I do not like writing proposals. Until late last night I really couldn’t have articulated why I have so much trouble with proposals. Even though they are what drives revenue for the company I find it very difficult to focus and finish out proposals without a lot of internal bribery (if you do this proposal you can go take a walk! etc)
Then it hit me. The reason I have trouble with proposals is that there is a disconnect between the company and the proposal. We are Web company, right? Our proposals look like they were kicked out by a traditional media company. They are flat, bullet pointed things. There is little story telling and no Web element to it. Why are we only giving customers a PDF for a proposal? Are we going to design and build a PDF for their company?! I understand that a PDF needs to be a component but really it should just be a part of a presentation that is in sync with who we are as a company, a Web company.
So what to do? We are looking to experiment with some new approaches. Sending a client a link to a landing page with a screencast of what we want to do, links to relevant work and a demo of our Content Management System and yes, a PDF take away document.
I think this is going to help us sell our services more effectively as well as ensure that the original vision the client buys into can survive intact through the duration of the project.
What do you think? Any proposal ideas or suggestions?
I share your dislike, and like the idea of creating something more interactive. That said, you’ll still have a bunch of work to do for each proposal if you make them all custom. One of the best things I’ve done in a while was to create a standard template proposal. We then just adjust a few things (quantities, pricing, and whether or not we’ll do x, y and z whereas a, b and c are standard). It saves a ton of time. I still don’t like messing with proposals, but now I dislike it for one hour and I’m done, instead of 4-5 hours or so.
The only problem I can really forsee with sending a potential client to your site to give them more of an ‘interactive’ proposal than a stale PDF based one, is that it could appear to them as lazy.
“Oh yeah, just go to our website, the proposal’s there”.
However, I completely agree that in addition to a PDF proposal and a personal email/phone call, an interactive online showcase is a fantastic idea. It not only give the customer a more visual representation of what to expect, but may answer some questions they were not aware of.
I love this idea!
I am delivering my SEO audits with screencam recordings. The “suits” of the organization love it, so I may expand this to proposals. Sometimes I use an audit as a major sales tool. So I can see where you’re coming from.
For conservative industries (much of my firms’ income) such a multimedia approach would probably not go over well. For these companies, I don’t even like sending PDF files. I like to Fedex a nice document at worst, and at best, hand deliver the document and have a meeting right then and there.
Jeb, I engaged a commenter in a related discussion about proposals on a blog post on our site (http://www.slaughterdevelopment.com/2009/08/25/the-business-of-losing-clients/). You’re absolutely right, that trying to describe what you do in written form is probably not the best approach. There are several clear issues:
1. Web companies don’t produce paper products
2. Proposals require a great deal of time
3. Not all proposals result in paying clients
4. Clients want to see work, not promises of work.
5. People don’t read proposals, they mostly scan them and weigh them to see if they seem meaty enough
6. Clients often solicit many proposals and compare them side by side, which is usually unfair to the vendors
I’d suggest that instead of a written proposal, you do a video pitch. This could be a five minute assembly of a talking head, a demo of your CMS system, sites from past clients that are similar, and perhaps some visuals of the process. This addresses all of the issues except #2, and since you’ve got programmers you can build #2.
You’ll have a completely unique offering for SmallBox!
Thanks for all the feedback! Great points here.
Robby- great list there. I totally agree with all of them.
Ephricon- we do work from a template but that’s kinda the problem. We do custom design and development for every client so even though we start with a template we end up customizing much of each proposal.
I am eager to try this approach and see how it flies. I am only looking to do these screencasts for larger potential clients.
You’ve heard about the Zappos debacle, right?
http://www.ignitedusa.com/blog/Is30minutestoomuchtoask–894.html
I love this idea. Not only does it show your creative side and personality, it’s something your competition isn’t doing. One of the things I dislike about proposals (I’m a project manager that gets the fallout from the successful sale) is that – if not well written – can leave a lot of features open for interpretation by the client. Using other media as supporting materials can help aleviate some of this as you’re able to add an element of demonstration.
Great idea – let us know how it’s received and if its successful in converting leads.
If you are proposing the entire project, you are probably giving away a lot of your creative process. Your creative process really is your product. Not the finished website, but the method you use to build it for your clients.
Stop selling websites.
Start selling your process.
Once you reach that point, the hours used to build concepts and to brainstorm become billable – as they should be. A lot of those people who are getting proposals are just taking your ideas and sending them to a competitor… who doesn’t have to recoup the cost of creating the concept or even figuring out what it will take to do the job.
The sale shouldn’t be the website. The sale should be having Small Box be the company that does it.
— Mike
Thanks Mike, you make a good point. We struggle with that a lot. How do we balance presenting our ideas for the client with giving free consulting.
I’m really only looking to use this approach with prospects that are already convinced they want to work with Small Box but want to understand the scope of the investment and what they might get in return.
This isn’t “spec” work. More of a tour of work we have done and ways it relates to what we are proposing.
From my perspective the primary purpose of a proposal is to scope the work, present your approach, document any assumptions, and provide a cost estimate to your client for the services. The landing page then should offer the supporting details as to why they should choose to work with your company.
Dale, I agree, what was missing was more of what makes us different and much of that difference has to do with our Content Management Systems. So now we are often setting up a live demo of the CMS with some of the specific functionality we are recommending in the proposal. This gives our prospective clients a better idea of how their site would be powered. I have also re-written our proposals from the ground up to focus on value and not just the normal factual info.
thanks!