Blog | Low Balling – The Illegal Fast Lane

A definition of low balling, according to the Miriam Webster Dictionary, is to give a markedly or unfairly low offer ( lowballed him in contract negotiations ).  I recently encountered this problem on a freelance site that I was used to getting a decent amount of work from.  I had established a good reputation and had an excellent portfolio to back it up. I even have a specialty (illustrations and illustrated logos) that practically guaranteed me those types of jobs.

I first realized there was a problem when I suddenly – and I do mean literally overnight – was not getting any jobs at all.  This went on for over a week before someone who had hired another person (on the site) emailed me and said they had accepted a bid of $75 (for a job worth at least $200) and the work was bad.

They hired me also, figuring it was worth it to take the $75 loss rather than having a bad logo.  This was direct from the client.  Within another week, two more people came to me with the same story and also hired me to do their illustrated logo. That was it on the jobs for those couple of weeks, however.

Who Suffers from Low Balling

I had been low balled and I didn’t like it at all.  True, this is a site that you bid for the job and everyone has a right to bid as they choose.  However, to go with such a low price is patently unfair. I am a freelance graphic designer and I have to make enough money to support myself. There are also certain price guidelines that are established among freelancers.

There are beginners or those still in school that can fairly charge a low price and the buyer is aware you get what you pay for. In fact, many ads request exactly that—a beginner with beginners fees.  By the same token, there are those at the top of their game who deservedly receive the high end of the payment “scale”.

In between are those of us professionals that have worked a number of years in the business, have established a level of professionalism that brings repeat customers (which by the way, is what kept me alive during this disturbing period) who deserve a decent fee for our professional work. We have the education, the experience, the dependability and the professionalism that should, by rights, guarantee us a good fee for our work.

Because the low ballers were an actual company with a number of people to support, that led me to believe that low balling for these people was in actuality a loss-leader to bring clients in for more expensive items, such as web design, etc. No agency could stay in business supporting a number of people with $75 fees. A loss-leader is an advertising ploy that gets customers in the door.  Doing work for virtually nothing and causing others to lose work is not an advertising ploy, it is low balling and it is considered a foul business practice.

The Harsh Reality of Low Balling

The True Face of Lowballers

Prior to the low balling, I was getting equitable fees from clients, in other words, fees that were fair to me and to them, based on the price sets of this site. I even received some outstanding fees for complicated illustrations and illustrated logos.

The aftermath of this low balling technique was that all of the jobs, even the $500 and plus jobs suddenly became worth much less. If $75 was bid on a $250 job, then what was bid on the $500 jobs?  $150?  We had no way of  knowing what others actually bid. But it certainly put the Fear of Bidding into me and I am sure many others. Overnight, the graphic design business as practiced through this site had undergone a drastic change and it seemed impossible to overcome the problem. No longer were we being judged by the quality of our work, of our presentation and our portfolio, but by the cheapest price available.

I couldn’t take this anymore.  I had to find a way to fight back.  I had to figure out what to do and figure it out fast, because I wasn’t making a penny this way.

Tips

Other than waiting it out, I knew I had to do something to get work.  I could hear the landlord knock knock knocking at my door!  I chose a four prong approach:

• I changed the way I presented myself.
• I changed what I offered. 
• I changed my prices.
• I started sending mockups.

First I changed my presentation letter.  Since we email the clients, I was sending these rather long, chatty emails.  I decided it would be better not only to simplify (to make sure they read my emails) but to get to the point fast.  After a polite hello, how are you (can’t throw the amenities out with the long winded spiel…) I mentioned how my specialty was what they were looking for, offered a concise sentence as to what I could give to them, gave my website and a thank you. That was it.  I didn’t offer a price yet, I wanted them to respond first.

Next, I offered something that normally I wouldn’t:  unlimited revisions.  I felt this was a selling point that was hard to ignore and I wanted to try it out.  With a company I had previously freelanced for I had offered this and found that rarely was it abused.  When it was abused, the client seemed to have a sixth sense about offering me a little more money.  So, I decided to boldly implement this change.  I then tried to think what my best qualities as a freelancer were, beside mad skills, of course.  My simple sentence then went something like this:  I offer speed, skill, dependability, professionalism, unlimited revisions and a great price. I also offered, in the next sentence, a 24 hour turn round for the first draft after the deposit had been paid.

If the client had given a description of what he/she was looking, I then created several mockups to show them what I could do. I had never done mockups before, having had the somewhat snotty feeling (I knew it) that my works should speak for itself and why should I waste time trying out something without pay.  Well, when you are hungry, you become a lot more humble.  I found this was one of the best things I did: more often than not I got the job I did the mockup for. It occasionally backfired, as the client would say that wasn’t even close to what he wanted, give me lots of changes and then never contact me again after I worked my butt off. However, I wrote those off as an “oh well” and continued to send mockups if appropriate, along with my new opening email gambit.

I then sat back and waited for the potential client to contact me, so I could offer my great price. (or contacted them by phone if I didn’t hear from them in a day or two). This was the hardest part, of course. To bid $125 on a $250 job or $200 on a $500 job…it was hard.  Very hard. I never went as low as the $75, however. I tried to keep a somewhat professional price range.

It took a couple of weeks, but I started to get jobs again. A number of potential clients contacted me and said they liked my work, but went with a lower price.  After that happened a couple of times, I realized that they didn’t think they could contact me to negotiate a price.  So I made one other small change that seemed to help.  I changed “a great price” to “I start the bidding at a great price”. I hoped it was enough of a hint to get clients that liked my work but didn’t want to spend so much to contact me with a counter offer.  It happened enough times (not that many, but enough) that I keep that in my presentation.

After about six months, it seems to have stabilized.  It never got back to the same good prices we had been blessed with before, but I was getting work.  I bid on the jobs that I knew I would be great at and I get a good percentage of them. My new strategies worked and I found myself thinking that I am glad this happened, I needed to learn more about presenting myself, what worked and what didn’t. Also, the landlord doesn’t have to knock anymore.