Step-By-Step Guide to a Signed Contract

As a freelancer, you can expect to experience some tough competition when you pitch for a job. For any one job, you might compete with other freelancers, small Web design firms, and even larger interactive agencies. So how can you make sure your quote or proposal wins the job?

The New Rules for Quoting

My advice for quoting is this: never, ever charge by how long it will take. Don't charge by how skilled you are. And certainly don't charge less than the competition. Charge more -- usually lots more. I base my charges on how much I think the client will pay. We win 95% of all the jobs for which we pitch, and I can just about guarantee we're the most expensive every time.

Why? Well, the key to quoting is to realize this: clients won't assess you on your skill or programming level. They won't assess you on your creative genius, or even on your design ability. They usually don't have the technical expertise to objectively judge that stuff anyway.

The only thing the client is interested in is: can you do the job? And, more importantly: is contracting you as the designer going to be less risky than using someone else?

How To Win With a Higher Quote

We won a job a couple of weeks ago for $17,000. We were up against two other designers. The other quotes were for $3,000 and $3,500. So why did we get the job?

• Are we better qualified? No.
• Would we finish the site quicker? No.
• Are we better designers? Probably not.
• Do we live closer to the client? Nope.
• Is the client my dad? Good question, but no!

I'll go through what we did so you can see exactly why we got the job and continue to get jobs at a premium price.

Initiation

The client rings the office and tells me he wants a Website. I make an appointment for 3 days time.

Letter of Thanks

As soon as I'm off the phone I send a "Thanks for the call" letter confirming the time and place of the meeting. We include a business card. The client receives it the next day.

Research

We do as much research on the potential client as possible, including when the company started, products, people in the firm, etc. This takes a couple of hours.

The Meeting

I arrive on time to the meeting wearing a perfect blue suit and a blue tie (as this is the client's corporate colour). I'm carrying my beautiful leather briefcase. I open the conversation with some small talk and tell the potential client what an awful weekend I had because I shot a 85 on the ABC Golf Course. He says "Really? I'm a member there. I love golf." Gee, what a co-incidence that is.

We finish the small talk and get onto business. I bring out a manila folder with his name, position, business name and logo on a sticker on the front. Also evident is the time and date of the meeting. From this I pull out a 6 page 'Assessment Form' that I'll use to identify his needs and wants. We go through this at the meeting, and I make many notes using my lovely fountain pen.

After an hour-long meeting I thank him for his time, tell him I'll be in touch again on Thursday, and leave.

Letter of Thanks

Back at the office I draft the "Thank you for your time" letter and post it off.

The Follow-Up

On Thursday at 9am I ring and let the prospect know that we've reviewed his needs and wants and have a draft proposal ready. I explain that we need to go over the draft to "ensure I have everything straight in my head" and I make an appointment to meet with him in 3 days time. I send off a letter confirming that appointment.

The Second Meeting

I go to the next meeting with a neat, concise overview of what his needs are, and what we need to do together in order to achieve them. I toss in a few case studies of previous clients to show we have a complete understanding of what he requires.

The client says "Yep, that's about what we need." I ask when he needs our quote, and the client says "It's quite urgent, so the middle of the week." I promise to deliver it to the client by Wednesday at 4pm.

Letter of Thanks

You guessed it -- the client gets another "Thank you for your time" letter.