This has on numerous occasions prevented me to spend a lot of time creating proposals for clients who want £10k project and have £1k budget.

I should clarify that when I said “The first thing I do with potential new clients is state my minimum project price”, I was referring to clients who start by asking me “How much for a website?” — it’s not my opening gambit with clients who don’t mention price.

This helps to quickly weed out budget clients (you normally won’t hear back if the quoted minimum is more than they wanted to spend) and leaves me more time to qualify clients who will be a better fit for me.

I should also note that my minimum price isn’t actually that high. If a potential client thinks that it’s way too much, then I can be 99% certain that working with them isn’t going to be cost effective for me.

I have tried various methods to reduce the number of tire kickers, but it’s a difficult thing.

Peter’s comment had some great pointers. It try to follow this as well, but admittedly, I’m not very strict with it at times.

Matt’s suggestion on putting out a minimum price is great as well.

The problem I find with all of these techniques is it can sometimes scare away legitimate clients with reasonable budgets. When you are going to purchase something and are serious, price is not the most important thing on your mind. Quality and “is this right for me” is. Focusing on price immediately puts the attention on exactly that.
When selling services, you want to sell based on your unique expertise, experience, quality, etc. Playing the ball in the price court right away might put you in a price war. It diverts the clients attention from what they were concerned about in the beginning (quality, etc.) onto price (bad).

I find that it is best to delicately do your prospect qualifying by asking the sort of questions Peter mentioned: Do you have a budget? Do you have any specs or detailed descriptions for the project? When do you want to start, and when do you need it complete? Who else have you asked for a proposal from?

Sprinkling in these questions during a phone call where you also share some advice, reasons why you are the best and examples of your past successes will help put the client at ease. Get on THEIR team first. Smashing them with “How much cash do you have to spend on this?” could set off alarm bells even for legitimate prospects with the doh.

It’s the easiest way to get rid of cheapskate timewasters and you can instead focus on clients who will be a good fit for you — at least financially, if nothing else!

Dear Drew

Thank you once again for getting back to us, unfortunately the other quotes are still so much lower than your revised costing.

We were really impressed with your advice and obvious knowledge but I’m afraid on this occasion we are having to go with another option other than yourself..

Best wishes
__________________________

In summary:- Your estimate is justified as you’re obviously worth the money, but we’re cheapskates and will be satisfied with a lower quality of service.

Budget: if they do not have a budget or they do not want to tell you there budget, never ever quote them or give them information. Everyone has a budget!

Decision Time: Get a date when they will be making the decision, there is nothing worse than a procrastinator.

Competition: If they are getting other quotes (which is fine) find out who you are up against. If you are working against “Joe the Plumber” for a website design, then more than likely you will lose. If the client does not understand quality/features then they only understand price.

Personality: This is a tough one to follow early on in a web design business, but as you get more experienced and more money flowing you should always go by this. Your gut feeling, if something doesn’t sit well with you move on.

One big problem we all face is time. I think quoting should be like removing a bandaid. Get on the phone quickly, get a quote out quickly and get a decision quickly.

Peace Out