putting together a proposal

[ThatsNotMyPerfume]

I just wanted to get some other opinions. I am putting together a price list for a potential client. I want to make it quite competitive as the business would really help us and a small profit soon adds up. My partner thinks we should start high so we have room to negotiate down. From my prices we would have to pretty much walk away if they didn't accept them. I think high prices would put me off if I was the customer. What are your tactics? Start high and come down or start low?

Depends on a number of factors.

1. How busy I am, if I've been quieter, with little in the pipeline, I'll go in low
2. What they are like as a client - are they going to demand a lot of my time?
3. What have they paid before?
4. Who else they use / are likely to use i.e. who else is likely to pitch for the work?

I also don't think a big discount is a good thing. I once questioned costs with a supplier (a different colleague at the same company I had used in the past came in about 1/3 more expensive than normal, I questioned it and he immediately reduced the fee by that amount. That to me looked like he was taking the piss).

I also think a small discount looks an enthusiastic and nice gesture. I wouldn't go in massively high if I wanted the work. Equally, it has to be enough to make a profit on.

HTH?

Good points and I would also add:

How much do you need the work? How much repeat business is there likely to be? Could you give them a volume discount rather than a low one off fee? Is there some way you could throw in something that they would perceive as a high value add-on but that would cost you little?

Sorry, that's probably complicating things rather.

thanks for the input. I don't want to give too much away but we are a newish business, we haven't dealt with them before but their previous supplier has gone into liquidation so I'm putting in a quote. My quote consists of staged volume discounts. I don't know who else is quoting and I don't know what package they had before. I would hope that we would get repeat business from them so a modest profit long term would still generate some nice income!