The proposal…
It’s the first step to a new relationship with potential clients,
if you want their business… you’ve got to work for it.
1. The first step for this is to make a template – and a good one at that. Spending 1 – 2 hours once designing a beautiful template will save you time in the future. Treat this proposal as an extension of your website, it needs to be given the same attention and be as aesthetically pleasing, you can then customise this for each project as suits.
2. Before sending this, it’s best to know a ball-park figure of the potential clients budget. The last thing you want to do is send them running a mile when they see the quotation given. So be brave and confident – ask for their budget first. This way you can tailor the proposal you send to fit the potential clients needs, this will change what type of work you will offer and could bring some limitations into realisation so it is important.
3. Be descriptive and straightforward, think about who will be reading this and what knowledge they may or may not already have. Don’t get too technical if the reader won’t be able to understand what any of it means, if you’re going to get into technical details then make sure you explain it in simple language. This also applies to the design, make sure the typeface and layout is both pleasing to the eye and functional, it needs to be easy to digest and read.
4. Make sure you are honest about what you are proposing, list the features that cater for the cost of the project – this way the client will be sure that they know what they are paying for and what the project will consist of at completion. Having this in writing is important; if something were to go wrong or there is some confusion as to what has been asked for – it’s right there and you can prove it.
5. State your terms and conditions clearly – you should also have a separate terms document that you can link to and that can be seen on your website; but it helps to just clarify them here first. This should also include other things such as VAT and hosting terms – specific to each project.
6. Proof read, again and again. This is the first document that the potential client will receive from you and it needs to be professional, don’t waste all the time you’ve spent perfecting the proposal just to ruin your chances with a silly typo. Make sure someone other than the person writing the proposal has also read it – it’s much easier to spot mistakes when you aren’t the author.