I find it incredibly important to set expectations early. Like you, I make my services & rates available on my website, often send them to prospects when we first start talking. That way they don’t have much excuse to hum and har when I ask them for their budget.

Still, a lot do hedge. However, although Mike describes this as “waiting for me to blink”, I don’t think that’s usually what’s going on. In fact, I think prospects are generally much less “aggressive” that way than freelancers give them credit for. When they hedge, it’s because they actually see you as the expert and are, in a funny kind of way, “looking up to you”. And if they haven’t worked with someone like you before, then they genuinely aren’t sure what a reasonable budget is. Even though they almost certainly have a solid idea of what they can conceivably spend, they don’t want to actually say it for fear of seeming foolish.

Ironically, freelancers are often so unconfident themselves that they don’t see the prospect is looking to them for direction. They think he’s just trying to be cagey. I’ve found that simply playing the part of the expert that I am, and confidently stating a price, is highly effective. If the figure is about what they were expecting, they’ll happily accept. If it’s a bit higher, they’ll probably come back saying it’s more than they expected; in which case you can negotiate: either adding value that won’t cost you anything (maybe by throwing in a free report or similar), or removing value that will cost you (reducing the project’s scope). And if it’s way higher than they can pay, they’ll probably say so, and you know the project isn’t for you.

Anyhoo, I’m looking forward to your further insights on this topic, as it’s an area I can certainly improve myself!

Kind regards,
Bnonn

And that’s all he would say…

A few months back I listed my minimum project fee on all my services pages, which seemed to help. At least I don’t get as many calls for $3 article writing anymore.

Thanks for a great post!
-Sara

The “What’s your budget?” dance has driven me crazy as the most frequent answer I get is, “Well, we’re not quite sure yet. We’re just exploring right now to understand what things cost.” That may be true, but my feeling is often it’s not… they do have a sense of what they will pay, but they want me to blink first.

One thing you can do at that point is ask them what they’ve paid for past marketing projects, even if they’re not exactly the same as what they’re hiring you for.

If they hem and haw on that, then it could be a red flag for you.

These days, I ask prospects for the life-time value of a good customer. They’re more willing to discuss that than a budget.

When I know that number, I’m in a better position to know whether what they want me to do makes financial sense or whether I might suggest they consider something else.

This is a really basic example, but let’s say the life-time value of a client for a consultant is $12,000 a year for 4 years. Your services are going to cost $5,000. How many clients need to be signed up from the marketing project to cover the $5,000? Just one, right?

Again, that’s a really simple example. But what it does is to frame your price in the big picture and not just a $5,000 cost that is viewed as a separate entity.

I do think many freelancers take the position of “follower” in discussions like this instead of “leader.” I know I’ve been guilty of that in the past.

You timidly give a price and cross your fingers that it will be OK rather than educating the prospect, and helping them see the big picture and how your price fits into it.