3 Ways to Eliminate Proposals for Branding Projects
Frustrated with the time-sucking cycle of writing proposal after proposal for work only to have them disappear, go with someone else, or tell you they don’t have the budget?
Most branding agencies pitch for work through the free proposal. The problem is, if you’re writing a thoughtful proposal and not just sending a standard form letter, it can be a very time-consuming task. Not just writing it, but also collecting the information from the prospect to write it. And despite all this hard work, you aren’t guaranteed to win the project. When I was writing proposals, I lost more than half of them—even when clients liked my pitch. They might not hire us for a whole host of reasons, including someone else was cheaper, someone else was more specialized (we weren’t at the time), or they simply decided to put the project on hold.
And when they didn’t hire us, all that time was just—poof!—gone.
Time is really important to small business owners because when you are running a branding agency and you are just one person—or just a couple of people—every minute is precious. You need to spend that time doing valuable things, and pitching clients only to have that time disappear means time down the drain.
The problem is, most branding agencies don’t know any other way to do it! They figure they have to pitch for free because everyone else does. Won’t they lose the client if they don’t? The idea of charging a client upfront is scary, especially when you need the business.
On the other hand, whenever I tell branding agency owners that it’s possible, they get starry-eyed. Of course they would rather charge money for the time they spend pitching. Of course they don’t want to waste time pitching clients who are going to disappear.
Not only do I think it’s possible to eliminate the free proposals phase, I think it’s necessary if you want to build a branding agency that charges higher and higher prices. In fact, I think the entire proposal system is setting you up for failure with a client before the project has even begun!
Most people think clients need the song-and-dance in order to be impressed enough to hire you. Or they think all clients need special proposals with details to fit their needs, especially for higher-priced projects. They think high prices mean projects must be customized, which requires a proposal phase.
I say all these ideas are all based on an outdated way of thinking about projects, clients, and what people really want and need.
So I’d like to share three things you can do to eliminate proposals forever—and close even more clients!
1. Niche and really own an area of expertise. Part of the reason proposals are so important for most agencies is that is where the trust is built. The detail, the length, the pitch—this is you selling yourself to the client and convincing them you are the best person for the job. BUT if you are already seen as an expert, if you are positioned as working exclusively with clients just like them, even if your work was just okay you would STILL be seen as a more valuable option right out of the gate compared with a generalist competitor. And that can help build the trust you are currently using your proposals to build.
2. Productize your service and customize only the work you deliver. When you have a set process, a custom proposal is off the table. If you are already niched and you work with clients just like this prospect every day, and all your clients are struggling with similar challenges and have similar needs, you can absolutely package your services so your prospects don’t need you to create a custom solution. And when those products are prepackaged, it’s just about lining up the prospect with them right now. (You can read more about how and why to package your services HERE.)
3. Sell a lead product. I’m against free proposals, but I’m not against understanding the client and their needs and giving them the right solution to their problems. In fact, I think free proposals hinder the actual time and understanding necessary to properly recommend the service for the client. Instead, I recommend replacing it with a paid lead product. A lead product is the first step you can offer any prospect, where you do a proper deep dive into their business, their challenges, and their needs and offer them a solution. That solution serves as your proposal, but not before you give them actual strategic advice (after all, they did pay you and deserve tangible value for that investment). When a client pays for this advice, however, instead of receiving it buried inside a free proposal, they respect it and value it more, and will actually get more value out of it!
Want to eliminate your proposal stage completely, start closing clients in a 15-minute conversation—without icky sales tactics—and then use the lead product process to upsell them to higher-priced services?
Inside my free Facebook group for small branding agency owners I share a series of videos on what a lead product is, what a successful lead product looks like, common mistakes people make when selling and delivering lead products, and more. Click to join here, and then check out Guide 2 in the Guides section.