Dear Photography Professionals,
My previous post where I showed you a video of my very best negotiation tip got a lot of feedback in the different forums. Here are a couple of additional ideas for you brought to you by your fellow photographers.
Here are a few great lines brought to you by Margo Pinkerton when you need to buy yourself some time because you don’t have the answers ready. Margo, great thoughts, I do this all the time as I always run numbers before I give a quote.
Margo says: Many people have to negotiate over the phone these days to iron out details. Sometimes, something comes up, and you need more time to think.
“May I call you back in a hour? I have a client call coming in that I need to take.”
or
“May I call you right back? The FedEx truck arrive with a package I need to sign for.”
or
“Let me check on that and get right back to you.”
or
“I need to review my figures to make sure that works for both of us. I’ll call you back in a half hour or so.”
Never feel forced into making a quick decision that a few minutes would allow you some time to reflect without the pressure of that someone on the other end of the call.
Here is what Photographer Peter Demott says:
Thanks for the great advice. I have something that you can consider and pass on as well. So many people are reluctant to ASK. For example they might show off their best photography work, talk about their experience, about their equipment etc, but then never ASK for the job. They just pack up and leave assuming that if the person wanted to hire them, they would have said something.
There are many ways to ASK of course:
Here are just a few:
Did you have a date in mind?
Do you want to reserve a time?
What is the next step in the process to get this project under way?
What else do you need from me at this time?
Is there someone else that I should meet with?
etc. etc. etc.
The person ASKING the questions is really the person guiding the discussion. It is even important to ask for the job when you get negative vibes or someone seems argumentative as this may just be a protection mechanism. After a presentation one time, I just asked, “Do you want to go ahead with an ad” (my day job is advertising sales) and even though the person was somewhat negative throughout the presentation their response way, “Sure, let’s give it a try.”
You can never know exactly what another person is thinking that is why ASKING is so critical. The more you ask the more you will know about their needs and desires and if what you have is a good fit for them. But, that last question has to be some form of “Can we go forward together with this project?” (Do I get the job).
If you have anything to share with your fellow professionals about your very best negotiation tips please share them as a comment or post them in the LinkedIn Forum Photography Business or sent me an email to beate@photobizcoach.com . Over the slow summer month we all can handle as much help as we can get.
