The Questions to Ask Before Quoting

Why quotes go wrong at the beginning

Not in the arithmetic. In what was assumed.

A job priced without knowing the access, the condition of what is underneath, or who else has to approve it is a job priced on a version of the work that may not exist.

The cost of asking is a few minutes. The cost of not asking is absorbed later, either as unpaid time or as an awkward conversation about a variation.

Most experienced businesses already ask these things intuitively and inconsistently, which is why writing them down matters more than knowing them.

The questions that change the number

1. Access. How do you get to the work, what has to be moved, what floor, are there stairs, can a vehicle get close, is there parking.
2. Condition. What is underneath or behind, how old, has it been altered, has anybody worked on it before.
3. Scope boundaries. What happens at the edges of the work, and who does the making good.
4. Timing. When do they need it, is there a fixed date, and what drives it.
5. Occupancy. Will people be there, are there animals, children, or restricted hours.
6. Approvals. Are permits needed, is there a strata, landlord, or heritage consideration.

The second is where money is usually lost. Anything requiring work on an existing structure carries the risk of finding something, and a quote that assumed sound substrate is a quote based on optimism.

The questions about the customer

Less comfortable and equally important.

Who decides. A quote given to somebody who then has to persuade a partner, a business partner, or a committee has a different probability and a longer timeline.

What else are they considering. Not to compete on price, but to know whether they are comparing against a different scope entirely.

What is driving the timing. A sale, an event, an insurance claim, or a failure each imply different urgency and different flexibility.

Have they had this done before, and how did it go. A previous bad experience changes what reassurance is needed, and a previous good one sets a standard.

The budget question

The one people avoid, asked properly.

Asking what somebody's budget is directly is frequently resisted, because customers believe the number will simply become the price.

What works better is offering a range and watching the reaction. Jobs like this usually run between these figures, depending on the things we discussed. Does that sit where you expected.

That does three things: it establishes affordability without demanding a figure, it lets them withdraw gracefully, and it prevents you spending an afternoon on a quote for somebody who was expecting a third of it.

The information you actually need is not their exact budget. It is whether they are in the right range.

When a site visit is required

A decision worth making by rule rather than by feel.

Anything involving existing structure, anything where access is unknown, anything above a value threshold, and anything the customer has described in terms you cannot picture.

Quoting sight unseen on those is how a job becomes unprofitable, and the honest position is telling the customer that a firm figure requires a visit while giving them a range meanwhile.

Photographs are a reasonable middle ground for smaller work, and they should be requested specifically: the whole area, the detail in question, and the access route, since customers photograph the thing and not the way in.

Writing down what you were told

The step that makes the questions useful later.

The quote should record the answers as assumptions: quoted on the basis that access is via the rear lane, that the existing surface is sound, and that work occurs during ordinary hours.

That does the work of a scope without being adversarial, and when something turns out differently, the conversation is about a stated assumption rather than about whose memory is correct.

It also demonstrates that you asked, which customers read as competence.

The enquiry form version

Since some of this can be collected before anybody speaks.

A form asking for the property type, the rough scale, the timing, and a photograph does most of the qualification without a phone call.

The balance is length, since every field costs completions. Three or four well-chosen questions beat a form that asks everything and gets abandoned.

The remainder belongs in the conversation, which is where the answers are better anyway, and the assumptions recorded from it are what a scope is built on, as set out in writing a scope that prevents arguments.

Frequently asked questions

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