Clients should stop being coy with their budgets and put their cash on the table.
Here’s why:
Compare like with like
If you ask two or three different service providers to quote for a piece of work, they will all provide a quote that involves different levels of service, different features and different elements. The three quotes may vary wildly in cost, mainly because the three quotes include different amounts of value. The lowest quote probably offers the least features, while the highest quote includes more stuff – more benefits, more features.
If you want comparable quotes, be honest about your budget.
Get a quote that you can accept
Hiding your budget is not a clever tactic and provides no benefit. Reveal your budget and receive quotes you can work with. Why hide your budget if it means you receive unrealistic and unworkable proposals?
Procuring services is not like playing poker, so show them what you got.
This post was inspired by Alex Cowell’s piece on budgets at the Cubeworks blog.
