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Negotiating Stock Photography Fees- Part 3 |
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Written by Richard Weisgrau
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Saturday, 17 March 2007 |
Originally published as Chapter 7, Negotiating Stock Photography Fees n the book titled The Photographer’s Guide to Negotiating , Allworth Press, NY ISBN 1-58115414-3
“Ensurance” Factor
You know that risk is a factor in business and in negotiating. You know
that one hidden concern of an assignment-photography buyer is that the
commissioned images will not meet expectations. Stock photography
totally eliminates that fear. The buyer can see the exact image he
wants and will likely end up using. The risk is gone. Your competency
is not a factor, and expressing your commitment to delivering high
quality is not a useful tactic. But there is a new factor you can use
to your advantage. I call it the “ensurance” factor. By pre-producing
an image the client wants, you have eliminated risk and ensured the
desired result. “Ensure” and “insure” are synonymous, but they do have
different connotations. We know insurance is normally acquired by
paying a premium. Ensurance,” on the other hand, is normally free. My
point is that when you have ensured the buyer, you cannot charge a
stand-alone premium, but you should get a premium price.
How much should that premium be? I don’t know. No one knows. You have to find it by probing the client’s willingness to pay. The trial balloon is a good tactic to use in probing the payment point. Ask the buyer: “What would you say if told you that the price for this image at your level of usage world be $X?” If you get an OK, then you were too low. If you get a “Too high” you then ask: “What do you think is a fair price, considering the fact that this image is exactly what you want and you don’t have to look any further?” When you get their price wish you have a negotiating range.
Sell the Image
When you are negotiating a stock price, take the time to look at the image. Ask the buyer what attracted him to it for the intended use. Listen carefully to the answer. Are there aspects of the image that make it uniquely suitable for his use? Are those aspects likely to be found in competitive images? Ask whether he has located other images that he is considering licensing. If he says no, you are ahead in the game: He is calling you because he has not yet found what he wants.
Make him want your image. Talk about how well it fits his intended application. A bit of selling always helps when it comes to getting the best value for your product. Ask if he is looking at the image. If he is, point out one or two special points about the image. If he is not, suggest he look at those special points now or when he next has the image in front of him. Help him understand just how special your image is.
Not every photograph has special appeal; but if it does, learn to look for the signals from the buyer about how much it appeals and why. I know from decades of experience that when you have the photograph that the buyer wants, you can get a much higher fee for its use than when it only meets his needs. Wants cost more than needs: Price accordingly.
I once had a magazine publisher divert a cover shot for an existing magazine to become the cover of the premier edition of a new magazine. Within the selection I sent was an image of a teenage girl sitting on a corral fence gently stroking the face of a red-bridled gray horse. When the art director called, he told me that while the particular image was good for the application that he had requested the images for, but it was “perfect” for the cover of the premier issue of a magazine for teenagers about horses that the company was going to launch soon. Needless to say, I wanted more money for the premier use. The client understood this, but he balked at the level of increase I asked for. The picture was of a teenage girl sitting on a fence and stroking the face of a red-bridled gray horse. The girl’s face was very expressive. I kept pointing out how the girl’s face was “alive with love for the horse” (actual words used). The editor had to clear my higher price with his boss. I overheard him saying: “I know it’s more than we want to pay, but this is the one image out of all the possibilities in which the girl has a real loving look on her face.” I ended up getting my price.
Price Levels
Stock photography is usually licensed on a nonexclusive, limited-use basis. Occasionally, buyers need some kind of exclusivity, such as media (print) or geographic area (North America). Sometimes they need total exclusivity—that is, they don’t want this image to appear anywhere else after they license it for a specified period of time. You have to be prepared for such demands by having a pricing schedule for nonexclusive use, with multipliers for different levels of exclusivity and for duration of use.
There are no hard and fast rules for developing the factors for increasing price according to level of exclusivity and duration of use. I refer you back to the example in the previous chapter where you read about levels of exclusivity in periodicals and how they affect fees. It can serve as a starting point for your own calculations. You can also learn what percentage increase other photographers are using by participating in Internet bulletin boards for stock photographers. Photographers may or may not share their actual prices, but they will usually share the factors that they use to calculate values above their base prices.
Horse Trading [A head]
The dictionary defines horse trading as “shrewd bargaining and reciprocal concessions.” Negotiating assignments has more opportunities to horse trade than negotiating stock prices. Usually the stock buyer is not seeking more rights than he needs, so it is difficult to present different usage/price packages. Time shifting is not an option. There are no expenses to play with. The only item that is on the table is the price. That gives rise to this question. What tactics can be brought to bear in negotiating a stock price?
Some that may fit are broken record, bold response, trial balloon, and candor, because these tactics can be helpful when negotiating a price. You should review those tactics in terms of the stock-selling situation (see chapter 5). I am sure you will see how they can work for you in some situations. But there are two tactics that can have particular value in negotiating stock sales. Trade-offs and nibbling have a special place in the life of the stock photography sale.
Go to Part 4
(c) 2005 Richard Weisgrau [contact] [bio]
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Last Updated ( Friday, 06 April 2007 )
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