How much is it going to cost?

Potential client? Yes.

Client? NO!

Loyal

This illustrates a missed marketing opportunity. It wouldn't apply to a survey, but in the cartoon she could easily have said something like "For $xxx I can do up to 4 pages with these [features] ..., or for $yyy it could have [another feature] ..."

That would let the client decide if something in the ballpark could be agreed on.

Been there. Tried to explain that.

In some cases, a good comeback is to give them an example of something to which they can relate that demonstrates how results are based on inputs. Ask a farmer, how much money will you get this Fall from that field of corn. Ask a real estate salesman, how much money will you get from the sale of that house you listed yesterday, which is subject to sharing with Multilist partners. Ask similar questions relevant to your potential client's life experience. Point out how you must know all of the goals in order to help them achieve those as closely as possible. Point out that if you have to guess as to what all will be expected you will tend to guess on the high side to protect yourself. Does the potential client only want to hear the highest number? Provide representative examples of past jobs where what would appear to be identical requests required very different amounts of effort.

In PLSSia, we have the number of vital section corners question, combined with the access to said corners and the potential for easy or difficult efforts to find record monuments, if any. In one scenario, the effort required may exceed, say, $4000 to define a half-acre tract. In a different scenario, a half-acre tract may only require a, say, $400 effort. A factor of 10 is very possible. Should all be charged out at $2200 with the hope that there will be no more $4000 jobs than $400 jobs?

What I typically do is give an estimated range, based on previous work in area. So for lot retracement I say "the survey could be between $XXX and $XXX, depending on how much searching I have to do for other monuments in the area, and research. The serious ones will continue and give more details, and the ones who were on the fence on having a survey done will balk.

In some markets, I can see where having a flat rate may be the essential way to operate. Many times a simple range will work so long as it is not too wide. Most of our rural surveys, however, are too difficult to estimate based on a single contact. Too many potential clients will tell you the place is wide open, forgetting the 100 foot band of dense cover along all the boundary lines. 🙁