During a meeting with a new client this week, we talked about the importance of photographs and how people love to reconnect with the happy experiences they have had with their horses and the people around them.
It got me thinking about the laminated baseball card size photograph Charles showed me after his last soccer game in the summer season. His coach, a thoughtful volunteer, had taken the time to photograph the team and make a small photocard for all of the members.
Charles told me the cool thing was that he and another teammate weren’t at the game when the group shot was taken by the coach. Clever coach had “photoshopped” both of them into the picture with more skill than the cover creator of “National Enquirer”.
Photographs are powerful emotional triggers. And like a good wine, they just get more valuable with age. No doubt about it, horse owners usually have boxes and boxes of silly snapshot photographs of their horses. But since the owner is usually the photographer, very few good shots of horse and owner together are included in the photo collection.
You can imagine the joy of a horse owner receiving a “team photograph” of herself and favorite horse as a surprise gift. Can you see her beaming with pride as she tells admiring coworkers about the new team photo on her desk of her horse and herself sent by her instructor, trainer, coach?
I have a hard time correctly spelling psychology let alone understanding it, but I do know something magical happens to the ego when others send a photograph of ourselves and a four legged “significant other.” It’s a form of approval: ” way to go, an attaboy or attagirl!” from someone whose opinion is valued separately from compliments from family and best friends.
So here is where you fit in. As a professional horseman, you, an assistant or volunteer can take digital photos of your clients with the horses in their lives. Cull the bad shots with the delete key and print the winners.
Photo opps:
- Students and their favorite lesson horses for holiday gifts
- New owners and their just purchased horses for your website
- Clinic participants
- Group shots
- Candid horse show shots
- Trail rides
- Barn events
- And whatever your imagination dictates
Why bother and take the trouble?
As a business person, you spend most of your working day with left brain revved up for logical thinking. Your thoughts focus on: cut costs, raise revenue, efficiency, less labor, do the important things. . . .
It’s not hard to have your thoughts swirling with the business of business.
But when you stop to think about your clients’ way of thinking you realize that for most of them, their horse connection is purely recreational and emotional.
And can you think of a better way to communicate with their emotional sides than a thoughtful photograph?