We do large amounts of consulting, and I just had the experience of contracting out the look-and-feel of the Rails UI for our product to one designer and our print collateral to another, so I feel like I've been on both sides of this.<p>You should know that the "I think we should talk, what's your budget" answer is pretty unfriendly, even though it makes business sense. When your prospect is reaching out to 5 different firms for a competitive bid, it's really annoying for them to have to convince you to cough up your rate.