Hi everyone,

I replied to a RFP and the pc called me back.
Job is for 250 calls to be made for contact information.

He doesn’t care if I call or research this on the Internet.

But he needs it done asap and asked me how many hours I could dedicate to it this week.
He thinks 20 calls could be made per hour. He doesn’t want to spend a lot of money since he already paid for the leads list.

He still is looking around, I guess, because he asked me when I could start if he calls me back tomorrow.

I don’t know if an hourly rate or a flat rate should be used. Thoughts anyone on what you would do?

With a flat rate I could ask for 50% down and 50% upon completion of the job. Hope he has a Paypal account

But an hourly rate is kind of hard to figure out how long it would take.

I did tell him when you call companies sometimes that takes a while. People put you on hold, don’t want to give you the information, etc. His reply was that he wants someone with strong phone calls, so I guess he is looking for a “pushy type” of person..

Also, I don’t have a client contract made up yet, I do have some templates of some. Would it be advisable to tell him I need a contract first? I feel a little anxious since he wants this done like now?

Thanks everyone, appreciate your help......
Jo-Carole

I would definitely get a signed contract and a deposit BEFORE beginning work; I believe there are several examples of contracts in the docs library.

Per his calcs, he needs 12.5 hours of work completed (20 calls/hour, 250 calls). I would figure your hourly rate and add 10% for overage to your estimate.

Give him a flat rate estimate - e.g. if you bill $20/hour, your bill would be $20 x 12.5 hours ($250) + 10% ($275) and you would request a deposit of $150 with the balance to be paid w/in 10 days of completion, after which interest would accrue (be sure the terms and interest are in your contract). I have NO IDEA what this service is worth hourly so am just using $20 for the sake of making the calcs work.

DO NOT start work w/out a contract and deposit. And, as always, follow your gut instinct about whether or not you should work for this person. He sounds rather pushy himself!

Good luck w/this potential and let us know how it works out.

__________________
Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Thank you Lily...... just what I was looking for, thanks also for answering quickly
I am definitely going to do what you suggested!

Jo-Carole

Jo-Carole,
I have done this type of thing for clients before.
I charge $1.50 per completed call ( such as: information received, transferred and refused, left VM msg, etc.) $.50 for any that end up being dead ends, hang ups, wrong numbers, etc.
So let's say average 20% of the calls are dead ends = 50 calls x .5 = $25
That leaves 200 calls x $1.50 = $300 Total $325
Total due before starting $225
Due on completion $100 within 5 days
After 5 days I charge 1.5% interest PER DAY.
This works the best for me

Good Luck.

__________________
~Christina|BD Mag|VOSTeam

Jo-Carole,
I have done this type of thing for clients before
-----------------------------------------

Thanks Christina for telling me this. I had no idea about how to price this. I am going to save this for next time this type of job comes up. I already told him my hourly rate (since he asked) but I didn't quote him on this job. I can see already that I will be underpricing myself if I go with my hourly rate. I have a gut feeling he won't want to pay this rate which is ok with me. It will give me some time to get my client contract done. I appreciate your quick response too

I will update this if pc does call back tomorrow....thanks again....

Jo-Carole

Thanks, Christina! As I stated above, I had NO IDEA what this service was worth! It's good to know a reasonable pricing structure for future reference.

__________________
Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Thanks Christina. I never know how to charge for making calls...now I can add this to my bank of information.

I love this forum. Everyone is so willing to share.

Carol