How To Negotiate With Freelancers

As a a producer, I hire a lot of freelancers for the projects I’m on. Negotiating rates is an inevitable part of hiring, but it can quickly get awkward or hostile. 

Here are a few things I’ve learned not to do, then a few approaches I take to email negotiation with freelancers. All of these have led me to working with great partners, and keeping major projects under-budget.

Don’t

Don’t twist the arm.

If you’re trying to hire a freelancer for less than their normal rate, don’t twist their arm. Guilting or heckling them into working for you for cheap is a lose-lose situation for everybody. It might feel good to tell your boss you got an audio technician for $100 a day, but when the shoot day rolls around they will feel undervalued. They won’t have any generosity left for the shoot because they already used it up by giving you a steal. In short, the work will suffer.

Additionally, great teams a built on teamwork and consistency, and I guarantee you these people won’t work with you consistently if they can’t pay their bills and don’t feel valued. There’s a solid middle ground to stand on here, and short-term steals have no place in that middle ground. 

Don’t promise future work.

Don’t ask freelancers to take one low paying gig with a promise of higher-paying work in the future. If you promise future work, you’ll be on the hook to actually bring that to them. If you don’t bring them future work, they keep a negative association about you. If you do bring them future work, they’ll have a leg up in negotiations based on your short-term strategy of promising higher rates in the future. 

The only exception here is if you can package multiple projects together for a discounted rate, and then book them in advance. 

Don’t call it a “great opportunity”.

Great opportunities speak for themselves. They don’t have the audacity to call themselves “great opportunities”. If the freelancer values the same things as you, they can determine how great the opportunity is. So instead, simply lay out the additional value alongside the price, and let them decide. Will they get social exposure? Solid connections? Exclusive access? Let them know and let them decide.

Do 

Make an offer.

When you put money on the table with a clear list of deliverables, it’s hard for freelancers to refuse. This is a lot easier to do when you have a good understanding of standard rates for your projects. If you don’t understand your industry, it might be tempting to ask for a quote from a freelancer so you don’t unknowingly spend too much. This is smart to do on larger projects, but if you’re hiring someone for a day, do some research to find out how much the going rate is. Then make an offer straight away. You’ll start to hear “yes” a lot more. 

Acknowledge how people feel.

If a freelancer gives you a quote, and you don’t have the budget for it, acknowledge how they feel first. Rates are a signal of respect and value, so when a freelancer can’t get their rates, they’re worried they won’t be respected or valued. The easiest way to combat this is by acknowledging how they might feel. A go-to line for me is, “I don’t want to devalue your work with a lowball, but this is all we have–we’d be honored if you could make this work!” This communicates respect and value, even if the rate doesn’t completely say it. 

Ask what people think.

At the end of the day, negotiation shouldn’t be emotional. By asking freelancers what they think of your offer, it takes the conversation from an emotional place to an analytical place. At the end of the day, your job is to lay out all the facts so the freelancers can make their decision. 

In closing, there is so much more you can bring to the table than just money. Think respect, creative freedom, a positive culture–all of these things are more valuable than money! I ask freelancers for a discount nearly every time, and they still consistently tell me my productions are some of the most fun, and that they love working with me. 

Good luck out there!