A magician gave a business lecture at the castle some time back.

When the subject of negotiating price came up, she said "I REFUSE to NEGOTIATE!" She got a huge round of applause.

I don't get it.

When people try to negotiate, they aren't trying to insult you, they're just seeing if there's more money on the table.

If you've already given your bottom price, then stick to it. If you can come down, come down. But either way, don't get MAD over it. Its just business.

The problem here is the word Negotiation. If your prospect comes to you and wants you to lower your price because of their budget, and if they are not willing to give back in return, then that is simply NOT negotiation.

Proper negotiation of price or of services provided can be done and done well if both parties know and realize that to lower your price means they must also give back to you in some format.

I do this for my festival shows every now and then and I am willing to work with them as long as we truely negotiate.

Kyle

Kyle,
What do they offer in return? Less shows? More "perks?"
Edd

Hi Edd,

Let me try and answer your question the best I can. I can only answer it from a festival standpoint since that is mainly the market I deal in and focus my efforts on. It should still aplly to any market that you may work so it may be helpful to you.

The main idea is that when your negotiating with any prospect, you must realize that it is a barter agreement. This means that both parties must be willing to come to the table and meet half way on things. If you are willing to reduce the fee of your show, then they must be willing to give you soemthing in return that would make up for this value.

Festivals have losts of things they can use to barter with. The problem is that they often do not even realize it unless you bring it up to them. This is where being educated on your market comes into play.

Some of the ways I have bartered at festivals are as follows:

- If they have a concert or a paid big event that you might be intersted in, then you have them throw in some free tickets for these events at no cost to you in return for your show at a reduced rate. Most of the time they have extra tickets any ways and so will not be a problem for them to do so. However, your getting added value for the fee your losing out on.

- I may have them give me a free booth or vending spot free of charge for the entire day and have them place it next to or near my performance area. by doing so, I can sell my BOR products before and after the show and not only generate some added income, but also market myself in the process.

- If they are running a big ad or a newspaper section in the local paper, I barter with them to run my full ad or even a story on me in exchange for my reduced rate fee. This gives me great exsposure and free advertising that may actually be worth more in value to me then the fee I am losing out on in the first place.

- I also can reduce the number of shows I do that day or the time duration of them. This shows them that if I lower my price or fee, you are getting the equivalent time that I feel is worth of my time. This way they learn to see that your show has value and they learn to respect this value. Often times, you could do just 1 show, after them seing it, they will give you the added money you ask just to do another one for them. it has happened for me in the past many times.

- Another barter idea is that if they give out grab bags or event bags to the people at the event, you can ask them to allow you to place your promo kit or flyer and cards into each bag given out at no cost to you at all. This is done in return for your reduced fee.

Another barter idea I use is to allow them to have me run my coloring contest for the kids with no interference or art direction on their part. This system is a great way for me to get hundreds of great contact information and get my marketing materials out to a lot of people. When I get home from the event, I now have a great list of contacts I can enter into my database for lead generation. (I can go into this in more detail if you would like).

There are other ideas I have used, but this should give you a generalized idea on what you can do and how you can barter a lower fee and still end up on the plus side of things.

If you have any questions or would like me to go into more detail on any of the above, please just let me know. I would be happy to.

Kyle

Thanks, Kyle. I was just curious and of course you over delievered on you answers as you always do. Sometimes I wonder if you are giving away the farm.
Edd

Edd,

I just like giving back to magic what it has given to me. I like helping people who want to help themselves. You have always been a great poster and always willing to ask the right questions and it shows that you use them and that you want to build and understand your magic better. Anyone who is like yourself, deserves me taking the time out to give you the proper response.

I am also gearing up and starting to write my book on Getting Into The Festival Market. I am currently writing it as we speak and there will also be a reference guide as well. My hopes is to get it as complete as I can so that it may also help others intersted in venturing into this market. I will keep you posted on the project. In the meantime, if you have any questions at all, PLEASE feel free to ask.

Kyle

Kyle,
Thanks for some great information.

Tony

Your most welcome anytime. Not a problem at all. Glad I could be of some assistance to you. If anyone has any questions or wants to go over their own ideas, please feel free to PM me.

I am on here a lot these days as I am working on my new book project. I am excited about it although it is taking time to write. It is getting there though.

Kyle