At what bid price do you include a treatment, and when do you decide the production is too small to require a treatment? I have a cut-off in my head, but I’m a grumpy old-timer.
A:
When you are up for a job that you want based on financials, opening the door, or creative exploration, you put your time into an awesome treatment. If it’s a low-budget, one-time situation, you can create a PDF of the appropriate images without writing a detailed production plan for every category. Either way, using an A+ design that stays strong with your branding is key.
Bidding a job can be a quickly played, fast-paced, reactive decision game anticipating how the client could respond. The wrong move can cost us the job. We want to be honest about what we can do for their budget, but sometimes, we must educate the client to understand the situation and how we can best serve them. Be a part of their side of the process, join forces with them, and play the team player role.
You mentioned the idea of a “Penalty Fee,” and I’ve never priced this before. I price usage fees, so how does that change for a penalty fee when a client has used my images without paying for them?
A:
Fees in our industry are in constant flux, and there is no one standard across the board. I get creative, and as I am not sure this is the same standard for other reps, a “Penalty Fee” has worked well for me. Clients don’t want to use our images illegally; I find they are unaware of this and want to fix the problem. I price this as a one-charge double rate of the original fee.
As times change, we have to accept how our clients will need our still images for all sorts of motion. We must now be aware to add “still photography only” to our licensing terms. Using still images for motion is a large option that should be paid for instead of granted unknowingly.
When we don’t hear back from clients after submitting our bid for the job, I can almost guarantee (most often) that it is because they don’t have a budget anywhere close to our total. Assume that- before spending too much time and effort trying to follow up to make the job happen.
Bidding a job must clearly spell out all the details that our numbers are based on. We risk paying out of our pockets if we ASSUME clients will know our bid-based parameters, such as shot count, the production building time needed to avoid overages, how many rounds of retouching changes are included, etc. Risking miscommunication is our timely responsibility to manage before it occurs.
I’m seeing a lot of trouble happening with photographers because we tend to assume it’s hard to cover everything. We assume that clients are going to know our restrictions or understand what we meant by specific dates, production costs, or other details. Everything needs to be spelled out clearly, including timing and scheduling. Do clients understand the schedule? We have to stay on top of it to ensure they do, even if we’ve already stated it or made it clear in an email. Don’t assume anything, whether it’s how many images you’re going to shoot, how many images are included in usage, or anything else related to your production. If you’re doing a big production and need the client’s approval by a certain date because you require a specific amount of time to start and finish before the shoot date, that has to be clearly stated in the bid and reiterated in an email. Make sure clients know everything, and don’t assume they understand anything.
Bidding on a job requires fact-checking client answers. Often they are slow to come in or don’t get responded to. What do we do? Try a new way – make your questions form a cohesive list to be answered by attention-getting dashes, bullet points, or (my fave) numbers.
You know when you’re bidding on a job and the contact at the agency or client isn’t responding to your questions? It seems like they’re missing something. I assume they’re rushed and don’t have time to go through a full email, or maybe there’s too much chatter instead of getting to the point. We need to make our emails extremely clear and concise. Don’t be afraid to keep asking the same questions until they get answered.
I know we don’t want to make the person uncomfortable or make the communication awkward, but you have to keep asking. Try doing it in a different style; perhaps they’ll understand better if we lay it out differently, using bullet points, dashes, or numbers—numbers are very helpful in an email. If that doesn’t work, consider trying a phone call; maybe they’re not into emails, and that’s why it’s not working. The important thing is to keep trying, even if it feels awkward.
Clients need to trust us if we want to create open and honest communication. One way to keep it honest is to change the bidding categories they requested on the 1st revision instead of adjusting other costs/conditions they may not notice.
I have a personal tip regarding estimating when bidding on a job. When I send a bid and the client responds with changes or questions, I sometimes feel uneasy about modifying other aspects of the bid that weren’t part of the original discussion. If I do make changes, I have to assume that the client may not read through the entire estimate again and might miss the updates, which can come off as sneaky or unprofessional.
Therefore, I believe it’s important to inform the client if any additional changes are made beyond those initially discussed. This transparency is something I find extremely valuable, and I wanted to share it with you.
Save yourself from getting trapped in bid prices without correct production tasks by naming your estimate as a BALLPARK BID. Your costs can be listed as menu options instead of included in your total. “Costs may change depending on the information provided.” All the ways to be as accurate as you can with the information you’ve been given.
When bidding on projects with incomplete information, it is advisable to make ballpark bids to protect oneself from potential changes in costs. The use of TBD (to be determined) for uncertain details such as usage, and menuing out all possible options, can help emphasize that there may be fees associated with certain aspects of the project. It is important to make it clear that all estimates and bids are subject to change depending on new information and to avoid trapping oneself into fixed prices. The use of clear language in emails and estimates can help ensure that there are no misunderstandings or surprises later on.
