Pricing for Corporation

[clltexas]

Hi, any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I have been contacted to shoot some commercial property in my area, for a real estate advisors company. Customer states he wants 5 pictures total to use for evaluative purposes.

I normally shoot fine art landscapes... but this is the second business contact in three weeks so I did purchase fotobiz, but still not sure what category would come close so that I charge a reasonable fee. I would like to send an estimate tonight. Customer wants images before Monday, in jpeg format to the company's drop box.

Thanks!

Cindy

[clltexas]

Update- I would still appreciate any feed back.

Gave an estimate for the assignment of $150 per image for non-exclusive one time use for valuation study of the property, total $750. Response was this was over budget and that he was quoted for a VA and DC of $100 and $250 and he thought the $250 was high.

[sfaust]

It sounds like they can't afford professional photography!

I think your rates are low by commercial standards, and personally I wouldn't lower it just because his budget isn't sufficient. Last time I tried that at the BMW dealer, they just laughed at me ;)

What I usually do when their budget is below my rates, is to offer to hook them up with a local art/photography school where they might be able to get a student to help them out. I also advise them that with a student the results aren't guaranteed as with a professional, they don't carry liability insurance which puts them at risk should something happen, etc., but it might fit in their budget. I also take the explain the value a professional brings to the table, and that we'll be here for the long haul.

If they walk away, so be it. Not the right client for your services as they can't make your rates. There are larger bass to fry, then to worry about the minnows in the pond that nibble on the bait. Other times, they end up finding the money in their budget and call back. Mostly I find it depends on how far apart you are (you seem close here, right in the middle of the range he gave you), and how much they want quality.

I find that if I pick up the phone and they start talking rates right away, they usually don't end up in the frying pan. But if they talk about my work, comment on images they linked, etc, I start the grill.

[clltexas]

Thanks Stephen, I didn't accept, as he only wanted to pay $100 total for the 5 images. I asked him to keep me in mind for the future. We will see if he contacts me, I think he will have a difficult time getting the images by Monday. I tried to match his request in fotobiz/fotoquote , what would you think was a fair price?

[sfaust]

Actually, while I thought originally you rates were a bit low, they are probably on target. They are for a valuation study, and not advertising, marketing, etc., which would be a bit higher in my opinion. So you were probably right on target with your time and pricing.

The way I see it is this; The value to him was low since he really isn't looking to use it in any way for traditional commercial use. So I can understand his position where he want's the images as cheaply as possible. What he really needs is an employee with a basic camera or even a point and shoot that can shoot it for them, or someone off craigslist. My guess is that he probably doesn't need anything spectacular in the images, nor are the images hard to capture or require any real skills.

Its kind of like someone wanting a passport image who calls a photographer that does creative portraiture and charges $400 per sitting, then complaining that their rates are too high and tries to talk them down. They just called the wrong type of photographer for their needs. Happens all the time.

The hard part for many photographers is that they feel they need to turn the phone call into a sale, bend their pricing to fit the client, and in the end build up a stable of clients that beat the photographer down on pricing whenever they can. The photographer gets sucked into servicing low end clients, gets a reputation as being in-expensive, and then can't break out of it in the long term.

IMO, they are far better off turning down those jobs, and using the time they would have spent on that job soliciting the right kind of clients. That will help them building a client base that can support their business and will allow them to grow, rather than lock them into the 'bottom end'.