Overheard at Angus Vol. XII: The art of negotiation
Listen to this tasty morsel of a conversation I eavesdropped on just last week . . .
Producer #1: How are negotiations going with the actors for NAME OF NEW PLAY?
Producer #2: I came up with a really good plan for the offers.
Producer #1: Really? What’s that?
Producer #2: Instead of giving them one offer, I gave them a choice. $5,000 flat per week, or $4,000 per week plus a percentage of the gross.
Producer #1: Interesting. How did that work out?
Producer #2: They all wanted $5,000 plus a percentage of the gross.
Offering options in a negotiation always seems like a good idea. You’re being flexible. You’re allowing the negotiatee to choose their own fiscal fate . . . more or less risk . . . it’s up to them.
The problem is that once you throw out options . . . people only see the best of both . . . and then they want a hybrid. In other Angus-like words, they want to order off the menu.
So, unless you’re willing to say “take-it-or-leave-it”, don’t lay out different paths for your intended to take. They’ll just see the best of both options and ask for it all.
And then you’ll be on a path to the poor house.
(For a great book on negotiating, check out this classic.)
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I don’t know that I agree with that.
Wearing my Producer Hat and receiving that response to my offer of the two options, I’d likely then offer a choice between $4000/week or $3000/week + %age of the gross.
The simple fact that the actors WANTED the larger weekly figure + percentage certainly doesn’t mean that’s an available option. Of course, they want more: we ALL do.
My sense is that Producer #2 was offering a bit of risk for a possibly greater reward…an opportunity for the talent to “invest” in possibility and potential. For the actors to come back with a third, un-offered option that is outside the parameters of the first two seems simply greedy and arrogant…imho…