Negotiating with buyer

[vincentx695]

Hello, I am new and I have a first potential order. He is a Youtuber with a channel. It seems he’s fairly new. He says he can’t afford my rates (I’m pretty cheap) at 3000 to 6000 words script. Any veterans out there to give me guidance on what would be a fair rate @ 3K words? thank you

[cubittaudio]

Hi Vincent - welcome to the forum.

It’s a tough one to answer, because everyone has a different minimum rate they’re willing to flex to. For us, 3,000 to 6,000 words would cost $300 to $600, which I think is extremely reasonable. Looking at your rates, I can see that you would have quoted around $50 to $100? I think that’s an absolute steal, and a VERY fair price to charge someone to be the ‘voice’ of their YouTube channel.

One thing I’ve noticed with YouTubers, is that they hit you with the quantity argument - ie; “I have to produce a LOT of content, so I can’t afford to spend too much on a voice over.” YouTube is after all, all about quantity. The thing is, that’s THEIR problem, not yours, and is why most people voice their own YouTube channels.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and we did our fair share of low cost jobs in order to secure a review. I would just caution not making a rod for your own back by going ridiculously cheap. Cheap buyers are, in general, the most picky and demanding buyers, with little respect for you, your talent or your time. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this client haggled you down to $30, only to demand a re-record or try to cancel at the last minute. Keep in mind, you offer 2 revisions - this buyer would be well within their rights to have you record the entire thing again, twice. Keep that in mind when you’re costing up.

One way you could look at this, is to break down the job (ignore the cost for a moment) to establish how long this will take you. Half a day? A day? Two days? Once you know that, then you can pretty quickly establish whether the rate is fair or not.

We had someone get quite grumpy with us last week for “refusing to negotiate” with them. Problem was, they had nothing to offer us. People on Fiverr often forget that negotiations are supposed to be mutually beneficial. Their reason for us to drop our rates was simply “because we want you to”. So if you’re going to negotiate with this guy, what’s in it for you? Never forget that if you’re going to negotiate, you need to come away with something more than just an order.

In my opinion, some jobs are better turned down, and from what you’ve said, this might be one of them. Keep in mind, that if a review and a successful order is what you’re after, a $10 voicemail job would get you what you want, with way less hassle.

Hope this helps?

[Alex.M]

Hi there,it’s up to you if you are willing to negotiate or not … from my past experience I can only tell you that I had problems with people who tried to negotiate … Most likely not all of them will cause you trouble… but from negotiating the initial price they sometimes continue with asking for more services under the same price… and so on , it’s only my experience… yours might be much better 😃

[kometbeats]

If they’re trying to haggle your prices now, they’ll probably try to get more out of you afterwards. I’d just avoid this customer all together, stay firm with your pricing! Good luck :))

[vincentx695]

Hi Vincent - welcome to the forum.

It’s a tough one to answer, because everyone has a different minimum rate they’re willing to flex to. For us, 3,000 to 6,000 words would cost $300 to $600, which I think is extremely reasonable. Looking at your rates, I can see that you would have quoted around $50 to $100? I think that’s an absolute steal, and a VERY fair price to charge someone to be the ‘voice’ of their YouTube channel.

One thing I’ve noticed with YouTubers, is that they hit you with the quantity argument - ie; “I have to produce a LOT of content, so I can’t afford to spend too much on a voice over.” YouTube is after all, all about quantity. The thing is, that’s THEIR problem, not yours, and is why most people voice their own YouTube channels.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and we did our fair share of low cost jobs in order to secure a review. I would just caution not making a rod for your own back by going ridiculously cheap. Cheap buyers are, in general, the most picky and demanding buyers, with little respect for you, your talent or your time. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this client haggled you down to $30, only to demand a re-record or try to cancel at the last minute. Keep in mind, you offer 2 revisions - this buyer would be well within their rights to have you record the entire thing again, twice. Keep that in mind when you’re costing up.

One way you could look at this, is to break down the job (ignore the cost for a moment) to establish how long this will take you. Half a day? A day? Two days? Once you know that, then you can pretty quickly establish whether the rate is fair or not.

We had someone get quite grumpy with us last week for “refusing to negotiate” with them. Problem was, they had nothing to offer us. People on Fiverr often forget that negotiations are supposed to be mutually beneficial. Their reason for us to drop our rates was simply “because we want you to”. So if you’re going to negotiate with this guy, what’s in it for you? Never forget that if you’re going to negotiate, you need to come away with something more than just an order.

In my opinion, some jobs are better turned down, and from what you’ve said, this might be one of them. Keep in mind, that if a review and a successful order is what you’re after, a $10 voicemail job would get you what you want, with way less hassle.

Hope this helps?

Thank you for the well thought out answer. I had the exact same thoughts. I don’t want to sell myself short for a first job and rating. I offered to negotiate with the client saying we could come to a mutually beneficial agreement. I said he could make an offer I would entertain and He came back with it being too expensive for his budget just like you said. I have not replied to that because I wanted to get some advice here. I hope fiverr doesn’t look at that as being “unresponsive”

[vincentx695]

Hi there,it’s up to you if you are willing to negotiate or not … from my past experience I can only tell you that I had problems with people who tried to negotiate … Most likely not all of them will cause you trouble… but from negotiating the initial price they sometimes continue with asking for more services under the same price… and so on , it’s only my experience… yours might be much better 😃

thanks so much. that is what I was looking for, someone who had experience with this situation. much appreciated

[vincentx695]

If they’re trying to haggle your prices now, they’ll probably try to get more out of you afterwards. I’d just avoid this customer all together, stay firm with your pricing! Good luck :))

thank you for your input! much appreciated

[cubittaudio]

Thank you for the well thought out answer. I had the exact same thoughts. I don’t want to sell myself short for a first job and rating. I offered to negotiate with the client saying we could come to a mutually beneficial agreement. I said he could make an offer I would entertain and He came back with it being too expensive for his budget just like you said. I have not replied to that because I wanted to get some advice here. I hope fiverr doesn’t look at that as being “unresponsive”

I have not replied to that because I wanted to get some advice here. I hope fiverr doesn’t look at that as being “unresponsive”

They won’t see that as being unresponsive. Responsiveness refers to the first reply only, nothing after that. So you could (if you needed to) not reply from this point on and you’d be fine.

I hope you can come up with something that works for you! 🙂