Field Guides / Sales
Clients delay video work because nothing forces a decision, so give them a specific, true reason to act this month: something extra they get by booking, a date that really is closing, or a smaller, safer first step. Put the extra on the quote at its real price and mark it as included, so your production company fee is calculated on the full job. Start with past clients, test three offers for a month, and keep the ones that book.
Interested clients put off booking because a lot of video work has no deadline they can feel. The brand film can wait until next quarter, the testimonial series until the new website is live, and every week of waiting costs them nothing.
So the conversation goes quiet. The client hasn't said no. "Let's pick this up in the new year" is simply the easiest thing to say, and your follow-ups get polite replies and no dates.
The way I put it on our calls: "There should be an offer made and there should be a deadline for acting." An offer is that reason, written down, with a date on it.
A discount is the wrong offer because it lowers what the client expects to pay you next time, and it comes straight out of your margin.
The rule I come back to with members is short: never drop your price, drop your scope. If the budget is tight, take something out of the job. If you want the client to move now, add something to it. Your rates and your production company fee stay where they are.
One member used to give away captions, transcripts and window dubs. None of it was on the quote, so the client never saw it as part of what they were buying. Open captions are now an agreed extra on his jobs, priced like everything else.
The method is six steps: start with people who already know you, pick one kind of reason, price the extra and include it, give it a date, put it in the proposal, and hold your rates when the client hesitates.
Copy and paste: the included value-add, as a quote line
Three vertical cutdowns for social (9:16), cut from the main shoot, with [n] rounds of revisions each, the same as the main film. Value $[price]. Included when the project is confirmed by [date].
Copy and paste: the past-client email
Hi [first name],
I was looking back at the [project] we made together and there's a lot of good footage we never used. I could cut [three short vertical clips / a 60-second version / an updated version with this year's figures] from it for [price], ready in [timeframe].
I've got edit time free in [month], so if you'd like them for [their next campaign or event], let me know by [date] and I'll book it in.
[Your name]
Copy and paste: the quiet-dates email
Hi [first name],
I've got [number] shoot days still open in [month]. They usually go to clients who've worked with us before, so I'm letting you know first.
If [the project you mentioned] is still on the list, booking one of those dates by [date] means you'd also get [value-add] included, at no extra cost.
Want me to hold one for you?
[Your name]
These are offers a video production company can run without touching its rates. Pick three, not ten.
| Offer | Best for | The reason to act now |
|---|---|---|
| Book the film, get three vertical cutdowns from the same footage | Everyone | A month of social content from one shoot |
| Captioned versions of every deliverable, included | Everyone | Ready for every platform on delivery day |
| Team headshots for half an hour at the end of the shoot day | Past clients, warm leads | The crew and lights are already set up |
| The content day: one shoot day, a quarter's worth of short clips | Past clients, warm leads | A quarter of content planned in one go |
| A second customer interview on the same day, at your second-interview rate | Past clients | The crew is already on site |
| New clips cut from footage the client already paid for (where your contract allows) | Past clients | No shoot, quick turnaround |
| A refresh of last year's video with this year's figures and branding | Past clients | Cheaper and faster than a new project |
| A long-form version for Instagram: an existing horizontal film, talk or interview prepared for Instagram's new long-form format, with short vertical Reels from the same footage linked to it | Past clients | A new format, and the footage already exists |
| Your quiet-month shoot dates, offered to past clients first | Past clients | Those dates are limited |
| This year's rates held for projects booked before your rise | Past clients, warm leads | Only if your rates really rise on that date |
| A paid pilot, credited in full against a bigger package within [60] days | New clients | Try you without committing the whole budget |
| A paid creative development fee, credited if they go ahead | New clients | See your thinking before committing to production |
| A thank-you for a referral, given after the referral books | Past clients | A real thank-you for a real introduction |
| An anchor-client rate: the production fee at a stated relationship rate (12 percent or above) for a client who commits to a set number of projects a year | Your best clients | Booked work on both sides |
A new format to watch. In October 2026 Instagram announced Features: horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long, with up to eight Reels linked to each one (PetaPixel's report). It began as a limited test, with creators in Brazil and then a small group in the US, so check whether a client's account has it before you offer it. Where it does, the webinar recording, conference talk or long interview sitting on their drive is ready-made material, and the vertical Reels you cut from it point viewers back to the full version.
Here's what options inside a proposal can do, from a member in the UK. A regular client of two years wanted a three-day shoot across two cities. He asked for their budget before proposing, and they said £3,000 "with some wiggle room", plus travel and accommodation.
He pointed out that past jobs had been one-day shoots and this one was three, then sent a one-page proposal with three options, built from a template another member had shared in the community. He expected them to pick the middle one. They took the top option, which he puts at between five and seven thousand pounds. In his words: "There was no pushback at all."
| What the client said | What they chose | |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | £3,000 "with some wiggle room" | the top of three options, between £5,000 and £7,000 by his estimate |
| Format | one figure | three options on one page |
Most offers fail for one of four reasons.
Every offer either adds something to the job or sets a real date, and none of them lowers your rates. Benchmark: three offers, tested for one month, sent to past clients first, with every value-add priced on the quote and shown as included.
Which of these have you taken on or put in place recently?
What's the one thing you can commit to implementing this week? If you're not sure, start here.
List every client you've worked with in the last two years. Pick the five with footage you never used, and send each the past-client email with a real date and a real price.
One thing executed every week creates 50 strategic moves a year.
Questions like these come up regularly on our weekly Elite Boardroom calls. If you'd like someone to hold you to account each week, and to learn from a group of peers who run video businesses too, the Boardroom is for you.
Related tools and guides. How to grow revenue from the clients you already have, Drop the scope, not the price, Anatomy of a Profitable Quote, How to price a video project, How many revision rounds to include, How to write a follow-up email that gets a reply.