Professional artists should sell benefits not features

Nobody gives a damn about your gear or degree

I am feeling pretty mellow after two weeks in the Utah mountains and forests near Panguitch. I had a blast, got the images for my book on Bark Beetle infestations, and got to experience cool temps and thunderstorms nearly every day.

And those experiences were benefits to my renting a condo for two weeks. The condo had a lot of features, but I didn’t book it for them, I booked it for the benefits it gave me as far as access and comfort.

I started thinking about how many photographers sell features instead of benefits and how ultimately that will never work. It just won’t.

Clients don’t need to know what groovy new camera you have, or where you went to school. They are not interested in your “first time holding a camera”, and couldn’t care less about your passions.

Nobody gives a shit about your passions. Or mine.

They care about what you can do for them.

Period.

Let’s look at the cover photo. A painter, not a photographer. But it is instructive for sure for all of us artists.

A painter sells a painting by selling the benefits of owning a painting.

It looks good on the wall.
It makes the home more attractive.
It may grow in value.
It is one of a kind or a limited edition, so having it is special.

What she is not selling is what kind of brushes she has, or how her easels are state of the art. Or what school she wasted…err…went to at great expense.
She is not going to get anyone interested with an explanation of her wonderful studio and natural light. They don’t care.

She will be selling the benefits of owning her artwork, not the features of its production.

All too often I see photographers trying to sell with features.

“My well-equipped 1200 ft studio in the middle of town features state-of-the-art lighting, a very expensive tripod, and my never-ending collection of great photo gear. We can handle any assignment.”

Uhh… no, not necessarily there, Bucky.

Anybody with a credit card can have that stuff. Can we all say “Trust Fund?”

That may not be the case, but you haven’t even come close to telling me why I should hire you to do the next campaign for these cool new Zucchini slicers we are doing for a year-long campaign over 20 different consumer magazines.

I gotta sell these damn Zucchini slicers and you want to talk about your passion? And if you want to tell me that you are passionate about photographing imported cheap Zucchini slicers, I may feel a bit reluctant to hire you. Seek help, my veggie-eviscerating friend.

Let’s try something like this; “Photographs sell your product when you are not there. Bad photographs do nothing, while great photographs work magic with your customers. You need the best images you can get — and you get them from me.”

The first — passion — is an example of features… I do this because I love this.

The second one sells benefits… you will get this and this and YOU will love what it does for you.

Benefits will always sell more than features.

I just watched a Honda SUV commercial for the 40th time (Hulu… waddaygonnado… ) and the entire ad consisted of asshats driving at outrageous speeds across the desert. Lots of dust, drifting cars, and rocks being thrown behind the vehicles doing donuts in the desert. It was all quite exciting. They chose to show me that energy instead of a spotless factory floor with some guy named Floyd attaching rear-view mirrors with an electric tool.

“Our new rear-view attachment tools come in three sizes and two colors. We use them to put rear-view mirrors on all of our Honda cars.” (Gives you goosebumps, doesn’t it?)

The commercial was not a list of features of the car, or how many miles it gets per gallon, or even how passionate Floyd is about rear-view mirrors.

It was appealing to young people who want to feel they have a sports car, or some sort of off-road racer when in effect it is a soccer mom SUV.

Those are the benefits of owning the car, and it makes it desirable.

And while there may be a lot of features that make this performance happen, most people don’t care. They just want the feeling of the dream.

Finding out what your customers need can be a process that ranges from simple to difficult, group to specific. We know that as a group, small business needs to get more clients. But we may have to dig a bit to know that O’Reilly’s Bakery needs to be able to compete locally with a digital campaign.

You need to be able to express the BENEFITS of working with you and leave the features where they belong — in your studio.

When you are planning your marketing, take some time to think about your customer, or demographic.

What do they need?
What do they expect?
What pain points are they facing?
How can you help them?

Let them know what you can do for THEM and not what they can do for you.

If you know how to shoot for online catalogs, let them know you do it better than anyone else.

(You do it better than anyone else, right? Right?)

Prepare your emails, leave-behinds, and direct mail pieces to share the power of your photography with clients who need solutions.

And if you want to be passionate about delivering the best images they could ever get and make them more money along the way, then fine.

Be passionate about that.

I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.

You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.