Poll: Do Your Client's Reveal Their Budget?
Friday October 16, 2009
Finding out your client's budget can make quoting jobs much easier. It can also help to determine what services you can provide to your client. Whether or not you can work with a client isn't always a simple "yes" or "no" based on the budget. If you know what the client can spend, you can often change the scope of work, printing costs, and other variables and land a job that you otherwise might have lost due to a high quote.
It has been my experience that the client wants you to tell them what the cost is going to be before they provide you with a budget.
this is my first visit on this site..
wow! real a cool site ..
I ask. Even though it’s never an easy thing to do, it saves both sides a lot of grief if we both know going into it what the budget is and what can realistically be delivered.
I think graphic designers should make it their business to find out the budget. A client’s budget represents how much thier project means them and knowing the dollar (or pound) amount will mean that you either:
A. Give it the attention it deserves or
B. Don’t run over time on details that the clients don’t value, but bill them for at the end.
My “explanatory” story for the budget phenomenon is asking the client, “Do you have a budget?”
They usually answer, “No.”
When I give them a quote, the tell me it is too much.
Aha, so they DO have a budget! They’re just not sharing it. Or, they will come up with one. They will know it when they see it.