I’ve seen so many cases where clients started with oh, that’s not in the budget. if they know they need you it’s fairly easy to sidestep that.
You say, oh, okay. So what’s your budget? I’ll see what I can do. I’m going to work on a couple of options. At least one of them is going to be within that budget.
Unless you’re working with huge multinationals or government services it’s very usual that they simply “find” some more budget if they conclude that’s a better option than letting you go.
And even if they can’t, I mean, there’s always next year’s budget, you know?
It’s not a killer argument; it is barely a boogeyman.
When somebody comes to you with a problem, determine the fair price. And if they say that’s not in the budget, give them an uncomfortable budget option, which would be about 20% below of what they were hoping to get for that money along with the standard and premium options.
You’ll be surprised just how flimsy the budget constraints are if you try to push them.