When you’re pricing photographs and images numbers alone don’t mean anything. The key is being able to convince your client that your photograph is worth what you’re asking. The different Coach sections in fotoQuote are designed to help you with these negotiations.
Using the coach components and learning to negotiate will mean the difference between getting your asking price or letting your client determine the price for you.
There are 3 different Coach sections in fotoQuote:
The Stock Coach has negotiating and usage tips specific to each of the categories you’re researching. These Usage Tips often include specific help with rights and other pricing factors that may be unique to the category.
There is more to this section of the Coach than the Usage Tips. In the Stock Coach scroll down the drop down menu and select the subject you want to read.
The Rights Granted Coach gives you information on all types of Rights concerns, including pricing unlimited and exclusive usages, buyouts, multiple insertions, revisions and more.
Our philosophy on stock pricing is you have to price your unique image uses higher to make up for the lower prices you are going to receive for your average or common image uses. The difficult part is deciding which images are unique, and which ones are not.
Making this decision takes a combination of information, intuition, skill and experience. Read about Image Uniqueness in the Stock Coach for help with this decision.
What if your client says they can’t afford your asking price, or they can find the same image at an agency cheaper, or they are a non-profit organization and ask for a discount? How will you respond? Find out by reading the Phone Scripts section in the Coach.
When determining your price, you have to make a number of subjective decisions about your picture and the client’s level of commitment to your image. Read Finding a Price to help you determine your asking price.
It is never a good idea to lower your price without giving some reason for doing so. The list in Lowering Your Price will give you a few ideas to say to the client.
The Assignment Coach is worth a good read. We spent months interviewing a wide range of photographers across the country. Read about real-life examples from successful corporate, editorial, and advertising photographers who share detailed information with you about what they charge and why they charge it.
The Steps to an Assignment section is our detailed guide for handling an assignment request. You should print it and refer to it often.
Many photographers that we speak with are working to develop a “new” method of pricing their assignments; most often by trying to figure out how to charge a “creative fee” and add usage fees based on specifically what the client needs, rather than to charge a flat “day rate” as they have done in the past. The value of an assignment has, to a great extent, always been based on the usage of the photograph, and it’s ability to add value to a client’s product. Read Pricing Assignments in a Changing World for more information on this.
There is also information about assignments for shooting hotels, annual reports, executive portraits, magazines, events and so much more. The Assignment Coach section is a wealth of valuable information.
Using the price range in fotoQuote, without reading the different Coach sections, may mean you’re leaving money on the table. Use the price range and the Coach together to negotiate the best possible usage and price for both you and your client.
Be sure to also check out our tips on negotiation on our blog!
Watch Cradoc discuss the fotoQuote Coach on our YouTube channel!
Check out our FREE Demos!
