I know as well as you do that quoting on voiceover work isn’t always the easiest thing in the world. I can’t really tell you what to do in order to stop your head exploding every time you get an enquiry, but I can give a few pointers on what not to do.

Ok so you get a notification that someone would like you to quote on a job, answer it swiftly and I mean within minutes if possible. Chances are the person who wants the quote is still online and will be impressed by your quick response, it implies a strong work ethic.

Never never never just say “I need more info”, granted sometimes you do need more info, but say something like “I would love to do this job for you, I have done many like it before, my usual hourly rate is £xxx, but in order to better quote for this job I would need to know the following….” and don’t replace the end with “more info” either, specify what it is that you need to know or you will be going back and forth and chance annoying the customer and being disqualified before you even start.

If you want your agent to do all your quotes and bookings then call them quickly and try to stick to the above steps, don’t say “could you get in touch with my agent xxxxxx and they will help you”, or maybe, if you have to go through your agent each time, why not set it up so that the enquiries go to them and then they can reply on your behalf?

Another thing is people rarely choose the cheapest option, there are people who will only choose the most expensive assuming it it the best service/product, some do go for the cheapest assuming it is the best value for money, but the majority of people will choose something in between assuming they are getting both value and quality, most people will see the cheapest option as being substandard and will see the the most expensive as unnecessarily so.

One last thing to note, make no assumptions, leave that to the clients, we recently had a request for someone to be the voice of God and they asked several men and women to give cost and availability, don’t go in saying “obviously you asked me by mistake” or “are you sure this was meant to come to me” or any variation. The client will have listened to your demo or at least part thereof, so there is something they liked and could see it working, maybe they did make a mistake, let them figure that out themselves, that way you aren’t counting yourself out before the race has even started.

I hope this doesn’t come across as moaning, it’s just some observations I thought might be helpful, please feel free to point out any I have missed