The usual way for a photographer to quote a job is to provide the client with a price for the specified photo assignment. Nothing new here. However, another method is to provide the client with more than one price for variations of the proposed assignment.
Wedding photographers have always done this. For example, a wedding photographer might quote: $4,500 for a full-day’s coverage plus a large album and a DVD; $2,500 for half-day coverage and one album; $1,400 for three hours coverage and an album of small prints.
This method of multiple price options is used every day by other types of business:
• Ice cream shops offer customers their choice of triple scoop, double scoop or single scoop cones with a different price for each.
• Car rental companies offer luxury to sub-compact vehicles and have different pricing for daily, weekly and monthly rentals.
• Shoe stores sell running shoes from $250 (for trendy, celebrity-endorsed, leather shoes) to $20 (for a no-name brand made from plastic or cloth).
• Cellular phones range from expensive smart phones with all the latest technologies to cheap, simple phones with few bells-and-whistles.
Commercial and corporate photographers can sometimes use this same technique. It’s important to note that this is not about quoting different prices for the same job but rather different prices for different variations of the job.
The purpose of offering a business client multiple pricing is that it helps keep the customer “in the store”:
(i) It gives the client options. The quote isn’t seen as a one-shot take-it-or-leave-it offer.
(ii) It defines the price range in which the photographer is willing to work which can reduce any price haggling.
(iii) The higher-priced option can help sell a lower-priced option. A lower-priced option may look like a real bargain when seen next to a more expensive choice.
Examples:
• An organization wants a photographer to cover its five-day convention:
The photographer might send a quote for $2,500 to cover the full event. This will often be seen by the event organizer as a take-it-or-leave-it offer. If the $2,500 price is too high for them, they will look for another photographer.
A better way for the photographer to quote might be: $2,500 for the five-day event OR $1,200 for just the weekend portion OR $700 for just one day. (Note the photographer’s per-day price is higher as the job gets shorter.)
• A company wants business portraits of eight of its marketing staff:
Usually, the photographer would send a quote for, say, $1,400 to photograph the eight people.
Another way to quote might be: $1,400 for “magazine quality” portraits (studio lighting and background) OR $900 for “newspaper quality” pictures (off-camera, battery-powered speedlights and ambient background) OR $500 for “web quality” portraits (ambient light and ambient background). As the price goes down, so does the production value.
Another version of this technique is that the photographer quotes pricing for various usages. This can be seen as up-selling the client.
Example:
A company wants pictures of its new factory for use on its web site:
The photographer might quote $1,600 for photography and three years use.
A better way to quote might be: $1,600 including three years use OR $2,200 for five years use OR $3,600 for perpetual use. What this does is that it immediately gets the client thinking about longer-term use. The pricing shows that the client can save money by choosing a longer usage term.
This method of multiple pricing may not always be applicable to the assignment at hand. But the point is that, right from the get-go, the photographer takes the initiative and defines their working price range by offering an “all-bells-and whistles” option with a higher price, a mid-range package with mid-range price and a low-featured package with a lower price.
Don’t be surprised if clients tend to pick the mid-range option more often. This is due to human behaviour. Few clients will choose the low-priced option because it’s seen as being cheap or bottom-end. Simply to save money, few folks may want the high-priced option. As in the children’s fairy tale, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the middle option is often just right.
Tags: estimates, negotiating, pricing
