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.
Recorded: 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: Hi friends, and welcome back to The ReWork. Today’s guest is Alison Tyler Jones Photography’s newest employee, Miss Kaitlyn Beagley. She started right at the beginning of the 2021 busy season right after Labor Day last year, and she is a star. She is doing all of our booking calls now, and is scheduling all of our clients. And she has just taken this ball and run with it.
Allison Tyler Jones: And I wanted to have a conversation with her today because our listeners have asked again and again for more information on this very first phone call, like, “How are we booking people? What are we saying to people? What exactly is it that we are asking of them? Are we really booking the consultation, the session, and the sales appointment all in that first phone call?” And the answer is, we are.
Allison Tyler Jones: And so, this conversation with Kaitlyn is going to tell you how it is that we’re doing that. She has some tips that she’s just learned, because she’s so new to this, but she is killing it. She’s doing such a great job. So I can’t wait for you to hear the tips that she’s learned by being trained, but also some things that she’s developed on her own. So I hope you enjoy it, and that you can put it into practice in your own business. Let’s do it.
Allison Tyler Jones: I am so excited to welcome our very own Kaitlyn Beagley to the podcast today. Welcome, Kaitlyn. I’m so glad that you’re here.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Hey, thanks for having me on. I’m so excited.
Allison Tyler Jones: Well, you’re the youngest member of the ATJ team by a mile. And also, I think we just have decided that we’re all working for you now.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Oh, really?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Because you’re just bossing us around, and it’s so good. I love it.
Kaitlyn Beagley: It’s a lot of fun. Thank you.
Allison Tyler Jones: So, when was your official start date?
Kaitlyn Beagley: I started after Labor Day.
Allison Tyler Jones: Okay. So you started in the fall 2021 season, straight into crazy.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yep.
Allison Tyler Jones: Okay.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yep.
Allison Tyler Jones: And so, you’ve been a client.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Allison Tyler Jones: I’ve photographed your mom’s family, your family of origin, and your senior pictures. And so, you’ve been a client. But this is the first time that you’ve worked with us. So, thoughts and feelings on being a new hire at ATJ Studio? How is that going?
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah, no. I love it. It was interesting, because I had seen the client side, and I had never thought of working here. And so, it was interesting when I first started working here. It was mind blowing. A lot of things I had no clue as a client, and then I was a kid.
Allison Tyler Jones: Sure.
Kaitlyn Beagley: But it was crazy to see a lot of the behind-the-scenes of how it all happened, so it was really cool.
Allison Tyler Jones: So what was surprising to you? What seemed to be unusual, or what was surprising?
Kaitlyn Beagley: I think it was interesting how we print and frame all of our stuff. And I just thought it was just interesting to see that I didn’t know it took eight to 10 weeks to get your portraits back, because I would be at school and then one day I’d come, and poof, my house has new pictures on the walls.
Allison Tyler Jones: It was miraculous.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yes. And so, it was just interesting to see the changes. So I thought it was cool to see the whole process.
Allison Tyler Jones: So you were hired, as we’ve taken… Jessica had previously been our Client Coordinator, and she’s moved over more into doing a lot of the rework stuff for the education side, and now we needed a new Client Coordinator. And so, you came in and just took over like a storm, but in the best sense, in a really organized storm that knows everything and is so awesome.
Allison Tyler Jones: So, as you’re being trained, what I want to talk today about for this episode, is that we have a lot of questions about the first contact. So, when a client is calling in new, either off of the website or maybe a DM from Instagram or whatever, but when they’re first contacting us, that’s a super sensitive time. And you have to have a lot of trust in an employee before you can let them do that, because that’s basically your leads and your conversions and all of that kind of stuff.
Allison Tyler Jones: So you didn’t start out the first day doing that, but it was pretty quick.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Oh, yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: You picked it up pretty quick. So tell me about that. If we were retraining your replacement right now, what would you be saying to her? Or what are some of the things that you felt like were helpful, or whatever you want to say about it.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah, totally. For the first several phone calls that Jessica and Stacy, whoever was answering the phone was getting, I would try to sit in as many of those as I could, and bring pen a paper and just start writing down notes, key phrases, all the things. And one thing that I liked doing, was I would ask them to put the phone on speaker, and then I would bring my own first contact framework. So I would fill one out as if I was the one kind of having the conversation with them. So then, that way I familiarized myself with the first contact framework, and then it was interesting to compare kind of what I thought they had written down at the end. I really liked doing that.
Allison Tyler Jones: So, what you’re describing is the booking form, the consultation form that we use in our studio. And just as a quick little side note, for those of you who don’t have that form and you would like a copy of that form, if you go to dotherework.com, you can download it there, our booking form. It’s absolutely free. And you can just look at that and see what… It’s basically the form that we use to book sessions, and it has a step-by-step framework that the girls work their way through asking clients questions, and how they answer questions and all of that sort of thing. So that’s what she’s talking about. So, Kaitlyn, as say Jessica was filling that out for a client, you had a copy of it and you were filling your own out, just to see if you were catching the same things that she was. That’s a really good idea.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah, totally, because I felt like… I kind of put a check mark if I talked about something or there were key things that I felt like I need to know about them or their family or their schedule.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah, yeah.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Because that’s all important in scheduling. But yeah, that was very helpful. And then I also loved… We have a podcast, I believe it’s you and Jessica on the first phone call. And I listen to that all the time. I still do.
Allison Tyler Jones: I love that.
Kaitlyn Beagley: It’s a really good one.
Allison Tyler Jones: I think that’s Episode Two.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: I think that was one of the very first episodes that we did on the podcast.
Kaitlyn Beagley: The very first.
Allison Tyler Jones: I know. We did in the basement, laying on… Because we didn’t know what we were doing with podcasting. We were literally, if you can picture when you listen to that, we’re laying on a twin bed, both using the same mic, trying to make the room be quiet. And I don’t even know how that thing came about.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Oh my gosh.
Allison Tyler Jones: But I’m glad that you found it helpful.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yes. I’ve listened to that so many times, but I feel like every time I listen to that, I pull something out of it. So I really like that. And then, something else I’ve found helpful more recently as I’ve been doing my own phone calls is, I’ll use the studio phone and then I’ll put it on speaker, and I’ll use my phone and record it. And then when I’m done, I’ll go back through and be like, “Okay, how can I tweak this? How could I make this better? What could I have done.”
Allison Tyler Jones: Is it any wonder that I love you as much as I do? You’re so awesome. Just for anybody that’s listening, employees like this don’t just grow on trees. It’s taken me many years. She’s awesome. I’m so lucky. Okay. So, you’ve had a lot of booking under your belt.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Because it’s been-
Kaitlyn Beagley: The phone has been-
Allison Tyler Jones: The phone been nuts lately, and we’ve been booking a lot. So, what do you feel like are the things that make you feel like… What’s hard?
Kaitlyn Beagley: Totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: When somebody asks something, what’s scary for you still?
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah. I feel like a lot of the times when we get new clients that call, the first thing they want to know is pricing. And it’s like, “Hold on. What are you wanting? What is the end result? We’re not just going to jump straight in, because if you’re wanting an 8×10, maybe you might be better somewhere else. But let’s figure out where is this going to live? Or is it going to go on an album or on a wall? What are you thinking? Just one big fine art print, or are you thinking…?”
Kaitlyn Beagley: There’s so many different ways you could go with a project. And so, I think it’s so important to figure out what they want. Alison says a lot, “Begin with the end in mind.” And so, I love trying to figure out why. Well, obviously, they’re probably wanting family portraits and capture the whole family, but where is this going to go?
Allison Tyler Jones: And so, when they say, because you know what the answer to that is, right, is always, “I don’t know.”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah. Yeah. And they’re like, “Well, I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it like that.”
Allison Tyler Jones: Right. And then what are you saying to them?
Kaitlyn Beagley: Well, I say most of the time, “Everything we do is either in an album or on the wall. That’s what we’re known for. That’s what we do.”
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. So then, you’re talking to them about their kids.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Asking all about the kids, asking what the kids like to do after school. Do they have any hobbies? I want to get to know their kids, because that is something that not only you can have as a resource while you and Stacy are shooting, but it’s also good for us to be able to talk with them in the consultation. And it’s good for a lot of things. It gives us ideas for the shoot. If they’re all about sports and they go to every Suns game, maybe they’re in Suns jerseys.
Allison Tyler Jones: Right. So, I would love to hear exactly what you say. So, if I’m saying, “Okay, so Kaitlyn, how does it work? How much does it cost?”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Oh yeah. So I’d say, “Hey, where are you thinking these portraits are going to live?” Or, “What’s the idea behind your project?”
Allison Tyler Jones: Okay. I love that. So, we’re going straight to the project, not necessarily talking about price. Because we can’t really quote on price because we don’t know what it is that they’re doing.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah. And everything is custom, so I want to get to know… Because their project will be unique to them, I want to know… Everything we do is custom, so it will need to be… It’s not like I can just tell you, “Well, you’re just wanting one family portrait. For one family portrait, it’s X amount.”
Allison Tyler Jones: It’s X, yeah. Because it’s how is it sized? How is it framed?
Kaitlyn Beagley: Totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: How is it… All of those things.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. So, the time for you, so what do you see that first phone call, in your mind right now, and there’s no right or wrong answer. This is not a test, but I’m just interested to know. What’s the purpose of that call?
Kaitlyn Beagley: I think the purpose of that call is, I think it’s a good interview for us to interview them and for them to interview us. For us, it’s good to see, are they qualified? Would this be a good fit? Would they be good to work with? That type of deal? And then for them, they’re totally interested in how quick can we get them in, the pricing. What do we do? How does it work? That type of thing. And so, I think it’s very important in the first phone call to make sure that we are very clear with our message, and letting them know what we do. It needs to be crystal clear.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Kaitlyn Beagley: And then, for us to be able to kind of pull as much information out of them about who they are and are they qualified.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. Well, and also one thing that I really, and I’m sure you do this, but this is the beginning of the relationship.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: This is where it all begins. This is where it starts. So this could be a total turn on, it could be a total turn off. And so, even the people that go away that aren’t at the moment “qualified,” or don’t want to be “qualified,” because there are plenty of people that could be qualified, but they just don’t want to do it right now.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: They aren’t in the market for wall art or whatever, is that they still feel like they were heard, understood. And in a way, I want them to go away feeling like they got to stop a minute and think about what they love about their family.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: And have that whole little convo with you and, “Well, my middle child, yeah, he is complicated. But actually I love this, this, and this about him.”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Totally. Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: So that relationship, starting that, off because we’ve had many times that we’ve had those conversations with clients that have said, “Let me talk to my husband. I don’t think this is in the cards for us right now, but I’ll get back to you.” It might be two years later that they call back. But they’re like, “That was so fun. I’ve been dreaming about having your work on my wall for two years.”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah. Totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: But if we’re bratty, which you would never be, but if you’re kind of like, “Oh, well, we started this and you’re not cool if you don’t come along for the ride.”
Kaitlyn Beagley: No.
Allison Tyler Jones: We’re never starting from that standpoint.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah. Yeah, no. Definitely, the first phone call could set up our relationship for the rest of the client’s time with us. So I think it’s very important to be super clear with our m.o., and super kind to them. Those two go-
Allison Tyler Jones: Clear and kind, I love it. What other things do you feel like that maybe were hard to answer? And they could be not hard for you anymore, but what was your learning trajectory?
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah, totally. I felt like when I first started taking first phone calls, the client intakes, I thought it was so hard, because we were in busy season. So I’m already, there’s so much on our plates, so it’s like, “Oh my gosh, hold on. No, wait. Someone’s calling. Ah.”
Allison Tyler Jones: Right. It seemed like an interruption.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yes. So I felt like it’s so important, and I’ve learned now, whatever you’re doing, you just have to totally stop. And it’s going to happen. You just have to stop whatever you’re doing and smile, because if you are happy, that’ll help change the way the conversation goes. So, stop and smile, and then answer the phone. And then I felt like that’s usually a good way to start clear, start fresh, take a breather.
Allison Tyler Jones: So that you can really focus on them.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Because if you’re focused on them, they can understand. You can totally feel, if you’re on phone with someone, you totally know if they’re listening to you, if they’re not. It’s like, “Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Yeah.” You can totally-
Allison Tyler Jones: Exactly.
Kaitlyn Beagley: … tell. And so, when I’m invested in them and I’m asking them good questions about who they are, what they’re wanting, that sort of stuff, they can totally tell I’m there for them. I’m listening. So I think that’s-
Allison Tyler Jones: I love that. I think that’s such a good point. We need to add that in, because I think you absolutely can tell if people aren’t listening to you.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Oh, yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Anybody that’s been on the phone with their teenager that’s half listening. Yeah. That’s really good. It sets up how the relationship is going to proceed. So if they sense that they’re interrupting you, they’re bugging you, or whatever, they’re not going to feel like they want to talk to you and tell you about their kids and get into a big conversation, because they’re going to be like, “She’s not even listening to me. Why would I start telling you about my deepest thoughts and feelings about my kids?”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Oh, yeah, your kids.
Allison Tyler Jones: I think we all could say that we would like more, really great qualified leads. But what happens when we get contacted by a potential new client? We sometimes have that pit in our stomach of, “Oh, no. It’s not a good time right now. I don’t want to call them. What if they ask me hard questions? Oh, I don’t really know that I have the words to say.” And we put it off until we call, and they’ve already booked somebody else. Or maybe we don’t ever call, or we’re just letting things fall through the cracks.
Allison Tyler Jones: So, if you ever find yourself in this type of situation, and you feel like, “I just don’t know the words to say,” or “I don’t know how to talk to these people” or “Am I doing it wrong?” I have a solution for all three of those things. If you go to dotherework.com, we have three different free resources for you. One is our Ultimate Client Consultation Guide that is going to help you, step-by-step, walk that prospective client through your process, how it is that you work. It has all the little speed bumps, so to speak, along the way, to help you remember to say all the things that you need to say.
Allison Tyler Jones: Next is our Cheat Sheet of frequently asked difficult questions, that has an exhaustive list of all the hard questions that clients come up with, that will help you get started on answering those confidently so that you don’t have that feeling in the pit of your stomach anymore, and you’re going to pick up that phone immediately.
Allison Tyler Jones: And lastly is our Sales Sabotage Evaluation Tool, and that is going to help you to figure out where you are screwing it up, because we all do at one time or another. So go to dotherework.com, and wherever you’re at in your business, if you’re needing to rework your message, if you’re needing to rework your answers, if you’re needing to rework your sales process, they are all right there on that very first page. They are free. They are resources to help you in your business.Go do it. Download them now, and start doing better. Start booking those clients confidently, and start selling them your gorgeous, beautiful work, because they need it.
Allison Tyler Jones: One of the questions that we get a lot with the photographers that ask us about this process is they’re like, “Are you really booking three appointments in that first phone call?”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah, we are. Yes, we do.
Allison Tyler Jones: Okay. And so, how is that happening? How are you doing that? Because people, for some reason that seems to be like, “No, there’s no way you could possibly be booking.” And by three appointments, I mean, what Kaitlyn is booking, is she’s booking the consultation, which is about a 30-40 minute appointment, where they usually come into the studio and meet with me. Then she’s booking the actual session itself, and she’s booking the view and order, which is the sales appointment that they have usually about a week or so after, where they come in to make their final selection. So those are the three appointments that she’s booking. So I’m going to let you tell how you do that, Kaitlyn.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah, totally. So, the first thing I always look for is, “Okay, let’s nail the session down. When is the whole family free? Not so much free, but when would be the best time for us, for them, to make things work?”
Kaitlyn Beagley: One of the things that we’ve found as we book, we typically book Monday through Thursday for our shoots, and then Friday and Saturday are considered our weekend shoots. So typically, we’ll try to go for the weekdays first, and if they’re hesitant because, “Oh, the kids are in school. Oh, it’ll have to be later, like at 5:00, so we can get to you.” We’ll typically say something along the lines of, “Well, we could do a 10:00 AM on this day, and this would be a great opportunity for you to be able to pull the kids out, spend some great time with them, come in here. We can take the portraits, and then go take them for some lunch, and just spend a great family day creating awesome memories with your kids.”
Kaitlyn Beagley: And a lot of the times, moms will, most of the time, if they have younger kids, I feel like they’ll typically will do that. The older kids are a little bit harder, than they’ll try and ask for a 3:00. So they’ll have to get out of school a little earlier, but that will typically happen. But yeah, so that’s for the photo session.
Allison Tyler Jones: So you’re saying book the session first, because that’s going to be the hardest one to book, because that involves the most people.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yes. Yes, correct.
Allison Tyler Jones: Okay. And then, you’re going to forward and backwards schedule off of that.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yes. Then we’ll go to the consultation. I typically try to do that at least a week or two before, so they can get clothes and hair and makeup if they need. So I try to give them more time in between there. And then, after the portrait session, usually about a week after we’ll schedule the view and order appointment. And we always try to, anyone who’s making any financial decisions on the portraits, we ask that they’re at that view and order appointment.
Allison Tyler Jones: And so, is that how you’re asking them? How are you communicating that to them when you-
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah. I’ll just ask her, “Is your husband wanting to you view the portraits? Is he wanting to be there to finalize? How does he feel about it?” I’ll ask them those type of questions, and sometimes they’re like, “No, if he doesn’t care. He just kind put me in charge.” Okay, great. Sometimes, “Oh yeah, he really wants to be there to see them then.” And, “Okay. What will work out with his schedule?”
Allison Tyler Jones: Perfect. So, I think the thing that’s important about this is that… So Kaitlyn is the first pass, right? So, that’s that first mini consultation is what that first contact is. And so, she’s finding a little bit about the kids. She’s having a little bit of a conversation, just enough to, “Okay. They do want a book.” And she’s looking for minimizing language. She’s looking for price sensitivity. She’s looking for all of those things, but then if all is, well, then she’ll go ahead and book the session, the consultation, the view and order.
Allison Tyler Jones: And then, when they come in for the consultation, then that is where I’m going to really go granular into all of that. Then we’re going to be quoting actual exact prices so that there’s complete transparency from beginning to end. And I’m going to go more deep on the kids. We’re going to go talk about the house, that sort of thing. So, she gives me enough information on that booking form so that I can come into the consultation having never met this client before, and be able to talk with them and go, “Oh, so your oldest is a football player. That’s awesome. That’s so cool that he made varsity as a freshman.” Or whatever, I can just immediately start talking about some of those things, and we can short circuit the conversation, not having to start over at the very beginning.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: So you’re-
Kaitlyn Beagley: I think it’s so important to take good notes on that, so that way, even if it was you doing it for yourself, it’s so important for me or you or whoever’s taking the phone call to take the good notes.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. Because you forget.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: Because you’re talking to a lot of different people, and then that way I can look at it and see, she absolutely hates the color green, so I’m not going to show her green-
Kaitlyn Beagley: Anything green. Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: … photos with green in it. Yeah. I love that. Okay. So now, the scary question that you said was when they ask about pricing. So you kind of stop them if the very first thing that, “Hey, how much is it?” You’re like, “Okay, well tell me you’re about your project, what it is that we’re doing.” So we’re starting that relationship. We’re getting a little bit of information. So then, how are you quoting price? What does that look like?
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah. Yeah. So I’ll say, “Typically, new clients spend north of $6,000. It varies based on every project. You were just kind of telling me about your project, it sounds like you’re wanting more of this, this, and this. So everything’s totally custom. Allison will able to give you a better idea at your consultation appointment of pricing and where you’re going with that.” And then that’s kind of usually where it starts.
Allison Tyler Jones: Okay. And I overheard you a couple of times last week. I didn’t tell you. I was hiding, not hiding, but I was just standing in the closet listening to you do a couple of calls. Because I’m like, “I wonder how that’s going.” And it was… You said exactly what you’re saying. It’s awesome. You’re doing a great job.
Allison Tyler Jones: So what she’s doing, is just starting out bottom range. So, we start at $6,000 and go north of there, which you actually upgraded from $5,000, I noticed, which I’m like, “Awesome. Great.”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yes.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. She used to say most of our clients spend north of $5,000, now it’s six. So, okay. That’s great.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Framing just went up.
Allison Tyler Jones: It sure did. Oh, it sure did. Yeah.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Add that in there.
Allison Tyler Jones: So that way, she’s not put on the spot for having to quote an actual price of an actual thing.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Right.
Allison Tyler Jones: Which she could do, but she’s letting them know that, “Okay. It’s at least this.”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yes.
Allison Tyler Jones: So that way, if somebody is like, “Look, I thought it was going to be $500,” that we’re not even in the ballpark, and that’s completely fine. She’s spent the time, she’s loved on them, so that in a time when it is in their ballpark, they know who to call for great art on their walls. And then that way, when they come to me, they have the floor, in their mind. They know it’s at least going to be that. And then that way, again, I’m hitting the ground running because Kaitlyn’s taken amazing notes. I know where we go from here, and that’s the way it is.
Allison Tyler Jones: Now, if you’re a solopreneur, if you’re on your own, and you don’t have a Kaitlyn, I’m sorry that you don’t have a Kaitlyn, but I’m not sharing her. And until we invent cloning, you can’t have her. But if you’re by yourself, and for many years, I did do my own booking for a long time, you can use that booking form and you can do a more in-depth first phone call, almost like a mini consultation.
Allison Tyler Jones: And when it comes to high school seniors, maybe commercial work, that sort of thing, we don’t do an in-person consultation. We only do in-person consultations for our flagship product, which is our family and kid portraits. But if seniors is your flagship portrait, then you definitely want to do something in-person. So you can do make that first phone call a little more meaty, a little longer, a little bit more information, quoting some more prices.
Allison Tyler Jones: And sometimes, when we are doing consultations with existing clients, so this might be clients that came last year, or maybe clients that haven’t been to us for three or four years, those “consultations,” Kaitlyn will still do what she’s doing. She’ll let me know that she’s got them booked, and then we’ll set up a phone call for me to do a consultation. So not every consultation is in-person. So I think it’s important to say that.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Absolutely.
Allison Tyler Jones: Because sometimes that saves you a little bit of time, especially if the clients have been, they know the drill, they know what your pricing is. And so, really what you need to do is just talk about concept, and if any pricing has changed or whatever, you can still quote them, “This is what I’m thinking that we’re going to do. We’re going to add to the gallery. We’re going to replace the one over the fireplace, and it’s going to be about this much.” That way they know before we even shoot what’s going on.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yep. Totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: Okay. Are there any other pearls of wisdom, advice that you’ve learned doing those first phone calls that you think would be helpful to our students or to our listeners?
Kaitlyn Beagley: Just take a deep breath and just focus on them. That’s what I would say, because then it’ll all be good.
Allison Tyler Jones: Because the thing that I think is so good about that, Kaitlyn, I’m really glad that you brought that up, is that when you take a deep breath and you’re making it all about them, you’re not in a hurry.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: And when you’re not in a hurry, you’re not in a hurry to maybe answer questions that haven’t been asked, or you’re not just popping off with whatever first came to your mind. You actually can be slower and more intentional. And then if they ask you something that you don’t know, or that maybe you don’t have a price for, or that feels really scary to you, you can just pause and say, “I don’t know. Let me check and I’ll get back to you on that.”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah, totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: And I think when you’re newly training, you probably had to say that a few times.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, for sure.
Allison Tyler Jones: “Let me check with Jessica or let me check with Allison. I don’t really know.” And if you’re the only person there, where you think you should have to know everything, you can just say, “You know what? I actually don’t have that price in front of me” or “I don’t have that information in front of me. Let me get back to you.” And then it’ll give you time to think about it. Nobody’s holding again to your head, even though sometimes it feels like it when you’re doing these first phone calls.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Oh, yes. I would also say one thing that I just thought of that would be important, is if someone, if you do get a new inquiry, it would be important to call them right when you get it. Now, I would say more typically in business hours. I wouldn’t call someone at 11:00 PM if they just submitted their inquiry.
Allison Tyler Jones: Sure.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Because that way they’re already in the frame of mind. For us, ours come through our website, and we get an email about it. So we know that they’re already looking at our website, or if they’re on your Instagram, they’ve been looking through your Instagram and are wanting some more information. So I think they’re already in that frame of mind thinking about it, so right then is a very important and great time to catch them. And ask them before you just start… You picked up the phone and called them right then, “Hey, do you have a couple of minutes?” Because if they’re busy, they’re not going to want to talk about it. And you will get the rushed answers from them.
Allison Tyler Jones: Exactly. And there are some people that, it’s so funny to me, my father-in-law who, God rest his soul, he would answer the phone. I don’t know what he would have had to have been doing to not answer the phone. He would answer the phone no matter what he was doing. And yet, sometimes you shouldn’t answer the phone. So, there are those people that just because it rang, they answered it, very few, but they exist. So we will always ask, “Have I caught you at a good time? Do you have a few minutes to talk about your portrait project?”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah. Totally.
Allison Tyler Jones: And that’s important, because then if they say something like, “Yeah, no, I can talk. I’m in the pickup line at preschool.” She’s not going to be listening to you if she’s driving. “Let me call you back when it’s a better time.”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah. And then just schedule a time, what time would work better for them.
Allison Tyler Jones: Right. But that striking while the iron is hot, cannot-
Kaitlyn Beagley: It’s huge.
Allison Tyler Jones: Cannot underestimate. Yeah.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: And we know nobody likes to talk on the phone.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Oh, no.
Allison Tyler Jones: We know that. And so, especially your gen. You’re only 20.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yes.
Allison Tyler Jones: So how is that going, talking on the phone. You’re a queen texter, DMer. How’s that been? Has it been hard or not really?
Kaitlyn Beagley: No. I actually don’t mind talking on the phone. I’ve had a lot of experience on the phone, so I feel like I’m very… I actually would rather call my friends versus text, because I hate… “Oh, this is too wordy. Just call them.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. It’s faster.
Kaitlyn Beagley: And so, I’d rather just… Totally. So I’d rather just call them, figure out what’s going on, get the scoop. Let’s get the ball rolling.
Allison Tyler Jones: Love it. And then, all the reminders and everything before the consultation, then that just all takes place via text, and it’s really easy for them, no worries. So the hardest thing is getting them on the phone that very first time, and just taking the time.
Allison Tyler Jones: So our takeaways from this is, get them on the phone, strike while the iron is hot, make sure that it’s a good time for them. Smile and focus on them, so quit doing what you’re doing. Do not multitask when you’re talking to a client. And then, download our booking form, the ATJ booking form, go to dotherework.com, and download the ATJ booking form, and use that as your guide. We’ve just recently updated it. So if you have downloaded this before and time has passed. Maybe you’ve heard me speak at Imaging or whatever, and you have that form, you don’t have the latest one because we just updated it-
Kaitlyn Beagley: It’s awesome.
Allison Tyler Jones: … in the last 30 days. We updated it for Kaitlyn, because it has all these little speed bumps in between all of those things to remind you of what to say. So go and get that, and then be present and listen, and just put in your mind that, “I am going to be able to set up these three appointments.” You’re going to focus, number one, on nailing down that session date, and then forward schedule for your consultation and backwards schedule for your view and order. I probably said that in reverse order, but you get the idea. Then your process has begun, your sales process that’s organized, that has your client feeling totally taken care of, and completely transparent so that there’s no surprises, has been put into place. And it really is not that hard.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah. It does take some practice, but it is so worth it over time.
Allison Tyler Jones: And I love that you are recording yourself, and I think that’s a huge… You could get so much better so much more quickly, if you recorded yourself, because you hear things when you listen to a recording that you don’t hear when you’re-
Kaitlyn Beagley: Oh, yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Yeah. Because it’s so quick, it happens so quick.
Allison Tyler Jones: Right. And you’re in your head and you’re nervous. And you’re like, “Oh, I just…” Because we’re all thinking, “I just want him to book. I just want him to book. I don’t want him to go away.” And we want to love on everybody. But when you listen to it, then you are like, “Oh. She was trying to tell me something there, and I just rode right over the top of her.”
Kaitlyn Beagley: Totally. Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: “I should have paused there,” or “I should have asked a question” or whatever. And it just informs your next time. So you can actually get so much better, so much faster if you record. And we’ve done a lot of recording together of different appointments that we’ll talk about in future episodes.
Allison Tyler Jones: So anyway, thank you, Kaitlyn. I appreciate your time. I’m so glad that you’re part of the ATJ team. We love you and appreciate you. Stacy and I were just saying, all of us are always saying, “How did we ever do it before Kaitlyn came?” We don’t know. But we hope we don’t ever have to find out. You’re in for life.
Kaitlyn Beagley: No, you won’t have to find out, I can promise you that.
Allison Tyler Jones: I love it. All right. Thank you, mama, and we’ll talk to you soon.
Kaitlyn Beagley: Thank you. Okay, bye.
Allison Tyler Jones: All right. Bye.
Allison Tyler Jones: Have I told you lately how much I appreciate you being here? I know that you have so many demands on your time and so many demands on your attention. You could be watching Netflix, you could be listening to a True Crime podcast, but you’ve spent time here at The ReWork, learning to make your portrait business better. And that really means a lot to me.
Allison Tyler Jones: If there’s somebody that you feel like could benefit from this episode, that you could help them and help us spread the word in helping other portrait photographers build better businesses, please go to where you’re listening to this episode and hit that share button and share it with them. And if you have time and can give us a review, you don’t even understand how much that means to a little tiny podcast like ours, to see those reviews and see how we’re helping.
Allison Tyler Jones: And if you have another minute, and can send me a DM, and let us know what you would like to hear in the future, what you really enjoyed hearing about, maybe things that weren’t that great, how we can do better. We always want to do better and we always want to support the portrait photography industry in helping you build the best businesses ever. Thanks again so much for being here.
Recorded: You can find more great resources from Allison at dotherework.com, and on Instagram at do.the.rework.
