I currently work for a bespoke software agency. Does anyone have any experience of how to win well priced work?

It seems there is so much competition from offshore/bedroom program teams, that cost is extremely competetive these days. I feel that it is very different compared to a software product company or an internal it department, in terms of budget.

As someone else said before, we only ever really get to version 1.0 of a lot of our software, unless the client is big enough. In which case it doesn't make business sense to spend ages making the software the best we can. Its like we are doing the same quality of work of internal it. Also a Lot of our clients are not technically minded and so therefor will not pay for things they don't understand.

As our company does not have the money to turn down work it often goes that we take on complicated work for far too little money. I have got a lot better at managing change and keeping tight specs etc. It is still hard.