How do you determine the price of a project without knowing the details? You don’t. Just like a car mechanic cannot tell you what the repairs on your cast are going to cost before they get a chance to look at it and see what’s broken, freelancers often face the same issue.
Whether you’re building websites, writing content, curating social media activities or doing a whole ton of other classic freelancer tasks, coming up with a quote immediately is often just not possible. You, as the freelancer, understand this. Your clients might not.
What are the reasons for clients to ask the price question first?
First and foremost, we’re not here to tell you how evil clients are. To get the most out of your freelancing career, you’ll have to learn to work with a lot of different kinds of people.
Do not miss our article on how to handle 7 often-encountered client types – the cheapskate, the I-can-do-it-better or the 110% person!
Working successfully with someone often means trying to understand where they’re coming from in the first place. So let’s review some reasons people might have for asking you for a quote a couple of minutes into your first conversation.
1.They actually don’t have an idea about the cost
This is the simplest answer – the client wants you to give them a price because they themselves have no idea what the project should cost. The simple answers are often also the most likely ones. Especially if your client is a new company or is looking for your particular type of service for the first time, you might be looking at your reason already. That’s one of the most harmless scenarios and is easily solved.
2. A maximum budget has been set already
Reason number two – the client is prepared to pay up to, say, 5,000 USD for the project and not a cent more. They’re essentially probing you. If they get a quote over that price, they just move onto the next freelancer. If you suspect that is the case, it might be helpful sometimes to try to get that information out of them. But in the end, it will all depend on whether the budget fits your rates.
3. They’re afraid of being overcharged
Last but definitely not least, your clients might not want to go first with a quote, because they think that’ll end up costing them more. Basically, they think that you should start with naming a figure so that they can make that lower.
Strategies to determine the price while not underselling yourself
The one way you deal with clients that want a quote out of you right away is – don’t give them one. Explain that, before knowing some more details about the project itself, you cannot give them a price. That is fair and true and should be easy to understand for your clients.
Here’s how to get that information:
1. Have a prepared set of questions
If you go for this strategy and tell people you want some more information, you’ll have to be prepared for their next question: “OK, so what do you want to know?” The best way to deal with this is to have a list of questions. Think about what determines the scale of projects – depending on what you do, the answer will be different.
And if you’re feeling really confident in determining the prices with a list of questions, you can go one step further and design an actual pre-set document. Either link it in your website or send it to clients after the initial conversation – and voila, you’ve gathered the info you need without having to sweat about pulling a quote out of thin air.
2. Don’t attempt to abuse lack of knowledge
If your clients seem to be clueless about what your work entails and what it might cost, the single worst thing you can do is trying to abuse that lack of knowledge. And not only because it’s just a nasty thing to do. In the long term, it will end up costing you. Nowadays, there are a lot of freelancers, many of them offering their services through sites like freelancermap, on our freelancer directory. Doing a reliable price comparison is as easy as ever – and even if the client says yes at first, they’re never coming back.
3. Don’t be afraid to walk out if it doesn’t fit
We can’t say this often enough: don’t be afraid to say no. Some clients just won’t be able or willing to afford you. They will try to look for the cheapest possible freelancer, regardless of quality. In cases like that, you should stick to your rates. You cannot afford to work for a fraction of the money you usually get. Sometimes, the best thing to do is to put your foot on the ground and decline a project that is way below your rate.
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