Obama's Coronation
Obama has been sworn in, he's now President #44 of the United States. The royal coronation had the same worldwide coverage as the opening ceremony of the Olympics, the final of the FIFA soccer world cup final or the 1997 funeral of Princess Diana.
What's that got to do with the business of photography? Apart from the photo coverage of the ceremonies, the photo coverage of the people in Washington DC, the photo coverage of the people watching the sworn-in ceremony around the world. Obama did an outstanding sell job. What did he sell? He sold hope. Hope is something that is in very short supply and it's something that everybody wants. Hope is an attitude. Hope makes everything else better.
When selling your photo services, are you offering any hope?
- Make the customer hope that your photos are better than your competitor's...
- Make the customer hope that your photos will help sell more...
- Make the customer hope that your photos will rekindle the memories of the event or memories of the time...
- Make the customer hope that they will be protected if something goes wrong[3][3]...
...
Sell hope and your sales will significantly improve. People and companies will pay millions more than their regular prices for hope.
- The beauty of hope is that you don't need to justify it.
- Deliver on the hope, and you will be called back again and again.
Instead of selling hope, you can sell fear:
- The fear of failure
- The fear of lawsuit
- ...
But you will need to have stronger pressure points in the selling of the fear than the selling of the hope.