Should you ask the client for a budget, or should you name your price right away?

Question

Freelance

Sometimes people contact me directly with a request to do some kind of freelance work. What is better and more professional and more credible:
1) ask their budget for this work and then, based on this, name their price
2) Or immediately name their price?
How do you usually do? When you, as a customer, contact a freelancer, what is best for you?

Answer 1

It is always more pleasant for a customer to work with someone who knows his own worth than with someone who is trying to get the money to the maximum. Especially with those who are willing to work for food, because more is not included in the budget. Not all customers know about this, but the result always turns out like this. If an honest specialist without a desire to bargain does not inspire confidence in the customer, this is a reason to look for a more reasonable customer.
Your work is worth as much as you are willing to do it for. So you need to be interested not in the budget, but in the TK, and from it name the price. Then, of course, it is necessary to clarify the budget, at least in order to understand how to behave when requesting additions and finishing touches.

Answer 2

As one client told me - "well, you see that I have a cool renovation in my office and automatically raise the price for me for trifling work"
1. Nobody likes this.
2. Just offer a plug. Options are cheaper and more expensive. Cheap and expensive options, of course, include a different amount of work.
3. Moreover, it is even possible that a poorer client will choose a more expensive option. And the rich will not fall off the hook, they will simply choose a cheap option.
4. What you want is controlled by forks.
5. Why do you want to manage your income based on the client's income? Your price should depend only on your cost price.
6. Another thing is that it makes no sense to spend half a day talking about an expensive option if the client will never buy it in principle.
7. First give a fork with a rough description. Then, answer clarifying questions on that part of the plug that the client is interested in.
Is your price subject to change?
Why's that?
Your price is determined by your load (number of orders, demand for you) - and nothing more.
Another thing is that by simply calling a fixed price, you lose those customers who are looking for cheaper. And those who want to spend more are also losing.
And working with a fork
1) You interest the client to understand the details of your offer. The dialogue that has begun may well develop into an order.
2) You can serve both the poor and the rich. But offering them DIFFERENT scopes of work.

Answer 3

Smart books teach salespeople not to be the first to say prices/budgets. this will cause your opponent to have that information and you not. That. he will build his own dialogue in order to lower\increase the already named price . The price
is always a subject of negotiations and compromises.
If the parties refuse to negotiate (due to low / high prices), then this is a fail for both parties.
Of course, if the budget sounded inadequate, then you can say goodbye to such a customer / contractor, or explain that we cannot work for that kind of money, maybe he will understand and change his numbers.
For any altruists, I will say that people who set a price without looking and talking with the client lose profit. But in our life it is not the cost of work as such that is important, but the compromise and the fact of concluding a contract and the profit received from this contract, which everyone is trying to maximize (if this is not the case, then plz do not prevaricate, this is ALWAYS true)
. Vasya Pupkin will make a website for $1,000, and Tyoma Lebedev for $10,000. In both cases, the quality may be the same, or even Vasya will win in terms of customer focus. But if Vasya can take $2,000 from a client, then I will shake hands with such Vasya. But this does not mean that Vasya should squeeze the client, it should be negotiations of equals. That. there is nothing wrong with the fact that if the client is willing to pay the increased cost, then let him pay. In the end, no one in this life is a sponsor of someone else's cause.
When the contract is concluded, it's all win-win. This means that the customer is ready to work according to this budget, and the contractor is ready to work as well. That. everyone wins.

Answer 4

Ask, but the main thing is like
"Tell me your budget" - a clear statement of the client about his budget.
"What is your expected budget" - that's why it is "expected", it will be easier to name your price here.

Answer 5

Eloquence is the only weapon of business) The dumbest question is "how much money?" will usually put a label on you right away so that `psychologists` do not write about what people understand.
So he resorts to all sorts of know-how:
"I think we should decide on the price, and in order to prevent an embarrassing moment, let me clarify if you have certain expectations associated with the price that you want to hear?"
"you understand, I can't tell you the price, because you and I do not assemble bicycles according to known drawings, we are going to develop for your task, but I could offer several options from `I just did it and went` to full support and guarantees, for example, 20 thousand for made and gone, and so on up to the price corresponding to your expectations, I think we will find a common language "...
well, that's how it happens.
I know, crap. whether people are like computers the question is "how much money?" would be perceived as normal, but people try to be smarter, and that is why business is not just on the verge of the law, but far beyond it.

Answer 6

You need to ask for a budget, at least a very indicative one.
The fact is that if the client is not an IT specialist, then very often he does not even know the approximate order of prices, and his expectations can radically differ from reality.
You can sit for 2 hours discussing hypothetical functionality and a mountain of wishes, then declare 300k, and the client will do so o_O and say "nothing to myself, I thought well, 50 thousand is enough, my nephew's friend told me ..."
Therefore, at least some framework is needed .

Answer 7

It's no joke, but precisely because of the inadequate price, bad attitude and unwillingness to understand me, I had to study the topic myself and do everything myself. Instead of me as a client, a potential competitor turned out. And having been in a humiliated state, I try to communicate with clients easier and more respectfully. I always try to mirror everything on myself. I’d rather spend a little time for a prototype and full technical specifications for free, get common ground, discussions. Having a customer is always better than not having one. Budgets, the availability of money always changes for everyone at different periods of life, and experience is only growing. And I'm certainly not afraid that someone will profit from me and earn money. This is my experience, my new knowledge, people and clients. Today he can only pay 2000 and we will figure out what good things can be done and what can be removed from the project for now. Money is good and necessary but there are also human relationships. And it's always captivating. Just the same, by cutting off the excess we. We come to the balance of payment and hatelok. But always do well. Position = pays little, will do poorly, does not work.

Answer 8

:) See my profile.
I'm always interested in the budget. As experience shows - if the customer cannot decide how much he is able to pay for getting rid of his problems - he will only torment the Moscow.
In addition, knowing the budget - you already understand what options you can offer and how to implement it. You see that the customer is not a brainmaker, pawing at the goods in the store, but a real customer.
Yes, there are standard tasks for which there is a fork. There are no special problems here (from $300 to $1000 :) )
But most of the category "how much will it cost me to do well?" And here there are two extremes at once - "TK" either from one sentence or 15-25 pages. Neither one nor the other can be evaluated, because for this you need to WORK - to study the current state, find out what is needed and write technical specifications with the customer or study his writings and clarify the details. Even if you don't know what to expect.
And... the icing on the cake after this free work is done: "yes, you want to! I thought it would be less."
And here attention, colleagues! Is that what he thought or not? If you thought - then decided on the budget. So why not find out and decide how interesting it is and what can be offered? And if you didn’t think about it, did you come to ask the price of mother-of-pearl buttons?
Therefore, I first find out what the budget is, and then I decide whether I am ready to do something for that kind of money and what exactly. Yes, there are a little less customers, but there are also fewer unruly and more normal, adequate customers. (who conceived get more than planned, but about that shh... :) )

Answer 9

It is better not to ask the budget, this matter is often very personal) the prices for their services are more than enough)

Answer 10

I never directly ask the budget. I always estimate how many hours I would spend, throw a little, and immediately send an estimate. As practice shows, people perceive much better not "100 thousand per site", but a list of 30 items with an assessment for each task.
So there are more chances that we understood each other correctly in terms of the scope of work. There is less chance that the client will decide that he is being bred.
To the question "why is it so expensive?", the answer is "because". I don’t give any discounts to anyone, because I lose motivation right there.
I inflate prices from the usual rate, either when I am very busy, or when relations with this client have already been spoiled.
Yes, sometimes it happens that you sit, estimate the project for 60 thousand for an hour, and then it turns out that the budget was 25, but still there are not so many such cases.

Answer 11

"Don't worry about not earning all the money" ©
What for do you need his budget? Let's say your price is 10k per site. You made it, you paid for it at your price. All.
What difference does it make to you what your customer will do with it later, even if he was an intermediary and resold your work for 100k? You have already received your money at your bet.
The more blurred the TK, the wider the fork.
"- We need to make a store. - Ok, depending on the requirements it will be from 50k to 500k. What are your requirements?"
If they sent a sheet of 30 sheets with a description of each button, then again - after a quick look, you can roughly estimate the amount of work in half an hour and give a wide fork. After that, you can honestly say "you have a large TK, I need to spend N hours / days on the assessment, this is a lot of my time, so the assessment will cost X money."
As an option, you can offer a discount in the amount of the TK assessment if the work is ordered, i.e. you are now taking a 3k ha assessment, and if the client eventually orders the work for you, then he will eventually pay these 3k less.
If the client is large and with a potentially large budget, then you can simply think over and offer additional services.

Answer 12

You need to understand the scope of work, evaluate the work yourself and voice (both the cost of your services and the timing). Then talk to the client about the scope of work again to identify discrepancies in your understanding of the task and what the client needs. Also ask what terms and cost the client expected. If there is a discrepancy with yours, also find out why and discuss all the points where your opinion differs from that of the client. All this will allow you to identify and agree on all points.

Answer 13

Ask. because on the one hand there is no difference, but there is a chance to get more if you ask.
for example, there is a task - you estimated it at 20k rubles. and the fact that you will not take it for less than 15 is permissible. you can immediately tell the client 20, or you can ask - and in the second case there is a chance that he has a budget of 40.
so it's better to ask.
ps but most customers already know about this feature, so in 90% of cases you will hear something like "how much would you rate yourself?"

Answer 14

Personally, I usually propose to draw up a technical task first, if it is not there. Without this, I try not to discuss the cost and timing. In the TOR, I describe how this or that functionality affects the timing and price. Those. my version, the first word on the price is still up to me. In general, it seems to me that it is often possible to ask the estimated budget for only one purpose, to determine the adequacy of the customer.
"Oh, it's also for the money?" (c) one of the failed clients

Answer 15

asking of course it will take you five seconds but you can make your move already having analyzed his budget a hundred times smarter

Answer 16

You must have case studies to guide you.

Answer 17

The client most often wants to save money, so the budget is not disclosed. But before delving into a bunch of TK points, you can make a zeroing in on the price range.
To put it bluntly, if he wants a $50 WordPress poop, he's clearly in the wrong place.

Answer 18

First, evaluate the cost of the work, then name the overpriced price (in psychology, the anchoring effect is called "The higher the first named amount, the higher the final amount will be"), then find out the price that the client is willing to pay.
Read more on the topic here