so ive been doing real estate drone work for about 8 months now and its starting to feel like every third inquiry i get is someone trying to get a full property package for like 75 bucks. had a realtor this week tell me she found someone on craigslist who would do it for 60 and asked if i could match it. i mean... i cant even cover my insurance for that.

i do try to explain the value, the FAA licensing, the editing time, all that stuff but some of them just dont care or dont understand why that matters. wondering if anyone has a good way of handling these conversations without sounding defensive or coming off like youre lecturing them. do you just let those clients walk or is there a way to actually convert them

honestly i just let them walk at this point. took me a while to get there but the clients who haggle that hard from the start are almost always the most difficult to work with anyway. you end up doing three rounds of revisions for a job that wasnt worth your time in the first place.

what helped me was having a one pager i send over before any call that breaks down what goes into a shoot - pre-flight planning, the Part 107 cert, post processing, delivery timeline, liability coverage etc. most serious realtors actually appreciate it and the ones who still push back after seeing that, i know theyre not my people. i raised my base rate last spring and actually got busier, which was weird but i think positioning yourself as the cheap option just attracts cheap clients.

yeah this is something i struggle with too, im still pretty new to the commercial side of things. what i started doing is packaging stuff differently so instead of quoting a flat rate i offer like a basic package and a premium one, and somehow people gravitate toward the middle option even if they called asking for the cheapest thing. not sure if thats just lucky or if it actually works psychologically lol but it helped me stop racing to the bottom on price