marketing, quotationsSo I often receive inquiries with very inadequate information. Sometimes I respond saying my hourly and I need more information. Lately I’ve been responding with my hourly, and an rough quote saying assuming x, y, z and that you mean a, b, c, I would charge $ for that and the timeline would be approximately ___. I’ve been putting this in the body of my emails.
Does anyone have any experience with that and can say whether that comes of as unprofessional or conversely as very ‘with it’? Also would it be better to attach that as a “real” quote with those caveats/assumptions specified in the full quote? Is there any reason not to send quote with clear limits based on insufficient information?
Personally speaking, I’d probably shy away from sending a quote with insufficient information like that. I think it definitely has some pros and cons, but I’d be a bit wary.
Obviously this is all assuming that there’s really not enough information. That should be deemed on a case-by-case basis, because I’m sure on some you’re pretty safe to draw conclusions and others you’re definitely not.
Benefits
On the plus side, there are some major advantages to being the first to give a quote. Chances are, your potential client is enthusiastically awaiting not only your response, but also those of whomever else they might concurrently have emailed for the request. Given that, if you can be the first back to them with a “I need more information, but here’s the order of magnitude we’re talking about” kind of quote, you’ll get to work off their excitement more than someone who says “sorry, I need more to go off of.”
Risks
By the same token, however, as you allude to, you’re risking the potential client questioning your authority. If you’re the only service-provider to come back with a number after they’ve emailed five, that could make it sound like you’re jumping the gun a bit. That could be taken either way, of course, since they might appreciate your enthusiasm, but I’d be careful with it.
You don’t want to come off as telling them what they want. You want to help them come to the best practices, of course, but you don’t want them feeling like you’re drawing conclusions and that you want to do something a certain way. If you email them saying “this is what I’m assuming you’re looking for, correct me if I’m wrong,” that could be perceived as you pressuring them into a way of doing things. Obviously you wouldn’t be trying to, but it’s a risk.
Speaking of risks, and this could be a big jump from reality, I can imagine some people responding with something along the lines of this:
Hi! I’d love to do the work for you, but unfortunately there isn’t really enough information for me to give you a solid quote at this time. Maybe we can meet in person and go over what you’re looking for? I could draw some conclusions from what you’ve told me and give a ballpark estimate, but I want to really make sure we’re on the same page before I throw any numbers out.
That doesn’t seem like too far a stretch to me–in fact, I can imagine saying it in some cases, just in the interest of engaging the person and answering their question (since presumably they asked “how much would this cost?”)–and if you then responded with some numbers, they might view that as a direct contradiction to a logical statement that they previously read. That’s getting a bit into the psychology of client gathering, but I think it’s a valid concern
TL;DR
As I said, I’d probably avoid that practice unless you have prior dealings with the client. If you have, then they know you and they’ll trust you enough for you to say “this is a really rough estimate and we need more details but this is the gist.” The chances are also lower, then, that they’d be looking for others simultaneously. I just think the risks probably outweigh the benefits.
There’s definite value in explaining why you aren’t giving a quote, and you shouldn’t just disregard their request for one and defer it to “I need more information.” Explaining that you could give one but are choosing not to gives some weight to everything you say and makes you seem more deliberate and less, well, lazy I suppose.
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