Summary on
Upsells
Having said all this, keep in mind that a
successful upsell is one that the customer never regrets. In order for
upselling to succeed always look at the upsell from the customer's point of
view. The ultimate goal should not be to increase your take but rather to
increase the customer's ultimate satisfaction. If you approach upselling from
this point of view then the money will follow naturally. Think long term not
short term.
The words you use will also determine how
successful your upselling endeavors will be. Take a lesson from Amazon.com .
After every sale they will try to upsell you with yet another item. But you
will notice they never write “We recommend”. They always write “Customers who
bought this item also bought”. It's a subtle difference but one that probably
makes Amazon millions of dollars.
So to convert this info to your photobooth
business, when you are trying to sell green screen, do not say “I recommend you
get green screen.” Always say, “Many of our customers request green screen.
They find it adds to the excitement their guests experience.”
PROPS
Props are an essential part of the photobooth
experience and are one of the major factors that will set you apart from other
photobooths in your area.
Ideas For
Props
Props you can use are endless. Here are just a few
categories to help get you started:
Hats – Any kind of hats from Animal Characters to Sombreros – the key
is to have it show part of the face and not be a full mask.
Mustache On A Stick
Blow Up Instruments – Guitars – Saxaphones, Microphones
Sunglasses – of all kinds, normal and novelty.
Signs – I'm With Whoever, Chalk Board, Wipe Erase Boards
Wigs - Colorful
Holiday / Event Related
Christmas - Santa Hat,
Reindeer Antlers, White Beard
New
Years
St.
Patty's Day
Birthday
Hats and Signs
Where To Buy Props
Sherman Specialty
www.4funparties.com - some nice props specifically listed for photobooths
Windy City Novelty
www.windycitynovelties.com
– also a great selection of kits and separate pieces for photobooths
Rhode Island Novelty
www.rinovelty.com –
ironically Rhode Island Novelty is located in Massachusetts – they also have
some great props for photobooth operators
Party City
I find a lot of my favorite props at Party City.
My favorites are the signs packages that they offer.
PARTY
PHOTO FUN SIGNS 12CT – SKU 455436
This
package contains 12 signs with 24 very relavant sayings, one on each side. Yes
you could make your own, but I just like the way these are presented and the
way they appear in the photos and I would say that they are one of my most
popular props. The only downside is that they don't last forever, but at the
price of $2.99 at Party City, if they last 10 shows they have paid for
themselves.
For weddings I also add the following
BRIDAL
SHOWER PHOTO SIGNS 12CT – SKU 471055
These
signs are also only $2.99 at Party City and well worth the cost.
Here are a
few of my other favorites at Party City:
FEELING
GROOVY PEACE SIGN BOWLER HAT – SKU 536932
PRICE .99
BALLOON
PARTY THE PARTY'S HERE YARD SIGN 14 in X 15 in – SKU 66011 PRICE $5.99
CTS Wholesale Sunglasses
Based out of Oregon, www.ctswholesalesunglasses.com has a wide assortment of sunglases sold in lots of 12 for the most
part with prices ranging from .66 to $3 each– they also have a novelty section
that is great for photobooths, with Devo sunglasses, “Bats” sunglasses,
“Frankenstein” sunglasses, flashing sunglasses, well you get the idea.
They also have a sunglass display for $16 that will help you keep all
the sunglasses organized.
They also sell hats – my favorite is the jester hat that at last check
was being sold at $30 for 12 of them.
Dollar Stores
Some of the props at dollar stores are garbage, but others are
irreplaceable, especially now that dollar stores have become dollar-and-up
(lol) stores. Many times I find props in dollar stores that I can't find at a
better price at wholesale. When I do find something good I tend to stock up on
it.
The only down side to dollar stores seems to be that they have very few
after-season sales on items that are not
perishable. Of course when the item is a dollar in the first place, well it is
hard to discount that.
Garage Sales
If you enjoy attending garage sales, you might be amazed at the quality
of goods you may be able to find that could be used as photobooth props.
I enjoy garage sales (though I don't have the time to attend them that
I would like) because you never know what you are going to find. I may spend an
entire morning and find nothing and then another day I just stop at one sale on
the way to something else and I find the buy of a lifetime. According to Forest
Gump, “life is like a box of chocolates” and I really like the fact that at a
garage sale you never know what you are going to get.
I really find it hard to NOT stop at a garage sale though sometimes I
am prevented from doing so either because of time limitations or because of who
else is in the car that has no interest in garage sales. No, I have never found
that million dollar piece of artwork for a dollar, but I have picked up a lot
of lesser items. Back in the 1980s I bought a lot of lps dirt cheap at garage
sales, and indirectly it was my massive record collection that not too much
later (1987) led me on the path to becoming a DJ and much later a photobooth
operator and owner. So I guess you could say, if it were not for garage sales,
I probably would not be writing this book.
Thrift
Shops
No I am not talking about the Maclemore song but since I mentioned
garage sales, I may as well mention thrift shops. Once again, looking for props
here is an adventure – they will probably not be as cheap as garage sales, but
cheaper than regular stores. Of course, I tend to avoid things from thrift
shops that I can't wash, unless in the rare instance it is new of course.
Re-Used Props Or New Props
This is a business decision every photobooth
operator needs to make.
I offer 3 levels of service depending on the
package booked: (call it an upsell if you want-lol)
–
standard
assortment of re-used props (CHEAPEST)
–
brand new props
that we keep at the end of the night (MORE EXPENSIVE)
–
brand new props
that are distributed to the guests at the end (MOST EXPENSIVE)
Many of our props are hats and blow-up
instruments. Many times guests like to take the props onto the dance floor and
have fun with them as almost a DJ prop. If they have booked the highest end
package I definitely let them do that – on occasion I have let them do that
with other packages as well. After all it is my job to entertain the guests and
despite the risk of prop loss or damage (keeping in mind that many of these
props are fairly inexpensive to begin with) I let them have their fun with it.
I do my best to collect the props at the end of the night – they are sometimes
sitting on tables or on the floor.
When there are lots of kids at your party you
might definitely suggest the brand new props that are distributed at the end of
the party approach. First off, props are much more likely to grow legs at a
kids party than an adult party (unless it is a drunken stupor party-lol) and kids
are generally delighted to have something like a prop to walk away with at the
end of the party. In one case, I had the DJ in the last 15 minutes of the party
give them away. This just made the night.
I think I am one of very few operators in my area
that offer all-new props and this is something that makes me stand out. Most
clients do not go for the option yet it is all part of the marketing strategy.
I also offer glow sticks and bracelets in my
higher-end packages. While it does not add that much to the pictures themselves
people really like them and when I allow them to keep them they go around the
room and it attracts more attention to the fun people are having in the
photobooth. The glow sticks are available from most novelty wholesalers and as well
at www.sureglow.com which at a recent DJ convention sold a $15 package of lots and lots of
glow sticks and bracelets. I used this with great success at a number of my
shows.
Inflatable Props
Not everyone will agree with me, but I love
inflatable props. They are easy to transport, relatively cheap and the ones I
use are very colorful and so they blend in nicely with the pictures. They do
have a couple of drawbacks. They don't last forever and yes, you do have to
blow them up at the start of the event and let the air out at the end, but
usually I don't have a problem making the time as I generally arrive quite
early at my events anyway and rarely have any problems.
At a minimum I will carry a blowup guitar, blowup
sax and 2 blowup mics. They are readily available from any of the novelty
stores.
Higher End and Custom / Specialty Prop Websites
There are many companies that make custom props.
Check them out on the internet and then order from your favorites.
www.etsy.com – has lots of
prop vendors – just do a search for “photobooth props” and you will see them
all listed.
Limbo Sticks
So, now its time for yet a bit more shameless self
promotion. Long before I got into the photobooth business, I was selling
collapsible limbo sticks for DJs . I have had a number of other products that I
have been selling over the years, but by far my best seller has consistently
been the decorated collapsible limbo stick which I also wholesale to a variety
of DJ stores and novelty wholesalers.
You can buy these limbo sticks online at either www.djcompanionrecords.com
or www.ezphotobooths.ca
. Just look for the props section in the
later case.
I am not going to try and over-sell this and try to
tell you that you cannot do a photobooth without a limbo stick. This is
absolutely not true.
I will tell you what I do however. Many times I
have combination DJ and photobooth shows so I do put a number of limbo sticks
in with both my DJ systems and photobooth systems. In the case of the
photobooths I do sometimes use the limbo sticks for decorative purposes. I do
sometimes make a joke that you must do the limbo in order to get your picture
taken.
I have also had some girls take the limbo stick
and turn it into a stripper pole. Now just so I make this perfectly clear – the
limbo stick can only be used as a similated stripper pole for pictoral
purposes. It has no vertical strength and could not be used as an actual
stripper pole.
The biggest thing I like about the limbo stick is
that it folds up very easily no matter what I do with it. Look at all the fun
you can have for only $29.95.
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