When a contractor suggests a rate that is out of your budget, don’t just blank them. Come back to them with YOUR budget and see if you can work something out. Maybe you can. I am always ready to consider reasonable offers – and even if your budget is a tenth of what I have suggested, I may be willing to do it because of other considerations (see my blog on Negotiation). Maybe it would involve me working with someone I admire, maybe you are throwing in a free lunch, maybe things are quiet for me and I would welcome a low-paid job just to keep busy, maybe it’s in a location that I could combine it with something else eg visiting family or friends.
Don’t just slink off into the darkness thinking, “Oh, she’d never consider my offer”. Maybe I would!
One of the only people who came back to me and said, “Oh, sorry, our budget is actually more like £xxx,” was an Eastern European woman who’s had to pull herself up by her bootstraps, and has some cojones! She knows the old phrase, “You don’t ask, you don’t get”. Or whatever the translation is, in her language. It’s not insulting to the contractor: you are just laying out what you have available in your budget. Try it.
For a recent job, I was asked my rate. It wasn’t clear how long thr job would take, so I said, “Of course, depending on the amount of time needed, the corporate rate for that work would be about £1,200/day”. BUT, I said, “Definitely don’t blank me if this is not your budget, come back to me!” And then I followed up (after she blanked me) with, “Don’t leave me hanging here! 🙂 Even if your budget is COMPLETELY different….”
Maybe she thinks I am crazy now, a stalker. Hey, I didn’t say I was perfect at negotiating.
I will be sending her a link to this blog though.
Comment on what you think (not on my website: I have disabled comments after I got thousands of bot posts). Comment on my social media – Thanks!
My point is:
…and this is my point: negotiate, come back with your budget, be respectful, lay it on the line, because there might be a compromise you can reach – and this may be the best contractor you’ve ever worked with, the start of a great partnership, which benefits both of you.
#negotiation #negotiating #negotiationskills #communication #communicationSkills #presentation #presentationskills #comms #communications #media #mediatraining
