Do you charge for the first conversation you have with a prospective client?

Question

Do you charge for the first conversation (consultation) you have with a client?

I feel that every time I talk to prospective clients I give them valuable information that will help them even if they don't ask me to program their website for them.

Answer 1

Consider it a marketing cost.

Answer 2

Ideally the first conversation you have should a). establish you're both on the same page, and b). lay down the ground rules for staying there. So no.

Answer 3

Don't charge the first meeting. The idea of the first meeting is to wow them. The two that I had done at my last company had left the prospective clients drooling. No charge to them. Charging them would give them the impression that you are desperate for the cash, which would make them question your motives.

Answer 4

Don't be too concerned about giving away valuable information in a first meeting, one of the aims of a first meet is to start to build trust and confidence, and unfortunately that does mean sometimes giving away some valuable information. You almost certainly will get the reward for that over time.

Answer 5

Every time a client talks to you as a new developer, he's giving you his valuable time without knowing whether you're any good, or whether he's wasting his time when he could be interviewing another candidate or coding himself. An interview is certainly an investment of time and trust on both sides - I've interviewed people who had no clue what they were doing, and I've been to interviews with companies who had no clue what they wanted.

Witholding information because you think that it's too valuable is not only vain - face it, most likely you're not so brilliant that your insights in an hour-long conversation are going to change the fate of their company - but also hurts you because if a developer I'm interviewing avoids every question I ask to figure out how he thinks or what his skills are, or how he would solve a given problem, I'm just going to think that he has no clue what he's talking about.

Answer 6

Usually not, but I let them pick up lunch if they offer.

Answer 7

It always helps to give some little tidbit of information away during your first meeting, but stick to a defined timeframe, and hour is usually just the right amount of time, and beware of brain pickers ... those prospects who are looking for a free solution.

Answer 8

Unless the first meeting is genuinely a piece of consultancy work (which is rare for a new client), don't charge for it. You're pitching to the client. Your job is to persuade them that you have the knowledge, skills and approach they're looking for.

Don't over-value the information you feel you're giving away. In reality, your potential client is likely to get the same information from your competitors. If you're not providing at least the same level of up-front information and insight, you'll find it hard to win the business.

In fact, I would suggest going in the opposite direction and being as generous as you can with your knowledge. You want your clients to think that you know what you're talking about, that you're helpful and forthcoming, that you'll be easy to work with, and that you're committed to them and their project.

You sound like you're selling development services, so any initial advice you give them is unlikely to seriously cut into your fee-paying work. And any small amount of potential fee-paying work you lose as part of the initial conversation(s) is likely to be more than repaid in terms of increasing your chances of securing the actual development project.

Answer 9

Usually, when it's a new client, you don't charge until you have an agreement. You probably will not want to charge to much for specing and discovery at this time either. But once you have proven yourself, you should charge for almost everything, within reason. Most of the time, you will eat hours in order to keep a relationship.

Answer 10

I consider it a cost of doing business, up until I actually submit a quote or bid. From then on it's billable time. Unless I actually solve a specific problem for them, at which point I'd usually expect some recompense.

Like I imagine most of us do, though, for long-standing clients I also do some small bits of billable work off the clock, so to speak.