Best Business Practices for Photographers [70]
Perhaps your reason for inquiry is you are new to a market, and your "big city" pricing is turning off many of your clients. You are capable of doing the work in this new-to-you midsized town because you were booked often in your old location, so perhaps a review of your competition's pricing will cause you to reevaluate your pricing. It's not much different than a gas station owner coming to his corner of an intersection and seeing that his competitors on the other three corners have dropped their prices by 33 cents a gallon. He's going to be making some adjustments to his pricing signage post haste, or he'll risk going out of business.
If, when you reach out to others, they are reticent about sharing their prices with you, don't instead have a friend call up and try to book several assignment types from each photographer. That's unethical and dishonest to be sure. Instead, share with the photographers in question that you are hoping to get a fair gauge of the marketplace, and you may not recognize all that is necessary to deliver to clients in that town. Discuss the fact that you may be setting yourself up to over-deliver, and thus over-price, say, raw files and not charge any post-production fees, which would make you under-priced and under-delivering to the marketplace's expectations.
I have found that my website, which contains hundreds of pages of pricing information and an assignment calculator to aid clients in pricing an assignment before they call, is often used by my potential competition both locally and across the country to price their own assignments. This doesn't bother me—in fact, I am happy to know that it's happening. If someone independent of me opts to calculate what I'd charge for an assignment and values their work as I do, then if we both are competing for the same job (and I have no way of knowing whether this is occurring), we will be competing on the level of service, creativity, and quality, not on price.
Never Be the Cheapest
It's true. You never want to be the cheapest. I don't want to be the "always low prices, always" Walmart version of photography. Nor do I want to be the Target version. I want to be the Nordstrom, Saks, Tiffany, or other high-end exclusive boutique version of photography. Further, I believe that's the level of service, quality, and commitment I bring to each assignment.
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NOTE
I have nothing against Walmart. In fact, I've completed assignments for them. I brought to the assignment a level of service they wanted, and I wasn't the cheapest photographer. The results validated that, as well as their decision that I was the right person for the assignment.
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When I am discussing an assignment with prospective clients, they give off cues that they are going to be getting estimates from other photographers, and usually there is a hint of "we're looking at a few photographers' estimates right now" that gives me a clue that they're shopping price, among other things. At this point in the conversation, I attempt to diffuse the price-shopping by stating, "If you're shopping price, I can pretty much assure you that I am not going to be the cheapest, but I will deliver the quality that you (or your client) demand at a fair price." Sometimes they are taken aback, but if you see that cost comparison down the road, you'll likely lose the assignment anyway, unless the client sees the value you bring. It's beneficial for you to point this out to the client sooner rather than later, and perhaps the other person on the phone—who often isn't the decision maker—will go to bat for you, and you'll get the assignment.
If You're the Cheapest, Find Out What Is Wrong
If you're the cheapest—and finding this out isn't too difficult—you want to know why. Perhaps it was in the expenses area of your estimate because you didn't include catering in a shoot that didn't call for it or a second assistant when the shoot only called for one. Or perhaps it was because you used ambiguous licensing terms that gave away more than you intended without your being