Defining Deliverables (Our Intake Form)

Hello Weekend Club Members!

One question that comes up a lot in our DMs, question boxes, and coaching calls is how to figure out what the client wants, and what to do if they didn't have any specific ideas prior to the shoot but then don't like the images when they are delivered. My answer to this is to ask a LOT of questions prior to even booking the shoot, and to continue asking questions throughout the process. All of the information that you learn during the question asking process should guide you while you're planning and shooting. While the dream is for all of our clients to come to us because they love our style and want us to have complete creative freedom, at the end of the day we are creative problem solvers and the most important problem we have is to figure out how to deliver images that will make our clients happy. 

So let's start with asking questions! When some one emails us, we either send them our intake form, or we schedule a call to talk through the questions that are in our intake form over the phone. Typically the deciding factor for if we send them the form right away or book a call is if we recognize their name or not. The longer you're in business the more inquiries you'll get, and no matter what stage your business is in, you have to be protective of your time. 

I can't tell you how many times I got on the phone with someone in the early stages of our company only to find out after talking with them for 20 minutes that their budget was $150. Trying to get on the phone with every single person who reaches out to you just isn't the best use of your time. I also will immediately schedule a call with anyone who responds to our cold emails since I feel like it's a little rude to reach out to a company and then send them our intake form.

Here's a link to our intake form if you want to see how it looks, but it's just a simple google form. Like our contract, we're always adding to it as things come up. 

Here are the questions that we include:

*Email Address

*Please give links to your current website and instagram account.

*What does your company do?

*What’s the goal / purpose of this shoot?

*What products will we be shooting?

*How many shots do you need?

*Do you need stop motion as well as still images? If so, let us know how many GIFS you would like.

*Will this shoot take place in a studio or on location?

*Where will these images be used? Please select all that apply.

*How long will the images be used for?

*Who is the target audience for these images? Are they an existing audience, or a new demographic for your company?

*What is your budget? Please include your budget for the entire shoot (ie. models, etc), not just photography.

*Will this shoot require models? If yes please specify if there will be just hands, just body, or if faces will be included.

*Do you have a deadline for when you need the images delivered? *Please note that our typical turnaround time is 6-8 weeks but this can vary depending on the complexity of the shoot and our current workload.

*Do you have established brand and/or photography guidelines?

*Have you worked with commercial photographers in the past?

*If you have worked with commercial photographers in the past, is there a specific reason why you are looking for new photographers?

*Who at your company will be involved with this project?

*Do you have examples of photography that you like? Please include links to websites or social media handles. If you have requested GIFS please include examples of those as well. This is important for us to get an idea of how much production time will go into the shoot.

*Are there any specific images on our site (weekend-creative.com/work) that you like? If so, please let us know which ones.

*How did you hear about us?

These questions will help us to not only develop an estimate, and define deliverables, but to see if we even want to take the job in the first place. You see, one of the issues with clients who claim that they don't have any specific needs or don't know what they want is that they actually almost always do have some idea of their desired outcome. Even if they want you to have creative freedom, they will have a rough idea of what they need/want/like if they are planning to invest money into the shoot. What they're actually saying when they say they don't know what they want is that they don't know how to communicate what they want. This is when you end up in that icky situation I mentioned at the beginning of the post. These kind of clients expect you to read their minds and then they're unhappy when you don't deliver what they wanted but didn't communicate to you.  

If a client fills out our form and leaves most of it blank, that's a red flag (for a full list of red flags - head to this helpful post that Arabela wrote a few days ago!). Our response to this is typically, "thank you so much for filling out our form, because all estimates are custom we need enough information to provide an accurate estimate. Once you have a better idea of what you need, please resubmit the form and we would be happy to provide an estimate at that time." By asking if they have brand guidelines, how many images they need, what products we will be shooting, if they have specific images/brands they like, what images of ours they like, etc., we're getting an idea of if they are able to communicate, and we're also starting to get a picture of what will make them happy when we deliver our work. 

While there definitely will be clients who need more guidance and who rely on your art direction skills more than others, they should at the very least be able to tell you the goal for the images, the target audience, and give examples of what they like and don't like. I would say that those points in addition to the number of images/gifs they need would be the bare minimum needed to create an estimate, but more information is always better. 

Once we get the form back, if it is a job that we are interested in, we will either build an estimate/proposal, or schedule a call if we need further information. When all the details are confirmed, we can create a contract and an invoice for the deposit. 

It's super important that all of the deliverables are listed out in your contract. This will help you to have something to refer to if the client comes back to you unhappy at the end of the shoot.  In reference to deliverables, here are the things you'll want to make sure to include (disclaimer - I am not a lawyer and this should not be taken as legal advice. I recommend having your contract reviewed by a lawyer prior to sending it to clients):

*What you are responsible for, and what the client is responsible for

*How many images/GIFs you will deliver, and any specific details about them that are important

*When and how you will deliver them

*How many rounds of reedits the client is allowed, and what happens if additional reedits or reshooting is needed (including how much you will be paid)

*We also include a sentence stating that we will be compensated for all work created under the agreement regardless of if the client chooses to use the final images or not 

Before you start any planning or production, make sure to get on the phone with your client again to ensure that nothing has changed since the first time that they filled out the form. Go through all of the deliverables again and double check any specific shots they said that they need. Continue to check in with them during every stage of the planning process, sending them a shoot plan and having them sign off on the concepts and mockups that you present. I also always list off all of the image/gif categories and amounts for the shoot and sometimes even a specific image list in the beginning of my shoot plan so that right away the client can see what they are getting. More information on the shoot plan that we use can be found here. 

We've found that providing detailed mockups prior to the shoot has been key in avoiding any client disappointment once the images are delivered. Even if you don't create a separate mockup for each image, we recommend listing out all of the deliverables in your shoot plan so that you can ensure that the client knows in advance what they will be getting. 

As you're planning and moving into production, make sure to continue asking questions. If you have any doubt about an idea, prop, etc., if you need something clarified, or you can't remember something the client said, just send them an email and ask! I sometimes avoid this because I don't want to look dumb or bother the client, but every time I am so glad that I took the time to double check. It also shows the client that you really care that the images you deliver are perfect for them. 

We'll go more into what to do if a client is unhappy with your work in a future post, but hopefully by really defining what they want and need before you even take the job and then continuing to check in throughout the process, you'll avoid that situation for the most part!

I hope this post was helpful for you! I would love to hear if there's anything else I should include in our intake form - let me know below!

Is it the weekend yet?
Elle