[peteforde]

Because every project is different.

Because the first person to say a number in a negotiation tends to lose.

Because maybe they aren't selling five minute videos. The point is not ever to create five minutes of video. The point is to clearly explain what a product does, and that process is going to be wildly different depending on whether the product makes any fucking sense. You usually don't know if you're going to be able to work with a client until you talk to them.

If someone is sexy and charming, you'll probably go home with them for free. If someone else is neither sexy nor charming, they better be prepared to put something pretty amazing on the table or you're going to pass.

[tomgs]

Oh, I should have 100% said this instead.

Yeah, yeah, scrap what I said - let's go with Pete.

[fragmede]

He's hired! :p

All of what Pete says is true. I'm just putting forth that having a ballpark number is useful frame of reference because you don't know how many people aren't calling because they don't want to engage with the unknown so I think you're losing more business than you think. But, it doesn't sound like you're short business in the first place, so what I'm saying isn't relevant.

[tomgs]

Can one ever really be long on new business? :)

As the greatest singer in our generation said so succinctly in one of her latest hits:

Yeah, my receipts be lookin' like phone numbers If it ain't money, then wrong number

It's kind of like that for me, if phone numbers were five digits!