There can be some sticky questions that come up when dealing with a new potential client, or when answering questions from a prospect.

Think about the things you need to know in order to close the deal and start a project:

• What is the client’s timeline?

• Does that fit into your timeline?

• What is the client’s budget?

• Does that match your expectations for the work you do?

• What are the client’s expectations around quality, or deliverables, or revisions?

The list can go on, and will be as varied as there are freelancers and clients in the world.

Sometimes we can get nervous about asking these questions. Maybe it just feels socially impolite to ask about budget, or if the person on the phone with you or sitting in front of you really has the ability to say yes to hiring a freelancer.

I would argue that, in addition to that, we are worried that if we ask some of these difficult questions that the potential client will a) give us an answer we don’t want (i.e. “That’s not in our budget”) or b) they will take the deal off of the table, as they don’t want to meet our expectations/requirements.

But we need to look past that fear, to cut through it with the clarifying blade of logic: if either one of those things was going to happen, then they were going to say “no” at some point in the process, weren’t they?

For instance, someone contacted me through a YouTube tutorial I posted on doing some voiceover effects. They wanted me to do a voice for their GPS, and wanted to know if I was for hire and what my rates were.

For voiceover, there are some elements that go into pricing services. How the sound will be used is the most important in terms of how much I will charge. How much needs to be recorded, and how long will it take me? How difficult is it?

I needed to ask these questions before just throwing a number out there. Could this potentially have scared this potential client away? Sure. I needed to be “gentle” when ask the questions.

What would have happened if the person ghosted me, or balked at answering any of the questions? I wouldn’t have gotten the work. But that tells me that they weren’t a serious prospect anyway.

I got the info, and gave them a rate.

Now, again, this could have been another point of egress for the prospect. What if the rate I gave was too high? Should I go lower?

Guess what? The rate I gave? That’s how much I cost. And the rate you give (as long as you are in line with your skill level and industry standard ranges…be honest with yourself) is how much you cost. If someone isn’t willing to pay your rate, then they aren’t a real prospect.

An example: if a restaurant charges $30 for a steak, then that’s their price, based on whatever criteria (location, atmosphere, cut of meat, quality of meat, experience of the kitchen staff, etc) they put towards it. If someone comes in and says they only want to pay $15 for the steak, the restaurant doesn’t drop the price so that they keep that one customer.

I mean, if they did balk at answering questions, or at my price, and I immediately started compromising my standards, I open myself up for a) getting ripped off (they use my audio for a much larger project/audience than I thought, leaving potentially thousands of dollars on the table) or b) doing a lot more work for less money and more aggravation.

So don’t worry about someone saying no, and don’t worry about asking questions that may get you to a no. Every no gets you closer to a yes.