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Booking a shoot through a booking proposal
Booking a shoot through a booking proposal

How to customize and book a shoot through a booking proposal and what you and your client will receive after completing one

Justin Morabito avatar
Written by Justin Morabito
Updated over a week ago

An unbooked client in Sprout Studio is called a Lead. A booked client is called a Shoot. When you first get an inquiry through your Contact Form in Sprout Studio, it automatically creates a Lead. You can also add a Lead manually by going to the Leads page or clicking on the "Quick Add" button and clicking “Add Lead” on the bottom left corner of Sprout Studio.

When a client is a Lead, they may still be negotiating packages, discussing details, and interviewing other photographers. Once they’re ready to book you, they are ready to pay, sign a contract and become an actual client.

You can book a lead into a shoot through Sprout Studio in 2 ways:

  1. By sending them a step-by-step Booking Proposal, allowing them to choose a package, sign a contract and make a payment

  2. By manually booking them as a Shoot.

This article covers option #1 - booking a shoot through a Booking Proposal.

Booking a shoot through a Booking Proposal

A Booking Proposal is a guided, step-by-step process of booking you. You customize the details and send your client a link, where they’ll have a unique URL to visit. In the Booking Proposal, they can choose a package, provide their personal details, sign a contract, and make a payment.

Customizing a booking proposal

Go to the "Booking Proposal" page (on the left-hand menu bar) while viewing a Lead to customize that Lead's Booking Proposal. Here, you can customize:

  • Scheduler - You can optionally attach a calendar to your Booking Proposal in order to have your client pick a date and time for something. This could be for the shoot date, an additional session date (like an engagement session), a meeting, etc.

  • Available Offerings - You must first choose a price list, and then you can add Packages, Print Items, Services and Products for your client to choose from by clicking the “Add Offering” button. You can reorder the items here by clicking the "Reorder" button above your packages.

  • Available a-la-carte items - Once you’ve selected a price list, you can specify any available a-la-carte items that your client can optionally choose to be added to their package. You can also specify a discount for these items if applicable, and whether you want the discount to be shown or not.

  • Questionnaire - You can optionally add a questionnaire as a step in the booking proposal for your client to fill out. You can use one of your template questionnaires (and optionally edit it just for this booing proposal) or create a new questionnaire for this booking proposal.

  • Contract - You can optionally choose to require a contract to be signed within the booking proposal. You can choose from one of your template contracts (and optionally customize it for this booking proposal) or create a new contract just for this booking proposal.

  • Payments already received - If you’ve already received payments from this client, you can add them here, and it will be applied to their payment schedule once they choose their package.

  • Welcome and thank-you message that is shown as the first and last step of the booking proposal. You can use one of your template messages (and optionally customize it just for this booking proposal) or create a new message for this booking proposal.

  • Payment schedule - You can choose the payment schedule (otherwise known as a payment plan) for your client by choosing the “Payment Schedule” toggle. Once you do, you can click the “Add Payment Schedule” button to add a template payment schedule or create a new one. If you’d rather keep the default “Single Payment” option, which is one lump sum payment due at the time of booking, you can choose the “Single Payment” option.

Finishing up your Booking Proposal

You can tweak the "flow" of a booking proposal and make it look and feel exactly how you’d like through the following customizations:

  • The Expiration date - After the expiry date, the booking proposal will no longer be available for viewing.

  • Currency - You can customize the currency that you're charging in right on the Booking Proposal.

  • Notes - You or your team could leave custom internal notes on a Proposal

  • Shoot Workflow - You can set your Lead to automatically attach your automation after it's booked into a Shoot.

  • Payment Method - You can override the default payment methods if you don't want to accept a certain method of payment. For example, you might not want to allow your clients to pay their deposit via a Credit Card.

  • Tax - You can choose what tax will be calculated on top of the package they choose. Your default tax specified in Settings > Pricing > Taxes will be chosen by default. The tax can be distributed on each invoice, evenly, or added to the final invoice. You can specify how you’d like your taxes calculated in Settings > Pricing > Taxes.

  • Email Link to Shoot - You can have Sprout automatically send your client an Assistant email with their portal login after they book by toggling this option on.

  • Allow Coupons - You can manage whether or not a client sees the coupon box on a Booking Proposal with this toggle.

Sending a Booking Proposal

Click the “Save” button to make the Booking Proposal live and click "Write an Email" in the next modal that pops up to send a Booking Proposal. This will publish the Booking Proposal (making the URL available to be visited) and open the "Compose Email" modal. The email will automatically populate the “To” field with the primary client’s email address, and the email you specified in when setting up your brand and user. If you do not have a “Default Booking Proposal Email” chosen, the link to the Booking Proposal will be populated in the email body.

Viewing and copying the link to the Booking Proposal

You can view the link to the Booking Proposal by clicking the “View as Client” button in the top right corner. If you’d like to send the booking proposal to your client outside of Sprout Studio, you can on the "Copy Link" button and then you can then copy and paste the booking proposal link and send it to your client however you’d like.

The Booking Proposal workflow

If you have a contract in the Booking Proposal, once your client signs it, you’ll be required to sign it as the photographer. Once you do, it will convert the Lead into a Shoot automatically. Once this happens, the following options you specified in the Booking Proposal will be acted upon:

  • Email link to shoot - this will email your client a link to their client portal and login details for this Shoot.

  • Apply workflow - this will apply the Shoot Workflow that you specify.

If you do not have a contract, once your client finishes the Booking Proposal, the Lead will be converted into a Shoot. Once this happens, the same options you specified in the Booking Proposal (above) will be implemented.

What you'll get after a Booking Proposal is complete

If you have all of the notifications turned on in Settings > Account > Users, you’ll receive the following notifications:

  • If you had a Questionnaire in the Booking Proposal, once the client fills out the Questionnaire in the Booking Proposal, you’ll receive a notification.

  • Once the client finishes the Booking Proposal, you’ll receive a notification.

  • If you had a deposit or retainer due upon booking, once your client pays, you’ll receive a notification.

What your client will get after a Booking Proposal is complete

If you have all of your automatic emails turned on in Settings > Automation > Assistant, your client will receive the following emails:

  • If you had a Questionnaire in the Booking Proposal, once the client fills out the Questionnaire in the Booking Proposal, they’ll receive an email confirmation.

  • Once the client finishes the Booking Proposal, they’ll receive an email confirmation.

  • If you had a deposit or retainer due upon booking, once your client pays, they’ll receive a receipt.

  • If you chose to "Email Link to Shoot" once you saved and published the Booking Proposal, your client would receive an email with the client portal and login details for the Shoot. If this is the first time they’re logging in, they’ll be asked to create a password when they visit the page.

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