[webproducers] Re: Proposal question

during the good old days when i was at various interactive agencies who
dealt with larger companies, we'd often get paid a small amount to
cover expenses (e.g. creative time, cost of materials, etc.) since this
was usually an established practice at traditional agencies as well. 

other times, if the client was a really big fish and/or represented a
significant source of revenue, the proposal fee might have been "eaten"
upfront in the hopes of re-couping the costs later through our normal
retainer fees, especially since it's very easy to hide such things
among normal project estimates.

however, in the post-apocalyptic dot com world, things are quite
different. there aren't too many big clients anymore  as most already
have internal capabilities or have one or more shops doing their work.

what's left are smaller companies that are saddled with tiny budgets
and complete ignorance of accepted business practices. to make matters
more worse, there's no shortage of potential vendors.

my advice is this:

1) if the project is relatively simple and doesn't require a very
detailed proposal, just do the proposal and eat the cost. 

don't give them a Guttenberg bible, just a concise document
highlighting the usual elements you'd include in a project proposal.

you'll eat the time you spend on it but at the same time, you won't
spend a lot of time and resources on it so it's no big deal. what's
more, it's quite likely that you'll be able to re-use elements and work
completed during the proposal phase on future projects, thus in the big
picture, you really won't lose anything.


2) if the project is large and/or complex and requires a substantial
investment in either time or resources to develop a quality proposal,
that's when you should broach the issue with the client and mention how
you work and given the complexity of the project in question, you need
to break this process into discrete steps. 

doing this accomplishes several things:


A) it allows you to minimize "lost" time and resources developing a
proposal as you'll know very quickly if this project is worth the
while.

B) it allows you to judge the client's ACTUAL intentions and sincerity.

You see, many companies issue RFPs that might not be legit - e.g.
they're merely on a "fishing expedition" to gauge different vendor
price to plan their internal budgets/allocations or already have a
vendor in mind for the project but for legal reasons, still have to
issue an RPF to multiple vendors. also, as you probably know, many
prospective clients use proposals to glean innovative and interesting
ideas - e.g. IP theft.

i learned the above the hard way as a vendor and have also worked for
companies/clients who employed such dubious practices.

anyway, if the client is serious about the project and want a good job,
they'll appreciate your situation and likely be open to your approach
and work with you by doing anything from revealing their budget to
agreeing to pay you a small stipend to cover your proposal costs, which
would then be recovered off your final project estimates.

just my two cents for what they're worth...


--- Lee Semel <lsemel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> We often get potential clients who submit RFPs with long wish lists
> of
> desired features and ill-defined requirements.  The client then asks
> for
> itemized prices for implementing each one.  So what they're asking
> for is
> \for us to do all the strategic work, all the analysis work, and to
> specify
> and design the system, for free, as part of the RFP response.   
> 
> Obviously this isn't possible, and the client needs to be educated. 
> Often,
> we propose a short phase where we work with them to nail down their
> requirements, do the strategic work, and design the system, but often
> the
> client doesn't see a need for this and can't understand why we can't
> give
> them a price right away.  
> 
> Have any of you encountered this problem, and how have you dealt with
> it?  
> 
> Lee Semel
> http://www.innofinity.com 
> 
>
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