It's not just a matter of convincing them what the market rate for software is. It's convincing them that it's worth that rate to them.
If I had a nickel for every time I was approached by someone with a spec that exceeded their purchasing authority (usually by an order of magnitude), I would be a very rich man. There are a lot of mondays out there where some manager says "We need an app, here's $10k signing authority, go figure it out" and what they do is e-mail 3 developers for quotes.
Each developer looks to the right, looks to the left, and sees competition, so there's social proof that there's money in the deal. Exactly one sales rep has a brain in his head, and uses the situation to score a meeting with an actual decisionmaker to talk about a totally different project that might be worth paying actual money for. Everybody else just expenses a few lunches and enjoys pretending that meetings are work.
But despite all the social proof, there's usually no real desire (within several multiples of required effort, anyway) to actually produce anything. It's just some lower manager read in a magazine article somewhere that they need an app, and they have the authority to use the corporate letterhead and book conference rooms, and nothing better to book meetings about.
If I had a nickel for every time I was approached by someone with a spec that exceeded their purchasing authority (usually by an order of magnitude), I would be a very rich man. There are a lot of mondays out there where some manager says "We need an app, here's $10k signing authority, go figure it out" and what they do is e-mail 3 developers for quotes.
Each developer looks to the right, looks to the left, and sees competition, so there's social proof that there's money in the deal. Exactly one sales rep has a brain in his head, and uses the situation to score a meeting with an actual decisionmaker to talk about a totally different project that might be worth paying actual money for. Everybody else just expenses a few lunches and enjoys pretending that meetings are work.
But despite all the social proof, there's usually no real desire (within several multiples of required effort, anyway) to actually produce anything. It's just some lower manager read in a magazine article somewhere that they need an app, and they have the authority to use the corporate letterhead and book conference rooms, and nothing better to book meetings about.