WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?
We are in the business of creating images for you. Yes, they will look pretty, as after all, that’s a photographer’s job. All photographers can produce pretty pictures. Well, most of us can. And like any other professional photography supplier, we’ll do our utmost to create the images that you want from us. Note the poor English there, which was entirely intentional. We can easily provide you with what you want, but that may not necessarily be what you need. Our intent is to discover and help you obtain what you really need.
This may sound a little weird, so let’s look deeper at what I mean by this. What I don’t want to do is to enter into a stone-showing contest, a term coined by a manager I once worked for. So what is a stone-showing contest? It’s where I’ll present you with images, and you will reject them as you don’t know what you really want, and we’ll go back around that loop, over and over. But I can assure you that that in fact won’t happen as I’m adept at spotting the red flags immediately. The first is “I don’t know what I want”. I’ll help you with that, but I’m not going to get to the second red flag “I need it now!”. If you don’t know what you need then I’m not even going to let the project get that far, even when red flag number three pops up “We’ll figure it out during the shoot.” Nope! That’s not going to happen.
The Red Flags
But red flags are okay. I welcome them as I enjoy helping people. I see your pain and I’ll help you to overcome it. We all face problems from time to time but the good news is every problem has a solution. I’ll help you figure out what you need. It may turn out that what you need is not the same as what you thought you wanted, but I’ll help you figure that stuff out. Most photographers will just turn up, shoot what you want, and give you a bill. Maybe a very large one! But my goal is to be more than your photographer, as I want to help you figure this stuff out and work out exactly what you need. That’s more than being a photographer, that’s being a project manager, and I want to be your project manager.
Rather than just turn up and click away, I want to help you discover what you actually need. I do not wish to see you go down the wrong path as that’s not going to help either of us. Instead, I’ll help you figure out which path you should take. I’ll do more than take photographs, I’ll help your business. I’ll help you figure out your plan, the correct plan, and then I’ll execute. Now that’s more valuable than simply delivering photographs. Ultimately that’s what our true ability is, it’s not simply taking photographs, it’s about becoming your project manager. That’s our value proposition to you.
The key questions
This is going to start during our initial engagement with you as I’m going to ask you key questions:
“What is your true problem?” Again, this focuses on what you need as opposed to what you think you want. Let’s uncover your problem so that we can present you with a workable solution.
“Who is the photography for?” In other words, what are you trying to sell, how and where, and who are your target customers?
“What is the purpose of this photography?” What I want to know here is what result are you expecting with your photography.
“What does success look like for you?” This tells me exactly what I need to deliver.
Again, this all comes back to managing your project for you. I don’t just want to deliver photographs, I want to deliver success!
Wrap up
I really want to help you be successful, so please do reach out. And here's my usual end-of-post reminder, True Images Photography provides professional beverage, food, and product commercial photography that gets your business noticed. Feel free to book a free 30-minute consultation here. But we are not strict about the 30-minute duration, it can take as long as it needs to.
Please do look around the rest of the blog here for more helpful posts, and if you have any questions please reach out. I’m happy to advise. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn where I always answer messages with a detailed reply.