It's a Struggle

For those of you who enjoy photography as a hobby alone, and don't intend to make money from commercial projects, you probably don't have this problem.

Projects executed for commercial clients in most cases require an estimate or quote in order to get approval for the job. I've always found putting these things together to be a big pain. Of course the estimate I submit is never certain to be accepted, and some folks like to haggle in order to get more out of me for even less investment.

That's okay, I suppose.
It's actually expected in certain societies that the parties involved will toss numbers back and forth for days until they both come to agreement. That being said, it's not always appreciated that the interested prospect doesn't believe that the price I quote is a valid one. Or the "final" or "best" price.

When coming up with the quote, I look at all the factors involved including the value that the prospect can expect to get on the publishing of the image(s).
I need all the details in order to provide an accurate and fair quote for each job. Hence, lots of questions should be expected. It would be misguided and amateurish of me, and in fact any commercial photographer, to spit out a quote on a job before getting al the information around that job.

I would assume those in other service industries do the same in the course of quoting a job, whether they be small or large in production. Not knowing how big the job is, what the images will be used for, for how long etc. could lead to a job quote that has the potential to be terribly over or under-priced.  It could also adversely affect the future business potential of the photographer. 

The struggle is real.
Knowing all the details leads to accurate, fair quotes for jobs. Full stop.