I am re-doing my "Request a Quote" page.

I'd like to brain storm what fields to include on the request form.

Apart from the obvious name and email contact, what details do you think I need to get to provide a meaningful quote?

e.g.

1. What kind of site do you need?:
a) eCommerce
b) CMS
c) Static content site

2. When is your deadline?

3. What is your budget?

4. Do you need post-launch marketing support?

5. Links to other sites that you like?



Meaningful advice apprectiated.

There are only a couple of questions needed for YOU to decide what they need.

What do you want a website for?
and
What do you expect it to do for you?




And to be honest, with your question set, unless you are targeting people who already have a website and know what it all about. you will get the wrong answers.

The answers to these;

1. What kind of site do you need?:
a) eCommerce
b) CMS
c) Static content site

will be:
What's the difference?

to this;

2. When is your deadline?

Yesterday!

3. What is your budget?

Oh I'm not sure, what can you do for £50

4. Do you need post-launch marketing support?

What does that mean?

5. Links to other sites that you like?

Why? do I need to do that?

It's a fair enough comment but with a properly designed form (using examples and prompts) I don't think it's an insurmountable problem.

You are always going to strike muppets. That comes with the territory I guess.

I don't know if this is of use but I generally quote on the number of pages required and then add some for social media or cart design.

To help keep the project within budget I always ask "are you willing to learn how to maintain the site content yourself?" as this can take up a whole bunch of my time each month.

Originally Posted by Harlequin

To help keep the project within budget I always ask "are you willing to learn how to maintain the site content yourself?" as this can take up a whole bunch of my time each month.

Are you talking about static HTML sites, or CMS sites built in WordPress etc.?

Deadline and mainly what they want is the most important. The amount of work in the time given should dictate how much you want as compensation.

This is what I think we are going with:


What do you need done?
- Create new website
- Modify a website (enter URL of existing site)
- Other (specify - SEO / Online Marketing / Localization / Content Creation)

Are you planning to sell goods and/or services directly from the website? ?
- Yes
- No

What is the deadline for this project?

What is the target language for this project?
(We do a lot of English/Japanese sites)

Which city/country are you located in?

What is the goal of this project?


I decided against asking for a budget up front.
Instead we'll put a link to an indicative pricing page.
There are a lot more things we need to know if the site
is intended for ecommerce but we can do that as a second
round of follow up questions - too many questions up front could be intimidating.

Anything important that you think is missing?

A basic sales lesson for the uninitiated (well we're at war with Murdoch, the more people we can convert to intelligence the more certainly we bury his glorified vomit)...

when you deal with a client, they DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO YOUR JOB
and so it is YOU who is going to have to answer the technical questions
and charge them for having to think about it

however, perhaps becoming really good at what you do before seeking
clients is something people should try and do, though everyone is in
a hurry to earn money before learning skills

but here is your lesson: when selling, you sell "benefits" not the features,
ie if you sell coca cola you say "look, you can dance and smile and
be beautiful like these dancing smiling paid models". they don't say
"look, here is a sugar drink with fizz in it in plastic bottles which
will give you 1000s of carbs for you to become hyperactive or fat
with".

Similarly selling to your clients means saying

"do you want a **** hot site with LOADS of pages and programming and video and music and all kinds of funky ****"

or

"do you want a slightly less expensive site: with just a few pages, not much programming, and just a little music and video"

or

"do you want a pretty bland site, with just a few pages, nothing else"

and then they'll get why option C is 50 dollars, option B is 500 dollars and option A is 5000 dollars

they do not know whether "cms" has any value. and if they asked ME I'd say "it's worth about 5 cents, do not buy".

and a lot of people DO ask me, before deciding to spend 1000s or 10s of 1000s on web development, so bear in mind what people like me tell them. they need to be served fairly. that has not been going on! incompetence has been the trademark of the web. when you tell most people what your business is they tell you "it's a scam, the internet" - because of the millions of dilettantes. it boils the blood a little, but you fondle a few banknotes and feel kind to humanity again