Saying No To Clients Who Aren’t A Good Fit

There was a time when I woke up every day dreading what I had to do that day. 

This was not just a run-of-the mill “aww, I’d rather stay in bed and read my favorite book” laziness, this was pit-in-my-stomach, please-ma-don’t-make-me, “holy cow how did I get myself into this” wrong-fittedness.

So I walked away.  Toward photography.

And I promised myself, if I was going to pursue this crazy self-employment thing, I HAD to make it my dream job.  I had to do exactly what I wanted to be doing – otherwise I might as well work for someone else.  At least then I’d have a predictable income and someone else to handle the taxes.

But then a funny thing happened.  Within photography, I started feeling pressure to do things that weren’t part of my dream.  Like photograph weddings.  Or newborns wearing cute knit hats.  I so admired the photographers who did those things, and the success they were having, I thought it meant I must need to do that too.

But enjoying a certain kind of image doesn’t always mean you need to dedicate yourself to creating those images.  We need to photograph what fills our souls, not someone else’s.

And yet – it’s terrifying to turn down a client.  The client who wants you to photograph their wedding.  Or their newborn in a cute knit hat.  Yes, you *can* do those things.  You can go and create the exposures and maybe even nail the shots.

But is that why you arrived at photography’s doorstep?  To nail shots? 

Or to feed a passion?

There’s nothing wrong with shooting to pay the bills.  Nothing.  Wrong.  But if you’re feeling pressure to shoot something that is not who you are, or what you are, may I offer a few reasons why telling a client “I don’t believe my services are the best fit for your needs” may actually be your best bet.

Shooting things you don’t love can hurt your business (and your heart) because:

1) It fills your portfolio with stuff you don’t want to shoot, producing images that attract more people who want stuff you don’t want to shoot.

2) It fills your schedule with stuff that doesn’t fill your soul, taking time away from the things that do.

3) A lack of passion can make you drag your feet, which affects client experience, which affects client satisfaction, which affects your reputation and business.

4) The images can suffer.  Sometimes when a photographer posts a photo, you know that the shot made their fingers tingle when they took it.  You know it without even knowing the photographer.  You can feel it.  That doesn’t happen if they didn’t love what was in front of their lens.

One of my mentoring clients recently did something gutsy as heck.  She recognized that she was getting many requests for photos that were absolutely not her style, that were not her passion.  So she posted a link to another local photographer’s work and said “If this is the kind of work that you are looking for, check out this talented artist.”  I was blown away.

Crazy from a marketing perspective?  Maybe.  But what businessperson do you trust more in the end – the person who says “Oh sure I can do anything you want”?  Or the person who knows when they can serve you best, and when to send you to another qualified professional when your request is outside their expertise and passion?

Last summer I was shopping for a specialty item, and I called a store. 

They said they didn’t have the item in stock, but they insisted they were sure that “no one else in town is going to have that either,” and so they tried to sell me on a lower-tier piece they had.

I hung up the phone.  Called three other stores.  One of them had the item I wanted in stock.

Now, if the first store had said “We don’t have it, but you know what – let me make a call and see if I can locate one for you!”  I would have been impressed.  Even if I had to go to another store to buy the item, I would have felt loyal to the store who took the time and care to meet my need rather than meet their sales quota.  I would have trusted the person who knew when they could serve me, and when they needed to send me to someone else, because they would have been putting ME above their desire to close a sale.

Instead, they went for the sale – any sale, whether it was what I needed or not. 

In trying to score a single sale, they lost a customer for a lifetime.

They lost my trust.  How’s that for marketing?

Now here’s the tricky part:  If you refer a client to someone else, make sure that it is out of genuine desire to serve the client, not your own self-doubt about your abilities.  If you’re a portrait photographer, but want to shoot weddings, don’t just duck your head and keep passing on the wedding inquiries – go out there and second shoot until your hands fall off.  LEARN what you want to shoot, and then shoot it.  Become competent at what you love, and when you are, step up and take the inquiries.  There are too many photographers sitting in others’ shadows.  Become so good that the right clients will come to you for doing what you do best.

It may take some time to figure out what you love, that’s okay.  You don’t have to have it all figured out.  And even if you do, it’s okay if that changes.

But if you’ve found what you love?  Own it.  And if a client comes to you and wants something that you’d rather not photograph, have the courage to say, in the right moment, “From what I’ve heard you say, I don’t think my style/services are the best fit for this project.  I want to make sure you’re over-the-moon excited about the results; have you considered {insert recommendation here}?”

 No one ever loses when you shoot what you love, and when you put your clients’ needs first.