Please help me negotiate this deal

[NigellaWannabe1]

I’ve got a very popular social media account on a niche area which is related to my job. A huge brand has got in touch for a collaboration, which involves creating a video demonstrating one of their products and posting it in my account.

I suggested a fee for the video which I know is below the going rate for someone with the number of followers I have. The reason for the low fee is that I have not done a brand collaboration before and I see it as a learning opportunity. They came back to me with a counter offer which was 20% below my fees.

I’m not sure what to do now. I think I’d like to stand my ground bc they’ve given me very little notice - usually a rush fee applies in these cases. Also, because I want to learn to stand for myself! But I’m worried they’ll just find someone else and I definitely want to work with them.

What do you think?

First off you need to really know for yourself what the lowest offer you'll accept is. You can't enter a negotiation without that.

Is it your initial offer? If you won't go below that, tell them and then be prepared to walk away otherwise.

Is it somewhere between their 20% counter offer and your initial offer? If so, make successive counter offers in relative increments?

Is it actually lower than their 20% counter offer? If so, happy days as you've definitely got a deal then. Maybe consider countering with a 5% drop and aim to meet in the middle at 10%.

Is there anything else you want from them that they could provide you with, so that you aren't just negotiating on price?

To be honest, I’d work for them for free just to have that brand collaboration in my portfolio… But that’s not something they need to know! One of my new year resolutions is to be more asssertive and more mindful of my own worth, if you see what I mean…

Your advice is sound though. I might go for 5% below my original offer and see what they say.

I’m not sure if I’ve done the right thing, but I’ve texted to say I felt my original fee was fair, as the timescale is very short and it requires me to work over Christmas. I hope they don’t turn me away…

Nice work! If you've phrased it that way it still leaves the door open for them to come back. I expect they'll surprise you. Let us know what they say!

Knowing your price is really important though. If you have trouble with confidence/assertiveness, can you attach it less to you as an individual, and more think about the business if it wasn't yours and what the price would be in that instance? It sounds like you might struggle with confidence generally not just in business? So trying to imagine you're an employee deciding the price and the business isn't a part of you (iyswim) might help?

Your response was entirely reasonable. Well done.

@NigellaWannabe1 what was the outcome? Hope they went for it!

Sorry for the late reply! They accepted an offer 5% of my asking price, which is amazing. I've since heard that it's standard for these collaborations to haggle down however reasonable your fee is. I'll be keeping that in mind for the future!

Ah that's great news we'll done @NigellaWannabe1 !