5 Mistakes Designers are Making in a Business Proposal

Winning new clients as a designer can be really tough. Even with expert skills, there are tons of hurdles on your way to success. Besides fierce competition, there are needy clients, insane deadlines and the idea of pitching your project before getting the job. This is usually done through business proposals, which are far from anyone’s favorite task. However, they’re necessary if you want to present your work to a client and get the green light to get a project started.

Here are some of the most common mistakes that designers are making in their business proposals and how you can stay away from them.

Not using a design proposal template

Writing business proposals takes time, at least an hour per proposal. After you’ve written a few, you’ll realize that much of the content is repeated every time. The only difference is the project details about the client and the work being done. So, why not use this fact to your advantage?

A proposal template is essentially a proposal that is 90% written, with only the main details left for you to fill in. They let you create proposals within 15 minutes instead of hours. You can create them in Word (or even PDF file format), but they work the best with proposal management software, which brings us to our next point.

Not using proposal software

Back in the day, writing proposals in Word or Google Docs was the acceptable thing to do. However, technology has advanced and clients aren’t impressed with getting Word files as attachments through their email. Proposal management software such as Better Proposals makes it much easier to write, send and manage proposals.

One of the many benefits of this type of software is that your proposals are web-based. That means that you can send web page links instead of file attachments. Moreover, your proposals are optimized for different devices like phones and tablets. Also, you don’t have to design your proposals anymore – you can just pick a great-looking design and insert your logo and company. Also, you can track everything – when the client opened the proposal, what part they read the most and when they signed it. Finally, you can get paid through the proposal as well, using one of the many payment integrations.

Offering upsells or packages

Traditional marketing logic dictates that every time you’re selling something, you need to offer a little extra to convince the client to spend more. This is why many designers offer a website redesign + social media graphics, logo design or some other service. While that may seem like a good idea, the practice has shown otherwise.

In the 2019 proposal report, it was shown that having a single offer is actually more beneficial to close the deal. Proposals that had just one offer sold for a 20.6% higher fee with upfront costs and a 33% higher fee with monthly payment plans. So, when it comes to proposals, you’re actually better off not using any upsells or packages.

Not sending the business proposal immediately

A lot of designers think of getting new business like courtship. If they’ve talked about doing business with a client and they need to send a proposal, they’ll wait for a few days – so that they don’t look desperate or needy. Once again, maybe it’s a good logic when you want to get a date, but it doesn’t work with proposals.

According to the same proposal report, it pays off to send the design proposal immediately after the call. In fact, if you send it within 24 hours from speaking with a client, you’re 14% more likely to get the job, compared to sending it 3-4 days after contacting the client.

Not having your proposals optimized for mobile

As a designer (especially if you do a lot of web design), you know how important it is to have an optimized web page. In the age where half of all people browse the internet using their phones, it’s imperative to have business proposals that look nice on the phone as well. In fact, our research shows that 34% of all proposals are first opened on a mobile device.

The problem is, Word or PDF files are definitely not mobile-friendly. You are forced to zoom in and out of a document on your phone to make sense of it, which takes time and it doesn’t really convince the client to sign off on your proposal. The solution to this is keeping your proposals web-based, as mentioned earlier on.

Conclusion

The bad news is, you still have to write and send proposals in order to win new business. The good news is, many of these mistakes can be fixed by using some modern tech instead of writing your proposals by hand like in the old days. Happy hunting for clients, and remember, design business proposals don’t have to be difficult or take lots of time – it’s all about the tools you use.