That way potential clients indicate they are serious about hiring you and serious about your (valuable time). If they aren't serious or cheap, they will go else where. If they are sitting on the fence you can tell them … "If you hire me, I will deduct the proposal fee from the total."

Anyways, if you are providing a proposal & estimate then they will (should) walk away with valuable recommendations contained in your proposal.

Cheers.

One, one price does not fit all. Nor does one level of service. High touch customers should pay high touch rates. That means, high levels of interaction with you come at a premium. It doesn't mean you charge for every little thing, including phone calls. It just means if a person wants something other than email (for instance), then it's a higher touch service you make available with the project. For instance, could you charge a rate that included up to 2 hours of phone interaction for one price – and charge another rate for a project that only required email interaction? Sure. Some would pay for the phone interaction.

Two, initial consults may restrict you from landing clients you'd enjoy – and those you'd find profitable. In addition to a restructured questionnaire why not consider a detailed FAQ based on all the questions you've faced in the past? FAQ's are a great way to help prospective clients gain a better understanding of your process. As one commenter said, not everybody understands how web design works (I know enough to be dangerous). Overcoming that trepidation and fear is your first job so you can land the clients you'd enjoy most. I'd suggest you not put a roadblock up right at the beginning, but use these tools, as one commenter said, to filter things and help prospects gain a better understanding.

Three, in addition you should consider doing a video presentation explaining how you work, how the process works and what the client can expect. Use screen capture with diagrams, or any other resources that can be put in video – to make people feel comfortable and at ease. If you direct all prospective customers to complete the questionnaire, then provide them with a written FAQ and a video message where you explain YOUR WORK FLOW – then you establish the expectation for the client right from the start. And these tools all scale. You don't have to create them individually for every prospect. Just put the video up on your site and direct folks to it. Think of it as a pre-sale presentation you make to every prospect.

Lastly, why not consider offering high touch interaction rates in addition to design work? Clearly, you've got to interact with the customer so you can give them what they want. Some customers know precisely what they want (I suspect) and others don't have much of a clue. Additionally, some may be able to articulate clearly what they want while others labor to string together coherent words. I know people who charge one rate for email "support" with a 24-hour turnaround time, and a lower amount for email support with a 48-hour turnaround (just to give you an idea). The two components to consider for pricing are: a) speed (the faster somebody needs something the more expensive it is – the faster you respond to support or interaction demands, the more expensive) and b) interaction (the higher the touch, the more it'll cost).

Sorry for the long post. I've enjoyed your work for years.

Randy

I could see a prospective client balking at being charged for a consultation on their cold call. Try changing the circumstances by making a future appointment (equiv. office visit) and stating your consultation rate. Limit cold calls to five minutes. It's a more subtle way to show your time's value.

Lowering your consultation rate and applying it to contracts might work too, especially as a weed out.

Really enjoy keeping up with your blog, thanks for being such a great resource.

I can relate, as I'm also torn on this issue at times. But I feel like the best I can do is put myself in the clients shoes. If I was thinking about giving business to this company, "what would I expect?"

I know if I'm willing to make the call, I've already done some due diligence. Because of this, the initial conversation is a determining factor in our future relationship. I don't think I should be charged for willingness to engage a potential recipient of my business, and thus base my practices around this.

I've found you can creatively limit that initial contact, only returning non-client calls on certain days and/or certain hours, and budgeting this time into my overhead.

Having said all that, successful companies know their audience, and build their practices around that knowledge.

Which, it would appear, you don't have any trouble with!

anyway, here's what i've had to do (got this tip from copywriter, bob bly) … i tell clients this …

the first 44-minute consultation is free … after that, i don't do meetings or phone conferences. period. i correspond by e-mail only. period.

unless, of course, you want to pay me hourly for an in-person meeting, to include my travel time. i bill at $85/hour … we can talk as long as you want … :O).

it works. it's amazing how much i get done with just e-mail … i haven't had a client ask me for a meeting (in-person or over the phone) yet.

has this caused me to lose any clients? … none yet.

About calls and everything else that is related to clients it's some what of an issue for me as well.

Adding a couple of hours to a project I think is best and thats what I do unfortunately it only covers some of the cost. You can't charge a client for each call or update I basically do 2 to 4 hours for project management and if they need an overview on how to use a CMS or anything in that nature I charge for that as a meeting.

Another thing that helps is I spit up all my cost into percent per project and add that to my total fee this way I know that my rate is correct the client never sees it for example I take my total cost for software that I work with Adobe suit 1K take 10% of that $10 and and add that on after ten projects I cover that cost I don't do this for everything but it works pretty well.