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.
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.
