How to deal with clients trying to lowball you

Freelancing can be tough at times. You just want to be doing web development or graphic design, and instead you’ll have to spend time negotiating with clients and selling.

Sometimes clients are trying to lowball you. I have seen this many times, and the harder they are trying to negotiate the worse kind of client they usually will be.

“I can not afford $10,000. Can we say $5,000 and you’ll have a deal today?”

I have a few recommendations for situations like the one above.

Don’t change your price

Unless you absolutely need the work for paying rent next week I usually don’t ever lower my quotes. If you lower your price the client will feel two things:

• You were trying to trick them with your first price; hence you can not be trusted.
• They must negotiate everything in the future.

Reduce scope

If the client absolutely does not have the budget to complete the project at your quoted price, you can change the pricing – but always remove something from the quote.

“Okay, it will be $5,000 - but then we’ll drop IE7 and mobile support from the scope”

Try to sell some long term value

Recurring income can be more worth than a single project. Maybe you give a small discount on the initial project fee, but instead sell the client a monthly hosting and updates package with good margins. Phone companies do this all the time. You’ll get a discount on a brand new iPhone if you sign up for their 24 month contract.

If you combine freelancing with building SaaS and you use the freelancing to get new customers into your SaaS app it can also be worth some discount on the initial project fee.