Those who deliver custom projects also require a custom fee. But those who ask for the fee also participate (sometimes unwittingly) in the great game of negotiation. Apparently, the marbles have yet to be distributed. Part of the mice industry still works traditionally with fixed package travel prices but more and more agencies are opting for a transparent budget that includes an insight into the agency fee. Fair is fair, an open fee certainly gives the client more reason for discussion as well, and most agencies don’t want that. But times change and the market demands more and more transparency. But who decides how much the agency can earn? The client or the agency itself? In the eyes of the client, is the agency in advance – very Dutch – too expensive with an open calculation?
Considerations
Out of conviction, as an entrepreneur, I have been working with open estimates and therefore a visible agency fee for 16 years. It works more efficiently in my opinion and it gives more confidence to the customer. It also saves a lot of ping-pong when a budget needs to be adjusted. The customer is much better able to make their own judgments about which elements are “need-to-have” and or “nice-to-have.
It is not uncommon for the honest open fee to be questioned by a client. I then often think ‘we’re not at the goddamn Souk in Marrakech, are we? Where, by the way – but that’s beside the point – nowadays more and more goods are decorated with the sign ‘fixed price’. And rightly so!
Market-based
The open fairy also makes me more vulnerable. Like a child, I am completely happy with the upcoming assignment and a happy child simply blurs boundaries. Before I realize it I end up at this stage in a gradual commercial game. I just don’t participate in it (anymore). Lessons learned. As a professional with 20 years of experience, I determine an appropriate market-based fee that does not include the marketplace option “bidding is allowed. Only when something costs more than it is worth then the customer may consider something expensive. And that can possibly be concluded at the end of the project and not in advance.
Trivial
And if the game needs to be played a bit, I don’t hesitate to trivially ask the client if their revenue model is set up so that they have to earn it on their desired cut of my agency fee. Silence and often end of game. Because often it’s not even about those few marbles, especially on the total.
I am convinced that anno now package travel prices, especially in the mice, are out of date. It just requires the agency to have a conviction that must echo the right arguments. Fortunately, the client is often sporty enough to conclude during the evaluation that the agency fee was well worth it. The word “expensive” is not even mentioned anymore.
