One of the most efficient systems to build in your business is automated inquiry responses, yet many people hesitate to do so as they want to be intentional and customize their emails. In today’s episode, Megan Grove joins us to share how she incorporated the learnings from the CRM Blueprint course to create customized responses to her inquiries that are still automated and don’t take any extra time to send!
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If you’ve tried setting up your Dubsado or Honeybook account, yet aren’t actually utilizing all of the features it offers, I want to invite you to check out The CRM Blueprint. My course includes templates for all of the forms, emails, and workflows that you need to get paid in one easy step. Ready to maximize your use of Dubsado or Honeybook, enroll in The CRM Blueprint today! Use the code PODCAST for 10% off.
Here are the highlights…
[1:45] Get to Know Megan
[5:19] Niching Down & Saying No
[6:38] Onboarding Systems
[8:35] Collecting Payments
[9:10] Megan’s CRM Blueprint Course Timeline
[10:30] Simple Sales
[13:20] Video Instead of Sales Calls
[15:38] Generic, Yet Customized Video Responses
[19:56] Magic Emails
[22:17] Advice for New Photographers
[23:36] Megan’s Podcast
Mentioned in this Episode
Dubsado – Use code coliejames for 30% off your first payment, month or year
This Can’t Be that Hard Podcast
Episode 108: The Magic of Follow-Up Emails
Connect with Megan
Website: megangrove.com
Instagram: instagram.com/megangrovephotography
Podcast: Dear Photographer Friend
Submit a Story: dearphotographerfriend@gmail.com
Review the Transcript:
Colie: Hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Business First Creatives podcast. Today, I am actually interviewing Megan Grove, who is a student in my CRM blueprint, the Dubsado version. And she’s actually local to me. I mean, if I had to guess, she is currently 17 miles north of my house. Megan, good morning and welcome to the podcast.
Megan Grove: Good morning, how are you?
Colie: I’m great. How are you doing this morning?
Megan Grove: I am a little too excited, I think.
Colie: I mean, I like it when people are excited to come on my podcast. Well, today guys, we are going to be taking this episode from the perspective of someone who was introducing systems into her business for the very first time. So Megan, I know that I asked you a few questions before we hit record, but can you briefly tell the audience like how you got started in photography and how your business has kind of changed since 2009?
Megan Grove: Okay, I started in 2009 at a corporate portrait studio. They hired me for my inexperience. I did that for a while. I went and did a different corporate studio for a little while. I even did school photography and then I realized you could make so much more money on your own versus working for somebody else.
So, I eventually started my own business. It was probably about 2015, probably, I think. And I was just photographing everything because I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet. But the more I did it, the more I realized I didn’t want weddings. I didn’t want just a lot of different things. What I only wanted to photograph was babies.
So I rebranded and, refocused in 2019, I believe. So, that’s, that’s how that started. And that whole entire time I did not have a CRM or anything like that. I would check messages or check emails and I would usually just forget about them after a couple of days. I actually saw in my notebook today how I used to keep notes and it is people’s names in really messy handwriting.
Like this was what I was doing, just a list of names and where they came from, Facebook, email, whatever. It was a mess and I would forget about people all the time.
Colie: I mean, we’re going to get there, Megan. Let’s talk about niching down, because this is a topic that comes up very often on this podcast, and I am not shy about telling people. From the moment that I opened my business, I have basically done one thing and that was documentary family photography. I have not really, you know, ventured into other areas, but what a lot of people don’t know is the year before I opened my business, I actually did play around with doing other things because, family photography was really not even on my radar.
When I decided to open my business as a photographer, I actually did a senior mentorship. with Stephanie Panna out of Chicago, like flew there, like, you know, barely knew how to take pictures. And we did a model session together and I was like, absolutely not. Senior photography is not for me. Now that’s where I thought I was going to go.
I mean, but I was like, I don’t like posing like women. Like that is not my joy. I do not want to tell someone how to stand there and look better. Nope. So then I also explored the idea of posed newborn photography, your world, I never even got to do a model call. So my best friend at that time had a baby and she is a posed newborn photographer.
So I went over to her house and she was going to be taking photographs of her kid. When I tell you that that was like the worst experience, Hey Kate, if you’re listening to this, it’s still the worst experience. I was like, absolutely not, not posed newborns. So then I started looking at like family photography and I did three whole sessions outside.
Before I was again, like, uh, I don’t want to stand outside in the cold. I don’t want to tell people what to do. Uh, is photography going to work for me? And then that was when I was like, you know what, I’m taking these kinds of pictures of my daughter where I don’t tell her what to do, and I just like circle her and photograph what I want.
I wonder if that’ll work for families. So that is how I got into my niche, but like I have been niched the entire 11 years that I have actually taken money from people. So Megan, bravo for making that decision after four years that you knew where you wanted to go forward. And I think that rebranding, not only to your own business name, like your own name in the business, but also, you know, taking that step to just pick one thing is really what helped you, you know, push your business forward.
So good job.
Megan Grove: Thank you. I actually narrowed down even further last year and I only do newborns now and it gives me weird pleasure to tell people no, I won’t photograph first birthdays. No, I won’t go outside. No, I only do this. It’s amazing.
Colie: I mean, no is the best word in your vocabulary. I agree. Like I, I love telling people, no. I mean, our children, our children are so smart. They tell us no all the time. So why wouldn’t we get joy out of telling other people? No.
Megan Grove: right. I am a giant people pleaser. It’s like really deep embedded in my soul, unfortunately. And so it’s actually very hard for me to tell people no, but, um, really getting to know myself and my business has helped me with that. And also having like pre written out things that helped me say no and, no, but here is somebody else that can do it.
That’s great. So it’s also nice to be able to pass those along.
Colie: I mean, cause then you really do feel like you are doing a service, not only to the clients that hire you, but to the leads that come to you because you’re making sure that even though you are not willing to go outside and photograph them in front of our beautiful mountains in Colorado.
No. Here are a few people that I know will do it well for you. Please contact one of them. And if you have another baby, please come back to me. Thanks.
Megan Grove: Right.
Colie: So let’s talk about these systems. You’ve already told me what you did for your leads. You scribbled them down in a notebook. You wrote down where they came from, but when it comes to your actual clients, like before you joined the CRM blueprint, how were you onboarding your clients when they were ready and they said, okay, how do I pay you?
What do we do next? What was your process? Yes.
Megan Grove: call everybody, so then I’d be scribbling notes alongside of where they came, what their phone number, what, like, where they came from, Facebook, email, etc. But, I was just scribbling it all in the notebook. And it was just not, not practical at all, but I didn’t know anything else. Like, I had never even heard of ACRM before I heard of, like, Animes. Because the IPS class doesn’t talk about that at all because it is very hands on, I guess. And so, I guess it was kind of hands on. I did have to call people. Now, it hurts my soul to call people, so I’ve made, um, I, I just make videos all the time.
That was kind of a suggestion by somebody in your class. And it was, it’s game changer, game changer for me because I hated calling people. It hurt. It hurt so
Colie: I mean, I will say, Megan, you are now going to be my example of the person who had the most basic systems. Because normally people’s answers are, Oh, I just had this Google sheet where I had everyone’s name and I was basically like typing it in.
But like, I think my soul hurts because I’m like, Because what happened if one of your kids like took your notebook and ripped it up or spilled apple juice on it? Like, I am horrified about the fact that you had this one notebook that had all of these things in it without like Copies and backups and all of that kind of stuff.
Megan Grove: The thought never even crossed my mind and I have three little boys.
Colie: Oh my gosh. I know I’ve seen their pictures on your website Okay, so absolutely you were writing everything down. How were you collecting money?
Megan Grove: PayPal.
Colie: Okay,
Megan Grove: So yeah, I would invoice, um,
Colie: okay
Megan Grove: so there was records always that way. And that was the only way that I accepted money. I didn’t, I still don’t accept cash. It’s always, I at least had records that way. So I could go back and like do all my taxes and stuff through that. And I did, like, I was putting how much people paid.
into a spreadsheet. But that is all that it was, was just what they paid. Not like when they paid or any of the details that should matter.
Colie: okay. Were you doing a contract at that point or they were just paying you the invoice?
Megan Grove: They were just paying me.
Colie: I mean, so this course really did completely overhaul your systems and give them to you. Let’s dive into the course. So I know that you joined the course at the beginning of September and according to my meticulous records, which are kept on my computer, It seems like you joined the course on September 9th.
You filled out the Module 2 feedback form on September 27th, the Module 3 feedback form on September 28th, and then the Module 4 feedback form, which is the last official module in the course, on October 5th. So girl, you ran through the course in less than 30 days. Was that your initial plan?
Megan Grove: Oh yeah. It was, it was really good stuff. And when I get started on something I just really I actually love how your course was put out because I wanted to get through it, and I just wanted that thing at the end, the really pretty proposal, I wanted all of that stuff really bad, and I’m not somebody that likes to wait so I don’t mind diving in and doing it. I think I know I had started Annemie’s class but as soon as she had mentioned something about the emails and stuff I was like Oh, this is the time to pause. Her class and jump into yours. And that’s why it went pretty fast. Cause I, I kind of, I wanted to hear what the rest of Annemie’s class was too. So it was like, there was a lot of things going on all at once, but it was so much good information.
I just, oh, it was so much fun.
Colie: Okay, so guys, I’m going to take a brief pause and I’m going to tell you what Megan is talking about in case you are new to the podcast or you are not in the Simple Sales world. So one of my business besties is Annamie Tonkin. She has an amazing podcast called This Can’t Be That Hard, and she teaches a pricing course for photographers to become profitable and sustainable called the Simple Sales Blueprint.
I will link it in the show notes. It is amazing. Kind of by accident, but also really on purpose. Um, when I created my course and I knew that I was getting a lot of simple sales users, I specifically wrote the course and gave people tips on what to do on my course and what to do on her course. In case you were doing them together, because Megan is definitely not the only one that has done simple sales blueprint and the CRM blueprint at the same time.
So I just wanted to put that little note in there in case you’re like on me, like, what is she talking about? Who is that person? She is referring to simple sales and it is an absolutely amazing course that I would recommend a hundred percent. I use her pricing methods for new clients in my own photography business.
Cause yes guys, in case you’ve forgotten, I am actually still a photographer. So Megan, let’s talk about, you went through the course, you got it done in less than 30 days. You had this proposal. How quickly did you start integrating your clients into your new systems? Mm
Megan Grove: almost immediately or within the first week as soon as I do have all of my stuff set up so I still approve most of the emails, not all of them, but most of them. So I have that control over it so I can still tweak an email if I want or just for my emotional well being I really like the approve button.
So I just, oh my gosh, I just loved your course so much.
Colie: Okay. So almost immediately, Megan. So how many days or weeks do you think that you, that it took in order for you to get that first time? That’s like, Hey, someone has, you know, accepted your proposal, signed the contract and paid the invoice.
Megan Grove: I’m sure it was no time. I haven’t looked at the actual dates, but once I started using it, I was booking them. I mean, it made me look a lot more professional. I really believe that, having, The same thing going out to every customer, like the same exact emails, essentially, you know, tweaking them a little bit here and there, but everybody getting the same thing and how pretty the proposal is.
The contract is right there. The invoice is right there. How it just makes me look so much more professional. So I really believe that my customers and they even mentioned how. pretty it was. And when I switched over to videos they’ve also said that that was very informative. So I, that was a huge game changer and I would have never even thought about that before I was in your, your Facebook group I’m pretty sure for the CRM blueprint.
I’m pretty sure that’s where I heard that. So
Colie: you’ve mentioned that twice. So let’s talk about that because I feel like there are some people inside of my audience who have a phobia of sales calls. I don’t happen to be one of those people. Sometimes I’m just lazy. And so if it’s someone that I, you know, I’m fully booked, I’m just going to send out a proposal.
If they book, they book. If they don’t, they don’t. But one of the things that Annemie really talks about in Simple Sales, and one of the things that is big in our industry is getting on a sales call in order to talk to someone Present your offer and basically get to know them, but you are doing this through videos.
So I am curious where you are sending these videos in your process. So someone goes to your website and I assume that they’re filling out a Dubsado lead capture form. Yes. And then are you immediately sending them a video in your email reply or are you taking like a day, a few hours to make them a personalized video and sending it a little later in your process?
Megan Grove: So I was taking the time to make everybody a personalized video. My first email that goes back, To them, it just says, thank you for, emailing me. I will be in contact with you soon, but that very first email I want to talk about the, since I’m a newborn photographer, I want to ask the baby’s gender due date.
All sorts, like I want to have the video specific to them. So I was originally making videos. Every single time somebody would call up and people were loving those, but I eventually, when I started getting a little bit busier, I was like, I really need to figure out a way to automate these. So I eventually started doing congratulations on your baby girl do soon.
Congratulations on your baby boy do soon. So it felt like it was being special, but it just kind of wasn’t because I was automating it. So I, I feel like they still think it’s special, because it’s gender, it’s specific to gender, it’s when their baby is due, it’s still fairly specific to the information that they’ve given me, but at the same time, I can automate it, and like when September came, and there’s always so many babies in September, I was just sending those out, I wasn’t having to record anything, I wasn’t making calls to anybody, I’m not going to say that I have an amazing booking rate, but I can go through the booking process fast enough with people, or easy enough I should say, not necessarily fast enough, but easy enough that I don’t mind going through more people to find the people that are actually going to book me.
Colie: nice. So let’s talk about videos. Cause you said, congratulations on baby boy. Congratulations on baby girl. I mean, I feel like I don’t ever have a podcast episode where I don’t give somebody a tip. What I think that you should do, because one of the things that I like about your website is that you are emphasizing that sibling images are included in those kinds of things.
If you are asking people on your lead capture form, number one, what, what the gender of their baby is, but then number two, whether or not they’re first time parents. Or they have other, or the baby has siblings, I would actually make four versions of that video. I would make one boy and girl first time parents, because I feel like the way that you talk about your process when it’s just parents and a baby, at least for me, especially in a fresh 48 is way different than I talk about if they’re siblings, because if there are siblings, I am mostly telling the potential clients about how great I am with older siblings and how, you know, don’t be nervous about taking pictures with your oldest children and your new baby.
Everything is going to go fine. So I feel like I find myself talking a little differently. And so if you find that that’s the case, if people who already have children, are really concerned about how you’re going to get a good mix of the solo images of just the baby and then also work in the siblings. I might go ahead and start making multiple videos.
I mean, because like you said, as long as they’re made, you just have to pick the one and click and send, and then you’re all done.
Megan Grove: yeah, right now I have like six videos, but I haven’t actually made a siblings one yet Just because I have baby do soon baby already born baby doing a few months so like trying to cover all the and I’ve made one for twins because I’m just if I have to make the video anyways then I might as well make it like specific but generic enough to cover anybody else.
That’s gonna ask
Colie: Yeah, I think I’m a little jealous. Do you know that in my 11 years of photography, I’ve still not had twin babies. Like, I don’t know. I don’t know, Megan. No one with twins wants to hire me. I don’t understand. I have tried my hardest. And I’ve just not been successful, and I mean, I’m 11 years in, so now I think I’ve just given up.
But I would really love to hold two babies at a time, in case anyone listening, you know, wants to hire me to photograph your family in the hospital. That would be great. Please
Megan Grove: would be amazing. I’m a big believer in what you show in like your social media or on your website is what you photograph. So I definitely, usually if I’m showing twins, like if I just had twins come in, I get twin, like people asking about it. And the very first session I did with twins, I did it for free, you know, and it was years ago too.
So, I guess that’s kind of one of those things where sometimes to me, I really wanted to do the twins. So it was worth it. Back then.
Colie: Yeah, I mean, I don’t, because you do pose newborn photography, I do think that what you do is a little different than me. There really wouldn’t be any difference in the actual photographing. I just really want twins. Like, I just feel like I haven’t, like, made it in the world of photography until I’ve held two twins at the same time while I’m photographing them.
It’s okay. Now that I’ve put it out into the world in this episode, I
Megan Grove: to
Colie: going to book twins in the next year. I am. So, Megan, you mentioned your booking rates. And you said that you don’t calculate them with, by the way, you and I are going to chat about that when we stop hitting record, because I want you to know what your booking rates are, but was there any difference in your booking rates before, before you had the systems versus after?
Megan Grove: I would maybe, I feel like I book more. I’ve had a lot of transitions this year where since I moved down to just newborns, I’m not doing any first birthdays or six months or anything like that. So it’s kind of made it a little bit slower. Maybe the economy has made it a little bit slower. I don’t know, but I do feel like, My bookings are a whole lot easier for me, but they might be about the same this year.
I feel like next year they’re really going to be good though. I don’t see why they shouldn’t be.
Colie: I mean, you know, hopefully this economy is going to rebound. We can all put that message out into the world and hopefully that is what is going to happen. So talk to me about your favorite part of the system because you already said the proposal. So you know what I’m going to do, Megan? I’m going to say it can’t be the proposal.
What else do you love about the new systems that you are using inside of your business?
Megan Grove: Definitely the emails. I might’ve already mentioned that, but, um, the magic email in particular, is that what it’s called? Right?
Colie: is. And I didn’t write it.
Megan Grove: email, but still it’s in, it’s just, it is exactly what it needs to be. It’s like a little bit abrupt, which I’m not good about being. So it’s just enough that people typically a lot of times respond.
Cause you get a lot of people that never, ever get back to you, but that email helps. They either will tell you, Oh, I’m sorry. I never got back to you. And I found somebody else. But that’s closure. That’s fine. I’m perfectly happy with that as long as somebody’s like getting back to me, but We’re booking because a lot of times with that last email.
They’ve been like, oh, I’m sorry. I haven’t gotten back to you life is busy
I would like to book so that email is just really really really handy
Colie: Okay, guys. So I am actually going to refer you back to episode 108. I did a solo episode where I talked about my process of follow up emails. And I love everything that Megan said. I mean, it’s as if she took a course from me or something, guys. There is some power in this magic email.
And again, uh, I did not write it is an email concept that is on the internet, free for you to search. The person who wrote its name is Kai Davis. And I always say the purpose of that third follow up email, which He calls the magic email. And so, so do I, um, the power of the magic email is that you get closure.
Most of the time you might not get the booking, but at least you get someone to reply to you and say, oh, you know, I went another direction or, you know, we decided that this wasn’t a priority at this time. I will take closure. any day over feeling ghosted and someone just disappears and there’s always that what if in your mind like what if I just reach out one more time will they buck the answer is probably no but when you
Megan Grove: but maybe
Colie: email yeah and you get this
Megan Grove: sometimes, yeah.
Colie: you can you know just archive the project and move on with your life which is fabulous so Megan, is there anything else that you thought about doing before, but now you’ve implemented in the systems and it’s really going well for you?
Like, is there just any, anything that you know, that you got from the course or just systems in general that you’ve learned, you know, elsewhere in the world, that if you were going to talk to a beginning photographer who is perhaps still scribbling down their leads inside of a notebook, uh, what would you tell them?
To do in order to get good systems in their business.
Megan Grove: Oh man, I would tell them to talk to you. I have told people to talk to you because, even to this day, a year later, I still don’t think if it, if like I could have said it up by myself, it’s good that I had every like step in it because otherwise I never would have gotten it done myself. And I can show everybody, look how pretty my thing is.
You want this. I know you do, but I can’t tell them how to do it.
Colie: Well, and I mean, now
Megan Grove: my thing.
Colie: tell them how to do it. Now it’s the one click templates where they just click a button. I mean, I think about Meg, so Megan, you joined the course after I had one click templates, but imagine those poor souls that did it way before you did. And I didn’t have one click templates.
So they literally had to watch a video that was like 20 minutes long of me showing them how to move every field over and customize it. And so I like showed them what the proposal should look like. I made a video on how they should move every single element over and do it. But like immediately when I got one click templates, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is going to save each and every one of my students hours on their
Megan Grove: know how good I had it. I had no idea
Colie: So Megan, the one thing that I want to ask you in closing is I know that you are going to have a podcast soon. So why don’t you tell me about that?
Megan Grove: Yes, so I’ve just barely started a podcast. It is not an educational podcast. It’s not gonna be like that I don’t feel like I’m in the position for that, but it is Purely for entertainment for photographers. So my hope with this podcast is that people will be willing to share their stories. Their funny stories, their sad stories, any story really.
I’m going to have guests come on and tell their stories or you can submit them anonymously. It’s just, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for the, photo community if it takes off. But at this point I’m still in like the story gathering stage. So definitely if any. Oh, dear photographer friend, and if anybody wants to, submit a story, it’s dearphotographerfriend at gmail.com.
Colie: Okay. I’m going to have that linked in the show notes. Megan, thank you so much for joining me on this, on this episode of the podcast. I mean, I always tell people how important systems are in their business, but it’s really helpful when I can ask my students to tell other people about how much systems have impacted them, because I always say at the end of the day, I have plenty of both free and paid resources.
So even if you are in the listening audience and you are like, Oh, that sounds good, but I don’t currently have the budget for a course, guys, I have plenty of podcast episodes, all related to creating profitable and sustainable systems inside of your business that will help you move from the stage of writing everything down in a notebook or putting it inside of like a Google spreadsheet to like, really using a CRM to get time back in your business. All right, guys, that’s it for this episode. See you next time.
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