Need advice on trying to get client

[MRLSeries]

Hey Gang,


I have a story, and its true.

Many months ago I put in a tender/quote for a Restaurant job and didn't get hired. Was told I was too expensive. Now prior to the submission of the quote, I sat down with the owner and addressed all their needs and requirements and showed them my work in print and electronic form. They really loved it and asked for exactly the way it looked in my portfolio.

After submitting a proportional quote I was told that i didnt get the job as I was too expensive. Now, I finally got to see the supposed photos that the winning photog took and man are they lousy. I know we shouldn't judge other photographers, but this person must have taken the shots with a point and shoot, composition was not good and worse, they didnt capture the ambient lighting in some shots that resulted in flashless, dark shots that now appear on the website promoting this restaurant!!

In case you ask, no I will not be submitting the url for your critique, but more so would like to ask for ideas on a couple of things.

1 - How do I approach the restaurant owner and convey the fact that the person who took the images farked them up big time?

I want the to realise that sometimes price is proportional to quality and they didnt get quality. Now I am not big noting myself by implying that my images are the best in the world. But........I am certain that I could have done a better job.

I actually dont have sour grapes that I didnt get the job, but more so am angry that they approved the photos without considering on asking for them to be re shot or brightened up a bit.


How do you guys treat a scenario like this? Should I just walk away?



Lazza

[Dan Marchant]

Originally Posted by MRLSeries

1 - How do I approach the restaurant owner and convey the fact that the person who took the images farked them up big time?

You don't. You have nothing to gain by doing so and, as you suppose, it will just come across as sour grapes.

They were a potential client and nothing more. They made a decision based on price and got what they paid for. For all you know they may well be very happy with the level of quality they got for the price they paid. Sure, they loved your work, but maybe they simply couldn't afford it and decided that they would pay what they could afford and accept that it wouldn't be as good as your work.

If they do decide to bin the other guys work and get it all redone they know where you are. In the mean time your efforts should be directed towards securing new clients, not fretting over ex-potential clients who may never have been in the market for what you were selling.

[MRLSeries]

Answer accepted, Cheers Dan and thanks for the honest reply.


Larry

[Foodguy]

I think most people don't know good photography from bad and if they did, we'd only ever see good photography. I generally like to let the client determine what a successful shoot is and I'll add input along the way. If their definition falls short of my goals I can choose to walk away or suck it up and go along. Sometimes that means losing a job,other times it means shooting a job and hoping that nobody ever knows that I did it.

Also know what you mean about losing a job over cost and trying to equate it with quality as I go through this experience a few times a month.

[CMfromIL]

Like most sales related jobs, one does not serve themselves well to negatively comment about their competition.

You only know you lost the job because of what they told you. What you may not know is that the photographer they used is a relative, wife, neighbor down the street or best friend from college. If you make disparaging or negative comments about the job, you will infact be making negative comments about the person (regardless of your intent).

Rather than making yourself look good in the eyes of the client, you will appear to be spiteful, negative and a gossip.

Leave it alone. Approach them again next year, and offer your services if they 'choose to go another direction'. Always be positive. It reflects much better upon YOU.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by CMfromIL

Like most sales related jobs, one does not serve themselves well to negatively comment about their competition.

You only know you lost the job because of what they told you. What you may not know is that the photographer they used is a relative, wife, neighbor down the street or best friend from college. If you make disparaging or negative comments about the job, you will infact be making negative comments about the person (regardless of your intent).

Rather than making yourself look good in the eyes of the client, you will appear to be spiteful, negative and a gossip.

Leave it alone. Approach them again next year, and offer your services if they 'choose to go another direction'. Always be positive. It reflects much better upon YOU.

This is very good advice.

Same thing happens to me from time to time. I do voice and data cabling for businesses and it hurts when I lose a bid only to find out through a future visit to the site that I lost to a low quality/low skilled contractor. But the customer has a very difficult time understanding the difference. Always staying positive will be the best advice you could ever glean from this.

[letsbewild]

My experience has shown that 95% of people wouldn't know a good photo if it smacked them in the face. Maybe it is a nice thing to be so blissfully unaware? Everything must look more beautiful to all these people with no taste....I'm a little envious.

[va_rider]

As others have said.. most people don't know photography... my own wife is happy as long as a photo is reasonably in focus and her eyes are open... everything else is just little details to her.

The next time you're out and about, pick up a magazine... I've been very disappointed with the quality of photos in photo mags lately.. I picked up a car magazine the last time I was at Barnes and Noble, and the photography was awful... granted, I'm not a transportation photographer, and I'm not a commercial magazine photographer... but a lot of the stuff that makes it into the magazines these days wouldn't even make it to my hard drive.. they'd be deleted off of the CF card before I ever got home...

Newspapers are even worse.. all of the local papers have pretty much fired all of their photographers. They give the reporter a point and shoot and send them on their way... The bar is set so low these days...

[Foodguy]

On the other hand, that's why people hire photographers otherwise they'd probably do it themselves.

[JacobPhoto]

There are 3 elements to choosing a photographer:

- Quality of work
- Price of work
- Speed and thoroughness of work

Photographers will likely fill only 1 or 2 of those elements. Sounds like in this case, price and possibly speed were paramount to quality.

Smile and move on.

[Mark1]

The question here should not be "How can I go back and show them they were wrong?" The question should be " Why couldnt I show that my work is worth the price I ask?"

[Alan-Chapman]

Hi
Good advice from CMfromIL he’s right on the mark, here is a couple of other useful tips
You may not have added enough value during the sales process. I mean the restaurant owner probably can see you will produce much better quality images, but he can’t see the value to him for having quality images.
This may shock you but, you’re not selling photos! You’re selling the benefits your photos will bring.
Example: “Mr restaurant owner just imagine how many more customers your going get when you have these great images on the net and how many you would lose if your images are not some warm and inviting, a picture is worth a thousand words and people will judge your restaurant for years to come based on these images”
I could go on but I’m sure you get the idea. People buy on emotion then justify their decision with a perceived fact (too expensive).
Also some people are just daft and will step over a dollar to pick up 10c you can’t win them all.
Happy Shooting

[J Michael]

Why not market to their competition and show them how much better their restaurant will look online compared to the one with the poor photos? Restaurant business is pretty cutthroat in most markets, everyone looking for an edge.

[jenirose3]

It's not your money it's theirs. In other words, why do you care that they spent THEIR money and got a crappy product?

My vote? MYOB and move on. It sure looks like sour grapes to me.

[ShotgunPhotography]

Originally Posted by Mark1

The question here should not be "How can I go back and show them they were wrong?" The question should be " Why couldnt I show that my work is worth the price I ask?"

Agreed.