How do you deal with the "McDonalds" / "fast" / "right now" attitude inquiries?

In my business you have to respond quickly if you cannot get to the client right away set up an auto response system most iPhones have them that lets them know you have received the request and will call in the next 30 minutes to hr. Then they are more likely to wait rather than move on to someone who answers. My experience is the early bird catches the worm. And even with a 2-3 minute response sometimes I’m too late it’s just how competitive it is out there.

If they are in that big of a hurry maybe they won't be good clients either. I do CD/DVD duplication and get people who want a full packaging job in a couple of days, which is impossible, and then want a low price and then don't even know what their exact needs are. You can spend a lot of time on them and they never do the job. Just let it go. What you are doing wrong is worrying about them.

Been at this twenty five years and seen everything. If they didn't have the courtesy to wait 30 min it very well may have been best you were busy. When I get the call or email, I answer immediately with a cost. Too much competition to hesitate. Hopefully, we are hired on our talent and expertise and not looked at who has the cheapest gas. Our industry is in serious trouble with new tech like cell phones photo's and video options. Many are relying on social media for their content all taken with a cell phone. One hard reality for me was when a past Fortune 500 client of mine that I had a nine year relationship shooting high-end annual reports...they are using their cell phones and rarely if ever hire a pro photographer. This is brutal. We must offer quality and technical photography/video beyond the cell phone. That leaves about 20 percent of the marketplace. Stay with the winners and do not waste your time with the Walmart Blue Light special people or companies.

That is unfortunate.

How are you having prospective clients reach you? Do you have a Facebook or LinkedIn page, a website? Do those inquiries immediately hit your cell phone? Or is it a landline in your studio? Do you have a store front? You may want to consider forwarding your phone, while you're working, to another "live" person to answer that call and address those questions. It is frustrating for some prospective clients, including myself, to get a voicemail, instead of a live person. That's just the way it is, these days, I'm afraid. Finally, is this happening often? It may be time to rethink your entire marketing and customer attainment plan.

Nothing! There will always be people who go for the fastest or cheapest. You need to find your niche, do it well, ask for referrals and testimonials. Have confidence in what you do and build relationships through networking and strategic alliances.

I found that very often people that don't give you the chance to answer, those are the ones that are going through the motions not looking for quality but quick and most time cheap solution to their photographer situation. Their loss for not giving you the chance of a 12-24hr to respond.

I'm sorry I don't understand let me explain. I get calls all the time that require a call back in some cases over an hour, but I ask you this, how does someone make a decision in one hour ??? If I were to inquire to a few companies about a service I would want to hear from all of them so that I can make an intelligent decision. This I believe would hold especially true in your industry. I think I would have to look carefully at my call back introduction and pitch, perhaps your to direct maybe you should find something unrelated to talk about then begin to ask questions. In the past I have called my competition to see how they handle themselves and learn as much as possible about there service. I say dig dig dig.

One of the main topics of conversation at my brokerage is "speed to lead". We have tons of research that states you need to respond to an inquiring lead within 5 minutes to have the chance of converting that lead to a client. After 5 minutes the conversion percentage drops drastically.

Think of it this way ... when they are inquiring, they are ready to make a decision. As time passes they are more than likely done thinking about it and much less interested to talk about it, or in some cases, they have already chosen a company that responded quicker than you.

So my advice is to keep "speed to lead" in mind as you are receiving business inquiries. It will greatly increase you conversion rate.

You are not doing anything wrong. That kind of prospect is not operating on a conscious or logical level which you can change. I work in a similar industry (recording studios) where the clients are often rushing to finish a project and will call anyone and everyone they can to get them to pick up the phone first. The clients I generally work with are the ones willing to wait for an estimate or an RFQ response. They plan and execute that plan. As a creative, it's a much better feeling knowing that my clients are preparing, rather than reacting. If you're really looking to change your marketing, there's one thing I would suggest... Define and present your work as "exclusive", "unique" or "distinctive", it may draw a more reliable prospect who is more interested in your style than in the emergent photographer coverage. Best of luck to you!

I read most of the responses. Not being in photography I don't know the business. With that being said 38 years ago when I got married I selected the absolute worse photographer. To this day I regret it. Maybe the problem is your voice mail response. People may not realize they may only get one opportunity to catch the perfect moment that they can treasure for lifetimes to come.