Enquiries

[Tim Bakland]

I post a single price (only interested in doing full weddings and I don't really have any add-ons/take-aways as I pretty much work alone, don't do SDEs, photobooths, etc.). If they want to add a rehearsal dinner or something, that's one thing. Or if it's a big travel, but otherwise, one price. Currently $3750.00 in Boston market. (It's certainly above the average price, but is not the highest -- and I think I've carved out the right niche and price point.)

And listing it has helped pre-screen the annoying inquiries. (Like: "Could we save some money if we had you film a couple hours, and then had you go take a few hours off during photos and then came back"? -- that one always annoyed me to no end. As if we can just take hours off during a wedding shoot.)

[Chris Harding]

I had a couple book me yesterday and the discount question arose .."How much for cash ... what discounts do you offer" ... The bride to me was obviously a big red-faced about her hubby to be asking the question. I told him "Sure thing .. tell me how much you would like taken off the price and I will trim what I do on the package accordingly to suit" "I don't discount my prices but I'm happy to do less coverage for less money"

They paid the full price of course but I think that some people just figure if you don't ask you don't get. They said when they ordered their cake it started at $1400 and the vendor actually started dropping the price almost every 30 seconds (without them even asking) until it got down to $900!! Weird the way some vendors work. I wonder if any videographers intentionally inflate their prices and then offer massive discounts just to get the business ? "My full package is $5000 but since your wedding is 6 months away I can drop it to $3000 and also since you are nice people let's make it an even $2500 ..that's a 50% discount!" Of course your "normal" price was $2500 anyway.

I have seen a few ads hear from Photogs saying "Make me an offer for your wedding photos" ..Strange way to do business!!!!

I have always costed my weddings accurately and have a fixed price with no discounts.

Chris

[Don Bloom]

I've said this before but it is appropriate here.

A very good friend of mine who just happens to be quite wealthy once told me that when you lower your price you are lowering the value of your product or service and since you've dropped your price to what you feel it's worth in the first place then why not just set the price to the lower amount and save us all a bunch of time.
Listen no one is G*d for fifty or a hundred bucks BUT when you start dropping your price because they asked you have just decreased your worth and value and the worth and value of everyone else in your industry. Say you price and stick to it. the hardest word in sales to say is "NO" but once you stick to your guns you'll wonder why the hell you didn't learn to do it sooner.

Chris, I also did the same thing. Start taking off time or services. I don't think I gave anyone a discount for the last 10 or 15 years EXCEPT for current military. then I simply gave them my "military" discount and told them up front what I was doing and why. Going discount rate for them was 20-25%. I'm a veteran so I just had it in my heart to do it.
Anyway to those that ARE discounting........STOP IT! ;-)

[Tim Bakland]

One close friend of mine once said:
"If you have a quality product, raise your prices".
Good advice.

[Adrian Tan]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

I wonder if any videographers intentionally inflate their prices and then offer massive discounts just to get the business?

I think a lot of videographers do have padding built in to the prices. Maybe not massive discount, but still padding. Means you've got the possibility of offering discounts to wedding expo clients, offering bundled packages with photographers with discounted rates, and generally just sweetening deals.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Adrian

I think I would definitely apply heavy padding if I did Middle Eastern weddings here (which I don't) as they are not happy at all if a certain amount of bargaining doesn't happen. They probably know that you have padded the price anyway and it's purely their love of a good haggle that requires it to be done.

Problem is, if you show a padded price on the website and get the average bride who is happy not to bargain then they will either pass you up as you are higher than everybody else or they will think less of your worth if you immediately start offering huge discounts.

The only way to do this is to dual brand and have two websites with a classy one with no discounts and then "Adrian's Discount Videography Emporium ...we beat any advertised price!!"

I still rather stick to a fixed price and that's what the bride pays!

Chris

[Rob Cantwell]

I had this guy called yesterday, said he was ringing around, told me that the cheapest he could get for a small short event this Sat coming, was €150 but the vender was booked, next fella was €250, I was €300. He said he'd take the raw footage(which is a No No) if i'd drop my price!! I'm guessing he might have been the €150 guy!!
:) I wouldn't budge on my price
Yeah I often get the question, 'how much for cash?' or 'is that your lowest price' these days i have fixed prices well one price really, thats for a full day, i do offer a discount if people take my photography package too.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Matt Thomas

Would people say it's a good idea to state your prices online or not?

I would lean not to, just because if someone sees your prices online and they think it's too high they might just forget about contacting you all together but if you don't have your prices listed they may get in touch which you may be able to convince them to up they budget a bit.

I have my starting prices on line Matt, that so far, has been a good compromise. I'm trying it out this year, last year I had everything online. Se we shall see.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

I've said this before but it is appropriate here.

A very good friend of mine who just happens to be quite wealthy once told me that when you lower your price you are lowering the value of your product or service and since you've dropped your price to what you feel it's worth in the first place then why not just set the price to the lower amount and save us all a bunch of time.
Listen no one is G*d for fifty or a hundred bucks BUT when you start dropping your price because they asked you have just decreased your worth and value and the worth and value of everyone else in your industry. Say you price and stick to it. the hardest word in sales to say is "NO" but once you stick to your guns you'll wonder why the hell you didn't learn to do it sooner.

Chris, I also did the same thing. Start taking off time or services. I don't think I gave anyone a discount for the last 10 or 15 years EXCEPT for current military. then I simply gave them my "military" discount and told them up front what I was doing and why. Going discount rate for them was 20-25%. I'm a veteran so I just had it in my heart to do it.
Anyway to those that ARE discounting........STOP IT! ;-)

Right on brother.

[Danny O'Neill]

We have a starting price on our website. This stops the shoppers who really only have £150 to spend and it also tells others they can afford us. No prices normally means expensive. Well, thats what people think. Sometimes we get people saying "But your website says you start from £1495 and you've quoted £1995" to which we reply "Thats for small local weddings, your 500 person indian wedding in Edinburgh is a little different" ;)

Custom quotes for each wedding would be a ballache for me. We have 3 tiers of pricing, small and local, small but travel and large with travel (we just dont get large local weddings). So thats 3 price lists, 3 packages. Keeps things fairly simple.

We also dont do hours, just all day coverage. We all know weddings dont run to time and how do you feel about asking for more money when things run late? Or how about walking away with half the day still to go when they say they dont want to pay? For us that would make the edit so much harder. So we always ended up staying anyway for free. Which frustrated us, so now we say its all day coverage. A great selling point and we get to choose when we finish. So we used to have some book us until 11pm but they would have done the first dance by 8pm and then have nothing happening for the next 3 hours. Our pricing also reflects the fact its all day, so basically we are permanently upsold on extra coverage.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Danny

That also makes sense. I was watching the program "Brain Games" a while back and the human brain gets totally confused if presented with more than three choices. Try walking into an ice-cream shop that advertises 49 different flavours and try to decide which to have!!

I have two basic packages with just two add-ons for each so brides find it easy to choose...in the old days my packages used to cover two pages and every situation and it was just too confusing. All my prices include all travel up to a local limit (about 50kms from home) Anything further attracts a travel/accommodation flat rate fee to cover an overnight stay. No way am I driving 200kms at 10:30 at night to go home!

Roger also has the best idea ..Just two packages ..one for video and one for video and photography!!

If I was a bride and came across a "email us for a quote" I would certainly skip past that guy!!

Chris

[Roger Gunkel]

As Chris said I have just the two packages, one with and one without photos. I do add common sense to that, so if a wedding is a long distance, I will tell them that because of the extra distance, there will be an additional travelling cost.

I do also offer a 3d package, but that is very specialised and rarely taken up, although I do have one 3d booking in the Summer, which will also involve travelling and overnight accommodation.

Roger

[Steve Bleasdale]

Thanks for all your replies, i have decided to stick to my short form movies, but also i have created a real special new format , will be great for my already booked brides for 2014 2015.Booked a new bride today with the new format... yeee