As I wrote last night, Nottingham Forest just lost their chance to be in the premiership playoffs.
They fucked up the best chance they’ve had in a decade.
On the last day.
In the last 20 minutes of the last day. Though the damage was done a few games ago when we let Derby County – our fiercest rivals – get a drawer in the last minute with a needless foul.
I’m devastated so to mitigate the pain I’m going to post this and hope it is useful to someone.
Given the impact COVID has had on adland, there’s a lot of us freelancing right now.
Of course, when there is a glut of talent available, many companies use this as an opportunity to lower your price.
I get the temptation to accept this. Some money in is better than no money in … but it’s also a slippery slope for you and all those around you.
So I thought I’d just write my thoughts on how to maybe handle it.
Not because I’m an expert, but because it will serve as a good reminder for me moving forward.
First thing you should do is check out the freelance rate spreadsheet the brilliant Alex Holder has been pulling together.
There is another alternative to this, which you can contribute to here.
The second thing you should do is to know your value.
This is not what you want it to be, but actually identifying and articulating your experience, your contribution to the work you were a part-of and the distinctive value you brought – and will bring – to every project you work on.
I appreciate this can be difficult, but it’s an investment – and a responsibility – to both your past and your future.
For more understanding on it, here’s a post I wrote about how Harrison Ford appreciates the value of his value.
Another thing to do is to remember you’re a small business, not just an individual looking for revenue.
While the two are closely entangled, thinking like you are a small business can actually help you when making decisions or when being asked to lower your rates.
Again, I wrote about a Hollywood star – this time Michael Keaton – who thinks this way.
It’s important … because you’re not actually negotiating for the job you have, but the next one you could have.
I say all this because recently I was asked by a great global brand if I could help them with their strategy.
I have always respected them and the challenge they faced was tailor-made for me given my global experience.
While I have no intention of doing ‘real’ work for a few months, I submitted my cost proposal and a few minutes later, their procurement department contacted me saying this:
“Your fee is higher than other partners we use, please lower it”.
At this point I could have just said agreed.
Afterall, I found the project fascinating, I think it could lead to interesting work and money is always useful to have coming in.
But I didn’t.
I knew my experience in this situation was better than most.
I knew they had recently spent millions with McKinsey, so what I was actually asking for was nothing.
I knew I didn’t want to start a relationship based on working down to a price, rather than up to a quality.
So instead I responded with this.
“You products are higher priced than other brands I could choose, please lower it”.
Cheeky?
Yes.
Aggressive?
Possibly.
But the reality is I have 30+ years of experience at the highest levels of creativity, client and culture so if a company doesn’t value that, why would I value them.
But here’s the thing … it wasn’t really their fault.
Procurement departments are literally paid to lower prices.
It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are or what you do, they’re evaluated and compensated for lowering costs.
It’s not personal … it’s just their job.
So while I appreciate their request was just part of their process, defending my value was also part of mine.
My attitude was if they want to treat it like a game, then so would I.
Which means I am cool with them asking what they like, but I don’t have to agree.
To any of it.
So that’s what I did … and you know what happened?
They wrote back saying,
“We accept your rate and look forward to working with you”.
Now I know it won’t work every time.
But the attitude is what I’m going to do every time.
Because if someone only values one part of a relationship, then it’s not a relationship.
Some companies or freelancers will be OK with that.
Good on them. But I’m not.
Not just because of the reasons I’ve written about above, but because I’ve found – over the years – the best clients aren’t OK with this attitude and approach either.
As one of the most senior clients at NIKE once said to me, “I value people who can make me better not just keep things flowing the same”.
And if this approach ends up backfiring and I need to earn money, then I’m going to start my own procurement company and just approach as many companies as possible and ask to pitch my procurement department against theirs. I won’t even really care if we can do things cheaper or not, I’ll just enjoy watching how they like having their experience, reputation and value being dismissed and disregarded in favour of finding someone – anyone – who will do more, for less.
I’m nice like that.
Especially when Forest throw it all away.
Literally chuck it and give up. Fuckers.