How a services provider should charge?

How a services practitioner should charge so that we don’t miss a lead

Hard question to answer? Yes, we do a lot of hard work on branding and telling the people that we so good. But after spending a lot on leads we lose them. In many cases, we cant convert the leads. In spite of the fact that we actually had the potential to do that task. We were ready to do it for a price the customer was ready to pay. but we quoted the wrong price. How a services practitioner should charge? There can be a variety of misquoting. Let us have a look at the possible scenarios: 

• Less price for a complex service
• High price for a simple service
• Summarised quotation
• Offering a price without an understanding of the requirement

How a services practitioner should charge so that we don’t end up in losses in actual execution

Another fatal outcome of misquoting the price is you may end up in loss. What is the factor I should look upon before deciding the prices? It is important to know. Let us have a brief list.

• It is a customized product or templet based.?
• Whether my staff is trained to perform it or I need my personal time?
• Do we have some ready-made components to ease it or we will have to start from scratch
• How much time I will have to devote to training and follow up if its a new task?
• What can be the opportunity cost for the time and effort we are going to spend on it?
• Does it have some research portion, which may take some unquantifiable time frame?
• If there is something not having a precedent yet, something entirely new? In this case, you may be in a huge risk.

How to calculate my cost and what margin I should add?

Now based on the points in two of the above topics. We will see how we can arrive at perfect pricing.

Estimate the number of hours from the admin staff.

Assess the number of hours from the technical staff.

Estimate your own time you may have to spend on the project.

If it is a project which needs special research. It is better to take up the assignment on an actual-time basis. Bill it hourly.

If it is your offseason and staff is not extremely occupied, you can add a discount. But take care that discount shall be attached with some conditions. You can ask for more advance. You may barter the discount for the positive feedback.

Your quotation shall always be in detail and include the various components of the project or assignment. It is beneficial in case of the dispute also. You can keep the payment for what you have actually completed.

We will be discussing more on it. I will also post some examples of nice templets. Stay tuned.