You’re sitting there. You get an email. It’s a potential client (Yay!) you read through the email only get to the bottom and see they are missing a few zeros on their fixed price.

Insulted? Annoyed? Confused? Maybe some other unwanted feeling?

So what do you do when that happens?

• Entertain it because some money is better than no money?
• Write an essay educating them on how much work is involved?
• Try to understand how on earth they came up with this crazy low price??

My question to you:

Why so serious?

Let’s change the perspective from our own for a second and think why the rate is so low:

• Their budget is super low
• They’re  looking for someone in a country where the cost of living is low
• Just starting the budding off low and willing to negotiate

We can also look at it from a more negative standpoint:

• They’re  jerks and don’t understand how much work is involved
• Someone is just spamming horrible proposals to see who bites
• Looking to take advantage of a starving freelancer
• Etc…

My solution:

Always assume the positive perspective and respond accordingly. Here are some simple responses that could fix the problem:

• “Hey!  The budget is low, it would take about 90 hours of work to handle this project”
• “Hey, the average rate for my location is from $30-$40 /hour. Let me know if you’re still interested.”
• “I’m going to counter with $8,000. Let me know if you want me to go over the reasons why.”

If they aren’t serious, they will disappear. No harm no foul. If they’re a jerk and try to get their way regardless, ignore them, go on about life. They declined the counter? Find someone who won’t

90% of the time, people disappear and I think nothing of it. Every person who disappears is just making room for that person that comes along and is worth working with.

In summary: Understand your worth.