Hey, this is the Daily Overpass, my name is Eric and I make apps.
Now today, let's talk about why it is so important to know how to give a ballpark estimate.
Okay, so in the past few weeks our team has been streamlining our client acquisition process.
So actually bringing clients in for new projects, and trying to make it less bottleneck than
we had before.
Usually the bottleneck in everything in the company is me.
Its me saying "ooh I don't know, we need to decide on that" and then not making the decision.
So we're trying to streamline a lot of these kind of things.
So, whenever we take on a new client, it always starts with giving them a ballpark estimate,
and ideally we do that on the first conversation on the phone.
So if we have a give and take, so it takes a little bit longer with doing it via emails,
but on the phone call they'll call up, say I have this app that we need to do.
It needs to do this, this, this and this, I might ask a few questions, like if it needs
to be android or iPhone, is it an app or a game, and we kind of work through it and have
a 10-15 minute conversation, and I always try to end that off with a ballpark estimate
so that they know whether or not they can afford it, whether or not it's within their
budget.
I never ask the budget - it's just one of the things, I hate when people ask me my budget.
When I buy something, I think, "hey how much will this cost?"
expecting an answer and say "well that depends, what's your budget?".
So, we're trying to streamline that a bit more.
A lot of the times we work with other developers, so we'll hire on certain developers for certain
projects, so I'll go to them and say "hey, we got this project in, I spoke with the guy,
it all sounds really good, it needs to do this, this and this, how much do you think
that would cost you to do as a general ballpark estimate?" - so a lot of the time, it's met
with a lot of questions.
For experienced developers, they could tell me right away, they could say "ah I think
that will cost between, I don't know, 4,000 and 6,000, or 300 and 800, it depends on the
size of the projects and the scope, or the task.
So they can tell me.
Inexperienced developers will not tell me anything.
They will say, "hmm, I don't know, how much do you think it should cost?"
So, to give you an example, I get contacted on skype all the time by developers, skype
or through facebook messenger.
They say "hey Eric, I'm a developer, I could do this app for you, I could do a game, it
could be really cool.
It's gonna be 3D and everything like that."
And I think "sure, that sounds pretty good, it would be nice to have some new apps in
our portfolio that we didn't have to work so hard on, somebody else did it for us.
So then my question is "how much is it gonna cost?" and that's when everything stops.
They go "hmm, I dunno, how much is it worth to you, and how much do you think it should
cost?"
And I know the fear.
I know what that fear is.
The fear is that you'll quote too low and feel like an idiot, because you're working
too hard.
Or you'll quote too high and you'll lose the job.
So, this is why ballpark estimates need to be.
arranged.
So a proper ballpark estimate should be, based on what you've told me, and based on these
assumptions, it's gonna be iPhone and Android, it's gonna use fire base as a back-end, it's
gonna do whatever this kind of authentication, based on these assumptions, we think it will
cost between this amount and this amount, depending on the complexity.
If you wanna go further, we are gonna finish with a proper quote, a more detailed quote,
but for now, we think it gonna be between this range and this range, please let us know
if you want to go forwards.
Because it can take several hours to do a proper detailed quote with workflows and mock-ups
and all his kinda stuff, which is what we always try to do before we start on a project.
So the ballpark is key.
So, there's been a few cases in the past where we messed up, we didn't give a ballpark early.
There's been, once I got this call, this was back in the early days when I was so desperate
for a client.
I'd left my job, or I left my contract, and I was doing Overpass full-time on my own and
the money started to dry up, and I thought - we need to get some more clients in.
And I got a call in early December and I talked to the guy and he said, we normally deal with
another app developer, or we normally deal with another development company but I can't
get in touch with them today for some reason so I thought I'd google, and I found your
company, this is kind of what we're looking for.
I was like, hey yeah, fantastic, great.
So I listened to everything he said, i go, ok fantastic.
I said, you know what, I think what we need to do is have a meeting to discuss this further.
I didn't wanna give him a quote, i didn't wanna give him a ballpark estimate, I just
said, let's have a meeting.
Just give me a bunch of your time, I was just dragging it all out and he said yea sure,
drop me an email or whatever, and he hung up.
And I, all through December I kept emailing him.
phoning him, no response,.All through January I kept emailing and phoning, no response.
I'd become a nuisance.
I was like a lovesick teenager, like "hey, have you my -, did you check my last email,
did you see my last email, everything.
Finally, I sat down with my designer and we did a quote, like a full detailed quote.
We spend half a day on it.
More time than I should've done ad sent it off to him, and I got a call within a few
hours of sending that.
And it wasn't because the quote was so good, it was because it had a number on it.
He called back and he said "I thought it was gonna cost a lot more than that".
Which is always like a dagger to the heart when you give a quote and people say "I thought
it'd be more than that".
I had more room to wiggle there.
But it was because he thought it was gonna cost like 50 or 60 thousand, and it was like
5, it was like 5 or 6.
The ballpark range was really low.
Because he didn't know., it wasn't even worth him returning my calls because at the end
he just had this assumption that it was gonna cost more, not really worth calling.
And we have had situations where I've worked with developers and we had people call up
and we didn't give a ballpark estimate and we spent weeks just conversations back and
forth, and finally we hand over that price which gives them an indication of how much
it's gonna cost and it s like "that's way too much, I can't afford it".
So one of my rules is that I don't ask for the budget, I just hate doing that.
So we always give a ballpark and that's an important skill to have.
And you would be surprised at how difficult sometimes it is to get out of developers.
Anyway, let me know what you guys think.
Do you guys have this kind of problem?
My ideal situation is that if somebody calls up and they want an app, we give them a ballpark
early so if its way outside of their budget they know early on.
We don't treat them like a mark, like we can get the money out of them if we really try,
and we don't lead them along by making them sit in lots and lots of meetings and waste
all their time and our time.
anyway, let me know what you guys think.
Do you guys have this kind of problem?
Those of you who work with clients, do you have this kind of problem?
How do you deal with the client acquisition?
Do you do the ballpark estimate first and then the quote?
Do you just do the quote?
Is it a lot more informal than that?
Or is it a lot more formal than that?
I'd be really interested to know.
Anyway, that's it for today, i'll talk to you guys tomorrow.