get the ultimate consultation form, it’s dotherework.com on the very first page of the website, the ultimate consultation form. Download it. It’s free. Get it there.
Allison Tyler Jones: So you’re taking that form and you’re saying, oh, okay. So they wanted an image above the fireplace, they wanted an album, and they wanted holiday cards. And we’re populating that creative agenda with what image is going to go into what product. Now, when you’re culling that session, you don’t need multiple variations of each shot. Okay? So for example, let’s say the creative agenda is, and this is very common for us, is they want the family image to be the big one that’s going to go above the sofa, above the fireplace, wherever. And then they want to do individual headshots of each kid, maybe black and white, really close up, every little eyelash, cute little freckles, so cute. And they want to do maybe one of the kids together, and then maybe holiday cards, and/or they might do one big family picture and then maybe an album.
Allison Tyler Jones: So usually it’s one big image, and then some smaller ones either in an album or a smaller wall gallery, and then some holiday cards. So when I am culling for that, then I know, okay, usually if we know that we’re doing this family image, I will do standing, sitting. We might do two, maybe three variations, poses of the family. So I am going to pick the very best one. If it needs a head swap, I’m going to have that done ahead of time. We won’t do a full retouch on it, but I will get the very best image of that one, of that pose. And so let’s just say that I’ve shot three poses, standing, sitting and maybe something really, dancing more casual and organic. So I’m going to pick the very best one of each of those. So I’m showing them three images of the family.
Allison Tyler Jones: I’m not showing them 10 images of pose number one, 10 images of pose number two, 10 images of pose number three. I’m not doing that because it’s too overwhelming. They don’t know what we know. They don’t know that when I show them something where everybody’s perfect except the baby’s got her eyes closed, that I can get another baby head. They don’t really trust that can happen and look good. And so they’re kind of concerned about it, especially new clients. Existing clients, this is easier with because they’ve been through the whole process and they see that we can do that and it’s fine, but new clients are very concerned about it. So especially with new clients, we will do the head swaps ahead of time so that they can see… And we’ll do what we call a pre-touch on that image so it’s got a little bit of love given to it, but it’s not the full Monty that we’re going to give to something that’s going to be like a 40 by 60, but just enough so that they can visualize and see, okay, it’s clear that the sitting image is the winner.
Allison Tyler Jones: Okay? Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a couple in my back pocket in another folder somewhere, that if they feel like they really don’t like any of them, then we can go to plan B, but I absolutely never have to go to plan. They always are able to pick from one, two, three. So I want you to think about, going back to that, that thing that I was reading from The Paradox of Choice before, that too many options can lead to paralysis, making it harder to choose anything at all. And even after making a choice, people who are exposed to too many options are more likely to feel disappointed or regretful, fearing they made the wrong decision or missed out on something better. So when we’re showing them too many, the ghost of those too many are still floating around in their brain cells somewhere and they’re feeling like, well, did I really make the right decision?
Allison Tyler Jones: Whereas when it’s less, I’ve shown you one image of everybody standing, one image of everybody sitting, and one image of everybody being crazy and falling on the floor. Okay? So you can look at those as a client and say, okay, the one of everybody falling on the floor, I’m a traditionalist. I’m pretending I’m a client, right? That’s not going to be our main family portrait. So it’s sitting or standing. And there will be a clear winner. And I’m guiding them through this process. I’m helping them by saying, “Okay, just quickly, if you just had to pick really fast right now, which one would you pick?” And so usually that one is the one, but they don’t trust themselves to make the decision that quickly. So we might have to sit with it for a minute and kind of chat about it, but it’s usually their initial reaction when that image comes up and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I love that one,” that’s usually always the one, but it takes them…
Allison Tyler Jones: They don’t trust themselves to decide that quickly. So it takes an expert to help guide them and tell them why they responded in that way. “You’re exactly right. This sitting one, it’s perfect because you’re closer and you’re huggy. It kind of has the feel of the organic one where everybody’s falling on the floor laughing. So you have that feeling of movement, and it’s not quite as traditional as the standing one.” So these are the kinds of words that I’m using with clients as we’re looking through the images and helping them to decide. And I am really telling them my honest opinion. “If this was me, this is the one that I would pick. Based on knowing what it is that you want, knowing where it’s going to hang, knowing your home and what you like, I really feel like this is going to be the best one.”
Allison Tyler Jones: And so it helps them to not have regret, not second guess themselves, because the artist that shot it is weighing in with her opinion and helping them to select. I recently saw this hilarious video on Facebook of a photographer editing a session of, I think it was his dog, and they had this tense music playing. It’s like photographer editing a session and he’s clicking back and forth between literally the dog’s head is a millimeter different from one shot to the next. He’s in Lightroom clicking back and forth, and like, “I don’t know. This one or this one? This one or this one?” And he just can’t decide. And this tense music is playing, and he’s running his hands through his hair, like how these decisions are so difficult.
Allison Tyler Jones: And it is true because we have that little voice in our head of like, well, this one’s so cute with the little girl smiling without teeth, but then she’s got the big smile here and that one’s so cute. And then there’s this other one that’s really cute too, and I don’t really know because this might be a look that she gives the mom, and the mom’s going to have to pick. And then there’s this other one. And so before you know it… So in this scenario where we… I’ve told you how I work through the family pose. Now we’re down to the individual poses of each kid. We’re showing them six, seven, 10 images of each individual kid. No, not necessary. Not necessary. So again, teeth, no teeth, and then maybe something that’s a little unexpected, like a real personality shot. So three, that’s all you need, maybe two, maximum four, but no more than that. If you’re showing more than that, you are overwhelming the client. It’s too much. Okay? So I’m just giving you permission to edit it down.
Allison Tyler Jones: Now if those numbers scare you, if you’re like, there is no possible way I could show that few, just take whatever you normally show a client and cut it by 30%. So whatever that number is, just cut it by 30% and see what happens, and you’ll be amazed at how much quicker your sales appointment goes, how much less overwhelmed your client is, how much better the sale closes and stays closed. They aren’t changing their mind and revisiting it later. It is absolutely amazing. The next thing you don’t want to do is you don’t want to overwhelm the client with too many products, too much product information. So for example, if you’re showing them an album, don’t bust out the swatches. You pick what you think they should do. If you think it needs to have a photo cover and it needs to be in this size and that sort of thing based on what they’ve told you, based on the creative agenda, show them what you think they should do.
Allison Tyler Jones: Do not pull out a bunch of swatches because they don’t have the bandwidth, and they will second guess themselves, and they will go away feeling like they will have all of those other colors in their mind and they will feel like they got the wrong one. And then you’re going to deliver it to them and you’re going to have somebody say, “Oh, I should have got the brown leather instead of the black leather.” It’s just not a smart idea. So kind of going back to that idea of the interior designer idea, is you’re curating, you’re taking all of the available options that are out there, and you are the filter between the lab, the framer, all of that, and your client. You’re going out into the world and saying, here are all of these options, and this is what my client, based on how many kids she has or based on her high school senior or her newborn, or whatever genre you’re photographing, this is what I think that she should have, based on the images that I photographed and how it all ties together.
Allison Tyler Jones: That kind of expertise is so hard to find. In any industry, to have somebody willing to take responsibility and tightly curate something for you an experience, tightly curate their words, tightly curate your experience, and tightly curate what it is the product that they’re actually showing you and come forth with an opinion about what they think you should have, that is the value that they are paying you for, is your opinion, your eye, your ability to photograph their family in a unique way and interpret their family in a unique way, and then to have an opinion about how those images should be presented and displayed, period. That is what they’re paying you for. And if you won’t take that responsibility and you won’t take the time to tightly curate those images, you are literally not doing your job. So let me give you an example. My sister… I don’t know if I’ve ever sold this story before, hopefully not, but I’m getting old, so you never know.
Allison Tyler Jones: But I photographed her family and it was a busy season, and I just didn’t have time to edit the session, to cull the session. So I literally threw up every single image, even all the out of focus, dark, flash didn’t fire, and just threw them into a web gallery and sent them to her and just said, “Figure out what you want and I’ll do it.” And she was so mad at me. She’s like, “That was the worst experience I’ve ever had in my life. I would never do that to a client. That is so horrible. Don’t ever do that to me again. I would never say, ‘Here are all the couches that are available. Pick the one and tell me what one you want.'” She goes, “That’s just so not fair.” She was kind of kidding, but not really. And of course, I kind of got a little bit mad because I was like, excuse me, I’m doing this for free and you’re my sister. And it’s the busy season, and you made me photograph your family during the busy season.
Allison Tyler Jones: But when I thought about it, I thought, wow, that is really interesting because I think, man, how many clients… You think that our clients would love that. They would love… How many times have you had somebody say, “Well, are these all the images?” because you might have a maximizer client that Barry Schwartz talks about in that book, maximizers who want to make the perfect decision, which doesn’t exist. So maximizers are really never happy with their decisions, and they have a really hard time making decisions. So a maximizer might ask you, “Are these all the images? Well, can I see all the images?” And you think that they would want to see those. Oh, no, no. No, no, no, they don’t. They don’t. They don’t. And we don’t either. When we’re going to an interior designer, we don’t want to see all the couches.
Allison Tyler Jones: I don’t want to see all of the fabric swatches. Tell me what you think is the best. And then if I hate all of these, then we can go deeper, but limit this for me because this is not my area of expertise. You know what I like. We’ve had a consultation. You know how I live that… Maybe the client has a bunch of dogs and a bunch of kids. Then you know that it’s not going to be silk velvet, white silk velvet. It’s going to be performance fabric and it’s going to be super sturdy, and maybe not white, right? So again, the interior designer is taking all of that information and taking responsibility to curate for all the possible options and come up with an opinion for that client.
Allison Tyler Jones: That is what they are paying her for, is that opinion. So that’s what… She might mark up the sofa, she might mark up the fabric, she might get paid for all of those things, but really the reason she’s able to do any of that is because they value her expertise and her opinion on how their home is going to look, how they’re going to live, what they’re going to sit on, the entire environment that they’re going to be living in, and our industry is very similar to that. The goal is to tightly curate these images, to cull the session down to the minimum effective dose. What is the smallest amount of images that we can show the client and still get the result that we need, which is a perfect, amazing portrait for their home. So the assignment is that the next time you go to cull a session, I want you to look back historically, maybe the last five sessions that you’ve shot, and see how many images you’re typically showing a client, if you don’t know it off the top of your head.
Allison Tyler Jones: So go back and look through, whether you’re showing them in a ProSelect, Fundy, Lightroom, whatever, look back and see about how many images you’re showing, and then I want you to cut that by 30%, by a third. Cut it down. And then I want you to see what happens, and take note of what happens. And it’s harder. It’s harder work to cut it down tighter. It really makes you make decisions. But if you don’t do it, what you’re doing is you’re making the client have to do that, and you are overwhelming them. You are wearing them out. And then because you’ve shown them too many options, go back to that quote again, they are more likely to feel disappointed or regretful, fearing they made the wrong decision or missed out on something better, and that is not where we want our clients to be.
Allison Tyler Jones: That’s your assignment for number three, cut it by 30%, your next session. So let’s recap. We’ve come from overwhelming our clients with too many words, but we are going to simplify our words. We are going to focus on the essential. Simplify the language, and focus on the essentials that we want our clients to know to get them from one step to the other, not overwhelming them with too many words. We are going to stop overwhelming our clients with too much experience. We’re going to figure out the minimum effective dose of what is the minimum amount of time, the minimum amount of outfits, the minimum amount of locations that is still going to get us the result that we want. We are going to streamline this so that their time is well used, and they leave wanting more, and they feel energized and they’re excited to come back next year. Because when we overwhelm them, they feel like that was so hard, it was so exhausting. I don’t think I can do it again. When they leave on an up, they’re like, oh, we’re doing this every year. We’re coming back next year.
Allison Tyler Jones: And then we’re going to stop overwhelming our clients with too many choices. We are going to tightly cull our sessions by at least 30%, that’s the goal, and simplify our product suggestions. We’re not going to be busting out swatches, we’re not going to be busting out walls of frame options. We’re going to tightly, tightly curate that specific client session with their frame suggestions, with the whole package tightly curated just for that client. And when we do all of these things together, the clients will leave feeling taken care of, guided. They will feel settled in their decision, happy with what they purchased. They don’t need to revisit it, and they are excited to come back next year because the process was so easy and they felt like everything was completely and totally handled instead of being thrown in their lap and they were made to decide and do the work.
Allison Tyler Jones: So I hope you’ve enjoyed our series of Overwhelming Your Clients, and I would love to hear how this is going for you if you’ve tried to implement any of our assignments or suggestions. My Instagram is @atjphoto. That’s the studio Instagram, and that’s usually the main one that I’m on, or @do.the.rework. Dm me either place. I would love to know how you’re doing and how it’s going, and if there’s any struggles or problems that you’re running into. You could also email me directly at support@dotherework.com. I would love to hear from you. I just want to encourage you that the value that we are bringing to our clients is our unique expertise, our willingness to take responsibility, to choose from all the available options out there to tightly curate a session and not overwhelm them with too many things, either because we’re so excited, because we’re creative and we like to add on a lot of things, or because we’re fearful that we’re not good enough and that we’re not valuable enough, and the only way to be valuable enough is just to layer on more and more things.
Allison Tyler Jones: Neither is necessary. You are enough how you are, and you moving forward with your opinion and how you see it, that is the value. That is what the client is paying for, and it’s worth it. It’s worth every penny. I appreciate you being here, and we’ll see you next week.
Recorded: You can find more great resources from Allison at dotherework.com and on Instagram @do.the.rework.
