“You know, John Smith Photography is including an album and engagement session in that price. Can you match that?”
“What are you saying? That I’m just like John Smith? I’m so much better than that!”
That’s what we think. But it’s not what we say. What most people do is stumble through a guilt-ridden response about why they can’t offer those things, as if there were something to hide. Maybe they’ll find something to offer to compete. Sometimes, they’ll just outright cave. When we reply in the framework of the challenge, we implicitly accept its values. In this case, we’d be accepting our photography is the same as John Smith. If it weren’t, why would we even be answering this question this way?
Take challenges as an opportunity to reiterate your values by answering on your own terms. In some cases, you don’t even need to address the specifics of the question. There’s no need to talk about albums and engagement sessions if you haven’t addressed the issue that’s your differentiator – quality in this case.
Remember, what you want is for someone to see your values in a way they understand. You don’t want to adopt their values. You don’t want to want to present the values you wish they wanted. You want to translate what you bring to the table into something that means something to them. So ask yourself what your client wants. You can even ask them about what they want, if you don’t have that answer. Then see how you solve it better than anyone else, and have a real conversation about just that.
“Does John Smith include me in that?” 🙂
I had a client on the phone exactly like this the other day and I caved like a house of cards.
He had been let down by his other photographer (who was very very cheap) and tried to make me feel bad about him being out of pocket having to pay my prices. It worked and I agreed for just a little over what the other photographer was charging (so foolish looking back) and he still said, well I’m out of pocket by x amount now, still trying it on.
I regretted it for the whole weekend, playing the whole thing over in my head. Fortunately the client must have been shopping around and found someone to do it even cheaper than I was willing to do it for as he never phoned back. Bullet most definitely dodged, but it did make me look long and hard at my value and pricing so I’ll be in a much better position to explain my value to clients trying to knock down my pricing in future.
In a service industry it is sometimes difficult to explain your value to someone saying “so you’ll be here for 2 hours, and then half and hour in the evening so what’s the hourly rate, and what do you do for that, and how many photos do I get and if you knock off one of the hours how much will that be?”
It’s so, so hard. It sounds like it shouldn’t be, but when you’re on the phone or talking in person, it really takes a good amount of effort to do so. I try to run that balance between giving my best and always remember to trust that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when things aren’t right.
"When Ronald Reagan took office, 0.9% of the population was under correctional supervision. That figure has continued to rise. When crime began to fall in 1992, it stood at 1.9%. In 2003 it was 2.4%. Crime has dropped, but criminality has continued to rise."Of course there are NINTEY MILLION more people in this country than there were in 1980, but hey, why ruin a "brilliant" expose with simple logic?That's telling him, Truth! Your argument cuts through his essay like a knife through butter. In numerical reasoning, Charles Murray is no match for you!
am crezut ca nu o sa mai scrii the grudge . e cel mai tare film ! ma traumatizat fratilor ! dar ai cam gresit descrierea . femeia se numeste kayako si este ucisa de sotul ei si cand cineva intra in casa ei veche este blestemat