The “Cost” Of Simply Shopping Price
It’s not your fault. It’s the obvious question on your quest to produce a video. So what is so bad about asking for a price? Isn’t that where it all starts? Who wants to deal with a long process instead of getting the video started? All fair questions that deserve a good thoughtful answer.
What you don’t know can’t hurt you, right?
This old saying is not only wrong but ignorant, misleading, and dangerous. Far too many projects fail before they even hit record. Why? Most people ask for a proposal with only the end in mind. Too often, we hear that someone needs a 3-minute video. How did they decide it needed to be 3 minutes? Usually, it just feels like a safe and average number.
The other mistake we hear often is that they have already decided on a budget before even reaching out to freelancers or a video production company about what they would charge. How would they come up with a budget? Did the CFO just say this is what you’re allowed to spend?
Just as I wouldn’t know how to come up with a budget for something that I don’t specialize in, too many people do this when deciding on what to spend on a video. Instead of finding the right fit to solve their problem, they are stuck with anyone willing to do it within the budget parameters they have set and often the video either isn’t what they were hoping for or it doesn’t move the needle.
Is there a better way?
Ask for a meeting. Not a proposal. Start with a conversation rather than a request. Questions can be your best ally. We met with a new client today that started out with this same strategy thinking this would get them what they wanted. Their marketing director had followed up after the initial inquiry and said that they particularly liked one of our videos but never got “a ballpark quote from us and wondered how much this would cost?” I explained to this marketing director our process, that we don’t send over a proposal without filling out our discovery form and then scheduling a discovery call.
She said she would go through the process of filling out the form and setting up a call. We used the answers from the completed discovery form to ask additional questions in the discovery call to see if we’d be a good fit for each other. There was no way we could’ve done our best work to solve their problem without all of this crucial information in the discovery process.
We also discussed the budget right from the beginning so there was transparency on both sides and a starting point that we both agreed too. I was sad to hear that they had already received a few quotes without meeting with the other companies. Today we were able to share a proposal with three options that were based on our questions and notes from our discovery call with them.
In that proposal was another video they needed but was never included in the original request from the beginning. In fact, they were more excited about that video than the other two videos they had originally asked for. No surprises. No pushy sales tactics. Just asking, listening, and identifying the right ideas to solve the right problems. It may have saved them from wasting money and time on videos that weren’t going to work.
Beware of what you are really asking
If people are willing to give you a cost to your solution without asking questions, they don’t want to help you solve a problem. They want to solve their problem. Booking another job. At some point, disappointment will settle in when expectations on either side aren’t being met. Whether that happens during the actual production and still trying to decide on shots or finding the story in post-production where it’s been shot and now you’re left with mistakes that can’t be solved, but could’ve been prevented. In the end, you may have gotten your “3-minute video” but a new realization sets in.
The true cost is that you got what you asked for, but…
What you didn’t get is the solution you need to grow your business.
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