997 Fajbusiewicz Na Tropie. It’s an infamous Polish TV crime series shot in Łódź. I recently took part in the making of an episode. I played a bit part as a crime scene investigator taking photos of a murder victim.
Bad Cop, Bad Cop
The fake blood was used sparingly
My girlfriend works part time for the show looking after casting and location scouting. I was with her one day driving around the Polish countryside while she was location hunting for a suitable house to use for filming. One does not simply film a house to put on a TV show. You need to get permission from the owner. This requires negotiation. After cold calling on the 4th house she was getting frustrated by all these home owners rejecting her requests to use their properties for filming.
I asked her what was she saying when she was opening negotiations with her prospects. She said her opening statement was;
“I know this sounds weird but“…
I said to her no wonder you’re getting rejected so much. It’s very easy for the prospect you are cold calling to agree with that statement and immediately shut you down – Yes, you are right. This does sound weird. I’m not interested. Get off my property stranger.
You’re setting yourself up for instant rejection if you haven’t got a good opening line that captures your prospects attention and opens them up for negotiation.
So I said to her, how about you change your introduction to,
“How would you like to earn 200 Złoty for doing nothing?” (homeowners are compensated 200-300 Złoty for filming)
This immediately gets the prospects attention. Internally, they ask themselves – who is this person and how can I earn 200 Złoty for doing nothing?
That’s when you can explain away who you are and what you need.
After we found a fifth house that was suitable for filming, she found the owner and entered negotiations. I was waiting in the car and watching the conversation from the end of the driveway. I have no idea what was said but I could tell from the body language that she was finally having a win.
The owner agreed to the filming and frustration turned into adulation. The takeaway from this story? Always give your prospects the results in advance. What’s in it for them? In this case, free money for simply filming their house.
How about you? Do you have any negotiating tips or an interesting negotiation story? Leave a comment 🙂
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