Category
Sales
One of the most valuable business lessons I ever learned didn't come from a photographer.
It came from a used car salesman.
At the time, I owned a wedding photography studio in Toronto. Like most photographers, I spent years trying to become a better photographer.
I studied lighting.
I studied posing.
I attended workshops.
I invested in equipment.
I was always looking for ways to improve my craft.
What I wasn't spending nearly enough time thinking about was sales.
One weekend, while photographing a wedding, I met a guest who worked as a salesperson at a used car dealership.
He did not own the dealership. He was a salesperson. But he was sharp, personable, and incredibly good with people.
The kind of person who could walk into a room and make everyone feel comfortable within minutes.
A few weeks later, he reached out to me.
He said he had been thinking about our conversations and wondered if there might be an opportunity to work together.
He wanted to learn more about photography and the wedding industry. At the same time, he believed he could help with sales and client consultations.
At first, I wasn't sure.
After all, what could a used car salesman teach a wedding photographer?
Fortunately, I gave him a chance.
Looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
As he became involved in the studio, he started asking questions nobody else had asked.
Questions that challenged assumptions I didn't even realize I had.
One topic we discussed often was wedding albums.
At the time, most of my wedding albums sold for around $1,000.
I thought that was normal.
I thought that was what the market would support.
And honestly, I was fairly proud of it.
Many photographers struggled to sell albums at all.
Then one day, while I was out photographing a wedding, my phone rang.
It was him.
I stepped away for a moment and answered.
“Hey Mark, I just finished meeting with one of your wedding clients.”
“How did it go?” I asked.
“Great. I sold them a $6,000 wedding album.”
I remember standing there completely stunned.
A six-thousand-dollar album?
I honestly thought I had heard him wrong.
At that point, I didn't even think a $6,000 album sale was possible.
For years, I had convinced myself that wedding albums were worth around $1,000.
Yet here was someone who had only been involved in the business for a short period of time selling an album for six times that amount.
The funny thing was that he hadn't changed the product.
The album was still the same album.
Same manufacturer.
Same materials.
Same craftsmanship.
Same quality.
Nothing about the product had changed.
The product didn't change. The conversation changed.
Later, he explained something that completely changed how I viewed sales.
I was focused on what the album cost.
My clients were focused on what the album meant.
Those are two very different things.
To me, it was a deliverable.
To my clients, it was one of the few things they would keep from their wedding day for the rest of their lives.
Long after the flowers were gone.
Long after the decorations were packed away.
Long after the venue had hosted hundreds of other weddings.
The album would remain.
Their children would one day look through it.
Their grandchildren might too.
It wasn't just a book.
It was a family heirloom.
For years, I had been talking about features, costs, pages, covers, and materials.
He was talking about memories.
Legacy.
Family.
Meaning.
That phone call completely changed how I viewed sales.
For years, I had been explaining features.
He taught me to explain value.
For years, I was focused on cost.
He taught me to focus on significance.
For years, I was selling an album. He was helping clients understand why it mattered.
The results transformed the business.
What had once been a $1,000 product became a $6,000 product.
Not because we pressured people.
Not because we used tricks.
Not because we manipulated anyone.
Because we finally understood what we were actually selling.
Looking back, a few lessons still stand out.
The first is that many business owners underestimate the value of what they do.
They are so close to their work that they only see the effort, the time, and the costs involved.
Clients often see something entirely different.
They see the outcome.
The second lesson is that some of the best business advice comes from outside your industry.
I attended photography conferences.
I learned from world-class photographers.
I invested in workshops.
Yet one of the most profitable lessons I ever learned came from someone who sold used cars for a living.
The third lesson is that we are often too close to our own business to see what makes it valuable.
Sometimes it takes an outsider to point out what should have been obvious all along.
Years later, while building Proproval, I found myself thinking about that lesson again.
Many service businesses create quotes, estimates, and proposals by focusing only on deliverables, features, and costs.
But clients don't just buy deliverables. They buy outcomes, confidence, and solutions.
The best quotes, estimates, and proposals help clients understand the value they are receiving, not just the services they are purchasing.
Good follow-up, clear approvals, and better client communication all support that same goal.
That's the lesson a used car salesman taught me many years ago.
And it's a lesson I've never forgotten.
Sometimes the breakthrough you're looking for isn't found in another workshop, another book, or another expert in your field. Sometimes it's a phone call that completely changes how you see your business.
Mark Anthony