Are You Leaving $700 on the Field After Every Banner Shoot?

How Volume Sports Photographers Can Build a $1,000-Per-Team Banner Program

Five or six years ago, we were doing team banners just like most volume sports photographers are doing them right now.

Show up. Shoot the team. Hand over a 4×8 banner. Collect $300. Go home.

And we thought we were winning. We had a new revenue stream. We were extending our season. Leagues were calling us. It felt good.

But here's what we didn't see. We were leaving a pile of money on the field every single time we packed up and drove away.

The Problem Most Photographers Don't See

We tried selling 10×30 panoramic prints to parents. Sounds great in theory. In practice? The prints were expensive to produce, awkward to display, and hard to sell. Participation was low. Our margins were thin. The whole thing was a grind.

So we went back to the drawing board. We built a product line. We created a process. We solved the problems one by one until the whole program clicked.

The result? We went from a $300 transaction to averaging $1,000 per team. Same shoot. Same night. Same league relationships. Just a complete program instead of a single product.

Most photographers are still where we were five years ago. They're doing the banner. And walking away from $700 without even realizing it.

The B.P.P. System

Every volume sports photographer can turn a $300 banner job into a $1,000-per-team program by following three proven steps to build a complete banner revenue system.

I call it the B.P.P. System. Banners. Prints. Plaques.

Here's how each step works.

Step #1: Sell the Banner

The banner is your foot in the door. It is not your business model.

Here's what I mean. Every all-star team and travel ball team in your market is already doing team banners. They have to. They've promised their sponsors a logo on that banner in exchange for $500 sponsorships. Some of these teams are selling 20 or more sponsors. That's $10,000 in sponsorship money flowing through one team, and they need that banner printed no matter what.

You are solving a problem they already know they have. That's the best kind of sale there is.

The $300 banner fee covers your photography, design, and printing. It's sold before you ever show up. And because the team or league is paying for it (not the parents), you're walking into that shoot with a guaranteed check in hand.

But here's the thing. You haven't made real money yet. You've just earned the right to be on the field.

The banner shoot gives you a room full of buyers who already trust you. What you do next determines whether you walk away with $300 or $1,000.

Don't leave yet. You've got two more steps.

Step #2: Sell Individual Prints and Panos

This is the step most photographers miss. And it's where the real money starts.

Here's the thing. When you show up to shoot the team banner, you already have every player in uniform, in makeup, and ready to go. That's a full portrait opportunity sitting right in front of you. So we shoot individual portraits of every player at the same session. Parents get the team pano and their own player's individual prints. Two products. One shoot. Zero extra trips.

Let's start with the pano, because that's the piece most photographers get wrong.

After years of struggling to sell awkward, expensive 10×30 prints, we invented a product that solved every problem at once. We call it the pano print. It's a 6×18 inch framed print, the exact same ratio as the team banner, designed so that when you crop out the sponsor logos at the bottom, what's left is a clean, beautiful team image in a desktop-size frame with an easel back.

Parents love this product. It's affordable. It's display-ready. And it's the only team photo most travel ball families are going to get all season.

You can sell the pano three ways:

1. The team can do a bulk buy and purchase one for every player, often using a portion of their sponsorship funds.
2. You can run a participation incentive where 10 or more orders drop the price and earn the coach $100 off the banner cost.
3. You can use a traditional order form and let parents buy individually online or in person.

Then come the individual prints. Parents want photos of their kid. That's the emotional sale, and it's the one they've been waiting for all season. Package options, buyout options, a la carte prints. However you like to sell portraits already, run that same playbook here.

On average, you're looking at $350 to $400 in parent sales on top of the banner fee when you combine the pano and the individual prints. That's without pressure. Without chasing anyone down. You're simply offering products parents genuinely want at prices they can actually say yes to.

A quick note on sourcing. We order our pano prints and frames directly through APS Lab using ROES. The ratio is right, the framing is clean, and the turnaround works for our season schedule. If you're going to build this product into your program, start with a lab that already does the work well so you're not reinventing the wheel.

You're now at $650 to $700 per team. One step left.

Step #3: Sell the Sponsor Plaques

Here's where most photographers completely leave money behind. Not because the opportunity isn't obvious, but because they don't have the system ready when the moment arrives.

Think about what's already happening. The team has 10, 15, maybe 20 sponsors who each paid $500 to have their logo on that banner. Those sponsors are local business owners. And a lot of these leagues want to say thank you in a tangible way.

Enter the sponsor plaque.

The plaque uses the same panoramic team photo you've already shot. You're not doing extra work. You're taking what you've already produced and packaging it into a recognition piece that coaches and team moms want to hand to every sponsor.

The math is simple. Ten sponsors at $35 each is $350 in plaque sales. Fifteen sponsors? That's $525. And all it took was asking.

The key is timing. As soon as the shoot wraps and the banner is approved, the next thing on the coach's mind is “How do I thank my sponsors?” If you're the one who makes that easy, with a simple process, a clear price, and fast turnaround, you get that sale. If you wait too long or don't ask at all, they figure it out on their own. And you lose it.

Don't wait for them to come to you. Make the offer part of your process.

Now you're at $1,000 per team. Same shoot. Same night. Same relationships.

The Bottom Line

Let me bring this full circle.

The banner is your entry point. The prints and pano are your parent sale. The plaques are your upsell. Together, those three steps transform a $300 transaction into a $1,000-per-team program without adding extra shoots, extra nights, or extra leagues.

You've already done the hard work. You showed up. You built the relationship. You delivered a great product. The only question is whether you're leaving the table before the meal is over.

Most photographers in your market aren't running a full program. They're doing the banner. That's your competitive advantage. You have the system. They don't.

Imagine what your season looks like when every banner job, every all-star team, every travel ball squad, every weeknight shoot, averages $1,000 instead of $300. Imagine what that does to your off-season revenue. Your cash flow. Your ability to invest back into your business and your family.

That's not a stretch goal. That's the program. And you can start building it today.

In pursuit of 2x your business,
~ Mike

P.S. Here are a few resources to help you grow:

1. Sales Playbook Planner — Build the system behind your sales
2. Group Coaching — Work alongside other growth-minded photographers
3. Private Coaching — One-on-one coaching with Mike
4. PSUeducation.com — Everything in one place