Those who wont call to discuss their shoot

[kevs]

David E. thanks. Do you respond with a quote or ignore..   You agree, it's the bottom / pathetic of the inquires you receive? As been saying only 3-4 who after I send my blurb asking to call, those 3-4% reply they wont have time to call or talk; still really annoying. Of all times I've sent quote, never got the job anyway.

[David Eichler]

Put it this way, do you want to do all the detailed work to come up with a detailed quote...likely hours of work, if you are one of 20 people that have been sent this request?

  Different people have different ways of dealing with this and different kinds of briefs will also determine whether you can give some sort of quick-and-dirty initial response or really must provide a detailed, written estimate. For example, if an architect or custom home builder tells me they need a variety of photos of a home for their business website, and it is a local shoot, I can generally give them a quick ballpark estimate, subject to refinement based on additional info later on.

[David Eichler]

  Different people have different ways of dealing with this and different kinds of briefs will also determine whether you can give some sort of quick-and-dirty initial response or really must provide a detailed, written estimate. For example, if an architect or custom home builder tells me they need a variety of photos of a home for their business website, and it is a local shoot, I can generally give them a quick ballpark estimate, subject to refinement based on additional info later on.

I don't necessarily just dismiss these, but I try to guage how much effort I should try to put into it. If it is a relatively new, small business, or one that just hasn't had the need to do any marketing until now, then they might just need education. The really frustrating sort of thing is when you get these sort of inquiries from established companies that clearly have established marketing programs of some sort and should clearly have the budget to hire people who should know better.

Also, bear in mind that this all depends upon the type of photography. I might be perfectly reasonable to simply ask for a price for standard business head shot, but it is quite another thing for a type of photography that is much less cut and dried, as can be the case with advertising or architectural photography.

[Martin Kristiansen]

Realistically the type of response Will be partly determined Ned by how busy you are and how much financial pressure you are or aren’t under. If you are quiet and desperate for work put in more effort. If you are swamped delete and move on.

[Alan Klein]

Realistically the type of response Will be partly determined Ned by how busy you are and how much financial pressure you are or aren’t under. If you are quiet and desperate for work put in more effort. If you are swamped delete and move on.

+1

[kevs]

Good point Dave.. but even Headshot... I needed to know usage, what type lighting, background,  and few other things not in the moodboard...... pathetic as one short call = 6 back and forth email.. anyway never got to either.

Also good point -- if busy or super slow has big effect on how much abuse, I mean work you can be subjected too...

[RichDesmond]

Kevs,

A couple of things.

First, I'm not a pro photographer, but I have owned a business, and I was in sales for a number of years.

You've mentioned a few times being "annoyed". That's not useful or productive. It's just business. Those people likely have no idea what goes into a professional product.

You can either try to educate them, or blow them off. Sometimes one's a good decision, sometimes the other is. For people who didn't seem to be worth a lot of effort I had a few email templates that covered the common situations. 30 seconds or so of personalization and off it went. If I got a reasonable response then I'd spend more time. If not, a quick email thanking them for their interest but saying that we weren't the right vendor for them got them off my plate. Very little effort, no annoyance.

In a small business you have to realize that every customer isn't going to be right for you. Figuring that out early is important, "firing" a customer later (which I had to do a few times) is much more of a headache.

[T1MC0LE]

I would also check the profile of the sender on LinkedIn. If it’s a person with a credible title contacting then it’s probably legitimate. If they don’t have a profile or are just an intern then it’s just fishing.