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Dotwebs

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What do you do when you are costing a job for a client who says:
so-and-so other company said they could do it for €xxx
?

Do you try to quote less than, the same as or igore the other figure and just quote what you normally would for the job?
 

link8r

New Member
I try not to quote without meeting them first and showing what we do and how it works. If the other company can do the same for less then fair play to them.
 

Dotwebs

New Member
What I meant was that this client said this to me when I was meeting them for the first time & before I quoted anything... like setting me a challenge.

I'm tempted to ignore it and just give my quote as if he's said nothing about the other company, because there may not even be another company - he may just have been trying to set the price close to what suited him.
 

babyboy808

Member
Sounds to me like they are trying to set the budget and just saying an other company can do it cheaper. Give a quote what you feel is right and stuff it if they can get it cheaper somewhere else. This also might be a warning sign of things to come if you take this client on (expecting lots of work/time from you for nothing else in return)
 

link8r

New Member
What I meant was that this client said this to me when I was meeting them for the first time & before I quoted anything... like setting me a challenge.

I'm tempted to ignore it and just give my quote as if he's said nothing about the other company, because there may not even be another company - he may just have been trying to set the price close to what suited him.

So he's setting you an expectation of what he expects to have to pay without even knowing what it is he definitely needs (-v- what you with your experience and background haven't yet told him).

Like this statement or not - there is a serious race to the bottom in Ireland for both Web Design and SEO.

There's going to be a lot of web designers who will setup their own company in 2009 because of a change in employment, a desire to have their own agency, because they feel they can/should. Many are "training on the job".

These may be doing so without a market demand for their services, so a natural and obvious place to start "differentiating" is on price. In any market, if your USP is price, then you've found a market where there is a demand for a service but not yours, at least that is a view that can be formed.

I'm just saying this because A) I see it happening and B) I'm not so sure if it's a good idea for them or for existing web designers. I think they'll tie up a lot of projects which will let people down/ruin reputations. I'm not against anyone opening up or saying they won't do a good job, I'm just saying it's happening and we need to understand this, look at it objectively etc.

For the most part, people expect a price from Company A can be compared to a price from company B for the * same * website.

So I expect we'll see a lot more. What you've got to do, is try to differentiate yourself in terms of making it clear you're trading history, reliability, support, capability, background knowledge, specialist knowledge in an industry or past working experience, SEO and SEO benefits and so forth.

There will be plenty of people looking for one pager sites or quick deals or custom templates. Given their budgets and contrasting pie-in-the-sky notions of suddenly being found in Google and waiting for the tidal wave of business that was out there just waiting for them to setup their one pager - leave them off. They not going to go anywhere and they'll have to start again with someone who can give them good advice.

That's my two cents in
 

ph3n0m

New Member
I have had people come back to me saying XYZ can do it for this amount, and I simply say to them...if you are happier with their price, then use them.

I quote my prices based around certain costs, etc - reducing that would diminish my return on the project - therefore if people want to go cheaper, they can, its called comparitive shopping.

And before people ask - yes nice projects have slipped through my fingers because of this attitude, but likewise these same people have come back to me, as they werent happy with the "other" company/person who gave them the cheaper quote.

In fact I actively encourage anyone who comes to me for a quote to do some comparissons - yes, it can be viewed as shooting myself in the foot - but at the same time, some people have budgets and need to keep their costs well under that
 
K

Kieran

Guest
I would smile at them and tell them what you can give them for their price. Walk away if they start juggling with you. On race to the bottom I agree there will be more and more people with their HTML books and hosting accounts coming onto the market in coming months and years as recession bites - good luck to them - but they need to do the right kind of job as it will poison the good web designer water hole (mines a Heineken hole but lets not split hairs).

When people say to me that they want to be found on page one of Google for the basic intro brochure style price I tell them that this is not realistic.

I think as linkr stated the important thing is forming a relationship with the customer either face to face or through e-mail. Then setting the expectation as to what the will be getting from the site for the money that they are going to pay and the time you are going to spend.

I think you could spend 3-4 weeks on a 2-3 page brochure web site with a customer getting it solid from an SEO level and content that satisfies them but to the uninitated they would not see a difference. I spent 2 hours last night writing a paragraph for a site I am working on to make it SEO strong. Most customers will not appreciate this type of time spent.

Which reminds me must go back to my own site and spend some time on it :) the hundred web words in the meta tags just don't seem to be working LOL....
 

raul

New Member
I know I'm new to all this and yes I'm on the way to go this way ( setting up my own small web design comp ). If I'm good at it or not time will tell but one thing I remember my dad told me ( ages ago ) is that is better to stay for nothing than to work for nothing...

First I consider web design and all things related as a passion and only after I look at it as a job ...so ( hope to God I'll stay like this ) if someone would say to me they can get the same thing done half price or whatever I'd say easily bye,bye to him/her.
 

Dotwebs

New Member
Thanks for all the replies. It might be time to start publishing rates - maybe not exact but guideline prices. I'm seriously considering it, I know many don't do it - what are your views?
 

raul

New Member
Thanks for all the replies. It might be time to start publishing rates - maybe not exact but guideline prices. I'm seriously considering it, I know many don't do it - what are your views?

Now that's something I'd be VERY interested to see...
 

Dotwebs

New Member
Now that's something I'd be VERY interested to see...

Maybe I won't so.. ha ha.

Seriously though - wouldn't it be better to be transparent about it? Especially if you're going to walk away from clients who say they can get it done cheaper elsewhere? I know it's not really possible to price this work but at least if you discuss minimum rates upfront it's a starting point to negotiating on your terms.
 

Pixelcraft

New Member
do you mean your hourly rate? no 2 website is the same really, so it would be very hard to publish semi-accurate figures. And if you give your hourly rate, you're expecting the customer to know how long this will all take, which in reality they won't.
 

Dotwebs

New Member
Not the hourly rate - just guideline figures for, say 10 page brochure site, basic cms - that kind of thing.
 
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