Q: I was wondering if you have a good set of questions to ask on a phone appointment for potential clients. A friend referred a potential copywriting client to me and after wasting an hour and 20 minutes on the phone, I had no idea what she really wanted. Do you have any specific questions you ask that can cut the time wasters off in 5-10 minutes?
A: Whenever talking with new prospects who may or may not have a sense of how you work, money-wise and otherwise, you need to get that out of the way at the outset.
You need to let them know upfront, what your hourly rate is and if they’re OK with that, then ask them what kind of project they’re trying to get done. If you’d asked that right up front (maybe you did and the only thing missing was the money end of things…) along with a heads-up about the cost, you could say, “Well, a typical _______ can run anywhere from ____ to ____ depending on the complexity.”
Of course, that can sometimes backfire in that, if they latch onto the lower end of your range, and theirs ends up being more complicated, they may come back and say, “I thought you said you could do it for ___ (the low end of the range).” But at least you’re going to figure out very quickly if you’re even in the same ballpark.
As for questions about their project itself, there is a “Discovery Questionnaire” on p. 38 of Back For Seconds (and also in the Tool Box; https://wellfedwriter.com/the-deluxe-well-fed-tool-box/).
But the money questions you HAVE to get out of the way upfront. I never have issues like that anywhere because all the clients I’m working with either come by referral or are in a corporate realm where they’ve bought copywriting before and know how much it costs.