MENU

149: Make more with wedding album sales and transform relationships with Shaun Austin.

April 1, 2021

Make more with wedding album sales and transform relationships with Shaun Austin.

Make more with wedding album sales and transform relationships

In this episode, I sit down with Shaun Austin, a photographer, turned CEO & founder of Kiss books, and The Stack author. We dive into the step-by-step process of making more with wedding album sales and transform relationships with our clients. 

Discipline or hustle? 9:48

If you ask Shaun if he is disciplined, he will tell you that discipline is not his jam. Hustle looks a lot like discipline, but they are not the same. He was hustling through his photography career until he figured out that he needed a different path. 

Shaun believes in a season of hustle, but he doesn’t think you should hustle forever. It’s more about being able to hustle with a purpose. 

The Stack – from selling to serving your clients – 15:46

Shaun and his team created the Stack and think it is the ideal way to sell to weddings. To make wedding albums as approachable as possible because it’s a big undertaking to implement wedding albums in your photography business. He encourages photographers to reach out and ask questions; they are there and ready to see photographers succeed. 

What’s in the works for Shaun and his team? 17:47

Shaun wondered what it would look like for his team to be a consultant for photographers. Creating a brand that’s not tied to his company Kiss, where they will come in and help photographers by being their product specialist for wedding albums. The opportunity to serve clients (photographers) with a wedding album that the couple can cherish year after year and reflect on their special day. Shaun’s number one goal is to help photographers succeed. Technology is fantastic, but can your client sit down five, six, or ten years from now and flip through and look at photos from their day. 

What does a successful album program look like for a new photographer? 26:50

Shaun talks about how most of the industry is afraid to sell because they didn’t sell, and now they are. Changing your mindset to – I didn’t serve my clients with wedding albums, and now I want to serve my clients with wedding albums. 

A new photographer coming in, Shaun would tell them simple steps, reach out if you need help. To be the best version of you, being the best photographer creating an experience, but takes it a step further and gets to document that experience and deliver that in an album. 

He says that photographers have a chance to deliver a wedding album that a couple can sit down and read their own story. Their photos are a legacy. We can’t get grandpa the link to look at photos in this digital age, but we can sit down with him and look through an album. 

“I just want to lead the industry to show up differently in a way that serves them to this finish line that looks different than what it currently does.”

What does that process look like to include a wedding album in your sales? 32:53

One easy, practical step, just include the wedding album in every package. Order samples of the albums, post them and discuss why you want to do this and why this is what you do for a living. 

Build a page into your website devoted to wedding albums and have a sample stack – be clear on what they get. Build trust, do more than a Facebook ad. Build, invest, transform relationships, and that transaction comes from trust. Being able to live in that trust and continue to cultivate that trust then leads to referrals. Talk about it early and often, over-deliver, and implement it. 

How to transform relationships with wedding albums? 36:27

Don’t just sit down and hand them an album and be done; sit and engage with the couple, transform the relationship. Invest in the couple’s relationship and get to know their story. How did they meet; how has planning gone? What are you most excited about? 

As you go through the process, just talking with your clients, you are planting seeds and cultivating them. And it starts with your engagement session. Before the engagement session, give them some advice. What outfits to avoid or what patterns to avoid and invest in the moment to transform relationships. Then talk about the engagement book, under-promise, and over-deliver. All along, you are marketing with these moments. During the engagement, it’s about the couple, not what your selling. This moment is your opportunity to get to know them, invest and transform relationships. 

Make a difference, give the couple a 4×4 album, and thank them for allowing you to be part of your day. Tell them that it’s an album that you can keep on you constantly. When they get their hair done and talk about their wedding, they can pull out this album. 

“There are times where I had to book this wedding, or I wasn’t gonna pay rent. I’ve been in those shoes. So I understand it. And sometimes I’m like then fine. Just book it, whatever it takes. But if you want to like. Own a business, not just own a job, start to define what you want, show up and do that. And then those clients that understand and sign up for what you are serving them with, including the album and everything, they will multiply.”

Don’t miss this episode with all the nuggets of advice on making more wedding album sales by transforming the relationship with your clients. 

Find Shaun here and more about Kiss books here

 

Links

Join The Bearded Tog Facebook group

Download the Wedding Guide Template

Patreon

Follow Adam on Instagram @masonphotography

YouTube

Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

www.adammason.com

CLOSE