I agree with some of the advice already given here. You have to find what works for you but you should have complete confidence in your rates and be willing to just say up front how much you charge whether it's in an email or by phone. Your confidence in how much you charge reflects your overall level of confidence to the potential client that you already know you will be valuable to them.

Personally, I don't have a problem with putting my rates in an email. This helps weed out those who are seriously about working together with those who may have a different budget in mind. My current practice is to state my hourly rate for projects under 10 hours or that a minimum of 10 hours at $XXX is necessary to start. Then I ask them to let me know if they would like to move forward with a consultation. In my opinion this just saves everyone time.

If you have a good website that helps market you and explains all of your services and how you work which prompts the client to contact you, then there isn't so much of a need to "sell" yourself or your services. As we are "virtual" I think it's perfectly acceptable that some of these discussions happen via email- especially since that's my preferred mode of communication. I don't mind doing an initial phone consult or a phone follow-up/check-in every once and while, but for my practice to be as efficient as possible, I need clients to use email as much as possible.

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Kimberly
Facebook Marketing Magic!