What is your relationship with your cost consultant? I find that they often want to get in the weeds of line items and slash costs arbitrarily that it’s not worth me even doing a 1st pass on bids...

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The cost consultants are usually dinosaurs put out to pasture for a reason. You can tell you have a bad one when they insist on lowering day rates to what they were 5 or 10 years ago, not what they are now. The “PA’s were never paid more than $75 a day when I was a producer” types.

likeupliftingsmart

Kill em with kindness early on. Pretend to be interested in their outside lives with small talk. Make them feel like a partner and you’ll get what you want. Explain that you’d rather have a line item where it is rather than come back for an overage approval ask them to help explain things to the junior account person on the job and they then feel like a mentor. And always start with a nice padded bid early on.

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Working with them justifies their existence. They get paid based on how much they steal from the bottom line. You don’t accept your cancer. You fight it til the death

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You get what you pay for. Ian always very transparent and direct with my clients. I know cost consultants that own airplanes and boats. And I’m not afraid to point that out!

likefunny

Yes, they always go back and look at old bids to compare. But I found that if you work with them, it is a manageable relationship. You have to have a reason behind every line item, so when they challenge you, you can push back. This way I’ve been able to keep the most important items that are crucial for an execution of the creative vision we have. That’s always the goal, don’t let them force you make cuts that would compromise the creative. You want to take $50 from my local travel? Fine, we’ll share a car ;).

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It makes me feel like a lazy producer but it’s not fair to waste the production company’s time either because no matter how tight the bid the CC always gouges more out

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I once had one ask how far team members sat from each other so they could pick apart the hours estimate based on actual steps taken. They must be so dead inside.

smart

OMG had the same thing happen. A cost consultant insisted we lower our bid numbers to match an old bid we submitted for an entirely different, ancient job we weren’t even awarded.

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When I pushed back they threatened to tell client we are “not an approved vendor.” I have a special place in my heart for cost consultants: the dark black part. They are parasites.

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@VP1 that’s the position I’m in right now. Creatives want to work with the best shops for the job but if they refuse to accept all the CC’s terms/rates then I’m told they’re “not approved” - which is absurd because the client/agency have worked with them in the past! I get it, they need to show a huge savings in order to justify their jobs, but on a multimillion dollar production is it really necessary to hold up the whole job because of $3,000? 🙄

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I kill them with kindness, work with them on items that are truly fair and then tell them we’ll need to start from the beginning to find lower bids once it comes to a head. If the client is aware, 9/10 times they’ll choose paying the menial $1000 for catering rather than starting from scratch and delaying production.

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@executive producer 3. That attitude is the first step to decoupled production. And I think you meant bid not bod

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I actually love my cost consultants. They can be a pain, and yes, they’re generally older, but if you get them on your side they’re invaluable. Work with them and they’ll fight your client battles for you

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Once had a cost consultant bring up a bid we submitted years ago to indicate that we said we’d work for x back when. Wasn’t even a job that was awarded to us. They are a pestilence. Losers who couldn’t survive in the business

I don’t bother massaging a bod any longer precisely because I know the cost consultant will take a knife if it. I simply tell my production company that. So, why put them through the hell, twice

@leoburnett1 yes, I meant to type bid. What do you mean by decoupled production?

@Executive Producer 3. Client buys your creative and hires a production service or cost consultant to produce it because you and or your agency are deemed to be too expensive for production. Your creatives are unhappy and you get to go home

Agree with EP1 kindness goes far. Ok maybe a little brownnosing perhaps

IP1. It’s that kind of thinking that will put you out of a job

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