Web Designer Rates – Are You Asking the Right Questions?
Web Designer Rates – Are You Asking the Right Questions?
- November 21
- 2 mins
As a consumer you’re probably used to shopping via a price point type assessment model for most of your routine purchases. However, there are some purchases you make where cost is not the primary measurement tool. In those cases it’s more about value and quality, while the concern of price point moves down the priority list. We all have one or more stories in which we decided to purchase a ‘value/quality’ product based solely on price (hoping to save money) only to have it under perform and force a second purchase.
In business, ‘price shopping’ can lead you down unsubstantiated paths that induce more questions and less clarity. We are constantly fielding inquiries about web design services containing one line, and one line only:
“What are your rates?”
When you enter into a possible business transaction with this single question as the entirety of your inquiry, you have done the following:
1. You’ve immediately told this company that you’ve put little thought into investigating the purchase of these services.
2. You have inadvertently given the proprietor the power in the negotiations.
3. It also presupposes that you are a ‘one-off’ type of client (a company jumper).
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It’s important to understand how your questions could be interpreted and what it tells the service provider about your company as a potential client. The more informative and transparent you are with your needs, the higher the likelihood that the product you receive will be exactly what you intended to acquire.
In point of fact, most professional companies (web or otherwise) will not even bother responding to one-line inquiries. There is no question that pricing is important to any business transaction, however, investigation, consultation, and research must all happen prior to a quote being sought and issued.
See ya next time,
About the author
I'm nobody's taxi service but I take pride in driving the bus! Upbeat, energetic serial entrepreneur on the quest to serve and help people. I enjoy long walks on short beaches and adventurous, adrenaline-pumping activities. I'm a normal bloke doing abnormal bloke things!
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