First Meeting With New Client

[timmotheus]

I am meeting with a new client (media relations director for a baseball team) who I have contacted and spoken with already concerning shooting their city's baseball team to gain experience shooting sports. She has already agreed to let me and my assitant shoot the games that their regular photographer is not present at and we are meeting basically just to introduce ourselves. She understands that we are there to gain experience and my assistant and I have agreed to give our client all pictures taken during games. My question is what should I be prepared with for the meeting, examples of previous work, business cards, any forms, etc.? I want to be prepared and look professional as me and my assistant are looking to add to our client base and do a great job.

Any tips, suggestions, or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[laawaaris]

Hi Tim - welcome to TPF!

I am not a professional photographer but I've recently met a few because my sister is getting married and she needs to hire a photographer. My sister has high expectations of the photog so she told me all the good points and the bad points in each person we met. I'm basing all my comments on her thoughts.

Have you shown you client any of your work previously? Does she know the style of photos you currently do? I'm not too sure what your relationship is with her already, but I would say you should DEFINITELY have a sample album. You should actually bring a couple of different types of albums (either with different layout or with different types of photos or whatever). A good photog will know the details about each photograph he chooses to display to his clients (such as where it was taken, details about the subject, and any special details required in order to actually take the photograph itself, etc).

If you are in the business of photography, I think you should also have business cards. If you both are going you should each have a business card - even if you have to manually right the other person's name on his card. Its a common exchange to do the business card thing and even though it might not be a big deal without it, it will only add to the overall professionalism to have one.

Also, you may not have your best work printed out in an album. So if you have JPG versions of images you should bring a laptop with you and show her some images on the computer as well. (This may be tough to do though, because there can be a glare on the LCD screen so you have to position it right for both of you to clearly see and for you to access the keyboard. There are also wires involved and all that stuff).

And the last thing you should do is listen to this client. Start by asking her what she is looking for in the photograph, how she wants the overall event picturized, and that sort of thing. Basically you want to leave the meeting with her having a high opinion of you but you can't accomplish that just by talking and showing her pictures of your work - you have to listen. Obviously you should talk as well, telling her what you can do for her, showing examples of what you have done, explaining the existing examples, etc.

Anyhow these are the things that me and my sister thought. There were many photographers we met who were just not very "professional" - some didn't have samples, others didnt feel like our event was special, some seemed to talk about photogaphy without seeming to be really interested in photography, etc. Albeit, a wedding is a different "sell" than a baseball game, but still in any business engagement its important to know the person you're giving the keys to can really be trusted.