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Never Negotiate Your Freelance Rate

planscope.io

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Re: Never Negotiate Your Freelance Rate

#31

Post by bdunn »

logicallee wrote: post #29
bdunn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once lost a huge project simply because 1) I charged less than my competition ("there must be something wrong with them...") and 2) I didn't add a 20% annual maintenance fee my the proposal. Needless to say, I never made that mistake again. But yeah, I can't agree more. The amazing thing about raising rates (which I think patio11 and I talked about way back when here: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/10/10/kalzumeus-p…

Believe you, but how on Earth did you find this out? (For your anecdote, that those were the two specific reasons you lost the project.)

One of the guys who worked with me was an ex-employee of the university we were submitting the proposal to. It's always... fun when procurement divisions are involved. :-)

Re: Never Negotiate Your Freelance Rate

#32

Post by joshfraser »

joshfraser wrote: post #16
judk wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This practice turns off honest customers who just want good work at a good rate. Those customers will just not call you, or go to a competitor who has lower no-bullshit face pricing

Not always. It comes down to knowing your audience. I'm guessing you've never negotiated with a buyer from a fortune 500 company.

I had a buyer for a big corp tell me to increase my base price because the discount I offered wasn't big enough. As you might guess, her bonus was tied to the percentage discount she was able to get from her vendors.

Re: Never Negotiate Your Freelance Rate

#33

Post by zo1 »

bdunn wrote: post #6
noir_lord wrote: post #2

I like this. One thing not mentioned that I've found over the years is that sometimes asking for the higher rate from the start increases the clients perceived value of you. This was put succinctly by an old boss of mine "serious people charge serious money". He was full of these another that stuck with me is "Don't charge what you think you are worth, charge what they think you are worth", on one system I built I we…

I once lost a huge project simply because 1) I charged less than my competition ("there must be something wrong with them...") and 2) I didn't add a 20% annual maintenance fee my the proposal. Needless to say, I never made that mistake again. But yeah, I can't agree more. The amazing thing about raising rates (which I think patio11 and I talked about way back when here: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/10/10/kalzumeus-p…

I'm curious about this "20% annual maintenance fee" you mentioned. Care to elaborate a little more on it? Or is in the podcast you linked?

Re: Never Negotiate Your Freelance Rate

#34

Post by yuhong »

Noughmad wrote: post #17
judk wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This practice turns off honest customers who just want good work at a good rate. Those customers will just not call you, or go to a competitor who has lower no-bullshit face pricing

People are irrational beings, and so are customers. We will rather buy something that's on sale from 100 to 80 than the pretty much same item that's selling for the regular price of 70. Stores artificially raise prices and then offer discounts, why shouldn't freelancers?

What is funny is this is not the worst of it. I like to post these two links:

http://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/ifjld/launching_...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4349781

I remember a comment where michaelochurch called freelacing a "reputation economy":

http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/technology-we...

Re: Never Negotiate Your Freelance Rate

#35

Post by gedrap »

There is a good point in the post that no one seems to mention. Negotiate on the scope. Please, for your own good, do that.

It sucks so badly when you a finish a project for a nice amount of money, the client says 'oh I have this project... can you take a look? I just need a quick fix', and you believe that a quick fix is a quick fix but in reality, it's piece of crap that you are not sure how does it even work. Why it sucks? Because I feel bad to tell the client to go away after he spent $XXXX on me.

And I wish I knew about the retainer contracts when I started... Random hours for maintenance for old projects sometimes can kill you.

Re: Never Negotiate Your Freelance Rate

#36

Post by quizotic »

keithwarren wrote: post #11

15 years on my own and after having this discussion with clients nearly every single time we begin a relationship, I have learned to embrace rather than fear the situation. Often times this is a pattern, the person on the other end feels like they need to get a win in some form and the easiest and most obvious to them is always pricing. Find out why they are asking this question, find out what they really want - 8 ou…

Chacun a son gout... but I agree with OP. When I've been asked to discount, I recommend two or three other consultants. I sell hard for them, extolling their work, offering to make an introduction. Someday, a prospect will take me up, I'll lose some business, and win a favor with a colleague. But it hasn't happened yet.
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