August 11, 2016

How to respond to “Can you give me a ballpark?”

Early in the sales process, it’s quite common for a prospective client to ask:

“Can you give me a ballpark on what this might cost?”

To which I reply (with a big smile on my face):

“Between five thousand and five hundred thousand.”

This usually gets a laugh, which is what I’m going for.

(I deliver this line with a smile on my face, even if I’m on the phone... people can hear you smiling.)

You should adjust the numbers up or down into a realistic range for your services, but the high number has to be WAAAAAY higher than the lower one (e.g., 50-100x).

Once the chuckling is over, I say:

“I need to crunch some numbers. Can you give me a few days to put a proposal together?”

They’ll say, “Yes.”

And then I say:

“Thanks. I see a few ways to tackle this project. In my proposal, I’ll provide a range of options for you to choose from. I can have it to you on Monday. Will that work?”

Again, they’ll say, “Yes.”

And... that’s all there is to handling the ballpark question.

Yours,

—J

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