FS 304: Writing Better Project Proposals

Panel:

• Jonathan Stark
• Jeremy Green
• Erik Dietrich

In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, the panelists discuss writing better project proposals. Freelancers constantly present product proposals to clients in a way that clients cannot understand, making the client not want to use them again for their product or service. They talk about the fear freelancers have about being called out on their pricing, forcing your clients to be educated about your line of work when they don’t care, not understanding your customer, and more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• The right way to talk to clients about your good/service
• Don’t present yourself as a commodity
• Write project proposals in a “language” that people can understand
• Not always the proposal is what is bad
• Giving the clients useless updates
• Fear of being called to the carpet of your pricing
• Trying to educate clients when they don’t care
• Simple ways to get your point across to clients
• Not understanding the customer
• Having multiple types of customers
• Feeling like you’re being talked down to
• Most clients’ main priority is that you get done what they need done
• Value pricing
• Clients who like to nickel and dime you
• Clients who fight you every step of the way
• People will hire you because you are the expert
• How to be treated like an expert
• Target clients who don’t specialize in what you do
• Value-based proposals versus labor based proposals
• Sanity checks
• Why conversations
• And much, much more!

Sponsors:

• FreshBooks

Picks: Jonathan

• Goliath

Jeremy

• Remarq

Erik

• Diablo 2
• Capital One