041: Questions to Ask Before Getting a Quote From Your Developer

We’ve talked a lot about working with a developer in past episodes, but there’s still so much to prepare for and know before your first collaboration to avoid disasters.

A big challenge that comes with partnering with a developer is knowing what to quote your client and keeping that quote constant throughout the project. We never want to have to go back to a client part way through a project and tell them it’s going to cost more.

To avoid that, today we’ll go over 6 questions that you can ask your clients before getting a quote from your developer.

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1. What websites do they look at for inspiration

This first one is nice and simple, but you might not think that your developer needs to know about something design related. But in reality, seeing sites your client is looking at for inspiration is helpful for your developer because it gives them a good look at the complexity of the design and any special features that your client might not think to mention.

A minimal website can be done much more quickly than what the more modern designs tend to look like. So letting your developer get an idea of what’s coming will help your developer give their quote an accurate starting point.

2. What pages will they need

Next, ask your client for a list of pages they want on your website. To help them out, list out some of the common pages you’ve seen in your past projects to make sure none are forgotten.

Encourage your clients to take time to think about it so they don’t miss anything and want to add it later. That way, you’ll be able to think your design through and tell your developer how many page templates will be needed.

3. What special features do they want?

Here is where you’ll get into things that will require premium plugins, custom work, and more time for setup or testing. Special features play a huge part in the final quote your developer will give.

Some common examples of special features include things like eCommerce, membership capabilities, galleries, or non-standard items appearing in certain areas of the website.

4. Do they need their email marketing setup and integrated?

Depending on the developer you work with, some integrations will likely be included in the project. But things like setting up a platform or creating custom popups and landing pages are not.

Those types of things take extra time and will be quoted separately. Because of that, it’s better to ask about it up front than find out part-way through the project that they expected LeadPages to be set up and integrated for them.

5. Do they need a domain or content transferred?

Something that a lot of clients assume is included in a website project is the transfer of their domain or content. For example, moving from Blogger to WordPress.

While these are fairly standard tasks, it’s something that a developer will have to allow extra time for. To keep this from being something that pops up when your developer is ready to launch the site, ask about it upfront.

6. An open-ended question

Last, ask your clients an open-ended question about anything else they’re looking for in their website.

Asking an unguided question like this will help open their mind up and get them thinking about things they may have missed in the more specific questions.

From there, be ready to dig in and ask more if something they casually mention sounds like a possible addition to the project.

Action Steps

1. Add the questions we talked about today to your intake form so you have them ready for your developer

Resources

• Get Back To Design
• From Mockup To Code

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