Writing web design proposals is time consuming and non-billable unless you land the job. I had a salesperson tell me it’s a numbers game, the more proposals you get out there, the more jobs you land. Not true. It’s a combination of weeding out the weak and solidifying the strong potential clients.  You are going to spend hours or days researching and writing a solid proposal, so make sure it is worth it.

Weed out the weak

This is done by asking questions. There is no such thing as too many questions. By the time you leave the first meeting, you should be able to understand the problem at hand and have a good idea of how to solve it.

A web design questionnaire is absolutely crucial. If you don’t have one, write one. If you need help with the questions, Web ReDesign | Workflow that Works by Kelly Goto & Emily Cotler is a good place to start. The book has a sample questionnaire to base yours on.

The answers to the questions are almost as important as how the questions are answered. For example, “What is the budget?” actually means, “how much research has been done?”

“What technology would you like to see used?” means “how many bids have you gotten?”

“Do you have a sitemap or website structure?” means “how serious are you?”

Know when to walk away.

If a potential client is just in research mode, keep the meeting short and don’t waste time on a proposal. Point them in the right direction to help with their research, like your blog and eNewsletter, leave a card and add them to your mailing list.

Sometimes they are serious but not clients you want to take on. Watch for anything outside of the scope of your business plan. If you are just starting out and willing to take on most types of projects, beware of PITA (Pain In The rear) clients. If you are up to the challenge of a PITA client, make sure your bid reflects the extra headache. What is it worth for you to do the job?

Sometimes they are just trying to get a better deal from someone else. They are working with another web design firm and they just want your quote as a baseline to try to get them to lower their price. You can usually find out by asking the right questions.

Solidify the strong.

Listen, don’t sell.

Talk about the website at hand, not past websites or clients. You are there for one reason – to help them. Offer suggestions and solutions. Show them you understand the challenges they are facing and you can help them to meet their goals head on. Of course, you have to be able to do this. If you realize at any point during the meeting the goals and requirements for the website outside the scope of your business plan, gracefully bow out. Refer a more fitting web designer if you can.

Be trustworthy.

As a web designer, you will have access to passwords, email accounts and other sensitive information. Your potential customer has to trust that you will do a good job. They have to feel at ease trusting you with this, and that isn’t something that can be faked.

Be honest.

Business owners can smell BS a mile away. If they couldn’t, they wouldn’t be in business very long. If you don’t know an answer, don’t give an answer. Look into it and get back to them.

Set clear expectations.

Before you leave the meeting, prepare them to receive the proposal. Let them know what your standard contract terms are. Give an estimated price range if you can. State the up-front costs. Handle any objections immediately. No surprises allowed. The potential client should be in agreement in all but signature before you put any time into writing a proposal.

The proposal

Research everything.

Know what kind of research to do and do it. Keep notes of all apps, themes, fonts, graphics, programmers, writers and anything else you might need. If you have to get an outside quote, get it now. If you have more questions, call the client. If you will be using new applications, download them, install them, and try them out. You have to know the potential pitfalls before setting a time line and price. Assume the proposal will be accepted when it is presented and get all of the information you need to begin working right away.

The proposal.

The size of the proposal should be proportionate to the size of the job. For a small website that will have few changes, a one or two page proposal can outline the job and include the terms. If the job is a two year long project that needs to be approved by many levels of management, it will be several bound pages and might include charts and graphs. You don’t need to include every detail, just enough to establish boundaries of the job, payment schedule and a time line.