How Much For a Website Like That?

Being a website designer, this is one of the more familiar phrases heard from potential customers. The culture here in Malaysia practices price before value. Even for a rich, high society member sometimes question the high price of a product in regards of its value.

The number of designers or developers asked that same question doesn’t get tiresome by the customer. Reason is that he’s judging the best bargain and perceived value he thinks the website reference is worth. Not the value and results he is aiming.

It’s really alright for customers to provide material references but I think it’s wrong to phrase or use the question, “How much for a website like that?”.

One of the reasons I strongly believe is that you can’t price the website reference made by another team. That website might actually be worth more than what you could be quoting. In addition, do you think it’s professional to contact the company and ask, “How much did you get your website done for?”. Ridiculous, isn’t it?

If a customer can ask you a question of price comparison with their website reference, they’re asking similarly to the price of a compared retail product but different brand. For example; asking the sales assistant “how much for a shampoo like Brand X?”

It’s contradicting the entire business of the product line. It’s like assuming Brand X is the same with Brand Y and Brand Z. Well, maybe that’s why marketing is used heavily but the point is though they might be all shampoo, their market position and price strategy is different.

So by asking “How much for a website like that?”

You’re assuming the whole package of website consultation, website design, website development and etc is a fixed value. What I’m doing in this entry is saving you (customers) from making yourself sound silly.

Don’t ask such a question because you will not get accurate perceived value especially the price your website project might cost. Instead, use questions like:

• What is the cost for a system like that?
• How much to create a Flash animation like that?
• Roughly how much will it cost to design and develop a website of that size?

I’d suggest using questions that are more defined instead of a general one. By questioning the website objects you’re interested in allows you to gauge the total cost against your budget and doesn’t make you sound silly.

These kind of questions will also enable designers and developers to give you a more accurate quotation quicker. When asked the general question of how much a website like that costs?, designers and developers are forced to give you a higher figure to make up for mistakes of quoting too low.

So other than saving yourself from sounding silly, you will actually be able to get a more accurate quotation with more defined questions.

Do you know other questions used that sound silly?

[tags]website design, website development, cost, customers, business, marketing[/tags]

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