Sales: Doing It For People, Not To Them · Pet Photographers Collective

Sales: Doing It For People, Not To Them

So I mentioned I attended a Bootcamp recently, and one of the speakers, Anthony Vizzari, absolutely blew me away.

To give you context, Anthony is the Senior Vice President at Seventh Level, working alongside Jeremy Miner (the founder of the NEPQ method). He’s trained over 100,000 people around the world on how to sell using emotional intelligence and human behaviour, not pressure.

He’s also spoken on major stages with names like Russell Brunson, helping businesses grow through connection-based selling. But what stood out to me most was how human his approach felt.

Here are some of the key takeaways that really stuck with me:

1. Sales is simply change. Selling isn’t about convincing or closing. It’s about helping someone move from where they are now to where they want to be. For us as photographers, that means we’re not selling photos, we’re helping clients move from wanting memories to having them on their walls.

2. Sales is something you do for people, not to them. If you believe your service genuinely improves lives, then not selling it is actually doing people a disservice.

3. People buy with emotion, not logic.When people hesitate, it’s usually fear or overwhelm, not price.They’re deciding based on how they feel, then justifying it later with logic.

4. The tone of your voice matters more than your words.Your energy sets the emotional tone for the conversation. Soft, curious questions build trust faster than perfectly-worded scripts ever will.

5. Use a ‘familiar tone’ to lower defences. People dislike cold calls because they trigger a stress response. Instead, speak as if you already know them:

“Hey Sarah, it’s Ina here. We chatted at the event about your dog, remember?” That instantly relaxes their brain. Even if they might not remember, this will then get their brain thinking about, of did I have that conversation and bring their guard down.

6. Ask better questions that dig deeper. Instead of “What made you want photos?”, try:

“When you say you want memories, what does that mean to you?”or“Is there a reason this feels important to do now?” These questions create emotion and connection.

7. Reframe price conversations. When someone says, “That’s more than another photographer,” you could say:

“You definitely could go somewhere cheaper for digitals. But wouldn’t that leave you where you are now, with hundreds of photos on your phone, and none on your walls?”

Let the pause do the work.

8. The person who’s least needy wins. When you detach from needing the sale, your energy shifts. You show up calm, confident, and focused on helping, and that’s when people buy. One of the thing that Anthony did when I did the roleplay with him I acted as if I was in doubt about wanting to move ahead and then he pulled back and it made me want to book!

Favourite quote of the day:

“You’re not selling the thing. You’re selling the result of what the thing does.”

I used to see sales as something I had to do, now I see it as something I get to do for people because it helps people take action on what they really want and it's about service.

How about you? What’s one belief about selling that you’ve started to shift lately? Let me know below.

And I'd love to know what you think about the key takeaways I took from Anthony's talk.

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