How do you get corporate clients?

[Star Video]

I'd really like some advice on how to get corporate clients.

Dallas is home to over 10,000 companies. How do I get them knocking on
my door asking to do their next corporate piece?

I've tried cold calling, and asking for the communications department,
this doesn't work very well! Half the time, they don't need video
work, or their production's done in-house. Also, i'm listed on
mandy.com, production hub, TAF/TP, and others, but I don't get that
many calls for corporate work.

So, what's the secret? Do tell.

[freedom]

All my corporate work comes from communications & marketing companies who hire production companies who hire me.
I never sell to companies as I don't produce and don't want to get into a conflict of competing with producers. Mostly, producers produce and shooters shoot in the mid size and larger corporate world.

Did you get my PM?

[Star Video]

Well, I'm trying to get hired as a production company here.

I work as director/camera, with a producer, then, I do the editing and post. So, I provide all the production/post production.

I'm looking to work it both ways. Whatever pays the bills, just trying to survive. (heck, I still do field audio sometimes, when no shooting work is available)

I also do multi-cam and studio camera for corporate, if there's no other work, so i'm kind of a jack of all trades.

What i'm trying to do is establish myself more as a production company, turnkey operation. I shoot, I edit, I deliver. Once I expand more, hire a freelance editor, and I become director/camera. If I get hired by corporate, why not just hire the field producer instead of taking their job? That way, I still get a little off the top, because my company is doing it.

I'd eventually like to turn my business into a production house. Of course, it's a slow and gradual process.

[Nino]

Cold calling a corporation very rarely will not get you any business. If they do video projects themselves then most likely they have all the bases covered and unless they are very dissatisfied with the people they are using they will not hire an unknown.

If the company does not need any video then they definitely don’t need you. These BTW are the best potential clients.

I’ve been working with this particular producer for nearly 20 years and this guy is on fire. At anytime he has at least a dozen of corporate projects going and another dozen in the back burner. Unquestionably he is the best salesman that I’ve ever dealt with in this business.

The first step is getting into the door. He doesn’t make cold calls; everybody knows or deals with some corporations that they can recommend if the incentive is good. If the recommendation generates a sale the person responsible for creating the lead gets a good kickback. That’s like having dozens of salesperson working for you.

Of course once he gets into the door he still must have something unique to sale. Corporate identity has been his best seller. The first question he asks a potential client is “Who are you”, can your salesmen in four minutes or less tell a story to a new potential client of who you are and what you do? They can’t, but a well produced DVD can do it and do it well, the rest is easy. In the video itself we usually have some testimonials from suppliers and clients; and that’s done intentionally because now he has more new leads.

My producer friend exploits people’s weaknesses, their ego and pride. Nine out of ten times he gets the corporate identity job and more.

[wtv]

All the corporate work I get is via my agent, Mandy and a couple of other sites I'm on.

I don't get that many shoots though. Thankfully, this work isn't that important to me.

You need to get your name out there and slowly but surely, the work will come.

[Todio]

I've noticed 2 things here... agent and salesman. Consider hiring a salesman on commission. Make it his job to drum up clients. He only gets paid when you get work. This would be a sideline for a salesman already experienced in contacting the client base you want to cover. Consider also entering into a partnership or 'service agreement' with advertising and marketing firms. You provide your services and they have an extra service to offer their clients.

[BluesCam]

The big corps pretty much use agencies for the the big $$$ projects.

Working with the agencies can be a pain. They usually like to shoot film for the big stuff. If you want to approach them, then you should be able to provide teleprompter, makeup artist, editing etc., although some have finishing shops they use for post. Some of the agency folks will have real "type A" personalities so be ready for that.

I try to approach the small to middle size companies. A good web site can be very helpful in that regard. They sometimes have an in house marketing dept. that will out source production.

Be prepared for a lot of BS. I was recently called by a marketing firm to meet with their CEO about a pretty big media project.

This was a first time meeting with the company and I had to drive 110 miles round trip. I got there and asked for the CEO. The response I got was "is she expecting you?" I said yes, I have an appointment a 2. She said: "well..., she called in sick today." I finally met with the VP (the CEO's sister) and the first thing she said to me was, "I'm not the decision maker and I can't hire you..." Total BS and a waste of MY time and gas. Luckily, that type of crap doesn't happen too often.

I have been told that you should send your info to a purchaing agent at the big corps, but I doubt that will result in much response.

Start sending press releases to the paper about turnkey projects you have completed. That can help get your name out there. I know some companies that do that constantly and you can't help but remember their name.

I know one company that has done extremely well because the owner has joined many associations and industry groups. He also takes out ads in their newsletters. He is making a fortune, but he travels quite a bit. Maybe hire a skirt to do your promotion. That's what some people here do.

If you approach the agencies you will need a demo that is impressive. Fast paced with awesome content and not too long.

Oh yeah, for corporate work be prepared for slowwww pay from some.

Good luck.

[freedom]

I'm looking to work it both ways. Whatever pays the bills, just trying to survive. (heck, I still do field audio sometimes, when no shooting work is available)

I also do multi-cam and studio camera for corporate, if there's no other work, so i'm kind of a jack of all trades.

.

Jack of all trades, master of none.

When you are calling on clients to produce for them, the other producers will want to have nothing to do with you. You are competing with them. So that will indeed leave you to be a producer first.
Then you want to be a director, cameraman & editor too. Master of none. This works on the small potatoes projects but will not cut it on the big-boy stuff.

Your better course of action, IMO, is to chase the production companies that have a firm grasp of the corporate market. They have a system in place that is running. Eventually you could move from 'just' shooting to directing & shooting if that works out and eventually you could form an alliance with a producer to form a company. But your producer-partner would produce and you can concentrate on shooting. The corporate producing world is a very busy world of hand holding & constant explaining, leaving no time for doing the actual work.
Producing in the corp world is very much a constant sales job along with the other producer duties. If you are out shooting for a day you can't manage these clients the way they'll expect it.
Again, I'm talking about medium & large companies. The small companies aren't worth chasing, IMO, because you'll spend tons of time developing a client that needs ONE video every 20 years. Those are the clients that can find you via web search. If they call then you fulfill their services and move on. But, I've only been doing corporate work for 20 years, what do I know?
I've watched producer/friends try the small company chase and spent countless hours selling. There just isn't enough there to bother with the effort.

I've shot thousands of projects for fortune 100 companies and see that it's almost always a marketing or communications company hiring a production company hiring directors & cameramen. Sometimes the communications company is the production company too but I never see the prod/dir/cam combo doing work for major corp. I'm sure it happens, but it will be a very unique exception rather than the norm.

[Hiding Under Here]

Implied in most of these responses is this fact: the television photographer doesn't get the corporate clients, the producer does. If you want corporate clients, and if you are a freelance television photographer, then you need to approach producers who do corporate work, not the corporations themselves. If you are a full-service shop and want to produce AND shoot for corporations, then you will need to go out and cold call corporate clients.

Before you start cold calling you need to know any number of things. First, you need to know which company has potential from those that have none. If they aren't making video programs or presentations, then there is litle point in approaching them. It would be a virtually insurmountable task to take it upon yourself to motivate a company to start making video productions.

The second thing you need to know is whether a company is generating video production on a local level. Is there someone on site whose task it is to produce video programming for that corporation? If there is, obviously THAT is the person you need to be talking to. The problem is finding them. Another challenge is getting them to talk to you. A lot of these in house producers have long-standing relationships with production companies who have been servicing them for years. If you do get an appointment, your next task is developing a marketing approach that will win you some work. But if you get that far, you will have been allowed in for a reason. They WANT to talk to someone else because they are dissatisfied with their present vendors OR because they have more work than one vendor can service.

There are many approaches you can take to finding those corporations who make video productions in your area. Joining your local chapter of ITVA is one way. Another is to scour the web pages of all the production companies in your city and check to see if they list local corporations under their client or testamonial sections. in an attempt to poach those clients you can simply call the corporations, ask for the media relations department and ask them if they have a production department or producer. The media relations people will know because the production people will have been assigned the task of having the CEO (and others) videotaped for corporate productions. And it will have been the media relations peoples' task to coordinate those interactions.

[Star Video]

hmmm...all wise, wise advice.

I think that i'll stay out of producing alltogether, and just be the production company that gets hired by the producer. I hire a crew, shoot the thing, edit it, deliver on DVD, etc. etc.

I'd really like to just be a small turnkey production company. Once I get bigger, hire an editor to help, in-turn letting me coordinate the crew and be liason to the producer. All of this must be taken in steps, of course. But, I want to climb my own ladder, first I have to build it.

Soooo....I need to schmooze with all the coporate producers in my area...

thanks for the advice, guys

[freedom]

hmmm...all wise, wise advice.

I think that i'll stay out of producing alltogether, and just be the production company that gets hired by the producer. I hire a crew, shoot the thing, edit it, deliver on DVD, etc. etc.

I'd really like to just be a small turnkey production company. Once I get bigger, hire an editor to help, in-turn letting me coordinate the crew and be liason to the producer. All of this must be taken in steps, of course. But, I want to climb my own ladder, first I have to build it.

Soooo....I need to schmooze with all the coporate producers in my area...

thanks for the advice, guys

hire the crew, edit, duplicate, coordinate are all functions of the producer. In all seriousness, stop trying to do the producers job! You stated you want to stay out of producing altogether and then say you want to be turnkey production company.

The most I usually do is hire a soundie & grip if I have to. If I can get the producer to do the hiring of crew, all the better. That leaves me out of the workmans comp & liability issues of the crew. I will give names, recomendations, to the producer so I get to work with crew I know & trust but I try to pawn off the actual hiring as often as possible, especially on larger projects.

Build relationships with producers and let them have a decent chunk of the project. You'll make plenty of money shooting and they can make a decent wage producing. Don't forget that you make around $1000 per day and the producer gets maybe $400. So the producer needs many more days of work to make a decent living. They can work 4 days on your 1 day shoot doing pre/post production. You head off to shoot another job. So you make $1000/day for 3 days a week and the producer makes $400 per day for 3 days. You are trying to take away some of his days. Once you build up a clientelle you won't want to be tied down to the small details of producing, it will just get in the way of those $1000 days and end up costing you money. What do you do when you have a client review of an edit that will take all of 2 hours and the phone rings for a 2 day shoot? Whatever you do, you loose. Producers are geared up for that sort of scheduling. And word will get around that you are producing and other producers won't want to hire you so you'll HAVE to become a production company.

The exception are those rare people who are true filmakers. Many think they are but in reality most are not. Producers, directors, shooters, editors all bring different skills to the show and make the whole greater than the parts.

I sense you are like the vulture on the branch of the tree that says "F it, I can't wait, I'm gonna kill something". Patience, the work will come. Concentrate your efforts on shooting and selling your shooting, don't spin your wheels trying to take on all the other functions of filmaking. That is, if you really want to shoot!

The vast majority of freelance shooters I know work this way. Out of 100 shooters, 1 or 2 can make it work as prod/dir/cam/edit. Many others try and end up suffering in some way.

[BluesCam]

No easy answers. The indy producers around here have their "go to guys" and have for years. It's hard to get them to look outside their favorites unless they are in a pinch. The other thing, as mentioned, is the fact that they will see you as a threat if you are chasing corporate yourself. Why should they hire a competitor? Take a look in the state film guide if you have one. You will see independent producers in there.

The producers here charge $500-800 a day. Most of them are scriptwriters too. One shop here promotes itself as a field production/rental company, but I have found out that they do post as well, but have kept it quiet so they don't alienate clients that would see that as competition. I'm seeing an increased need for website services, especially video encoding (Flash is big now). That might be some more bait for your hook. Too bad that's not a big ticket item.

[Hiding Under Here]

I worked as a producer long before I started freelancing as a television photographer. I had a full-time job at a corporation that had an in-house video department and before that I wrote and produced cheapo commercials for a large cable television company back in the days when local cable ads were first offered.

After seven months of working as an in-house producer the company laid off its entire staff. I started freelancing then but not as a photographer. At first I wrote scripts. And I have to tell you, doing that was one of the loneliest, lowest paying jobs I ever did. I'd walk in with what I thought was a well done draft and the cleint would read it and say "I don't know, it needs something else". When I asked them "what?" they'd say "I don't really know but keep writing and I'll tell you when you get there".

Pictures are so much better than words. I stopped writing for money within the year. I continued to do some producing but what I liked about photography -- beyond the picture taking itself -- was the fact that I got paid for every minute I worked. I like being paid for my work. Early on I identified how important that was to me and it's helped move me along in this profession.

[Star Video]

I think that it's possible for me to stay out of producing altogether and still make money off of editing and post...

The only reason that I want to be a shooter/crew hiring person, that works WITH a producer, that also has an edit suite is because I HAVE AN EDIT SUITE.

I have invested money in an Apple G5, Blackmagic HD-SDI card, HD monitor, DVCAM and Betacam VTR's, (HD rented if I need it), video storage drives, etc.

For now, my edit suite is in my house, because I do small-scale turnkey projects on the side, corporate pieces, presentations, etc.

I don't want this to go to waste. I don't want to be producing anything (i've decided) I just want to provide post services as well.

I don't want to take editing jobs, either. And, once I have the incoming flow of editing work, I want to hire a freelance editor to work my system while i'm out shooting.

I wouldn't mind having a small office that's dealing with providing crews for producers, with a small edit suite as well. No producer involved except the one that hires me.

How does that sound?

[Stoney]

I used to work at a small production company that did what you are proposing, Jacques. I was a shooter on staff there. They have a small staff and do some in-house work (corporate and docs, mostly) but a lot of the time they act as crew for hire. Producers call them for the crew. It is a good way to do things. They do post and shoot but have aligned themselves with many producers and either take gigs with those producers or call in those producers when a gig falls in their lap. Everyone works, no one gets mad. In fact, they used to have an independent producer who kept a desk in their office space. It worked pretty well.

There is no reason you can't shoot and work your edit system at the same time. Just use a producer other than yourself to bring you that business. Like others said, concentrate on what you know (shoot/edit) and let others do their thing. If you get big enough, maybe you hire a producer full time or something and they work under your business.

[BluesCam]

I assume you have a business license. Some people can work from home and pull it off. There may be zoning issues though.

I rent an office in a new art center complex and it is very affordable.
It has worked out well.

Previously, I had an office as part of an insurance agent's facility. That did not work well. It confused some of my clients and they didn't like it (they had to walk by the agent to get to me). If you decide to rent space, choose wisely.