How to charge premium prices

Den Lennie

Author: Den Lennie

Published 1st March 2015

by Den Lennie Issue 98 - February 2015

How much should I charge? Is probably the most commonly asked question I receive here at F-Stop Academy. And the answer? As much as you can and your client is willing to pay. In business it is your duty to maximise your profit.
If you are offering a premier boutique video production service then charge accordingly. If you are going to go out into the marketplace and you make beautiful films that help your clients sell more of their products, services or widgets then why not be the very best and charge 5* prices?
I\'m serious, if you are gonna go to the trouble of setting up a business and putting yourself and your livelihood on the line, surely it makes sense to make as much money as you can?
I like to be reassuringly expensive. It gives confidence to a client - but like I said earlier, you have to be confident that you can deliver a premier product and service.
The only caveat is that you are genuinely offering a superior service than your competitors.
Let me be clear, you cannot simply charge 5* prices if you\'re only presenting yourself as a 3 * service.
The value has to be of 5* standards.
The secret here is to be very focussed on your client\'s problems and do everything you can to solve them with the minimum of fuss.
If your client is say a marketing manager and has a team of 5 people in their department then there\'s every likelihood that the project they have commissioned from you is only 1 project in 5 or more that they may be responsible at any given time.

Here\'s how the client will be seeing the project:
- They need a video shooting
- They don\'t care about what camera you are using
- It needs to be on message
- It needs to fulfil the brief
- It needs to be delivered on time
- It needs to fit a predefined budget *
- It needs to work
- It needs to happen with minimal fuss
- It has to be shot on a certain day for various reasons
- Jane in another department has heard about the shoot and wants to film another product as part of the shoot seeing as they are already paying for a crew.
*This is often an arbitrary figure.

There will be a provisional budget internally for what they want to assign to the project. In my experience this can always be negotiated. Also once we begin to discuss a project the scope always grows. We refer to this as scope creep. The client will have a figure in mind that they want to spend and it\'s your job to up-sell them to the point where you are offering so much value they are willing to spend more than they first planned to.
Most of all the client wants a hassle free life. Most likely they will be a middle or senior manager on a salary. It\'s just one project of many they may be looking after throughout the year. Your job is to take away their headaches and make life easy for them. Remove their pain and they will happily pay you for that.
Humans are motivated away from pain. When you work in a corporation the workload can be overbearing. I know because I\'ve done it. When you get a chance to hire external suppliers this can really lighten your load, provide a good excuse to break the monotony and get out on a shoot.
I love Apple products, I love how easy they are to use, I love how cool they look and I love the whole Apple experience.
And yet I can have a \'Hackintosh\' built that will be more powerful and cheaper than the equivalent mac. Technically better with more processing and memory...
I\'m a creative, Macs are cool PC\'s are not...just my opinion. Now that is the basic crux of the marketing.
Apple are a premium brand who provide a premium user experience. Sleek, stylish and cool
And that is premier positioning.
Take the Apple approach and that\'s what allows you to charge a premium rate for your product or service.
To read more and download a free chapter at
www.businessforfilmmakers.com

Related Listings

Related Articles

Related Videos

© KitPlus (tv-bay limited). All trademarks recognised. Reproduction of this content is strictly prohibited without written consent.