“But I can’t accept your pricing as-is. You have to reduce a little at least. Just for the sake of negotiation.”
It’s client’s like these that make me want to commit homicide at least once a week.
I can’t inflate my pricing just for idiots like these because that would be unfair to my other clients and if I don’t inflate, I am forced to reduce a little just for the sake of this idiocy.
Most of these requests are made by people who are not in charge of the payments – and are not the final decision makers. The manager who has been asked by the COO to find a designer or a bride whose Dad is footing the bill for her wedding.
Here’s what I got this week (from one of the client’s principals): “We like your proposal and want to work with you, but your rate is killing you.”
Uh, dude, it’s not killing me. I’m doing just fine. And it’s not killing YOU, because if we do this, The World’s Smallest Project, you’ll save $1000s/month in operating costs.
Long story short – I fired them before the project started.