What About a Weekly Budget Check-in?

We've been talking a lot lately about how creatives can do a better job dealing with the "money conversations" with clients. For my new book, I've been interviewing people on the client side to hear what they're looking for when it comes to talking money with creatives.

So last week, I interviewed Dana Manciagli, GM of a large division of Microsoft, who described to me her dream of how the money conversation would go with her ideal creative. She suggested creatives make it part of their process to talk money in every single conversation. Do a Budget Check in before hanging up. Just say, “By the way I want to let you know you’re on budget and there have been no changes since we talked last.” This shows a great deal of respect for the client and demonstrates your professionalism at the same time. (Plus it helps your client sleep.)

And if something has changed, that's the time to speak up right away and say, “That new section on the web site is out of scope so I’ll go get some new prices for you.” Then you formally re-quote, using the same language. “That extra section was out of scope and now we’re putting it in scope. Here’s the revised estimate.”

What do you think? Could you do this as a formal part of your process? Would it help?

Comments

[Matt Rhodes]

Hi Ilise,

Great advice. Just today I talked with a client about a proposal and was up front about the "money talk." My discovery: the client really appreciated it. I found out that she had recently dealt with another designer and was shocked when she received the invoice for their work because it included a lot of fees that had never been discussed up front. It turns out that they were all charges for additional work that was beyond the scope of the original project, but the designer failed to keep her up-to-date on where they stood with the budget. As a result, she felt burned and looked elsewhere for design services.

When we had the money talk, she expressed that it was actually a selling point to accept my proposal because I was up front about engaging the topic and told her exactly how I planned to keep her informed throughout the process about where the project was in terms of the scope and budget. As a result, I built trust with her; she viewed me not only as a good designer, but also a professional project manager who she could trust to keep her project on track and on budget.

Thanks for your helpful posts!

[Jann]

Great points. I've been really working on keeping the money talk part of the conversation. When things pop up I've said "this is beyond what we talked about so let me put together some numbers for you." Then we discuss whether the budget is the priority or the new feature/scope/whatever.

The biggest thing for me is taking "me" out of the equation. It's not so much about "my fee" as it is the cost of getting the work done. That's been hugely helpful in helping me get over my discomfort.

[Yula]

Good point. I am working like this.
But, there is also a problem when a customer compares me to another designer and see his "fixed" price. Just someone that payed all the extra for the "fixed" price will appreciate you telling everything in advanced, and will be a great partner to the project.

[Dani Nordin]

This is a huge lesson I learned this year. Going forward, being open and up front about where we are with the project budget is going to be a big priority.