A Quote Is Not a Price List

Two quotes sit on the desk. The totals show first. The smaller number looks as if it has already won. The owner puts a hand on the smaller one. How many screens, whether the source is included, the hand does not know yet.

The last piece said to leave the meeting’s answers on one page. Without that page, the quote’s total stands in for the answers. The total is the loudest, and it carries the least information. People who hire well fold the sum away and read the cells first. A quote is not a price list. It is a small plan of execution.

The total is the loudest and the least informed

Comparing numbers is easy. An easy comparison turns different jobs into the same product. One side is five screens. The other is three. One includes source files and an operating note. The other ends at web files. The smaller total can be the smaller job.

A smaller job is not a bad job. Read a smaller job as the price of a larger one, and the missing screen becomes an extra later. The extra spoils the tone. If it had been a different plan from the start, the extra would have been a choice.

People who hire well look at the total last. Look last, and the number shows what work it pays for. Look first, and the number becomes the name of the work. The seat of the name is where scope should sit.

The four cells written in the meeting come back here. Revision object, source, window, the door on our side. If those cells are missing from the quote, the total is buying that evening’s air. Air cannot be accepted.

Five cells before the sum

First, what is being made. A list of screens, functions, and files. “A website” is not a list. It has to be countable names, such as home, about, and contact.

Second, what is assumed. Who gives the words, who takes the photos, and what this round will not do. Without a premise, scope stays open. An open scope makes the total impossible to trust.

Third, what done means. Review and handover. A screen turning on, and source files plus accounts moving over, are different kinds of done. If done is one word, the total is the price of that word. If the word is launch, the files can remain outside the price.

Fourth, what gets revised, and how many times. Count and object. Fifth, after which event the payment opens. A date alone makes payment an alarm. After the five cells are read, the total finally returns to being a number. Before that, it is a slogan.

An empty cell is not a cheap price

Move the two sheets side by side. Included, excluded, deliverables, schedule, revision. One line each. Write an empty cell as empty. Skip the empty cell, and work that is absent gets compared as if it were present.

An empty cell is not a discount. It is a question not yet checked. If the question hides beside a cheap total, looking cheap stands in for the answer. People who hire well do not choose faster the sheet with more empty cells. They ask who owns the empty cell, and when.

A comparison sheet is better when it is short. A long sheet copies the quote again. A copied sheet can push the total to the bottom, and the eye still returns to the total. A short sheet keeps the difference inside five lines. A difference that is kept can be decided.

Comparison is still possible if only one side has an empty cell. The possible comparison is not “this one is cheaper.” It is “this one’s source cell is empty.” That sentence is what lets budget and scope be handled apart.

The desk where the smaller number wins first

Only the bottoms of the two quotes get copied into chat. 420 and 610. The room picks 420. After the pick, someone asks about the source. Nobody knows. The unknown source sits outside 420. A file that sits outside grows a price after kickoff. Add that price, and it can pass 610.

People who hire well do not copy the bottom. They copy the five cells. Screen count, premise, done, revision object, the event that opens payment. If 420’s done is launch, and 610’s done is source handover, the two numbers are different products. Finish the fight of different products on the same price list, and the winner’s empty cell becomes next month’s invoice.

Sending a table that writes the empty cell as empty is also a quote comparison. “Source cell empty” is not a sentence that asks for a cut. It is a sentence that this total is not a plan yet. Raise an internal approval on a total that is not a plan, and the approval approves the number and does not approve the empty cell. An unapproved empty cell grows the scope on site.

So the question is not the direction of the amount. Which cell makes this difference. Choose the cell, and it can be said whether to cut budget or cut scope. Do not choose the cell, and a reduced amount does not know which screen fell out. The unknown screen is missing in the open week, and then it becomes a matter of character.

The order that goes on the approval

An internal approval likes to go up as one line. “Quote 420, request to start.” One line moves only the total. An approval that moved only the total has never approved the screen count, the source, or the revision object. A cell that was not approved is later spoken as our fault and as the vendor’s fault. If the fault is two, that cell is a change.

People who hire well put the five cells on the approval first. The total sits under the cells. If 420’s done is only launch, the approver can see why it is cheap. If the reason for cheap is visible, it splits into choosing a smaller scope, or cheap because of an empty cell. If it does not split, approval chooses a number and the site chooses the work. If the two choices differ, the open week becomes a trial.

When both sheets go up together, do not place the two bottom numbers side by side. Leave the empty cells as boxes. If the sheet with many boxes looks cheap, that cheapness is not a comparison yet. A comparison stands only after the same cells are filled. A number chosen before it stands is a victory of the price list. A victory of the price list can be a defeat of the plan.

The question about the difference comes before the amount

“Can this amount come down” makes the total louder. A reduced total does not say which cell fell out. The missing cell returns after kickoff. The returned cell wears the face of an extra.

The sentence to ask first is this. Which item makes the difference between the two sheets. Screen count, source, revision object, or whether payment is a date or an acceptance. Know the difference, and choose whether to cut budget, cut scope, or move schedule and quality.

People who hire well do not punish the cheaper sheet. They read a small job whose cells are filled as a small job. A small total with empty cells is not a plan yet. Sign a total that is not a plan, and scope grows after the signature.

The smallest print among the five cells is the seat of the next piece. Scope and assumptions. “Copy supplied.” “Admin excluded.” Those lines are the floor the total stands on. Why that floor is read before the sum is next.