August
11, 2005 Issue:
 |
More
images mean more sales and more profit!
by Jack
Counts, Jr.
Every time we have a seminar or workshop I find myself amid
a sea of information that somehow comes to surface only
around such gatherings.
There was so much covered in the OKC workshops that it was
almost overpowering. But one thing that was common to virtually
every market covered was that the sales and profit are ultimately
tied to how many images are taken at an event.
We have found this to be true for parties, races, portraits,
weddings, sports, and virtually all online events.
Remember this important point – if you don’t
shoot a picture, you can’t sell it.
So, how do we get more images to sell?
You can book more events, or you can shoot more images at
your presently scheduled events, or you can do both.
Which is more important to you, shooting more events or
shooting more images at an event?
I believe that increasing sales at your current events is
the fastest way to improve your bottom line.
A 25% increase in sales at an event, once fixed costs are
covered, will generally represent a 50% improvement in your
profit. Any additional prints sold usually have very high
margins.
Usually, the best way to increase sales at an event is to
get more good images shot by the photographers present.
|
Since
you are not paying for film
or processing anymore - it is really impossible
to "overshoot"
an event. |
Of course, the quality of the
images you take is very important – we ARE in the
photography business and your images need to be very good
– well cropped – well composed – well
exposed – and well focused. They must be saleable.
Good images sell and bad images don’t. You
cannot overcome lousy photography with good marketing.
To get more images shot I would suggest the following:
1) Set performance standards so
people know how many images you want taken per hour. You
may need different standards for different kinds of events.
Generally, do not accept less than two images per minute,
or 120 images per hour, at Greek or high school events.
I would not accept less than 90 images per hour at adult
events.
2) Have pay systems that support
what you want to have happen. Pay people to shoot more good
images. Consider paying photographers by the number of faces
in them to encourage more group shots.
3)
Use the Photographer Productivity report. It is designed
to maximize the productivity of your photographers –
they tell the whole story. You can tell when all the pictures
are taken. You can tell how many pictures they are taking
per hour. You can see what their sales are per hour, too.
4)
Set goals. Look at the events you shot last year –
set a goal of increasing the images shot by at least 25%
and make that happen.
Sales per image are not as important as sales per hour.
Since you have no film or proofing cost, your only cost
in shooting the event is typically the photographer. To
maximize your profit you must get great productivity out
of your photographers. To do that they need to take lots
of good pictures with as many people in them as
possible.
|
If
you only take one picture every minute you will
never generate any energy
or create a tempo. |
Since
you are not paying for film and processing any more –
it is really impossible to “overshoot” an
event. So, you are always better off by maximizing sales
with a photographer as your costs don’t really change
whether they shoot 300 images or 600. If you have two
photographers at the same event – the “better”
one is the one who generated you the most sales –
not the highest sales per image.
Fast, creative photographers create energy at a party.
Shooting fast is the way all of your photographer should
work. When you start shooting fast you get into a rhythm.
You must build momentum at the party moves along.
You must be creative in composing pictures. You
must make being in pictures fun.
People at an event need to realize it is okay to have
their picture taken many times.
Having more shots of a person gives them more incentive
to go and look at proofs.
Always remember that photographers need to help make the
party – they are part of the entertainment –
they are not there to just capture the story.
Unfortunately, I see a lot of events where the photographers
average 60 images per hour. If you only take one picture
every minute you will never generate any energy or create
a tempo. To see what I mean look at your watch and pretend
that you just took a picture as the second hand passes
twelve. Then sit there and watch the hand move slowly
around your watch for one minute.
A minute is a long time to be doing nothing.
Think of it this way. Consider how far you can walk in
60 seconds at a normal pace of 3 miles per hour. In one
minute you can walk 264 feet. That is nearly the length
of a football field. If you can walk that far in a minute
you can easily walk over to the next people at an event,
take their picture, and move on.
In fact, I really think that for most events the goals
should be to shoot two pictures every minute. I understand
that the photographer will have to be very outgoing to
make that happen, but that is the kind of photographers
you need to be using for candid events.
Getting photographers to shoot more images is a “win,
win, win” situation.
The customer gets more images
to select from.
The photographer will get paid
more.
You will have higher sales and
profits.
The following success story should provide some
real world proof to you.
The people present at the workshops saw Sarah Tarrant’s
great presentation about Norman Party Pics. Sarah has
managed the business for the last year and she had quite
a story to tell.
The Greek community at the University of Oklahoma had
a very tough year. The Sigma Chi house was kicked off
campus due to the death of a pledge that drank too much
at an event at the beginning of the school year. Another
three fraternities were put on social probation for a
good portion of the school year. One of the sororities,
Zeta Tau Alpha, went off campus, too.
Due to the Sigma Chi incident the President of the university
declared the campus to be “dry” effective
January 1st which killed all of the Thursday night parties
that the Greeks were having. The total effect was that
a considerable number of the events were cancelled. In
the 2003-04 school year they had been able to photograph
255 events. This past school year, 2004-05, the number
of events they were able to shoot dropped to 209.
Seeing that she faced some obstacles to growing her business,
Sarah made some changes at mid-year. Rather than allow
herself to be a “victim”, Sarah made an aggressive
plan to improve her photography and get more good images
taken at the events that were still occurring. She looked
at what was shot at every event the previous year and
set a goal to surpass the number of images taken on each
event.
She put in a new pay plan which not only paid photographers
by the number of faces in images; it required an image
to be “saleable”. It also pushes for more
images to be shot. Paying by the number of faces in pictures
encourages the photographer to line up large groups which
always improves sales.
She committed herself to quickly critiquing proofs and
gave immediate feedback to the photographers. She required
that a t least 300 images be taken at Greek events. Then
she gave a $5 bonus for reaching 400 images and another
$5 for each additional 100 images taken. The bottom line
was that she raised the number of images shot per event
from 239 in the fall to 369 in the spring. Additionally,
her sales per image shot also increased from $1.21 for
the 2003-04 school year to $1.48 for the 2004-05 school
year. Her total party picture sales for the year increased
nearly $8,000 despite 46 less events to shoot. Way to
go Sarah!
It is also interesting to point out that for the entire
2004-05 school year her photographers shot 2.47 images
per minute at all types of candid events, on and off campus.
That is 148 images per hour, more than the 120 images
per hour that I think should be required.
I think Sarah’s story is a great one and one which
can provide a path for others to follow to boost their
Greek sales.
Please take the information I am providing you with today
and utilize it to grow your business.
-Jack
New Newsletter Webpage
by Dana
Hill
This edition of the CCS Developments newsletter unveils our
new newsletter webpage format. As you'll discover from
reading the individual articles in this newsletter, you can
quickly scan the topics presented in this edition by reading
the article's title, the article's author and a brief "lead-in"
statement to decide if you would like to "Read
More" about each topic.
We've developed this new format to improve the readability
of the information and we hope you agree that it make the
topics presented easier to find. Of course, you can
click on the "View Complete Edition" link to read
all articles together in their entirety, similar to our previous
newsletter format. All newsletter information is being
archived on candidnet by date for future reference and we
will soon be implementing a newsletter Search Tool to help
you quickly access information of interest. Tell
me what
you think!
As this is our "post-workshop" edition, you will
find today's articles recapping some of those presentations
and promoting best practices. Each edition will
have articles by our newly appointed Sales Specialists pertaining
to their market (Grads, Greek, etc) allowing you to keep up
to date in your area(s).
 |
The End of An Era
by Brian
Speers
On the morning of July 25, 2005 a special presentation was
made at the Summer Workshops honoring current CCS Customer
of the Year Gary Limmroth, commemorating the end of the optical
print era at Candid Color Systems. At the presentation a plaque
was presented to Gary by Brian Speers and Jack Counts of CCS
and this plaque reads in part:
This is the last Party Pic®
produced optically from film. It was created at Candid Color
Systems on July 19, 2005. This Delta Delta Delta event was
photographed by ZAP Photography in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Owner
Gary Limmroth has been a loyal CCS customer, and a top
party picture producer, since 1973. Gary Limmroth’s
unselfish contributions to the party picture business have
been very much appreciated by CCS, and by its affiliated photographers
all across the country. Tens of millions of Party
Pics®, from all 50 states, were produced from film
at Candid Color Systems from May of 1972 through July 19,
2005. This picture represents the end of that terrific era.
Three years ago CCS set the goal of having a totally digital
workflow by August of 2005. We have met the goal and all the
old optical printers are gone. Many thanks to all CCS customers
who helped us tremendously during this digital transition!
Mark Your
Calendars: CCS Winter Seminar Is Just Around the Corner!
by Brian
Speers
Though the Summer Workshops were a splendid success with great
customer turnout, a first-class agenda, and outstanding content
in all topics, the CCS Winter Seminar will be here before
you know it; in fact, five months from this week!
Next year’s meetings will be taking place at the
Hard
Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on Monday and Tuesday, January 9th
and 10th, 2006. Prior to the CCS meetings—and
the main reason we chose Las Vegas as our site—the
Consumer
Electronics Show (CES) will be held at the Las Vegas
Convention Center from
January 5-8, 2006.
The CES is a show of gargantuan proportions and highlights
the emerging technologies in audio, video, digital cameras,
gaming and many other fun and useful tools for the future.
More information will be forthcoming about both events, but
NOW would be the best time to mark your calendars and reserve
these dates for the New Year. We expect to have a super turnout
at our winter meetings as Las Vegas always seems to attract
great numbers of CCs customers.
Got ideas? If there are topics of interest that you would
like to see covered at the winter meetings please send them
via email to
Dana Hill or
Brian Speers.
Winners: 12 CCS Accounts Have Already Won Trips to
Puerto Vallarta!!
Congratulations to the following CCS customers who have already
won trips to Puerto Vallarta in the CCS 2005 Print Finishing
Promotion.
Greg and Eric Eisen Sportography
4
trips
Scott Happel Happel
Photography 2 trips
Alex and Cheryl Ipiotis Island
Photo 2
trips
George White Bella
Pictures 2
trips
Bob and Gail Knight Bob
Knight Photo 2
trips
Gary Limmroth ZAP
Photography 1
trip
Bud and Susan Stagg University
Photo 1
trip
Mark Smith Empire
Photo 1
trip
Candid Color Photography 1
trip
Holly Freedman California
Candids 1 trip
Gene Mangiante Mangiante
Photo 1
trip
Lana and Steve Ervin Ervin
Photography 1 trip
Each of these customers had a minimum $12,000 increase in
their photo finishing by July 31, while some had multiple
$12,000 increases which qualified them for multiple trips.
The promotion runs through December 31, 2005 with five months
of opportunities still left to win trips.
If you haven’t won a trip yet, a $20,000 increase by
the end of the year will get you to Puerto Vallarta. If you’ve
already won a trip there is still a chance to build on what
you’ve already done and win more trips! We expect this
to be one of our best promotional trips ever and hope that
we can bring as many customers as possible with us.
CCS Reorganizes Sales and Marketing Departments
by Brian
Speers
In an effort to put additional emphasis on specific photo
markets, CCS has reorganized the sales and marketing departments
to take better advantage of the members of those departments,
and to create a department of specialists dedicated to a limited
market type. The initiative to create Grad, Sports, Greek
and Campus, Party Pics, New Customer, and Online Event specialists
was done for several reasons that will benefit both CCS and
our customers.
First and foremost, we want to be able to generate more business
volume for our customers. By having one person focused on
one market area it will allow that person to become expert
in that area and to the nuances—both operationally and
procedurally--that can contribute to better marketing, better
sales, and better execution for our customers.
Additionally, we envision “best practices” for
each market being better communicated to customers and promoted
across the CCS network, and getting these specialists involved
in events so that they can be more helpful to our customers.
Along with these departmental changes comes a renewed approach
by CCS for better
implementation of products, a commitment to enhanced measurement
of the various markets, and retail refinements to our online
software packages.
Members of the Sales team and their specialty markets are:
Brad Hurley – Grads
and Races ext. 317
Brian Speers – Sports
ext. 251
Cami Sheafer
– Online Events ext. 348
Darwin Drake –
Party Pics® ext. 456
Devin Imig – New
Customers ext 232
Jaime McKissick
– Greek and Campus ext 383
If you’re looking to take on a new market, or improve
the markets you’re already in then pick up the phone
and give these market specialists a call. With the information
they gain by working across the cross-section of CCS customers
everyone wins.
School Market Sucess Story
by Clint Roe
"Dan,
Just thought I would let you know that something we
learned at the summer workshops is working!!
We walked into a school today and found out that they were
already booked for this coming school year by Life Touch for
the Spring and Fall photography, along with the
Yearbooks.
We could have said "That's OK, See ya next year"
or think there is no way in, we ask about next year and
preceded to tell them about our program and how we offer something
different than all the others, we also have a night just
for the familles of the students and staff, we like to call
it "Family Night Photos" and for every school
that signs up with us not only will they get $10.00 for every
Family Photographed but if you sign up by the first day
of school this year the school will also get 10% of the sales
from "Family Night Photos"
As the excitement built we added that if the school signs
up for Spring, Fall And the Yearbook for 2 years G.S. Photo
will also place a full page add in the yearbook Up to
$100.00 ea. and carry over the extra 10% from "Family
Night Photos" for Both Years!
We left the school with a signed contract for Spring,
Fall, Yearbook and 2 "Family Night Photos" for the
2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school year!
The school has 900 kids and is in the upper income bracket.
NEVER GIVE UP! BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! WHY
NOT ASK FOR 2 YEARS? OUR PROGRAM WORKS! JUST GET THE SCHOOL!!
We are up to 6 schools 1 for 2 years and 9 "Family Night
Photos"
Clint, Reba and Joal"
Who doesn’t love Football, Pictures and Money?
by Cami
Sheaffer
If you missed this year’s Summer Workshop than you missed
out on how you can make thousands of dollars$$$
in photographing the tailgating on your college campus! Last
fall, Candid Color Photography generated almost $50,000 in
sales at the University of Oklahoma football games.
Click to enlarge. |
What is tailgating?
Click to enlarge. |
Tailgating is a huge gathering of excited spectators having
a party in anticipation of a big win!
These large gathering of fans can be photographed before,
during or after a sporting event.
Is the college you currently serve one of the top 25 schools
in attendance?
Is the football college team ranked in the top 25?
Click to enlarge. |
Does your school have a strong football tradition, good attendance
and a passionate fan base?Is your school considered a “tough
place to play?”
If the answer is yes to any of these questions then you need
to be photographing the tailgating on you college campus!
Now you can capitalize on this year’s football season
with assistance and ease to make this year your most profitable
one yet!!
Click to enlarge. |
Why
should you photograph tailgating?
Who wouldn’t want $50,000 in sales? Photographers and
equipment are usually available Saturday mornings and afternoons.
Tailgating can generate additional business such as Basketball
Fan pictures, Athletic Department Christmas Party and Bowl
Parties!
How do you get started?
Contact me at
or 1-800-336-4550 ext. 348 to let me know which campus you
are interested in photographing.
Click to enlarge. |
7 campuses are already booked to be photographed this
year.
Some of these campuses were booked with just one
phone call!
I can assist you in tackling any obstacles!
I can assist you in answering questions such as:
How do I book this event?
Do I have to give a kick back to school to become official?
Is it cost efficient to collect email addresses?
Is it cost efficient to set up backdrops?
Should I get a co-sponsor to advertise on website cards to
defer costs?
Click to enlarge. |
What kind of equipment should I use?
How many photographers should I schedule?
Where should I position my photographers?
Time is ticking!!
*The football season is about to begin!
*Don’t let a competitor book this event!
*Don’t lose thousands of dollars this year!
Contact me today!!
Service
Times for the week of July 31 - August 6:
by Joni
Brown
Overall Lab Totals:
Percentage of Orders Shipped At:
0-24 Hours = 74%
25-48 Hours = 11%
49-72 Hours = 14%
73+ Hours = 1%
By Market:
Grads:
Percentage of Orders Shipped At:
0-24 Hours = 83%
25-48 Hours = 5%
49-72 Hours = 11%
73+ Hours = 1%
Groups:
Percentage of Orders Shipped At:
0-24 Hours = 49%
25-48 Hours = 35%
49-72 Hours = 13%
73+ Hours = 3%
PreSold (Prom):
Percentage of Orders Shipped At:
0-24 Hours = 38%
25-48 Hours = 62%
49-72 Hours = 0%
73+ Hours = 0%
QuicPics (Party Pics):
Percentage of Orders Shipped At:
0-24 Hours = 78%
25-48 Hours = 8%
49-72 Hours = 9%
73+ Hours = 5%
Race:
Percentage of Orders Shipped At:
0-24 Hours = 92%
25-48 Hours = 3%
49-72 Hours = 5%
73+ Hours = 0%
Sports:
Percentage of Orders Shipped At:
0-24 Hours = 78%
25-48 Hours = 9%
49-72 Hours = 11%
73+ Hours = 2%
PPS/Wedding:
Percentage of Orders Shipped At:
0-24 Hours = 43%
25-48 Hours = 41%
49-72 Hours = 13%
73-96 Hours = 2%
97+ Hours = 1%
The
summer workshops exposed some great success stories in the
graduation market.
by
Brad
Hurley
The summer workshops exposed some great success stories in
the graduation market. Many customers have dramatically
improved sales using techniques and products that are available
to you now.
For instance, CCS customer Bob Knight increased his average
order to over $60 , an increase of $5.50 per grad
ordering over last year. According to Bob, his success
was directly related to his commitment to focus on the collection
of email addresses from the graduates.
He succeeded in collecting email address from 75% of graduates.
This , coupled with his commitment to deliver email
proofs to his customers in less than 24 hours using CORE ,
magnified his success. Bob stated that, "email
as a proof delivery vehicle has had the greatest impact on
increased sales."
Click to enlarge. |
Another opportunity to increase grad sales was presented by
Alex Ipiotis. Alex sold Quick Retouching to 7% of the graduates
he shot. He made enough money to buy a NEW Porsche 911 (but
he settled for a Suburban). Lab Quick retouching sales
were up 56% this year vs the previous year, a clear indication
of retouching's acceptance and success in the grad market.
Quick Retouching is a simple product to offer,
it requires no inventory, has no direct labor costs, requires
no additional postage, and has an 80% net margin. Who
wouldn't offer this product?
If you want to dramatically improve your winter grad sales
then plan to attend the CCS Grad Sales and Marketing Retreat
in Atlanta on October 11th, 2005. We will be discussing
best practices that will allow you to maximize your winter
grad sales. Location information will be published in
an upcoming newsletter.
Sports: It’s
a Numbers Game
by Brian
Speers
As the newly entrenched sports specialist at Candid Color
Systems I’m excited at the REAL possibilities that this
market presents for CCS customers for the future. Let’s
face it, sports is a numbers game!
In any sports endeavor, numbers are what we use to measure
performance. Strikeouts per inning, yards per carry, points
per game, and wins per season are just a few of the ways we
separate the winners from the losers going back as the far
as the first Olympiad.
Well, the sports photography market is no different. Numbers
define the market. Consider these numbers as provided by the
PMA Industry Trends Report with regard to the sports market:
• Fastest growing photo market in 2004 at 37% increase
in sales
• $163 million market in 2004
• 2005 growth estimate is 10%
• 8 million packages will be sold in 2005
• $22 average package price
• 38 million participants; and of the 38 millions participants,
nearly 40% participate in more than one sport!
These are huge numbers and many CCS customers are already
taking advantage of this universal market that is woven into
the fabric of every city, town, and village in the U.S. Sports,
and especially youth sports, is as much a part of our culture
as school, church, or high gas prices.
The numbers that are available to all CCS customers in the
sports market begin with athletes photographed and end with
money in the bank. Consider this: the potential profitability
of shooting a league with 30 teams with 15 players each, based
on an 80% buy-in, and a $22 average purchase is over $4,700
based upon a 60% profit margin.
If you are new to the sports market and would like to learn
more; if you are not currently doing sports and would like
some help getting your feet wet; or, if you are looking for
ways to improve your exploding sports business contact
Brian
Speers and let’s talk about the numbers possibilities.
Jumpstart Your Greek Campus
Business This Fall With New Products!
by Jaime
McKissick
After 30 years of offering a standard 4x6 Party Pic, new products
and designs present an opportunity to bring revival to the
Greek market. In a day in age where fraternity and sorority
members have available affordable digital cameras and the
ability to print images themselves it is essential to offer
products that they themselves can not easily produce. That’s
why Candid has been working hard on developing new and improved
products for you to offer.
Click to enlarge. |
Our goal has been to create products that can bring in a higher
amount of revenue and have a higher perceived value to your
customer. The average on-line sales for Grads, Races and Sports
have all continued to increase while the QuicPics market has
decreased. One reason for this is the wide variety of products
offered in these other markets.
Our new products come from a variety of places. Some are products
we’ve moved over from other markets, others are improvements
on existing products and finally the addition of more
Click to enlarge. |
options on current products. The new products that are currently
available in the QuicPics market include: Mouse pads, 3x5
magnets, 8x10 and 5x7 statuettes as well as new designer borders
for our 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10 prints. The new borders include
a flowered border, a beach theme, a 70’s hippy theme
and sorority specific themes. New options available to the
QuicPics market include new font colors, which consist of:
baby blue, turquoise, aqua, baby pink, hot pink, light yellow,
tangerine, lavender and lime green. Currently we are working
on developing collages, the
Click to enlarge. |
option of pearlized paper, new fonts and more theme specific
borders.
In recent weeks we have conducted impromptu focus groups to
show our new products to sorority members at the University
of Oklahoma and have received a lot of positive feedback.
They were very excited about the magnets and we’re pleased
with the possible retail price of $4.50. When shown the mouse
pads and given the possible retail price of $18 the girls
were again enthusiastic and commented that, “that’s
about the same we would pay at Kinko’s”. One girl
responded to the statuettes with, “I can’t wait
to get one,” and “this is such a great gift for
Big Little”.
When shown the new borders they immediately started commenting
on which ones they would like to use for their specific events.
They were very excited about the new font colors as well and
again started commenting about using them for their pictures.
Click to enlarge. |
Click to enlarge. |
Showing these new products created a renewed buzz of enthusiasm
among our Greek customers at the University of Oklahoma. They
were very happy to hear that when school started these products
would be available to them for purchase. The only way for
to build the buzz on your campus is to take these products
to the girls so they can see for them selves how unique of
a product we have to offer them.
Click to enlarge. |
To obtain samples of our new products please visit
PartyPics and
type in samples as the password. Look under the QuicpPics
market and you will find available samples of all the new
products.
The Elementary School
Picture Market -
A New Market for CCS and A New Opportunity For You.
by Dan
Hays
 |
Elementary School Pictures is
a market which we have just entered but which we think will
be quite lucrative for our customers.This market was brought
to our attention by our customer from New Orleans, Joey Fasullo,
who has been active in the market for one year. Joey
has found the market relatively easy to book. He has
also found it quick to shoot, usually four hours in the morning
for one school. He has seen profits of about 28% on
average which has equated to a profit of $2000 to $6000 depending
on the size and demographics of the school.
The thing that is so attractive about this market is that
there are hundreds of elementary schools in most markets.
Each school is a defined target that can be easily identified
and called on. Even if a school is booked for the immediate
future, you want to make a brief sales presentation to get
your name in front of the administration for the future.
Joey has joined a national school network called Antiquities
which was founded by Army Moreno. Candid Color Systems
has become a dealer lab under the Antiquities umbrella. Army
has over thirty years experience in the school picture business
and can provide knowledge of what to offer, how to combat
objections, sales approach, how to shoot, how to market, and
how to prepare bids or make presentations at Principals meetings.
He has also developed a unique sales system that is effective
in competing against the major national labs.
Click to enlarge. |
If
you elect to join the Antiquities network, then Army will
make two or three days worth of sales calls with you in your
area and help you photograph your first school (if he is available).
He is usually able to visit 8-15 schools per day. So
far, every customer who has joined and has made sales calls
with Army has booked at least one school, even starting in
May after most schools are contracted.
The one time cost for joining Antiquities is $4000.
We think that the sales calls with Army alone are worth the
$4000 but if you are interested we suggest that you talk with
customers who have joined. We will be happy to put you
in touch with them.
In addition to sales and photography assistance, Antiquities
provides a network of vendors for things like yearbooks and
lights, and a training seminar to learn new schools and network
with other Antiquities members.
If you are already in the school business or do not need the
assistance of Army, then we will be happy to accommodate your
finishing.
For more information on this exciting opportunity contact
Dan Hays at 800-336-4550, Ext. 227 or you can contact Army
Moreno at 510-387-2647 for information about Antiquities.
Developments Newsletter
