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Originally Posted by Mike McCarty
What I have done in the past, with the intent of getting something of a commitment going, without an all out negotiation, is make an estimate on the low side. Anything to get them committed to the deal. I then, after the pose is established, create an invoice showing full amount and the initial down payment. If the initial down payment is anywhere close to my third I will just load the difference onto the back end.
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Hi Mike,
I somewhat feel that this method works, but may backfire. In a way, i believe that "dangling a low-price carrot' at first parts of the work may leave a bad after-taste on the customer's mind. Because we weren't transparent in the beginning, they may feel cheated when they realized they have to pay some more later on. After all, with so many money scams running around the world these days, customers may feel that way about our work too. On my part, i certainly won't want to feel that way myself if i were a customer.
I usually would give customers a rough price according to standard prices i have for 3 sizes i use - 24" x 30", 30" x 40" and 50" x 60". Because it's an estimate, it's usually higher priced. So when we finish the work and they come back to us for the invoice, they may be surprised by a lower price than quoted - usually because of smaller actual size.
On our part, we can give it to them they have been deserving customers for a lower price, because they have committed and cooperated so well throughout the process. I think doing this sends a positive message to our clients. Don't you think so?