Stage 5 · Lesson 5 of 7
Discovery questions before you quote
Before quoting a price, understand the problem through a short set of questions. What do they want to achieve? What exists now, and what have they tried?
What is the deadline, and why? What is the budget range, who decides, and what does done look like? On Upwork and Fiverr this happens in messages or a call on the platform.
For direct it happens in a of 15 to 30 minutes. Good questions show expertise better than any sales pitch, and the answers become your scope. Listen more than you talk, take notes, and repeat back a summary of what you heard.
Common trapquoting a price in the first message before you understand the work, which leads either to underpricing or to a scope nobody agreed.
A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it