Senior Reps, pt.1

So, you may have noticed that I titled this post with a part number. I do anticipate this to be a series of posts regarding the program that I've found to be successful.  Here in part 1, I want to talk about Defining a Rep Program, Goals and Planning.

Disclaimer: This is what I would do, how I would run my program. Feel free to tweak it, or even disagree with me. This is what has worked for me. 

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Reality Check #1: I will be the first to tell you, a successful Rep program can be extremely time consuming. At the very minimum, you will need to spend an hour a day on it during busy season, and more in slow season.  Recruiting, securing, training and photographing your Reps is a full-time job. If you cannot commit the time to do this, please find an intern or hire someone to help you. It will pay for itself.

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What you believe about Reps is the very first thing you need to address when you're planning your Rep program. So many photographers see these teens as their means to an end. They think of Reps as their key clients and that you want to make sure you don't give them too much stuff or they won't spend anything. 

WRONG. Want to truly define a Rep program that will pay off? You have to realize that the point of a Rep program is create controlled word-of-mouth experiential marketing placed strategically within your market reach IN ORDER TO BRING IN REFERRALS.  These are those awesome branding interns that are out there in real time (think of them as living, breathing social media) ... they are a means to an end.

Referrals are your key clients. You just have to trust that you can build a program to recruit the right kind of Reps, so they bring in the clients that can support your business. This lets you spoil your reps - they're out there working hard, shouldn't they be rewarded?

Let me tell you why I believe this. With the hundreds of Reps I've worked with, the biggest thing they need to know and feel is that they matter. That this is exclusive. That they've been chosen for this program because you believe in them. They need you to keep them interested and energized. 

So what's in it for them? They need to know that if they're going to put in effort (even intangible effort), they're going to be recognized for it. They need to know that you're not just going to photograph them, hand them a stack of referral cards, and send them out the door saying "bring in 5 people to me who spend x amount, or you don't get anything else from us"... and then not hear from you again until you want them to place an order. 

BRAND OUCH. Yet, so many photographers do exactly that. 

Your Reps are your brand. You would spoil, invest in, pamper and spend a lot of time on your brand. Right? (I am imagining you saying yes here. I would really hope no one would actually say no)

Define your Rep program as a part of your brand and not a part of your income. Define your Reps as Brand Ambassadors and not as dollar signs. Besides, you're gonna build such an awesome Rep program, all the people they refer will be enough to support your business. The Rep orders will just be icing on the cake :)

Now that you've defined your program, its time to set Goals. When you start to think about your program, think about how many schools are in your market, the amount of time it will take to complete your parts of the program, and how many referrals you can take on the highest end of the spectrum and still have a real life. With your family and friends ... sans camera. Think about the students you will want to have involved. 

For the schools you want to target, plan on having no more than 1 rep for every 50 students enrolled. Many programs can do well with 1 per every 100. The goal here is to balance saturation. Try to recruit students that have varied friend groups within the school and their outside activities. A school with 400 enrollment should have 4-5 reps. 

You'll need to plan time for phone call interviews, in person interviews (and program enrollment), brand training, photographing their rep session, showing them their images and giving them their tools, sending out newsletters and idea emails, keeping in touch and answering questions, keeping track of and informing them of credit earned, follow up throughout the program for self-checks and assistance, and eventually orders. That's the bare minimum involvement I would recommend. 

How many referrals would mean how many kids can you realistically photograph during your season. Don't over-recruit and end up being unable to book referrals from excited reps. Know your limits. How many referrals will you expect from each Rep in your program? How will you monitor that and enforce it? (I don't recommend requiring a certain number of referrals. I find the less pressure, the higher percentage of reps that refer. Seriously -- this one change took a rep program from 22% participation to 95% in ONE season). 

Figure out your target Rep. Are they involved at school? What about outside of school? What traits should they have? What kind of personality and interaction level? Are they influential? Are they involved online? Also define what kind of Rep you don't want. What doesn't represent your brand at it's best? Don't just take anyone who's interested and has a heartbeat. Someone who lives your brand authentically will do your brand a better service than someone who just came to you for the "free" session. 

Now that you have all that in mind, you can start Planning your program. We will go into this part in a lot more detail further in this series, but I did want to touch on it now. Having a good plan in place is essential. 

It is almost impossible to say "Hey, I want to run a Rep program" and then launch it a few weeks later and have it be crazy successful. Take your time. Plan for everything you can think of. 

Try to discover the loopholes, the questions, what feels right for you, what you love. Start planning now, and launch it next year. You'll be glad you waited and made sure you had everything in place.

Who's ready to see how I do things?

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... more to come soon, watch for pt. 2 ...