rocknbil - 11:51 pm on Oct 3, 2005 (gmt 0)

This is probably not the best advice, but it certainly is experienced. This is one of the things that has frustrated me for years.

What I came to understand is that callers who ask for the ballpark are generally "fishing." Many of them just never come back. The ones that are serious keep asking. I've tried it all ways: undershoot, overshoot, refuse to quote, qualify the pricing with value, you name it. The bottom line is if they're fishing, they're fishing, and it doesn't matter to them if you're their catch or not. People pick up the phone and just start calling, and what's REALLY important is that you make the impression that you can do the job well.

Sometimes it gets worse if you actually GET the job. They sure seemed nice enough when you first talked, reasonable . . . but often begin to task-creep on you, expecting more than what was originally estimated for the same price. I hate being put in that position.

So in the long run, all the time you spend worrying about it is not really worth a lowball bid. Shoot high to compensate for the unknown items that **you** know are going to develop, concentrate on why they should work with you, not the cost, and if it comes in way under in the end, then they're really happy. Most of the time, I'm just happy to get it in at budget. :-)