Harassing Your Client 101

[Timothy J. allen]

I agree that if it’s just a talking head interview, local shooters usually offer better prices, but you have to weigh it against some risk. I’ve never been burned by a local shooter that couldn’t deliver, but having a videographer that is well versed in the subject matter can really help speed things along if you also gather b-roll to support your story.

For instance, I travel quite a bit working on stories that illustrate the value of partnerships between small businesses and NASA. After interviews, we typically gather footage of the technology either in use or being manufactured.

As a producer, I can direct the videographer as to what to shoot, but we don’t always have the luxury to connect a monitor while we run and gun – so it’s much easier if they already have an idea of what the story is about, what makes the technology unique, and the style and purpose of the show. Using a consistent crew means I don’t have to explain all those things from scratch every time.

With the experienced videographer, I have the luxury of focusing on the content rather than spending my time (=money) to “teach” the local guy.

Just another perspective. I really do enjoy working with local crews when we are not on such a tight schedule.

[Mike Cohen]

Tim, I agree completely. I try to never use a local shooter for something specialized, like surgery. For interviews, there has better be a client on location. If it is just the video crew, I need to be very clear ahead of time with what I am looking for. There is nothing like conducting an interview myself, of course, because as you said, I know the subject matter and tend to ask followup questions not on the original list.

Mike

[Todd Terry]

[Mike Cohen] “I try to never use a local shooter…”

Me either, I always do it myself. One of the things that people hire us for is our particular “look,” and I can’t get that by farming a shoot out to someone who has different equipment, lenses, and personal eyeballs and ability. It’s not to say that their talent or eyeballs aren’t just as good (or better) than mine, but they are not the same… and it shows.

As far as traveling across country or even around the world for something as simple as an interview… some clients think that is a huge waste of resources, but some don’t bat an eye at it.

You can never predict what clients will do or how they think. We were recently submitting budgets for a very similar cross-country shoot that’s little more than interviews. The client balked a little bit at our proposed travel budget (which was actually pretty slim). Their solution? “Hey, we have a corporate jet… rather than you guys flying here yourselves we should just come pick you up.” My reaction of course is “Whaaaaa??!!” Now you know that’s gotta cost them a lot more than the price of three commercial plane tickets, but apparently they had some sort of warped rationale about it. Crazy, crazy.

You never know what they are thinkin’.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Travis Petty]

Tim Wilson,
You said a line in your original topic . . .

“Best thing I ever did . . . Double my rates”.

Would you be so kind as to expound on that a bit?

I’m thinking:
Double my rates, and my business drops in half. Cool, I make the same amount of money and work half the amount of time! Then, of course, I can put to good use the new-found additional 6 MONTHS of my life from that year and work (any guess???) yep, at the NEW rate.

Brilliant!

IS this how it can work or is this a figment of my new-math imagination?

I recall a story of a guy doing ANYTHING he could to sell his widget. He priced it at an unbelievable $20. Well, he tried and tried but ultimately he couldn’t sell them. People thought it probably wouldn’t work well if it was only $20. So, he raised the price to $200, and they sold like hotcakes! “It must be great”, the people said, “I’ll take two!”. The price affected the perceived value and sometimes that made all the difference. Same product (in our case, same service or product), but pricing it higher made it sell better.

And then there’s:
Charge what the market will bear
Price it competitively
Charge what you’re worth

Tim Wilson, what do you think?? I’d love to hear your feedback on this topic.

Travis Petty
Director/Camera
Frozen Fire Films
Dallas, TX
http://www.frozenfirefilms.com

[Tim Wilson]

[Travis Petty] “…The price affected the perceived value and sometimes that made all the difference. Same product (in our case, same service or product), but pricing it higher made it sell better.”

That’s a big part of it right there, Travis. Think of setting your price as one aspect of marketing. You’re telling potential customers exactly what they should think about you.

To begin, I came in under the most expensive guy in town, but still stay in the top half of the market. I’d rather have gone back to retail — which I enjoyed just fine, thanks — than try to build a business chasing the LOWEST prices the market can bear. Turns out that the market will be perfectly happy for you to starve.

Then after I felt my work was good enough to stand up to that top guy with a straight face, I started charging more. I had real work to show to back it up, great word of mouth, and a smooth pitch. Sounds easy, right?

There was admittedly a gap while this new plan took off…but once it did, I had more work than ever, from clients that I enjoyed working with more. I didn’t wind up making exactly twice as much money – the combination of available hours in a day, plus taking time to breathe a little easier, plus spending more on gear – but it was *some* more, and sure a nicer way to work.

I also found a HUGE benefit. When lowballers called, I did a little gentle weeding. If the caller sounded like a grinder, I sent ’em to the Yellow Pages. But if they sounded like an upright citizen, just with a small budget, I passed them to the people in town I felt could do ’em right on that budget. It didn’t take long before my lower-priced “competitors” started adapting parts of their business to work more closely with me. One of them in particular became my go-to guy for second camera, or underwater b-roll for my topside interviews, etc. — but there became three other guys who could count on me for recommendations, and among whom we could reasonably expect to share gear in emergencies.

I’m summarizing, but you get the idea. Yeah, you can probably build this kind of network anyway, and should probably try — but it’s a lot easier when you’re pushing jobs their way that THEY WANT, and you DON’T. That was the cool thing — I made more money, and THEY made more money because I could funnel work their way without feeling like I was potentially undermining myself.