Across our agencies at Barrel Holdings, we talk about the importance of getting some sense of a prospect's budget before we put together a proposal.

Part of it is qualification – you want to know as early as possible whether or not the prospect can even afford our services. The other reason is so you get a sense of how they're initially valuing this project – it's likely they have some idea of what the project should cost in their minds, and this can influence our pricing strategy.

So, how do you find out?

We've generally seen that budgets shared in an initial email or lead form are not always the ultimate number they have in mind. It's a starting point and good practice to dig deeper.

One way is to ask directly. The ask, depending on the client, may come early in the convo (esp. if you want to qualify right away) or later in the convo if the company has characteristics (headcount, public rev figures, brand recognition, etc.) that lead you to believe they have the resources.

Some prospects have no problem responding to the question, which can be something like:
"Did you have a budget in mind for this project?"
"Are you trying to get this project done under a certain budget?"
"What are you thinking in terms of investment in this project?"

Some prospects will be less willing to answer directly. They may say something like:
"We don't really have a budget yet, we're just gathering information."
"We're not sharing our budget."
"How about you tell us what you charge for something like this?"

At this point, with no sense of budget or range, there's still an opportunity to get some kind of signal.

One method is to anchor with your highest project budget but leave room for some flexibility and see what they say:

"For this type of project, we have a few different approaches. For 'the works' where you get most or all of the options and the most resources, pricing would start around [HIGHEST $]. We do offer other approaches with tightened scopes that could be in the [MID $] range. And if you'd like to start with something much smaller, we can put together an option in the [SMALL $]. From our conversations, it sounds like the [PICK ONE] approach makes the most sense, but before we go further, does that align with the budget you have in mind?"

This assumes you've had enough of a convo to find out what the client is looking for and also have experience presenting different options and approaches to getting the project done. If you want additional flexibility, these numbers can be rough ranges as well e.g. "$250k+" "$50k-$100k", "Under $50k".

At this point, you should get some kind of signal from the prospect. They might agree with your range or they might ask to see detailed pricing for all options. Depending on their response you can dig deeper to put their budget in better context:

"Great, and just to help us understand the bigger picture, do you have a budget in mind for post-launch work such as support & maintenance or later phase add-ons?"

"How much flexibility do you have in the budget for this project?"

"Where is the budget for this project coming from? How does it compare to other projects you've done in the past?"

It goes without saying that it's important to read the room, get a feel for the people in the conversations, and ask what feels situationally appropriate. Don't treat it like a checklist, but use your best judgment and finesse it.