4 ms·

What do you guys get out of your smart-ass answers to potential clients? You do know that they come to you because they know that you are the professionals. Ma

by reason 15y ago

What do you guys get out of your smart-ass answers to potential clients? You do know that they come to you because they know that you are the professionals. Many of them are completely clueless as to how pricing works for dev/design-work. Asking "how much do you charge?" is a perfectly reasonable question for someone understandably uninformed to ask. You may be skilled at your trade, but from the sounds of it, many of you are absolutely horrible at dealing with customers who need a bit of guidance and direction with respects to the work they want to get done. Imagine a curious older relative asking a physicist what light is and receiving "Well, it's sort of like one thing, but it's really not" as a response.

jtheory 15y ago
It's useful to try to put yourself in the place of the customer. They're trying to negotiate the purchase of something they don't understand, that apparently can be accomplished by 14-year-olds, and that somehow costs $8K -- what!? That's close to what I paid for my car, a complex piece of machinery with computers inside it and thousands of engineered parts that actually move! Do you see how this feels? They're pretty reasonably scared of being ripped off. After all, if you went off for 2 weeks and on the last day just copied some other site's design and changed the names... how would they know?
jemka 15y ago
>You may be skilled at your trade, but from the sounds of it, many of you are absolutely horrible at dealing with customers I don't think a lot of freelancers realize the importance of sales/marketing/customer service. They are more than just easy classes in college and they benefit more than the greasy used car salesman down the street. Quite often it's the difference between you and the competitor to whom you lost the job.
- oscarleung 15y ago
  Oh of course, in the end it's all about 'who you want to work with' and who's 'easy to talk to.' That's why so many extremely skilled engineers go unheard of.
  - ajaycancherla 15y ago
    Yup:)
wetbrain 15y ago
I think part of it is the cynicism that develops from bad clients. Some people don't understand that the designer is a professional. Designers just draw all day, and love what they do, so why would I pay big bucks for a website? After all, my nephew does computers and I can have him make a website for cheap. There's also the "Of course we want you to have creative control. We just want to be able to tell you how it looks, what colors to use, and what the tone is." So, I'm not surprised with the responses here. It's the same one I'd have if someone tells me they want to make the next Facebook, only better. Compensation? I'll give a share when it gets big. Details? No, it's a secret...
- nobleach 15y ago
  I came here to say basically the EXACT same thing... even including the "my nephew can make websites" remark. My method is to try to figure that out VERY early in my discussions with a potential client, and then quote them a "scare off price" whereby they'll likely say no, but IF they say yes, the extra money will make it worthwhile as I KNOW they'll be asking for tons of changes. (Can't you just open Dreamweaver and change the colors and pictures???) I'm not advocating being difficult. I simply think if we'd size up our client BEFORE deciding "we need the money", there'd be a LOT less horror stories.
  - mattm 15y ago
    The best advice I have received about pricing: Price your service so that you would not regret it either way. Before giving a price I usually think of how I will feel if I don't get the job and how I will feel if I get it. If I would be comfortable with both situations, then I know it is the right price regardless of what happens. In line with this, I have given higher rates to "difficult" people I have worked with before that have asked me to do work for them again. I didn't get those jobs (usually I don't even get a response) but I was happy about it. If the work and person seems interesting, I may quote a lower rate.
  - wetbrain 15y ago
    Yeah, I hate "my nephew can make websites". I don't doubt that a high school student could put together a full website, with a store front or whatever else. But I'd be willing to bet it's not the most secure. I'm sure there's something like this, but there should be a kind of Angie's list for clients to blacklist the delinquent ones. If not I'm making one. EDIT: There's always the better business bureau, but it's not as complete.
schraeds 15y ago
It's hard to imagine for most, but I think what is being displayed here is that experienced freelancers learn early on that not every project is a good fit. There are a lot of jokers out there, there are a lot of people who aren't ready to turn their ideas into a reality. To be successful as a freelancer, you have to sift through the sea of prospects to find the situations that are going to be mutually beneficial.
defen 15y ago
> Imagine a curious older relative asking a physicist what light is and receiving "Well, it's sort of like one thing, but it's really not" as a response. Hopefully he didn't ask Feynman! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM

by reason 15y ago

jtheory 15y ago

It's useful to try to put yourself in the place of the customer. They're trying to negotiate the purchase of something they don't understand, that apparently can be accomplished by 14-year-olds, and that somehow costs $8K -- what!? That's close to what I paid for my car, a complex piece of machinery with computers inside it and thousands of engineered parts that actually move! Do you see how this feels? They're pretty reasonably scared of being ripped off. After all, if you went off for 2 weeks and on the last day just copied some other site's design and changed the names... how would they know?

jemka 15y ago

>You may be skilled at your trade, but from the sounds of it, many of you are absolutely horrible at dealing with customers I don't think a lot of freelancers realize the importance of sales/marketing/customer service. They are more than just easy classes in college and they benefit more than the greasy used car salesman down the street. Quite often it's the difference between you and the competitor to whom you lost the job.

oscarleung 15y ago
Oh of course, in the end it's all about 'who you want to work with' and who's 'easy to talk to.' That's why so many extremely skilled engineers go unheard of.
- ajaycancherla 15y ago
  Yup:)

wetbrain 15y ago

I think part of it is the cynicism that develops from bad clients. Some people don't understand that the designer is a professional. Designers just draw all day, and love what they do, so why would I pay big bucks for a website? After all, my nephew does computers and I can have him make a website for cheap. There's also the "Of course we want you to have creative control. We just want to be able to tell you how it looks, what colors to use, and what the tone is." So, I'm not surprised with the responses here. It's the same one I'd have if someone tells me they want to make the next Facebook, only better. Compensation? I'll give a share when it gets big. Details? No, it's a secret...

nobleach 15y ago
I came here to say basically the EXACT same thing... even including the "my nephew can make websites" remark. My method is to try to figure that out VERY early in my discussions with a potential client, and then quote them a "scare off price" whereby they'll likely say no, but IF they say yes, the extra money will make it worthwhile as I KNOW they'll be asking for tons of changes. (Can't you just open Dreamweaver and change the colors and pictures???) I'm not advocating being difficult. I simply think if we'd size up our client BEFORE deciding "we need the money", there'd be a LOT less horror stories.
- mattm 15y ago
  The best advice I have received about pricing: Price your service so that you would not regret it either way. Before giving a price I usually think of how I will feel if I don't get the job and how I will feel if I get it. If I would be comfortable with both situations, then I know it is the right price regardless of what happens. In line with this, I have given higher rates to "difficult" people I have worked with before that have asked me to do work for them again. I didn't get those jobs (usually I don't even get a response) but I was happy about it. If the work and person seems interesting, I may quote a lower rate.
- wetbrain 15y ago
  Yeah, I hate "my nephew can make websites". I don't doubt that a high school student could put together a full website, with a store front or whatever else. But I'd be willing to bet it's not the most secure. I'm sure there's something like this, but there should be a kind of Angie's list for clients to blacklist the delinquent ones. If not I'm making one. EDIT: There's always the better business bureau, but it's not as complete.

schraeds 15y ago

It's hard to imagine for most, but I think what is being displayed here is that experienced freelancers learn early on that not every project is a good fit. There are a lot of jokers out there, there are a lot of people who aren't ready to turn their ideas into a reality. To be successful as a freelancer, you have to sift through the sea of prospects to find the situations that are going to be mutually beneficial.

defen 15y ago

> Imagine a curious older relative asking a physicist what light is and receiving "Well, it's sort of like one thing, but it's really not" as a response. Hopefully he didn't ask Feynman! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM