How good are you at Negotiating? When a client says "no" do we walk away or do we go for round 2? Giving options for our Staging services helps in this process and learning how to keep the door open are key. When a client is interested in Staging the battle is half won. Getting us to meet on price and terms then becomes the key. How far do you go to re-work a proposal or adjust pricing? My motto is "I'd rather have a job than no income" but I also know my walk-away point.
When the "champagne taste on a beer budget" scenario enters, I exit. I have gone to the place of giving options for the Staging and let the seller choose. I have standards, but have had to get skilled at negotiating and selling the benefits of Staging in order to get the job and get the client on board. In the early days I probably lost work because I did not know how to overcome the issue of the price gap. As I learned how not to close the door just because of price, more jobs were won.
Negotiating is the key to getting the jobs we want at a price we can work with and remind ourselves that in order to Stage we have to successfully negotiate first.
- Jennie
