: How should a designer communicate price is negotiable to a client? While in the stages of a bid, quote, or proposal I was curious how should a designer communicate "price is negotiable" in

@Kevin459

One way to breakdown and prioritise parts of the service you deliver, as well as leave it clearly open to negotiation, is using a MoSCoW analysis.

Basically 'must haves', 'should haves', 'could have if there's time and space in the budget' and finally 'won't have this time but maybe in future'.

Just use the must for basic necessities, should for mostly things that they've asked for that aren't quite musts, and then use could and won't to show them all the things they could have if they compromise on the budget (negotiate ;).


Example

Website MoSCoW Recommendations

Must have - homepage, about us, service 1 page, service 2 etc., SEO, etc.

(Price Range)

Should have - Social network pages - Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Pinit etc., Microdata, LPO

(Price Range)

Could have - JavaScript only Automatic (client side) quote calculating page, Social network promotional campaign, Search engine promotional campaign etc.

(Price Range)

Won't have this time due to constraints - JS and PHP automatic (client to server) quote calculating page that emails quotes to owner and quoted person, etc.

(Price Range)


By presenting them with a prioritised list of the needs you have identified for them with prices or price ranges, it will place the ball firmly in their court to decide what they can afford to purchase from you this time.

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@Caterina889

I merely provide pricing and then add "If you have any questions or concerns, I'm always happy to to discuss them." If they take that to mean pricing, they can. It doesn't mean I'll alter pricing, but I want clients to feel free to bring up any topic related to the work.

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@Pierce403

Tell them that you do discounts for repeat service. Lets them know you are negotiable, but only if they look after you also.

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@Shelley591

Price is ALWAYS negotiable. But there's no advantage or reason that you need to remind anyone of that.

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@Alves566

You never communicate that price is negotiable. Sorry. Its bad sales and marketing strategy.

Rule #1 Never speak first.

If they like your work then they'll either pay the rate or start negotiations and see how flexible you are.

You can and should outline what the rate is for. In a bid you would say that this rate is for this exact work. That gives you more flexibility in the negotiations process to be able to either drop elements or upsell. You can also use payment options as a negotiation tactic. Say instead of Net 30 they pay on delivery for a slight reduction.

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@Samaraweera207

I think most clients will assume price is negotiable and try to lower it ;)

Something you can do is offer more than one option per project. This doesn't work in every case, but I've done it a few times and results were good. You make two or three proposals based on features, starting with the most basic one and going up to a super-complete-pack. You list the things each option has, and then (somehow!) state that features are more or less flexible, and that if they need to include things that are in a different "pack" you can adjust the pricing.

Offering discounts depending on other factors is also a possibility:


Urgency: If project can take longer, price is reduced
Quantity: If project is ongoing (more features, related products), price is reduced.


In any case, I'd say something relatively vague like "If you have any questions or would like to discuss this quote, feel free to contact me".

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