The ratio of customers to performers?

Question

Freelance

Hello, I would like to ask you and ask one question, which will probably be of interest to many.
Recently, on freelance exchanges, I began to observe a change in the attitude of customers towards performers. This is manifested primarily in the pricing policy: the customer puts up a task, the price of which is estimated at 10,000 rubles, but they still want it cheaper, and set a budget for all work of 6,000 rubles. Next comes the search for the contractor, the performers reluctantly look through the task and understand that the adaptive layout of the online store with various edits to the module, by no means, can cost 6000 rubles, it barely pulls ten. This is nonsense, after talking with the customer it turns out that the order itself must be completed in the shortest possible time. We refuse, as it is unrealistic for such an amount to carry out such a volume. But a "tyzhprogrammer" appears and says to the customer: "I'm a jack of all trades, I'll do it!" The customer shakes his head and agrees, with a smile on his face, he is waiting for the result of the work, but he is still not there, your specialist could not implement his project on time. And then I see again, the same task on the freelance exchange, but after a few weeks, I ask the customer that he seemed to have chosen the contractor, why didn’t they do it !? And he replies that he was thrown. I pointed out the nuances of his order, namely the price-time-quality ratio, and he tells me that he will not pay as much, as there are those who agree for a lower cost of wages.
Question:
When customers realize that freelancers are not robots who, at the snap of their fingers, fulfill the customer’s wishes for a small amount, why does the customer pay the specified amount for car repairs in the service, and he considers other work a simple task and considers it to be typesetting, coding, drawing dis is just poking on the keyboard and moving the mouse. Is it possible to somehow change this attitude, or will negligent freelancers destroy the attitude towards conscientious performers and professionals in their field?

Answer 1

There are 2 categories of customers:
If the customer underestimates the price, motivating that in the project "business for a specialist for five minutes" ("samby did it and there is no time") - this is the most obscure intermediary, whose benefit from a low price is obvious. Such individuals go through the forest.
But there are also intermediaries who understand the issue and know the real cost of the work, as a rule, their payment is adequate. I think that it is necessary to work on freelance with such customers.
As a rule, direct customers do not understand the issue, they constantly ask to redo something, they go beyond the scope of the TOR, since they simply cannot distinguish the layout from the backend and there are related problems. And in order not to fall into slavery to them, I simply do not take on low pay (your cap), but even deliberately overprice by 20-50%. For example, when working with experienced people from studios, I don’t behave like that, because. the risks when working with them are minimal, everything is clear and understandable.
Due to my pricing policy, it turns out that I rarely work with direct customers, which I almost do not regret, since there are enough orders from agencies for my eyes.
But if you have a strong desire to work with direct customers, and not with intermediaries (even in the face of adequate studios), then in order to get this type of order, you need to choose one of the ways:
2.1. If you want to work for good pay , you will have to explain to each potential client why your price cannot be different, describe everything in detail in front of each client, and given that the range of prices on the market is huge and the client does not "fumble", you need to have a very loose language, to convince the customer that your price for this type of service is the most fair.
Personally, I'm too lazy to do this, I somehow want to spend more time on professional growth, and not on talking about pricing policy. Therefore, I prefer studios and agencies to direct customers.
A joke from life:

spoiler

В начале моей фриланс карьеры мне позвонил какой-то дядя в скайп, сказал что у меня очень интересная цена и попросил объяснить с чем связан такой разброс цен на рынке, мол он ничего не понимает и хочет разобраться в вопросе, прежде чем заказывать работу (привожу его слова: "ребята, я х**ю с вас фрилансеров - один просит 500 рублей, другой 20 000 за одну и ту же работу, как так?"). Я предлагал за 3000 сверстать лендниг, в то время как другие просили от 5000 до 15000. Но я абсолютно не был готов отвечать на его вопрос и плавненько слился, так как мне нужен был опыт работы, а не общение с клиентурой, причём столь неадекватной.

2.2. The way to nowhere is dumping . But when dumping, remember that no matter how much you get paid, you will not get away from work and possibly slavery. So, for example, at the beginning of my freelance career, I took on the lowest paid orders, and until I satisfied all the whims of the customer, I could not get the unfortunate 1500-3000 rubles that I agreed to, as a result, some orders lasted almost a week, and for some orders I stupidly scored, as he began to understand that the game was not worth the candle (there was no experience yet). As a result, I came to the obvious conclusion that it makes no sense to work for a penny, and I decided if I really "plow" 40 hours a week for someone, spend time negotiating and editing, then at least $ 500.

Answer 2

It's called competition. You will always compete with those who:
1) can do it cheaper than you (and possibly faster and better).
2) can do better
3) can do faster
4) just convince the customer that it will do it cheaper, faster, better, but in fact it won't.
Just don't settle for a price that doesn't suit you personally.
You can always tell the customer (without unnecessary emotions) that this work costs so much and that most likely those who offer cheaper are not able to do it with sufficient quality / quickly.
If he does not agree and still asks for cheaper - do not do it!
And yes, cheaper does not always mean worse. There are talented novice programmers, it happens that a person urgently needs money, it happens that a person is shabash and doesn’t really care about the price, or maybe he’s just in a good mood today and he wants to make a discount. But these are not your problems. These are customer issues.

Answer 3

No one is forcing you to accept a low price, just as no one is forcing a customer to pay a high one. The contract must satisfy both parties.

Answer 4

When a significant part of the free spearmen dumps on https://www.upwork.com/ and there will be no one to fulfill the whims of fat Russian mobile managers :)
PS: As a rule, the simple truth does not fit in the filings of Russian customers:

A deal is a deal

Answer 5

Miser pays twice.
The customer will understand what was said only when they throw him N times or make him very bad. Only later in the project he will write: “I have already been thrown several times, so the budget is how much is left, and the payment is only after the fact.” And in the end, some firm will pick him up, concluding an agreement, tormenting him more and, as a result, issuing additional bills.
And so, if he always knocks down the price, then in the car service and anywhere he will try to get a mega-discount - such is his nature.
This attitude can be changed by your own example - do it well, make it so that you are praised at the mention (better let word of mouth and work reviews work). I have half of the orders in recent months from people who themselves found me, another third are old clients, and only the remaining percentage are my responses to projects. You always need to reasonably explain to a potential client what he is mistaken about and how it should really be.
Arguments like “And the other is cheaper”, “Yes, they did the same to me five times less”, etc. are ignored. You can compare the cost of work only by comparing the qualifications and experience of specific performers, and not pass off the “general temperature in the hospital” as the norm. I constantly hear this and always suggest comparing portfolios - after that they either agree with my arguments, or go looking for another who will lead to “But they offer me cheaper.”
An adequate customer always sees professionalism and makes a choice in favor of you, and not the Autobots with the template "I'll do it, contact me!". Plus, often people simply do not know how the work is done and how much it costs, but simply take the figure “from the ceiling” or like another project they see.

Answer 6

this is perfectly normal for small projects, and this way is more right than wrong, lowering the price is a plus, since the price tags are too high now.
take more complex projects, more voluminous there is no such problem.

Answer 7

You decide whether you need to work or save poor customers :) If you like saving unfortunate confused customers, you can tell how to do it right and better, make concessions, sigh and roll your eyes languidly to help strangers save their money.
Or you can decide on your price category and work in it, screening out customers below your category. Believe me, there is a performer for any cost. I had familiar customers who were delighted with the drug addict performer, who made a store for 50 euros, and also served it for a couple of months. And then it disappeared, and the customers were happy with everything, and they liked the site, and there were contacts on the site, only they didn’t have passwords, the site was shamelessly buggy, and I’m just silent about the design. But they liked everything, only it’s a pity that their performer disappeared, and no one else undertakes to fix this misunderstanding.

Answer 8

In the domestic outsourcing market, the problem is not only in relations with individual performers, but also between companies. The expectations of customers are now on average very high, budgets have been reduced (add the ruble exchange rate to this), there are still a lot of intermediaries.
And there have never been professional customers at the loss of freelance, it is pointless to be surprised at their behavior. They can count on being lucky, or they want to try to squeeze the result for a penny, or they seriously think that now everyone is working for food.

Answer 9

The finished ones simply set the price of $ 20 for the layout of the landing page, what kind of miserable people went, it’s a pity that customers don’t know the real price sometimes, and maybe it’s not some kind of customer, but an ordinary person who took the order and asks others to do everything for 50%, if not less. Have you done many projects yourself?

Answer 10

There is a lot of work for IT people right now.
No one forces you to work for food - if you don't like it, goodbye, there's plenty of work.
If the customer is not satisfied with the result - what's the difference to you. You also won't like it if you work on a netbook, and they impose a MacBook Pro on you?
Either the customer will be satisfied with the result or he will gain experience and come to the market to look for a better specialist.
And if the customer is an intermediary, then he has no choice. He is looking, looking. And someday he finds an inexpensive and normal one.

Answer 11

it's only your choice, how and for how much to work) the truth is, no one forces you)