How to Make Money when a Client says “No”
If you’ve got passion and an eye for getting the right things in frame every time and your pictures are perfect then you will want to put yourself out there with a proper worth attached. Don’t undersell yourself, show that you deserve what you ask for. But some people will still refuse, whether out of budget or just poor negotiations. You might see a lost sale there, but you don’t have to. You can turn their rejection into profit.
Videography takes money to get good equipment and time to take good shots. You can’t do it for free forever. At some point, you need to make a business for yourself, even when customers turn you down. Here’s how you can keep turning your passion into profit even when clients reject you.
Rake In The Referrals
Working under your base rate - the cost you’ve established that is right for your work and talent offered - is a lost cause. You don’t get more by charging less. You need to work at your own value, which can be expensive for some. They may be looking for just half an hour of your camera’s time, but for good work, it’s still a minimum of $500 - and that’s the floor. When people say that you’re “too expensive”, it sounds like the end, they’ll move on to find someone who doesn’t know how to value themselves properly. They’ll think you just lost a sale.
You aren’t getting their money, but you can still get their Value. You do this by setting up a “Referral Rate” with another videographer who is in that client’s range. A Referral Rate is just a percentage of a total price of a job that is done by someone else. Someone you know, you trust and have set a rate up with in the past. Someone, maybe, who is okay with charging less or doing smaller work because they’re just starting out or are only working at a part-time rate to start.
When a client says you’re too expensive, you don’t have to hang up or walk away. What you can offer them is your expertise in the videography world and your connections with other, experienced videographers and direct them to the person who you trust - the one who will give you part of the commission. Even if it’s a smaller job, like $500, if you ask for 20%, that’s $100 just for sending a few emails or having a phone call. They keep the lion’s share of $400 and do all the work, and you get the client’s thanks on top of all that for helping them work within their budget.
Being “too expensive” for someone is a compliment, frankly. It means you’re a professional, more of one than they may need, but making profit isn’t all about your work. Work together with other videographers, people who share your passion, so they can improve themselves and make a little money for you on the side, passively.
