by Leo Wiles
05 October 2016
I’ve been reading your AUWs lately and wanted to write in with a query as I feel like these days I am constantly up against the wall. Hung there by various clients’ and their unrealistic understanding of what it takes to deliver good work. How do I educate them, stay sane myself and make money in the process? Tim
I know what you mean, Tim. If I hear a client utter the word JUST one more time I think you may be able to hear me scream all the way across the State line. The only thing that stops me is deep breathing and knowing that largely it’s JUST that they don’t have a frickin’ clue about how long a job will take or what delivering a top notch performance entails.
Seriously, sometimes it can seem that educating your client and managing their expectations is half the commissioning battle. Especially when they’re new to their role and haven’t worked with a journo, photographer and or content producer before.
So here are a few tried and true ways I have tried:
Educate. When a regular client asked if I could JUST change the misspelt surnames on the lower thirds on three films she’d commissioned from another filmmaker, I practiced my ‘Ommm…’ – and gave an overview of the process it would take to rebuild. Including how many days work I would need to charge her for. Needless to say, we didn’t move forward.
Show and tell. Asked to JUST create an end-of-year promotional wrap up slideshow from over 40 football matches, I said no problem. The fee was a problem, though. So I invited her into my studio and showed her the process it takes to cull 15 minutes of footage from almost 10,000 images – for the next 8 hours. At the end of the day she went back to her committee group and doubled my fee.
Show them the door. Being asked to JUST do a few hours’ work for exposure, to build my portfolio or for free concert tickets is downright insulting and won’t feed my kids. Sure, I was happy to drink French champagne and critique a movie for free or to cover nighttime gigs as a cadet but these days no way, Jose. Unlike my other softly, softly approaches, with this one it takes a verbal bullet point clarification of what it is they are asking me to do, AND what it will cost me in real terms in lost earning hours, childcare expenses and other outlays. I must warn you this approach is a divider. I have had people apologise and pay up and others who let the door hit them on the arse on the way out.
Take them by the hand. When somebody offers you $500 for a $10k job you can either walk away – or calmly explain why that’s completely untenable. By doing so, you politely demonstrate your professionalism, have the chance to showcase which skills you’d utilise and most importantly, you let the client know the value you place on said skills. Chances are, even if they don’t have the budget for this job, when they do come up with the cold hard cash you may be the one they call as you’ve established trust.
Let life teach them. Don’t you love the client who knows best, wants to cut corners but is always outraged when the desired result isn’t achieved? That’s why, before you begin the job, you set and meet their expectations in writing. Explaining along the way the potential pitfalls of not allowing time for research, access to key players or other pivotal milestones that are going to bleed the project dry – and, in the case of a shoot or PR job (in my field), might not yield them the coverage they want. Your butt is covered and you’ll have one less painful client on your books as hopefully they’ll lose their job and it won’t be you losing your reputation.
List members… do you agree? How do you educate your clients for a better outcome?
