This post was sparked by a call that I received this week which is similar to a handful of calls this year.

When the phone conversation starts like this: “What’s Your Price For A Headshot?” – “How Much Do You Charge For A Headshot?” – “I’m just calling around pricing. What Do You Charge For A Headshot?” I should start replying $10,000 because based on experience when price is the very first sentence of the call, the person RARELY books or calls back. FYI, I’m not expensive and I don’t charge $10,000 for a headshot.

I feel these type of callers fall under one of two areas: 1) They are purely shopping price and hope to find something really cheap. (FYI, they should call the local drug store or that big discount store we all love to hate around Christmas) or 2) They are a photographer, are doing market research for a photographer or work for a photographer and want to see what others are charging in the area.

I don’t believe these callers are genuinely interested in my services in the majority of cases because for those that are, the initial conversation goes something like this. “I found your website, like your work and I’m interested in getting a headshot done to update my LinkedIn profile. What does your availability look like?” or some other very similar scenario which is not “What’s Your Price For A Headshot?”

The most recent caller had NOT even looked at my work. She stated, “I’m just calling around for prices.” I’m very tempted in saying, “It’s $10,000.” But I guess I should bite my tongue because I am a professional and should act like one. However, I do think that I’ll try to be better at exploring more details with the price callers to at least gain a better insight rather than saying a headshot is X and they end the call.

Again, I’m not expensive for a headshot. Most callers schedule on the first call, the ones who say “What’s Your Price For A Headshot?” are rare. However, I still get frustrated by those calls and maybe I shouldn’t. My take and experience is that it’s a tire kicker wasting my time when I could potentially be on a call scheduling someone who is truly interested in my services because they like my work.

OK, blog rant over.

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
– Warren Buffett

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