Gimme more, gimme more
The ultimate trick to getting what you want from your clients is right there.
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I used to think that there were tricks to successfully negotiating.
That I needed to learn the secret words and turns of phrases to use. That I had to master tactical strategies, like making a couple of fluff demands to get the one thing I really wanted.
I went about negotiating the way I go about everything that gives me sweaty hands. I bought books and read Harvard Business Review articles. I listened to podcasts. I even enrolled in a two-day workshop called “Effective Persuasion”, which proved minimally useful.
But this theoretical knowledge didn’t help as much as I’d hoped. I still hated negotiating and always had some measly excuse to justify my inaction. That I hadn’t worked long enough for a client to ask for a rate increase, or that such and such company worked with standard agreements, so they were never going to change their contract just for me.
A turning point in my attitude to negotiating came last year, when I travelled to Amsterdam to attend a freelancers’ meetup.
One of the speakers, Dutch freelance journalist Nick Kivits, made a big impression on me. Here was someone who, like me, was working in an industry in crisis, an industry where freelancers aren’t supposed to make too many demands.
But Kivits – whom I later interviewed for a story about his fight to obtain better terms for freelance journalists – negotiated all the same. He recounted how he had started asking all his clients to inflation-adjust his rates annually. Just two of them agreed to do so. But he saw that as a win.
Hearing someone like Kivits admit that he often isn’t successful when he negotiates made something click in my head. It’s true, I thought. Who cares about all the noes, it’s the one yes you get that counts.

That was in November of 2019 and since then I’ve negotiated more than I ever have in my seven years of being a freelancer.
So, how did I do? I scored some wins. I managed to get three clients to bump up their fees with 15, 25 and 100 percent. But more often, my clients have been unable or unwilling to make concessions. I’ve been told there’s no budget for increases at the moment, that I’m the first freelancer to request contract adjustments, and that the rates are the same for everyone. And there’s the one time I was – rather rudely – just ignored.
The point is: most of my negotiation attempts were met with apologetic, surprised or, very occasionally, arrogant noes. But each time I got a new no, it started to feel a little less personal, a little less humiliating and a little more like a normal aspect of a business relationship.
And those noes were worth the yesses. I nabbed fee increases of 15, 25 and 100 (i.e. they doubled the original rate 🔥). Just because I asked.

The fear that’s kept me from negotiating the past seven years has gone away too – namely, that the assignment would be taken away from me if I made demands.
Because for all the times I’ve negotiated, no-one’s ever taken back a commission. Ever.
Sure, I do wield turns of phrases and tricks that I gleaned from podcasts and articles and maybe they help. But my hands? They’re as sweaty as they used to be. And that’s fine. The only thing that matters is not chickening out. That’s the only trick to negotiating worth remembering if you ask me: taking a deep breath and doing it, no matter how scary it feels.
What’s your attitude to negotiating? Have you stopped negotiating due to corona? Do you have any wisdom for negotiation-averse freelancers? Let us know at freelancerthefriendly@gmail.com
Take care,
Linda
What I’m reading, watching, listening to this week:
Selma’s conversation with Inke Gieghase about freelancing according to your ideals, the first instalment in our new interview series with freelancers who inspire us.
This episode of the BBC podcast Business Daily about the hidden costs of working from home.
According to this new study, I live in a city where 1 in 10 women are self-employed. 👩🏼🤝👩🏽👩🏼🤝👩🏽👩🏼🤝👩🏽👩🏻🤝👩🏽👩🏻🤝👩🏽
Freelancebusiness.be is running a free online masterclass with Tom Hirst, whose Twitter thread about pricing freelance projects exploded the Internet back in June.
This newsletter was written by Linda A. Thompson, a Belgian freelance journalist who writes about all things law and social injustice. She’s written for Bloomberg Law, Law.com, Deutsche Welle, OZY, International Politics & Society, USA Today, Underpinned, IJNet and Equal Times.
You’ll hear from Selma Franssen in two weeks. Selma is a Dutch freelance journalist living in Brussels. She is the author of Vriendschap in tijden van eenzaamheidand has written for Charlie Magazine, OneWorld, De Morgen, De Standaard, The New Statesman, Bustle, Knack, VPRO, and Newsweek.