Take the Pain out of Proposals & Pricing: Think, Simplify and Engage

1. Guiding Principles & Qualifying Clients: - Hi. - My name is Emily Cohen. - I'm really excited that you're joining me today to discuss, - um what Today and Siris of videos to discuss writing effective proposals and how to price - projects. - This this class is designed primarily for people that are just out of college or just - starting their careers, - Um, - and or people who just want a refresher course. - So I hope you enjoy it. - And at the end of the class, - I will be giving bring you a typical request for proposal, - or RFP, - that is posted online at the school share site That will allow you to write and executable - proposal based on the guidelines I'm giving you as well cry as well as pricing a sample - project. - I thought it would be very helpful to us first introduced myself. - I I've been a consultant for 20 years. - I started my career as a designer, - actually went to design school, - and I actually understand turning. - So I get what designers dio and I really love what I do, - and I love design. - But what I realized pretty quickly in my career was that I was better at the business end - and wasn't great a design I actually stuffed at it, - and I really wanted stand design, - but leverage what my experience was in my interest was which turned out to be about - organization and project management and client management and running studios. - And so I did that for about seven years. - I managed a studio that I grew from about five people to about 30 to 40 when I left. - Um, - I was there for about seven years, - and then, - pretty concurrently, - I started in my practice in my consulting practice, - where I work with design firms, - typically small to midsize design friends and agencies, - um, - and help them with a variety of Mrs needs. - Including I Started My career is writing a lot of proposals and pricing, - although that's now only about 10% of my business on large proportion of businesses is - consulting around how to write effective proposals and placing their projects effectively, - as well as staff and process management, - client management, - anything to do with kind of the operations, - all the kind of stuff that designers hate doing. - I love to dio um, - and I went with clients across the country and actually have a few claims now in other - countries So it's really exciting on love. - Love what? - Ideo and I'm hoping that communicates through this class. - So what I thought we would start with is before we get into proposals, - which will be lesson to I really want to talk a little bit about a few things that guide - may so my guiding principles. - And I think this is really a point because this influences everything I consult about, - but particularly around pricing of proposals. - Um, - so the first guiding principles is you? - Absolutely. - If you run your own business. - And by that I mean, - you're you're not a freelancer that gets paid hourly and works on site. - But somebody that really works independently, - um, - and has their own business, - or is even if their sole proprietor, - that really independent in terms of direction. - And they have clients. - Um, - they're not Nestle designed friends, - but really true clients. - And so these guiding principles and for those paper people, - um, - and the most important thing is you need to be very comfortable with money. - If you're not comfortable with money, - it's a very hard thing to run your own business. - And, - uh, - no matter what skills I teach you about negotiating or things that I talk about pricing. - You're never going to be able to really do an effective job without really having - confidence around money. - Um, - so if you don't have confidence around money, - that's something that you should look into, - um, - and improve its not something I can help you with today. - Unfortunately, - it's definitely something that it has learned over time. - But the minute you don't feel comfortable talking about money, - um, - your clients are going to feel that and and that's gonna hurt your relationships, - and also just how you price in your value of your company or your services overall and - related Lee um, - the other you need to do is not only feel comfortable around money, - we have to be feel confident about who you are as both a designer, - and about what you're offering your clients in terms of everything. - So the proposed puzzles to the creative briefs to the work itself. - If you're not confident, - the client's gonna feed off that fear, - and that is a really bad thing. - So none of these skills I could teach you today. - These are skills that you need to learn over time and, - um, - are something that's inherent in running a business. - You have to be very confident in who you are and what you provide your clients cause the - minute you feel or show a little bit weakness, - the clients, - of course, - gonna take advantage that, - um and that's the last thing you want. - Thea other things. - I'm a real bigly of big believer and under promising and over delivering come. - So what? - What does that mean? - And I'm sure you've all heard that before, - but that means, - you know, - in your writing, - your proposals and we're gonna talk about that during lesson to you can give a lot of - details around what you providing, - what the process is, - what the delivery bubbles are. - And it's important that you really provide what you're left with your writing about and - what you're promising, - but not to promise too much, - so that when you are actually working on the project, - you can over deliver a little bit. - Make yourself look fantastic to the client, - but you have to let them know that you're over deliberate. - Um, - which is, - if you promise, - say, - 23 concepts and, - um, - and one round of revisions, - friends example later on when you're working on the project and the client asked foot, - um, - second round of revisions, - you can say, - Well, - that wasn't included in our fee and our proposal, - and you could refer back to the document. - But I understand why you want that, - and I will provide that extra round for afraid. - No charge. - Aren't I great? - I'm gonna love you. - Um, - but the next time you if you do require more concepts beyond this, - then that's when I need to charge. - So it's really about under promising and over delivering so that you can really The - client's gonna love you later on that you're showing all this stuff that you didn't promise - , - but you're still delivering and then love that for you, - and they love that, - and that really enhances relationships. - So I'm a big believer on under promising and over delivering. - Um, - and the other thing that's really important to me. - The other guiding principles is that whatever you dio, - whatever action you take, - however, - you represent yourself as a designer or as a creative person, - you represent all other creatives and you represent our industry. - So whatever you do have to people ethical and right, - um not only to you but the industry overall, - so that's really important. - I think we, - no matter what we dio it really reflects on everybody else in our industry. - And so if you act badly or if you're the prima donna that everybody thinks designers are, - um that's gonna hurt us as a professional overall. - And I'm a real believer and being super professional, - but also being authentic on being ethical. - So I'm not a big believer inspect our work on pitch, - and that's a whole separate lesson. - But there are a lot of things that really hurt our industry that alleges on his deal. - You have to remember that we're all competing against each other, - but we all should be colleagues as well. - And so, - um, - we should all be transparent in our business practices and really share what is right and - what's wrong. - And there's lots of great resource is around. - What's ethical practices, - particularly? - The idea has some ethical guidelines that I find are quite good as well as the graphic. - Artists Guild has a few, - um, - so really being ethical M practice, - practicing what our industry preaches and acting as if you would like your competitors act - is really important both in both how you negotiate and how you price your services, - as well as the quality of your work and how you talk about your work and just in day today - , - daily interactions. - Um, - that's really important. - So whatever we do really represents our industry, - and we have to act accordingly. - Um, - I know some of these seem obvious to you, - but they're not. - I think I find that a lot of these things are not is obvious, - and it's really important to kind of lay the foundation for what I think are these guiding - principles. - And the last guiding principle overall is, - and I mentioned a little bit about this is being transparent, - Um, - aligned with that is being honest. - So, - um, - what that means is, - obviously being honest means not only being authentic to who you are and not mistress - presume misrepresenting yourself. - But it's really about being honest to the clients, - being honest to your staff, - being honest in your daily relationships with vendors. - Um, - if you're running late on a deadline, - tell them. - Don't try to hide it by you know, - something like, - you know, - dog ate my homework. - Um, - and believe it. - And I have heard all kinds of excuses, - including I left the presentation in the car in the cab on the way here. - Um, - so really keep if your client, - if you keep your clients understand kind of honest and you keep them updated bill, - they'll recognize that you have flaws, - and that will be OK, - but if you do not and you try to hide them in any way, - they will again detect that and not trust you. - And you have to build trust immediately because trust is at the core of most relationships - . - Um, - and they have to trust and feel that you are honest with them. - You also I'm a big believer in transparency, - which is related to honesty, - which is transparency with your clients. - Transparency were staff, - um, - very important transparency with your colleagues. - I think we all should be talking to each other, - talking about placing on and you'll hear that when I talk about pricing, - um, - talking to your clients about budgets and schedules and being honest with them and - transparent about your business practices without letting them know what your bottom line - is. - They have to understand how you run a business and and your staff do as well. - But this is your job to kind of educate your team as well. - So that's kind of my core guiding principles. - I have some dining principles around proposals and pricing, - which I will talk about it in the subsequent to lessons. - But those kind of general dining principles that will kind of influence what I talk about - and how you should, - how you should take my recommendations. - Um, - the other thing I'd like to talk about is qualifying clients today, - So I really don't think we're in the business of any proposals When the business of doing - great creative work that solves all Collins problems. - Ultimately, - that's to me. - Argo, - as s creative professionals were not in the business of running proposals yet that is a big - part of what we dio. - And so the reason why I would like to talk about qualifying clients in is really more about - first talking to the clients to see if they are the right fit for you. - And are you the right fit for them so that you can avoid writing unnecessary proposals and - thus that increases your win rate? - So I'm really big believer and asking the right questions and really looking at clients and - the projects very deep lady. - See if event This is a project that really is something that's winnable and that you want - so that you can avoid again writing unnecessary proposals that you know are time consuming - and take up a lot of, - um, - just energy that you might not normally have, - especially in a small business. - Um, - so I want to share with you if I can do this correctly, - a slide or to, - um, - this 1st 1 is a common way of and an easy visual way to qualify clients so you can look at - the graph in several ways. - The first war, - the first ways that is it the same work for the same client. - So this means that you're working a large part with the same client doing the same kind of - work, - and some people like that cause it's consistent. - But it's kind of a dangerous business model in a lot of weight. - It's because you're not growing and you can have one behemoth client, - and the general rule of thumb is you shouldn't have any client that takes up more than 20 - to 25% of your business. - Otherwise, - you're in really kind of dangerous area. - Um, - then you could move up and say you like the same client, - but you'd like to do a little bit of different work. - So you expanding your expertise, - um, - you could be doing the same work for different clients. - That's also a goal that you might want to have what you can dio ideally, - different work for different clients. - So you constantly, - you know, - expanding your client base and offering different opportunities. - That's a simplified way of qualified clients. - And when you're first starting out, - that might be just the first way you start looking at it. - But there's a lot of subtleties in in qualifying clients. - And, - um, - I like to show this graph this lots of different ways of qualifying clients. - And I have a proprietary methodology around providing metrics, - actually giving new clients or new um, - prospects at actually well, - number that, - um, - on a scale of 1 to 1 to five on where they fit in the chart. - But this is an it allows you qualify clients, - but this is a simplified version of that for those that are just starting out, - Um, - and this disqualifying funnel ca NBI different for each of you, - you might qualify clients completely differently than other people. - For instance, - The way I can't qualify clients is I'm a New Yorker. - I'd like to talk fast, - and if I get a new client, - that takes forever to get there thought out, - that drives me crazy. - And that's often a client that I don't want to work for. - Um, - so that's my qualifying. - I've heard other people who don't want to work with other types of people, - so you have to look at that. - But these kind of general qualifiers the 1st 1 is, - Do they have the right money? - And that's a very important question that will will learn to ask over time and is one of - the questions I will outline under the precise the proposal area of the pricing area. - So making sure that they have the money, - or can they afford you? - Um, - so that's the 1st 1 The second thing is, - are they the key decision maker? - That's really is another important qualifier, - and what that means is, - are you working with the person that has the right to approve the work you're doing. - If you do not work with the key decision maker, - that often causes a lot more agita our nation and involves a lot more revisions. - And that could mean that you're working with, - You know, - maybe somebody that's under the decision maker could be that it's 1/3 party like a PR firm - that has an end client doesn't mean you shouldn't work with them. - But what you're looking at is in qualifying client. - You're looking kind of at all these factors in deciding, - deciding if they have so many of these factors and they're low on the way you qualify them - , - then it might be not a qualified client, - so it's not working. - A key decision maker is not in itself the only way to qualify flying. - It's just to me, - one of the big areas, - as long as. - And so if you look at the funnel, - these air kind of, - in my opinion, - going down and most important, - so you're slowly now in which of the clients you want to work for. - Not all clients for projects are appropriate for everybody. - The other one is, - Do they value design? - Do they do they understand that the the value of design. - Which means do they are they putting appropriate budget and resource is and time against it - if there are uneducated clients, - that requires a lot more education and a lot more time on your part, - educating the client about the value design and the process of design. - So sometimes people set separate out the the education of the designer versus of the client - , - first of the value they place on design. - Then you should read some of the red flags. - So what are the red flags? - So they keep you on the phone forever? - Do they cancel appointments? - What are the some of the red flags that you have noticed and really meeting those And being - aware of those, - I think too many designers just so excited to get a client and a new opportunity that they - don't really look at those red flags. - The other things you have to make sure you like each other if there's a miscommunication or - if you're communicating in a different way and you don't understand each other, - or if you don't like the person or if they don't like you and it feels uncomfortable, - then more than likely that's gonna be the way of the weight relationship functions once you - get the project. - And is it really a project or a relationship you really want? - Or that will be easy enough to really work within budget and within the time? - Usually if it's not a good personality fit that is ripped To me, - one of the biggest red flag is if you don't get along with the client that where the client - doesn't like you for any reason, - or if it's something you have to convince them to work with you on, - it doesn't make for an easy or seamless relationship. - Um, - certainly one of them's might be reasonable timeline. - Do they have visible expectations around? - How much time a project will take is another way of repeating those qualifiers. - Some clients, - some designers of mine, - really actually don't care about timelines because the more compressed the time well, - it is. - In some ways, - the last time is involved and thus your more profitable. - So some of my clients do not mind. - The rushes is one of the reasonable rushes providing the client has a reasonable budget - because you'll actually make more money, - then projects that go for go on and on and on. - So sometimes I think a reasonable time line is one that's too elongated, - too much time because that could be very expensive. - Um, - the other thing is you might look at is this client Ah, - high profile client or project? - So it might be that, - And since it might be a nonprofit, - um, - that has no money spend, - maybe you're not working with the teeth key decision maker. - But it's such an important project in some way, - either is going to take your business to the next level. - What's really intriguing project that you can use in your portfolio or it's somebody that's - connector that will recommend you what potentially has wide reaching, - being new business opportunities for you that will expose you to a new audience. - There's lots of reasons to look at the client itself to see what does the client offer you - , - you as a designer and where will they take your business? - And sometimes that's more important than anything. - Um, - if if it's the right fit and the last thing is and this is designer's always feel like this - , - is this the right project for you? - Is it a global enough project that's gonna get you excited if it's a really awful project, - and you simply do not think it's something that's in your wheelhouse or that gives you - passion and excitement, - then maybe the only real and to do it is for lots and lots of money. - S o What I'm trying to teach you today is that, - um I'm just stabbing skill share. - Screen share. - Um, - what? - I'm trying to teach you that you have to qualify your clients and qualify the project. - So you're doing a few things. - Your qualifying, - the client. - Are they right? - 50. - You. - Your qualifying the project is the project. - The right fit for you were at work that you dio eyes it new and exciting. - Is that something that is within your wheelhouse? - Is it something that's gonna be different? - But it's gonna take your business to the next level? - Um, - always it kind of boring work. - Um, - And then the other thing is, - you want to qualify yourself. - You're the right fit for the client. - Is there a communication? - Do they like you? - Do they understand the value of design? - Um, - are you the right fit for them? - So if you could, - um, - think about all of that before we talk about how to write proposals. - Um, - I think that Will Mitt make a diff Princeton Really thinking about Are these the right - proposals for us? - So that's it for lesson today. - Um um, - looking forward to the next lesson. 2. Guiding Principles & Asking The Right Questions for Proposals: - Hi. - Um, - today's lecture is about the guiding principles that drive me in terms of writing proposals - as well as some of the questions you might ask a client before you write a proposal. - The next lesson will be about the contents of the proposal. - But today we're focusing on the guiding principles and questions. - The right questions ask. - So I believe in, - as I mentioned the last lecture, - some guiding principles that really drive my recommendations on how to write the most - effective proposal. - The 1st 1 is that proposals and contracts are very different documents. - Proposals are something that follows after you've qualified the client based on less one on - . - But it's a document that basically the client is already fallen in love with you. - They like your work. - You've already qualified them as a client and they've qualified you. - So you met them. - You made a personal connection, - and proposals really meant Teoh. - Tell them the scope of work and your fees. - So what, - you're gonna dio when? - How much you're gonna charge? - If you build in the terms which are the legal conditions, - like a contract, - then the client will just simply focus on those and we'll stop the conversation dead. - So what you really want to do is continue following that kind of the client falling in love - with you path. - So first you qualify them that fell in love with you on your work. - Now the you qualify, - make sure that they are the right fit for you in terms of your scope of working your fees. - And they really want to work with you. - And then the contract, - which is issued after the proposal. - Is that going to be a much, - much easier sell? - Um, - and it will be a negotiation. - Eso By then they will have already decided to work with you because they've agreed to your - fees on the bozo, - and you might have to go through several drafts of the proposal to get it to where it needs - to be. - But once you've agreed to that, - the contract again is so much easier to sign, - and then it's just a negotiation because they've already agreed to work with you. - So proposals and contracts are very different documents. - The exception is if it's a client they worked with before, - whose senior terms, - or if it's a really rush project like a two week project where you don't have time to issue - both a proposal and then a contract. - Thea other thing is that proposals are not your primary marketing or communications or - qualification toll. - Ah, - lot of designers this kind of fear, - talking to design or not clients they are. - They don't like promoting themselves, - and they use the documents that they have either its capabilities brochures. - But in a lot of cases, - the proposal to really sell themselves and my point is you should have sold yourself and - your work prior to writing the proposal. - So very rarely do proposals need kind of qualification betrayals or promotional materials - like your BIOS and your case studies. - And you know anything that describes your scope of your services because by then they - should have already know who you are and who you work for him What you dio. - The exception is if it's an R P requests where they actually require this kind of content, - or if it's going to other stakeholders that you have not met yet and who have not seen your - work and kind of still have to prove your value, - so proposals are not your primary mark, - internal communications kind of promotional tool. - Uh, - the third guiding principle is that every project and every client is different, - which means that you can't really use generic templates for proposals. - Designers are sort of lazy and that they always want kind of give me a template. - But the thing is that not every project is gonna be the same. - And not every client is to be saying some clients you have to communicate with differently - . - Some clients are very narrative in their approach, - and they like the light words. - For the most part, - most clients don't like words and just wants naturally don't want, - like high level, - um, - statements like bulleted copy that they can kind of scan. - So you have to really right to who your audience is. - The everything you don't want to use generic terms like client, - you can actually customize it and use the client's name. - So it really sounds like it's speaking to that. - That really is a great way to get a proposal toe. - Teoh do all the work for you. - If the proposals really feels like it's written to that client in a voice that really is - reflective of what the client needs and who? - The client iss. - Um, - the fourth, - uh, - guiding principle is that you should designers always like to kind of make assumptions - about projects rather than ask client questions. - And I absolutely hate that word assumptions because designers you should ask clients your - questions. - Ask them as many questions you have to. - I don't believe in that rule. - They only have one time to ask the client on the ask the questions. - Otherwise, - you feel like an ad. - Sometimes you have to neck to get all the understanding of the projects so you can ask as - many questions as you want. - Obviously, - you should feel the client. - And if the client is feeling a little pressure or is annoyed by your phone calls, - then you got a tailor. - But for the most part, - if you have another question, - you can email the mature, - ask them, - you know, - call them so I don't like making some just, - you know, - when I ask clients things like, - Well, - is it a CMS site? - Or is it you know how many pages of the brochure they might? - Same? - The designer who's my client will say, - Well, - I assume the brochure will be 12 pages, - or I assume it will be a mass site but don't make assumptions, - asked the quiet. - Do you need a CMS site? - It's much better to educate them and ask the right questions so that you really are pricing - a project as accurately as possible. - So don't make assumptions and ask really good questions, - which we're gonna cover next. - The other thing is clients the last guiding principles, - and this is sort of related to that. - Everything has to be customized is in my belief and writers. - You're gonna hate me for saying this, - but most clients do not read. - They scared and documents. - They don't have attention spans. - They're pulled in so many different directions. - Ideally, - they probably are just gonna go right to the price. - But you want to try to, - ideally get them to tell it. - Ideally, - get them, - give them a story that they can understand and get to the price. - So I love bulleted copy over narrative text whenever possible and sound bites as much as - possible because clients simply do not read. - So not a big believer in narrative text. - So now that give you my guiding principles. - There's three rounds of questions that you typically need to ask. - The first round of questions is to ensure that your and this is related to the - qualification part of the conversation, - which is you have to make sure that you've qualified your firm. - So during the qualification process and certainly before you bring in the proposal some of - the questions you should be asking and there's many. - But here are some of my top five. - The 1st 1 is estimate. - They've seen your website because that's gonna really be important because they've done - their research. - Have they seen your work? - Do they understand your value and then ask them of the work that they've seen? - What appeals to you? - So that's a really good question. - To see what they're kind of insight is what what They're responding to what you know seems - appealing to them. - You can also ask them what appeals to them to them about your firm. - And this is really great, - because you will be able to hear some things that they like about your firm that you might - want to point out in the proposal. - You also country to that question. - I want to ask what are the challenges, - what do you think are some of the concerns you might have been working with us, - and I know that sounds negative, - but I actually think it's a really good thing to get up front, - which is what other things you concerned about. - So then here you might hear the messages like your I'm worried about size or I'm worried - about your location. - So those are really the questions asked, - because then you can respond to the things to those questions of those concerns in the - proposal. - So all these questions are about Tala ring the proposal to address any issues that the - client has raised. - Um, - you can also ask them What qualities are they looking for in the selected firm? - That's really important, - because what are they? - What is important to them in selecting a firm? - What are their selection criteria? - That's really, - really important on, - and then the last thing, - and this is to judge their education. - Their ability to work with designers is just say, - what was your last experience working with a design for him? - In most cases, - they may say, - Well, - we haven't worked with the design firm, - so then you know there's a level of education that you need to build up with them in terms - of demonstrating the value of design. - And that might mean a different kind of process, - because you really need to show that design as value. - Um, - but in some cases, - the clients have worked with designers and you can get some sense of what their struggles - were and what worked for them. - Also, - to be able to discover if there is already on agency of record, - that you might not have known about the WAAS. - So those are questions, - really? - To qualify your firm and see that they qualify. - Qualified you? - The next round of questions is to call, - apply the client. - So is this Is this the client right for you? - Um, - and this again really drives how you're gonna respond. - How you gonna write your proposal? - The first question is, - who are all the decision makers and stakeholders? - This is a really, - really important question Asked before you write a proposal, - people always ask this when I start the proposal by then, - it's too late. - One if you can identify that, - there's a lot of stakeholders that already is gonna raise your feet just simply for the - aggravation factor alone. - The second thing is going to do is, - if you find is a lot of stakeholders, - you might build in several rounds of interim presentations to cover presenting first to an - administrative person or to a non decision maker than presenting to enough getting their - around the feedback, - then presenting to the next layer and then presenting to maybe the board of directors. - So it's really important to ask how Maney decision makers and stakeholders and what - everybody's role is. - So when you're going to a meeting to discuss your proposal or to discuss the project, - you'll be prepared for knowing how many people are in there and then can also help them to - understand that some of those key decision makers need to be more involved in the up front - of the project when you're presenting concepts that at the back when it's too late. - So this is a great time for you to kind of educate your client about how you like to work - with with various people, - and if they have a lot of stakeholders, - they might not be a qualified cliff, - so that might be a way to simply say now that you can't work with somebody that they have - 20 people floor they have. - You know, - you're working with a junior person who then has somebody above them who then has a board - of directors about them. - That is a recipe for disaster. - Thea thing, - And this is a really important question is who else is competing? - Who else are you considering this boy, - This project and there's absolutely nothing wrong to ask this now. - It doesn't mean that clients are gonna answer that on. - And if they say, - well, - it's not your business, - You could say, - you know, - at the reason why I'm asking is I really like to know at least what types of firms, - if you can. - If you don't feel comfortable, - give me the names of the firm's I can understand. - But I would love to know what types of firms and how many firms are competing against so - that I could tailor my proposal to tell you what makes us different. - So I know who are competitors are really helps me make you give you the information to make - your district and easier. - Um, - and in most cases the climb will definitely tell you how many competitors and what types of - competitors. - So here's you want to find out what they consider writing like and you know, - there. - And these were never anywhere they considering a freelancer that works out of their home. - Are they conceding a huge agency like a land door or future brand? - Because if you know that you could mentality your proposal to say, - Here's what makes us different, - especially if you know your competitors. - You'll know what makes your different. - So it's really, - really important. - And there's absolutely nothing wrong with asking that question. - Who am I competing against? - How many firms? - Because also the other things. - If you're competing against 10 firms, - then they really have not qualified design firms appropriately, - and you might not want to work with them. - Or you might realize that the winning rate of this proposal will be lower because they - simply are sending it out to anybody and anybody without qualifying them. - Um, - it's ideal if they say two or three friends cause then you feel like and I deal if it just - like did you because they fully qualified and then the few will be a much easier and - negotiation. - Thea things you want, - and I mentioned this before. - We just ask them how How did they weigh their selection criteria? - So not only what is important to them and selecting a firm, - but then, - based on the proposal, - what's gonna mean one to them to evaluate all the various proposals and don't give them the - answer? - Don't say. - Is it feet? - Or is it you know our capabilities? - Let them answer it for them cells. - What are the ways that they are going to vet the right firm and a lot of clients will have - not even thought about that. - So it's a great way to push them to think. - How are we going to select the right from what's really important to us? - And then, - once you hear that, - you can really tell your proposal again. - This is all about tailoring a proposal to meet the client's needs to increase your win rate - . - The last thing is asking them what is their approval process, - and this is related to their decision makers because you want to know how, - what they kind of typical presentations they like, - how many rounds of revisions so that you can build in with their average revisions is, - especially if they worked with design firms in the past. - They'll tell you were kind of a nightmare client, - and we really do let require, - like 34 to 3 to four rounds of revisions. - At least then you know that and can build it into your face. - So those are the questions regarding them qualifying you qualifying Mamma's as a client on - the leaves. - Last questions are to qualify the project, - and these are the most important questions in terms of writing your proposal. - It gives you the content in the direction to write your proposal. - And the most important question is what is the project? - You know, - if they say we don't know, - you're you're supposed to tell us what we need. - You can say I agree. - That's my expertise, - and I am the strategist. - So why don't we start with a phase one where we dive deep into your needs and we have a - discovery and we have some interviews and then at the end of that will develop some kind of - communications plan, - but you're paid for that serve. - Your proposal is not meant to be paid to help them to find the project as much as possible - . - Either convince them that they need to hire you to define the project and or at least say - to them, - because you're getting a lot of firms bidding on this. - Let's all have apples to apples comparison. - Let's kind of decide generally what you need, - and if later on the project changes, - we can always adjust our fee. - But for now, - we need to make sure that all comparing at the same level. - So if they say we need a brochure, - you might need to know how many pages. - And if a cell for plus cover you absolutely don't know to need to know size or printing - specs at this point because we really don't want to get involved in estimating printing so - early in the project. - And if it's a website, - you might want to know if it's a CMS sight of its responsive. - If there's going to be back in your database stuff or if they're gonna need site nothing. - Some sites don't need site maps they've already developed. - It s so you want to really asked several questions around What are the project components - and what more what are their specifications as they know it again, - They might not know it, - and your job is to help them define it. - So if they say we need stationary system, - you can say Well, - station system typically includes letterhead, - business, - corn envelope and a mailing label. - Does that seem sufficient for you? - Do you think you need, - You know, - no car and a president stationary so you can help them think about what they might need so - that everybody that is competing against you are kind of compete kid, - competing at the same level. - So you absolute. - But we have to ask one of the project parameters you can also ask them are what have one of - the internal processes that they have gone through before. - So what have they done already? - So you can understand what you're being provided with, - what's like They might have said we develop content or we've already done the market - research for they might say, - we've not done anything, - so it's really important to ask them what they've done and then what they will be providing - again. - This is related to Are they providing the content or they providing development? - Because a lot of clients don't tell you that information and they assume that designers - will provide everything. - Or they assume you'll just understand that nowadays a lot of clients assume designers will - provide writing. - Um, - it's a foregone conclusion that designers are providing writing at this point, - and so they wanna they might not tell you. - They'll just assume we're providing writing. - And if you don't put that on the estimate, - they will kind of be bewildered. - So did you ask him what they're providing? - What they need? - Thea Other thing is, - Are there any third party entities are There's like a public relations firm, - an event planner, - You know, - a developer who was involved, - And can you meet them or find out when they will be involved in the process? - If it all. - So it's really important to understand who you don't be working with them with and what - their level of interaction is and what their responsibilities are. - Um, - the other thing that translators things like that you absolutely isn't there is the next. - The next question is always one that I'm like, - Oh, - I can't ask cycling. - Ask the client, - which is you have to ask them What is their budget? - There's nothing, - nothing wrong with happened, - asking that question, - they might say to you, - You don't know or it's not your business. - You can say, - Well, - it really helps me to know what roughly what your budget is so that I think craft a - proposal that again meets within your budget. - And if they say they don't know a budget and we're gonna talk about this during the pricing - stage, - then you can say, - Well, - let me call you back and what I wanted to before about the proposal. - Let's give you a full range of what I think roughly the project will be so that before I - write a proposal, - I want to make sure we're on the same wavelength in terms of feats. - So then I would call them back after you thought about it, - really number and call them back in. - Vet them by the right number because you don't want to work on a project that say has $500 - for a logo. - Um, - so it's important to really ask them what is their budget. - And for the most point, - Yes, - I would say, - you know, - 75% of the mother say no, - we don't know, - But then you could at least get a number out to them for a beastly 50% of them to get them - to improve a number before you write a proposal. - Because then the proposal will not be about the fee but will be about the scope of work and - the value U will provide for that defined fee. - There are exceptions where clients don't want to get to have any decisions about numbers up - front, - especially with Oropeza, - especially government. - R P is they have to keep it kind of all on the same, - um, - equal footing. - But as much as possible, - I would really bring up that conversation. - And if you're not comfortable going back to my original guiding principles from the first - lesson, - if you're not Cough comfortable talking about money, - that's gonna really be a problem in writing and working with writing proposals in working - with clients. - Um, - the last questions is what your timeline is. - Very basic question. - One of the deadlines you don't have to answer like what are the detailed schedules, - but specifically, - what is the deadline, - or how many weeks do we have, - or how many months do we have on this project because that will also define your fee. - So it's project that is running for a year. - It will be no matter, - even if the project is small. - If it's a year long project, - that is a lot of time. - And so your fee might be more expensive than a project that actually is rushed. - That only has a two week deadline because two weeks you have a lot less time involved in a - project. - So asking what their timeline is is very important. - And the last thing you can ask questions that are more related to strategy, - like who your target audience is, - what your objectives are, - but I really don't. - Most designers like focusing on that because it really set about doing design, - and they're already thinking their heads spinning about, - what can they designed for the client? - And they're not thinking more about the questions that are related to the proposal. - So you can ask a few questions just to sit. - Show that you are interested in their project, - are interested in their business, - but not enough that you over sell yourself in things that you're gonna be selling as a - value. - Add later on such questions as, - you know what? - Your positioning statement. - You know who's your target audience? - Do you have a target audience profiles? - But you can ask some of these broad questions just so you can demonstrate you have some - thinking, - but really, - I would not cover those. - And a lot of designers. - That's the biggest mistake. - They talk too much about the project in terms of things that affect the design matter than - then issues that affect the proposal. - So those are my guiding principles and some questions. - The next lesson. - We're gonna actually cover content areas, - so thank you and I'll see you. 3. Proposals - Content Strategies: - Hi. - Um, - today's lesson the one of the next one will be a pricing, - But today's lesson is the key content areas that a proposal must have. - Um, - I've also enclosed or attached a are a sample R p that you can use to write your assignment - , - which is to write a proposal by the next lesson. - So your goal is not to put the pricing it, - but just to write the proposal based on the content areas that I'll be discussing. - This lesson is largely all slides, - so we will proceed with slides now and talk about key content areas. - Okay, - so, - uh, - the most important area so you'll see this document. - And basically this outlines not the specific proposal itself, - but the key content areas. - The first column is the must haves of any proposal. - The second column are so optional areas that some proposals have, - but most proposals will have. - So if you combine these 1st 2 comes, - which is mostly what we're gonna focus on. - This is what a proposal typically includes, - although some proposals only include the information on the first first column, - and I'll talk about what makes which proposals need that kind of content, - and the last one, - which is the last column, - is the optional area, - which is promotional material on. - And we talked about that on the last lesson, - which is that hopefully you qualified the client and qualified yourself enough that you do - not need include things like bios and case studies. - So the qualification sections air Onley included in projects where you have not. - I had the opportunity to qualify yourself, - and in most cases you really should have on and in those options. - Those situations are usually like government RPS when you really can't talk to the decision - makers and it's all a long process or it's a proposal that's going to a lot of stakeholders - that have not met you beyond the first person. - So it might be to being sent to somebody that you already have qualified yourself. - But it might be also being reviewed by several of the people that really need to understand - your friend. - So the last section of proposals I'm not really talk about a lot. - That's more about marketing and promotions, - what types of materials you need to submit to a client. - But this typically includes BIOS, - case studies, - sample projects which reported your case studies. - Um, - list of clients. - List of services, - sometimes references. - Mostly. - I'm gonna focus on the the 1st 2 content areas on gonna give you some examples of each of - those. - What? - You might go back to this live back and forth. - Oh, - So the first thing is, - every proposal must have a cover letter. - A cover letter is not the email. - It is the actual cover letter that makes the personal connection. - So a cover letter usually is about three paragraphs long, - one page and the first foot paragraph is always about making that personal connection. - So I enjoyed meeting you where I hope your trade show went well, - anything that you could make that personal connection with the client so that they - understand that you're speaking to them personally. - The second paragraph is a little bit why you're qualified, - like, - high and level. - What makes you the best firm for this? - And also it shows you're excited about the project. - And the third thing is just next steps. - So it's really action where he did the last time it is. - Are you gonna call next? - Are you looking forward for them to call you by this date. - Always give them some data about me that when they should be, - when you expect them to respond or when you'll be calling them. - Don't just simply say, - please call me with any questions. - You could want to make sure you can say, - I might call you next week to follow through to make sure you receive this proposal. - Um, - and let's get set an appointment to meet so I can present my project. - My proposal in person so actually always have a cover letter. - And again, - it is not the email, - because a lot of times I'll just open it the document without even looking at the email. - So it's very important that the cover letter is attached to the proposal itself, - then, - depending on the size of a project. - So if it's just one kind of component, - like if it's just a brochure or just the logo, - then you could just have a project description area. - That's kind of one paragraph that describes what you're a bidding that what you're with the - proposals off face on. - But most projects need to have much more description, - so you might have a project overview so, - as example, - you might have an integrated communications program, - and that integrated communications program might have several communications like a - brochure. - It might have an email blasts might have some sign Egil, - Whatever, - whatever. - So you might have. - You might begin the project proposal with an overview section first, - which is just one a two sentence statement that you're excited about this project and - you're the following proposal is, - um, - in response to their R P or the following proposal. - Outlined your scope of work like in fees for an integrated communications program for X y Z - company. - So you might have a project overview section and then a project description or Project - Component section, - which gives much, - much more detail about what you are, - one of the components that you're bidding on. - So in the Project Description Area, - you're gonna have very detailed things, - though if it's a brochure, - you're gonna say eight pages plus cover or whatever. - The specs are 8.5 by 11 although size does not really a matter tremendously, - unless it's like a, - um, - you know, - a hateful. - It's small like gate folded brochure. - So for the most part, - you don't have to focus on size and then for the website you might want to talk about, - You know, - either what size the how large the website is. - Are you going to be site mapping? - Are you going, - Teoh? - You know, - is it a CMS site is a responsive site. - What kind of the functionality basic that they've talked about. - So here you want to give a little detail that they've given you about the project. - These that the project description or project component section is usually around. - Not the scope of work that Europe can provide, - but the final undeliverable. - What is the end? - Deliver ball in terms of the printed or and, - you know, - programmed element that you can provide or document that can provide so details around the - specifications of what that project is. - So once you've done the cover letter, - the project description Project overview, - it's always really nice to have a project objective section. - And this is the objective. - This is the section that often bulleted um, - it's and I have examples of this, - and it's a way to repeat. - But the client has told you, - without giving them too much without giving them too much of Mason, - just enough information to show them that you're really thinking about what you've heard - from them and what they need for the project. - Before I show you an example of that, - I want to talk to you about a lot of proposals. - Have a Project background section, - which is often pay a page long, - if not longer off. - Basically, - they're spewing forth everything they've read about the company or they heard about the - company. - And it's a narrative format, - and it's always ridiculous to have that because, - you know, - clients know who they are. - They know their background. - They don't need to be told that. - And I will tell you almost 90% of clients will not read that section. - And designers spend all their time writing this beautifully crafted way to describe the - company on Lee to find out the client doesn't meet it. - So I do not ever believe in project background areas. - Uh, - so I want to move on to showing you some examples of, - for example, - objective section, - and now all the examples I'll be showing you today are just examples, - and it's very generic. - This is not exactly the wording you should be using. - Um, - and you need toe absolutely customize it for each client and each project, - but this gives you an idea. - Typically, - you need about 5 to 75 to eight objectives, - and you might start with the first statement like this one, - which is in developing a strong, - impactful and memorable integrated communications program for X y Z company. - Arab doctors will be, - too, - and you might say things like considering any existing brand standards if needed. - A line with X y Z companies positioning and marketing objectives. - These are very generic. - So if you know the position in marketing objectives, - you might say that you know, - aligns with their mission statement, - and you might actually include their mission statement in here Appeals X y z's target - audience again, - customizing if you know their target audience. - You might put that in there, - you know, - reflects key editorial messages and Tang lines on, - and you might want to say here that they're provided by you or the client or work with key - stakeholders to develop and maintain a responsive and results oriented process. - So it's both about the project it's about, - with the end deliverables might need to achieve as well as what you might achieve in - working with them. - So an objective sector is a really great way for clients too quickly in soundbites. - Understand that you had listened to them and that you care deeply about what the end - project does for them that doesn't meet their objectives. - So here's a great way to just simply summarize anything that they if it might be a r p. - It might be through meeting anything that you've learned about the client. - What it should didn't do is include things that you're guessing on where that are on their - website, - because you never know if they're changing completely that positioning stand strategy. - So be careful of repeating stuff that are not actually necessarily current. - So that's an example of objective section. - Um, - the next thing you might have is a schedule section again. - This is an optional area, - and I never really recommend unless the client absolutely asked for it, - and I often try to talk him out of it. - A detailed schedule. - I never included detailed schedule because you know that the start date changes the end - dates changed. - The client, - never, - ever it keeps to a schedule, - so it's a really waste of your time to develop a detailed schedule too early in the process - before you're actually starting to work with them. - But a schedule section might include kind of high level schedules, - such as on end eight, - that this project needs to be done by this end date or we have 3 to 4 months to do this. - So some some high level date did schedule would be helpful. - Or you can say each phase will take 3 to 4 weeks. - You might have a schedule, - a schedule that's very general about each face. - Phase one would take two weeks based to would be four weeks so that they have some sense of - parameters. - The fee is gonna be defined also by the schedule. - So it's important to have some kind of scheduled parameters in the proposal not always - required. - But it's always a nice kind of optional area again, - not a detailed schedule when the most important section is the scope of services section - and here I'm gonna give you some examples. - So sculpture services section is not about the components, - the end deliverables of what they need, - like a brochure, - but what you're gonna provide, - What is the working to develop over time to get to that a final beautiful boat brochure - includes. - It's a way to demonstrate how much work is involved in the project and exactly a way to - come yourself so that they can tell they know exactly what you're providing for the fee. - So this is this area needs the most thought most thinking the most, - um, - customization, - because every project has a different process based on the question do best. - So I'm gonna give you an example, - but this is set. - Usually skull pops up. - 17 section is usually by phases, - and it might be each phase might be the up civic and Conan like. - Phase two is the website, - and Phase one might be in the Bush tour, - but a lot of times it's more around the phases of relationships. - So Phase one in this case, - in my example case is the development of strip strategy and concepts. - And so here this examples more for an integrated communications problem is using as our - example again, - This is generic and must be customized. - But this gives you an example of the level of detail, - yet simplicity. - Ah, - scope of worth section usually requires and again. - I'm a big believer and short narrative sort of side. - Short, - bulleted copy. - So phase one would be development of strategy concepts. - Again, - this is cost generic. - You should really customize it. - And here you gonna talk? - About what? - What kicks off the project? - Is it a full day meeting? - Is it? - You know, - several interviews, - Whatever it is that you know, - is it gonna be competitive research? - So here, - you gonna outline specifically how you can take off the project and really high level what - you might seek to understand or discover during that initial kickoff meeting or a pickup - buff discovery process. - Um, - Phase one might also include some kind of written deliverable that summarizes all your - learnings from the interviews or from the planning meeting on from the competitive research - . - I'm a big believer and creative briefs. - I think that fantastic document that really summarizes in a narrative in a in an editorial - way, - not in a visual way. - Sometimes it might include Mood Boyd's high level mood boards, - but it's a document that they can that summarizes all your learning things and summarizes - some key recommendations or some strategies that you'd like to recommend before you - actually draw before you actually designed something on, - and it allows the client to really understand what you're thinking is to make sure that you - have a mutual agreement on the old little direction and objectives of the project. - And it's used to measure the progress throughout the the project. - Creative briefs are much more about getting rid of the subjective criterion, - really, - this defining objective criteria. - But there's a whole other lesson around writing creative briefs, - so that might be the second deliverable. - The third deliver a little, - but be where you start developing concepts. - And again, - this is just an example. - Your process might be entirely differently. - Might be entirely different on here. - You're being very specific about how many concepts everybody in you don't just say present - and you know, - different concepts, - because the client then will read that to mean you'll present as many concepts is needed - within with as needed, - to get the project done. - But that really leaves you for ah lot of rounds of revisions. - So you want to be very specific about specific but yet flexible about how many mounds of - concepts. - So in this case, - I'm saying to the three different concepts I'm giving a little bit of flexibility. - Might be, - too. - Might be three um, - you might present initially to and then the 3rd 1 later on, - um, - and then I'm also defining because it's an integrated communications problem by simply - saying to the three concepts. - It's not quite clear if you don't define what you're providing those concepts for, - they might think it's for all the components, - when in fact you might be only applying them. - As you see later on. - I'm saying he specifically applied to three sample communications, - and here I'm being more specific around the cover and spread a brochure, - an email blast in a home page. - So and then I'm also talking about what these concepts might show. - So again, - this is I just want to show you this as I don't want to copy this and pasted and use this - exactly for every proposal, - cause again every proposal is different, - but it shows you the level of detail yet simplicity that is required in the proposal. - And then you might proceed with providing some rounds of revision. - So how many rounds of visions are the new concept to refine concepts? - What did these revisions being applied to on. - And then what is their action at the end that X Y Z company has to approve the concept - perceived to face to. - So that's an example of a Phase one. - Yeah, - Phase one, - but there's lots of lots of phases that might be in the scope of services section, - but that gives you the gives you a sense of what kind of format it should look like, - how how it should sound and what kind of information that is required. - Eso some proposals might also have client climb responsibility section like a bulleted list - of what what you've heard the climb will be providing. - It's more about, - you know, - the provided content that they're providing the there they're paying for the printing - things like that very simple Client responsibility section is usually just either, - you know, - parent, - like a short to descendants. - 23 sentence description where 3 to 4 bullets. - Then you go into the fees and I'm gonna have a whole separate. - The next lesson will be around how to define the fee. - You'll definitely have a few section. - You'll also have an exclusive section, - so exclusive section is usually anything or miscellaneous information section, - which is anything that the proposal that defines the proposal and are red flags that a - potential red flags for the client or that are not included in the fee so that they know - right away. - So one of things is expenses. - If expenses are not included, - you need to say so that expenses un included in that you charge more because you don't want - all of a sudden throw the markup at them later on during the contract, - you want to really tell them anything that potentially could be a red flag for the client. - Um, - it might be specific if it's unusual usage rights. - So if you're basing it on very limited, - like if they have very little money and you're both facing the project on usage rights for - only one year or something like that, - you need to specify that in the proposal. - If they're normal usage rights, - you do not need to clued included in the proposal. - So the exclusion Areas section is things that are not included in the proposal programming - printing illustration, - and it's not the fees for it is just saying that this speed that this proposal doesn't - include these kinds of things. - The other thing you always end with is that the um under the exclusion section is based on - approval of this proposal. - We will then issue are standard terms and conditions along with a payment schedule. - You are not doing the payment schedule at this point. - There's no need to don't want to scare them off, - and that will be in the contract. - But you need to warn them that a contract is sports coming. - The other thing. - You this again, - I talked about this earlier on in the last lesson is there are exceptions to the rule that - I said We're a proposal in contractor to separate documents and if it's if it's inset in - the if the proposals, - in fact also a contract, - then you must need to include your terms. - Those were kind of legal, - of legal conditions again, - a whole other lecture. - So that gives you a sense of the key content areas of her proposal. - And I've given you some example of the objective section examples of global war exception, - and now I want to talk to you about the common mistakes made by most designers and writing - proposals, - and this will really give you some good guidance as to what? - Not to on what is actually very common that most most designers have made one of these - mistakes. - When I evaluate proposals, - the first thing and you've heard me talk about this a lot, - which is that it's very generic. - And it's not customized to the client in project that is the worst, - the state because you wanted to be, - but one of the worst mistakes because you want. - If it sounds generic, - and it sounds like any design firm can have written it where it could be written to any - client, - then you've not made that personal connection with but the client. - And really not talking directly to them is a big mistake because they want to feel like you - care about them. - You want to work with them and by using their names, - you know. - So instead of saying client, - you call them, - you say X y Z company, - you know you really specifically talk to them because they will love that, - and that is really important. - So customizing its the client A project is very, - very point. - I've also seen too much about US content, - meaning that it's more value than about them. - They want to hear about them. - They want to know what you will do for them. - They really at this point should not carry as much about you. - Or at least you shouldn't be showing them how great you are at a level that kind of - ridiculous. - A lot of times I find that those if the proposal has more qualifications than scope of work - and other things that relate to the client, - then you've done you already made a mistake. - If you do have to have qualifications, - I'd like to end the proposal with the possible vacations, - not start the purples With the qualification so less content about you, - more content about them and what you're gonna do for them, - not about how great you are because hopefully again. - By the time you've done a proposal, - you're already qualified yourself. - I've seen proposals that have a lot of redundant information. - They repeat themselves endlessly, - and that is just endless words that they do not need. - The Onley time you made redundant information is where it's a red flag that you think the - client you know, - you've read a red flag, - that it's a point to restate with the client. - So if it's something that you concerned about, - what the project in terms of working with the client, - you might need to repeat yourself once or twice simply to just get the point made. - But for the most hit quite a place most for the most part, - you need to keep it as simple as possible. - Do not repeat yourself. - There's no need to. - So I've seen that objective section include included in the Scope Aware Exception and the - saying the same thing over and over and over again. - You do not need to do that. - The other thing I've seen is completely information. - So if you have, - if you've used the level of detail I have. - So if you look at this last bullet where I say present one around refined or new concepts - applied to the same three sample communications. - If at the end of your proposal you have some generic language that says this proposal - includes £3 revisions, - then it's It's confusing because is it the three rounds of divisions including this round - here that's described here? - Or is it it's separate from so don't have things that are conflicting on sometimes quick - comes like the information is a result of not customizing the proposal. - I'm using a template without really looking through it to make sure so be careful of - information that conflicts with each other. - Um, - the other thing I've seen this proposal is a way to simple. - They don't give enough detail of that about the process and the deliverables to put fee and - context and guy the relationships. - So, - you know, - designers always tell, - May I just want to get this proposal to one page, - you know? - And that's almost almost impossible for any project. - I have a proposal that once that's one page, - most proposals on average and 3 to 10 pages any longer and that's the next mistake is too - much, - um, - and overwhelming in the client will read it any shorter, - like a one. - Page doesn't give enough detail, - so you need to. - The whole point of a proposal is to guide the client, - understand what you're gonna provide for the fee outlined. - It gives the feet context. - That's the main goal of the project. - Other proposal is to put the fee in context. - You have to provide enough detail in order to do that, - um again, - I talked about this too lengthy or never again. - Clients do not read. - So I've seen proposals that are so beautifully written. - And so long no one reads, - Um, - so don't waste your time. - Um, - I've seen proposals in this relates so the not customized that, - like a personal way. - So if it doesn't sound like it's coming from you if you have more of a casual guy or you - know you don't like kind of God, - you know what's the word? - I'm unneeded Vered Ege. - Then don't do that. - If you were using words like I have a client that hates the word branding, - don't use words that don't feel comfortable to you make it shorter that it sounds like it's - from you. - If you're humorous or if you are very buttoned up, - then you need reflect. - The voice of your proposal needs to reflect who you are as a firm or is an individual, - and the last thing on this relates to that proposal contracts with three separate documents - is that it's to legal Um, - so that is also sometimes a mistake is it's just too much about legal information, - and it can really potentially scare a client so that that's this lesson. - Toles tells you this the type the content that's involved in a proposal. - I give you some examples. - Not enough. - I do not like to give sample proposals simply because then called his honor's I want to - just copy and paste. - And so I found that that makes it That is a huge disservice in the The assignment today is - to really think out Think about what kind of proposal you want to dio based on the - guidelines I've just provided. - So, - uh, - based on the RPS provided it gives it was much admissions possible that I think you will - need, - um you don't unfortunately have the opportunity to ask questions of the client. - So you gonna have You are gonna have to make some assumptions. - Even I told you that I don't like assumptions, - but I tried to give you as much information. - That's possible for you to write a proposal. - Do not focus on the fees right now. - Just focus on and the less I like this idea just fresh writing what the project is before - you write the feet, - design is focused too much on the feet and then developed a proposal. - I think it's much, - much more point. - Figure out what? - You obviously wanted to get it if you have the right amount of money for the project. - And so you discussed budget with the clients, - but you don't need to this really think about the feet too much until after you've - developed a scope of work. - So the hands this lesson and the next lesson will be about pricing strategies, - Thanks. 4. Pricing Strategies: - Hi. - This final lesson is round pricing strategies. - I've given you information on how to qualify yourself, - how to ask the right questions and some key guiding principles around. - Proposals on and I've given you some content areas. - This lecture is gonna be about my guiding principles around pricing. - Those are very simple. - And then how to how to develop pricing? - I will say the most important thing you need to know and you might end this broadcast right - now is there's no magical answers. - Don't look for online guidelines. - There is no magical answer. - Pricing is mostly intuitive, - But I'm going to give you some strategies around things you should not doing things you - should be considering when developing your final numbers. - So I'm not gonna give you with you If you are attending this lecture to know exactly how - much a charge for a logo. - This is not a lecture, - because, - honestly, - every project and every client is very different. - I've told you that many, - many times. - You have to customize your pricing as well as your proposal to each client. - Um, - and pricing is ultimately intuitive, - and it's based on the value of the project to the client on. - Sometimes it's a little based on time, - but not a lot. - Um, - so let's start with some guiding principles. - There's a very easy you just have to simple guiding principles that hourly based fees. - So if you were telling them exactly how many hours and when your hourly rate ISS it - positions you as a vendor and not as a trusted advisor, - so you should not be doing hourly rates unless you're freelancer. - And then, - in that case, - you don't even need a proposal on you don't need to listen to this lesson. - Never show pretty pretty much. - Never. - There's gonna be exceptions every rule, - I think. - But for the most part, - 99.9% of the time you give flat fees, - you never give project. - You don't give. - The project estimates you might determine hourly hours for yourself for internal budgeting - purposes. - But you never tell the clients how many hours a fee includes, - because then you're based on not the value of what you're providing in your value of years - of experience, - but really just based on time and honestly, - you're your fee is based on the value of your expertise. - So if you have three years of experience, - you're probably enjoyed a little less. - And somebody who is 20 years of experience, - whose knows a lot more about the industry and can work a little bit quicker. - So it's really about the value of the expertise. - So always think about that. - The other dining principle is that there will always be somebody that charges less than you - , - is always to be charging somebody charging more than you. - And I'd rather you be the person that's just right in the middle or high. - But there's always, - always gonna be somebody. - Product pricing less than stop being activated by that design is always call me like we're - never We weren't low and you know there's something lower than us. - There's always gonna be always somebody lower than you. - So accept that and move on. - Um, - so some for some pricing strategies. - The first thing is, - um, - contracting, - and I talked about that before. - You absolutely need to look at at past historical records, - and in order to do that, - you need to track telling, - so you need to talk track time at a project level you do not need to track at a task level - say, - like concept were typesetting necessarily. - You just want to know in the past. - Okay. - I didn't another brochure like this one. - How many hours did I spend on it? - So tracking time is gonna be an absolute essential Um, - Thea Thing is, - you can't track time without first calculating a true hourly rates. - So whenever I ask people that are really made So I always tell my Oh, - it's 1 50 an hour and I'm like, - Where did you get that member? - Well, - it's kind of what industry standards are. - I don't really care about industry standards. - What I want is your true hourly. - And if you don't know that there's lots of formulas for that that you can look for, - um, - on my site, - I listed a book called The Business of the Graphic Design That by eco Bubble, - but this But that's out of print. - Now. - It's a fantastic book, - this other books by Shell Parkins and others where they have hourly rate formulas. - But you really your accountant or bookkeeper can determine that essentially an arrow and - true hourly rate is to salary plus overhead press. - Uh, - your salary. - Plus, - I would have your sorry, - your salary plus overhead divided by the hours You work in a typical year explosive of - vacations and personal time, - plus a profit margin of a target profit margin of 20 to 25% on that equals your two hourly - rate on and you need to have. - If you have a larger team, - you need to know everybody's to hourly rate, - not a blended rate, - because you really want to know at the end of the day when you're trapped. - Time did I make money on this project, - and you have the historical record for future prices. - So time tracking and having true hourly rates is on must have from or praising strategy. - The other thing is that you should praise and I've talked about this based on value, - not ours. - So I just talked about hours. - I was going to be important. - But it is only one part of the propelled the project, - So example Ah, - a logo and Milton places talked about this several times, - which is that an idea comes to you sometimes really quickly. - You might dream about it, - and that's when you have the solution. - Think about Polish air in the city to the sea logo with with the merger of Citibank and I'm - Travelers, - she literally came up with that idea on a napkin in one second. - Now that she just charge them $5 because it came up in one second, - or did she charge the value of her expertise that she's really knows the brand and knows? - You know what is needed and really can captured that idea very quickly and shouldn't charge - based on time. - On other times, - ideas stick to you, - and they don't come out there. - Your you know, - your for you. - It takes you weeks and weeks to develop a great idea. - You're frozen then until you really come up with that moment of genius, - so you really should not base your fee solely on ours. - That's certainly a consideration, - but mostly on the value off what you are providing, - what your acts expertise is as well as the value to a client. - So logo again going back to our example. - Ah, - local for a huge brand company that's international has a different feed value, - then a local for a local company or a local for a one time event. - Uh, - still, - you can't just have one feet for logos because a logo for different environment for - different usage is gonna be a different fit. - So basing your feet on the value and the value is again not an easy thing to determine, - but it's based on what kind questions us a client and understanding how they gonna use it. - And what the value is they in value to the client is if it's one time for only a year, - you know, - if it's a one time event and then I'm gonna use it again, - then it might have a more limited fee than something that has longevity. - That's gonna keep growing the brand if it's something that internal facing versus external - facing kind of a different value, - unless their internal facing business, - a business environment is their environment and is their target audience, - and that might have more value for service to the company. - So really understanding what the project is and how it's to be used, - and what value it adds to the client is gonna be part of how you determine the fee. - And again, - that's not a mathematical formula. - But it's it's a it's ah factor that you must consider in determining the fate so, - uh, - pricing strategies. - The price is not based on values. - Eyes based on value, - not on ours. - Um, - yes, - guiding principles that you have to be firm and confident. - If you are not confident in your number. - In the final number you give. - Do not give that number because the client will feed off that fear. - You just get back to my first guiding principles. - We have to feel comfortable talking about money. - Do not give them a number without knowing that you feel 100% behind that number very, - very important to be firm and be confident. - And that is actually ah, - lot about how with number you give them a the end if it's rounded off number, - that shows much more confidence than if it's a number like 2350. - Because that looks like first. - It looks like it's a number that's determined by hours, - and second, - it looks like it's a number that is flexible. - But if you say 3000 or 5000 round off the numbers, - it shows much more confidence, - and it shows that it's not determined by it. - Our so be fair and be confident and and how you talk about numbers and how you present the - numbers? - Um, - and you absolutely another guiding principles. - You should have project minimums in relationship minimum. - So what is the minimum amount that is worth your time to work on a project? - Um, - everybody should have a price minimum. - Sometimes it's $1000. - Sometimes it's $10,000. - Sometimes it's $100,000. - It's entirely up to the size of your affirm and how much how successful you are. - Um, - but you should work for projects any lesson that up for placing minimum and then that's - used in negotiating with the client. - So you can say if you find out you working with the clients a startup and you already - detect that they have no money or nonprofit, - you can say, - you know, - before we turn for before we talk too much in detail, - I want to make sure you understand that are prized Proposal Mental Illness 10,000. - This project might be more than that, - but we don't work for last in 10,000 so it's very important to have those kind of - conversations up front and have that information. - So, - um, - pricing minimums are very, - very important So some of those kind of my guiding principles. - I'm sorry. - Those air, - my strategies, - some considerations in pricing. - These are all the things is that you get. - You use all your tools that you can use to determine the final magical number. - So this is my mathematical formula, - if you will, - but it's much more intuitive. - The first thing is, - now is your instinct. - Um, - think value, - not ours. - We talked about that. - That's the first way you defied fee. - What is that magical number? - What is that number you think the projects worth Come up with that right away. - Um, - and the more you work on, - the more you have your own business, - the more where that you can nourish your instinct. - So very important. - And when I say nourish, - that means started talking to your colleagues. - And I'm gonna talk about that later. - So it's not only just a magic number, - it's, - but it's a number based on what you've priced projects in the past and what you do, - you talk to your colleagues about. - The second thing is referred. - Historical records. - That's also very important. - I talked about time tracking. - Um, - then the other thing that you want to ask the clients for their budgets? - We've talked about that. - Another way to think about numbers. - These are all factors in thinking about the number you asked colleagues. - So you This is where I believe in transparency. - I don't believe that. - I think businesses should be very transparent with each other. - So if you have colleagues in your neck of the woods or college that you compete against, - get to know them, - be friends with them, - share business information. - But you have to have speed mutual. - So don't be a user, - because I've seen that where you share numbers, - but you forget to give them the number and they've only giving you their number. - So if you're if you're open to discussing with colleagues, - you can call a colleague and say, - I've never just no price of restaurant. - I know your friend's restaurant. - How much do you think it used by price of that? - And then you give them information on a project they might need help with. - So I really love to talk to colleagues. - I think that's really very, - very important. - Um, - so be pant transparent and share with colleagues. - That's the fourth factor in concerning pricing. - The 5th 1 is tactical. - It calculate the aggravation factor. - So here is where you want to have read all the red flags. - It might be that you increase the fee based on unreasonable schedule or really long - schedule. - It might be based on too many stakeholders. - It might be simply because you do not want to work on this project unless you make a kind - of money. - So add an activation fee to an activation factor to the face. - So sometimes that's 10% more. - Sometimes that's 100% more. - Um so really think about one of the levels of red flags here, - or what's the aggravation factor? - Um, - that night increased the fee. - If the client is uneducated, - that might know another being a nag ovation factor that that means is to be a lot more - phone calls involved. - And that's gonna increase your time. - Um, - and as you noticed, - I really haven't talked about time yet. - Other than historical records, - that's not that's the most important factor. - It's really these other things I've talked about. - Um, - it's again nourishing your instinct, - thinking, - value, - not ours, - referring to historical records asking clients for their budgets asking clients being more - transfer, - testing colleagues being more transparent, - calculating the aggravation factor. - You should also established your project and relationship minimum. - So it's thinking that I talked about that and then Onley then is about calculating hours. - So once you have that number, - make sure that it covers the hours you think is involved in the project. - You know, - you're never ever gonna be able to predict all the hours, - so don't spend a lot of time doing this. - A lot of designers hours now is trying to figure out exactly how many hours they need. - You can't plan concept ing. - You can't plan revisions. - You don't know how long things I'm gonna take. - You could never estimate that you can only do your best based on historical records, - So don't spend a lot of time saying okay to spend this 13 concepts. - I'm gonna spend this on to revisions just overall. - This is six week project. - I need to work on this 20 hours week. - That's X number of hours. - Do big picture. - Not very detailed. - It's not worth the time. - I just see those formulas no longer working. - And it's just a waste of your time and simply where all time challenge. - And that just is one way to save a lot of time. - Don't think about it too much, - but I think to make sure that the price of you come up with now, - by this time you come up with the number you're making sure that at least covers the hours - . - You roughly anticipate the project won't go, - Um, - and then on Lee them as a last case scenario you might want. - Compare the number you've come up with against published pricing guidelines. - And, - like the graphic Artists Guild has pricing guidelines. - I do not recommend that as the primary resource. - It's only the last taste resorts, - and it's only after you've already come up with the number. - It's for comparison purposes only, - but I really don't like those pricing guidelines and forgive me graphic artist Gil, - because I think it's a wonderful organization. - But I think the tool itself is a dangerous thing. - There's no way. - As I said, - every project is different, - and this very it's almost impossible to have pricing guidelines simply because there's too - many variables, - depending that that creates the right price. - So, - thinking about that, - think about all these factors again, - nourishing your instinct, - thinking about value, - not ours, - referring to historical records, - asking clients for their budgets at some colleagues for how much they price that things - calculating aggravation factor. - Looking at big picture hours, - thinking about your project minimum and possibly consulting pricing guidelines. - That is how you get to the article number. - Um, - I will not give you a number here. - It's just a way to calculate pricing. - But more important is how do you negotiate Sisic? - Um, - so a lot of times you might have a big a number of mine in the client does so some things. - Some ways to negotiate, - um, - is to tell your services to meet the clients budget. - Um, - so if the client has less money, - you can say, - rather than just lowering your feet, - which you should never dio because that shows that you were making up the number and you - are not confident in the number. - You should just simply lower your number willy nilly. - But talk to them about OK, - so what's the compromise here? - You know, - if we have, - if you are significantly reducing the budget or reducing budget slightly, - we can get the less concepts of less rounds of revisions. - Or we need you to provide more of some services like maybe you need to do the proof reading - when you need to do the writing or you need to hire the programmer. - And a lot of times it's really an effective tool. - So it's It's tailoring your work for the client. - And a lot of times they might say to you, - we've asked before one of the revisions and the fees too high, - you could say, - Well, - you know, - the real reason the fetus i its allies, - you asked before around the revisions. - If you can tell her to two rounds of revisions, - we can lower our fee. - Um, - so it's important to have them understand that what they do impacts the fee, - what they provide, - how how many rounds of revisions they provide. - Sorry. - Just build a water on myself. - Um, - is very important se um, - so tailing your service to meet the clients budget is a great way to negotiate prices the - other ways you can reduce or put restrictions on their use of rights. - Um, - you said tries in general for logos. - Um, - obviously, - you're gonna give them unlimited usage rights. - But there are some exceptions. - If it's a start up, - you might say, - You know, - I understand you have less money and because you're a startup will give you the will give - you the logo for usage for a year. - If after a year your business, - you continue to be in business, - then you need to pay us our full thing. - You don't base it on like what they're you know how successful they will, - because it's very hard to define success. - And they were really rarely will tell you the real numbers. - So it's important to define usage right sometimes for clients, - and that's a great tool to negotiate fees. - So, - for instance, - if you doing the restaurant and it's a very low money, - you know they don't Restaurants don't pay a lot. - You could simply say it's but one location only, - and that if they expand to other locations, - it will be an additional fee. - Uh, - so putting restrictions on usage rights is a great negotiating tool is not one that clients - love because they always want have unlimited user rights. - But it's a it's a good way to go to stand your ground and give them from some flexibility, - you can ask for more samples, - so if it's a project that you really think will be great for your portfolio, - you can certainly ask for more samples. - Um, - sometimes you can get unlimited samples, - and sometimes you can't. - So it's always good. - But it's great to have more samples. - If you want, - you can ask for prominent credit, - so this is a great way for non profits. - You can have things or websites where your name is prominently credited books anywhere - where they could publish your name in their in their promotional material in their press, - as well as in the pieces self. - So if you're doing your band posters, - you know band posters don't pay a lot. - But if you can get prominent credit on that poster that people have seen, - the poster and other bands might come to you. - Although if you are not making money, - I don't know how many band posters you wanted to, - um, - but it's a great It's a great It's another way of thinking about his prominent credit. - You can ask for creative control that is very rarely provided, - but you certainly can ask Fort where they have no feedback, - and you do what you think is the best solution for them. - And they have to approve it, - no matter what. - Um, - you know, - some, - most people will not accept that, - but it's just something to think about. - Uh, - and you could tell your payment schedule you could be a little bit flexible And how when - they pay you, - I don't love that. - But it is just another way of thinking about it and even all the border if you need to. - Um, - so it might be if you're working with, - you know, - I have my favorite. - Barter is a leg waxing. - You know, - my client was a four person firm and they were all women. - And the a leg Waxer slash spot wanted to do you have a logo, - but they had no money. - So they said, - give us a year of leg waxing for our entire staff and we'll do it for this budget. - So it was kind of a great border, - so you might want to think about water, - bring opportunities. - Um, - there are exceptions. - When I talked about not billing hourly, - there are some exceptions to the rule. - Um, - and I meant to scare a share with you. - I did not do this. - The price and consideration. - So as I'm talking, - I thought it might be helpful to so you can have this. - Life is the pricing considerations, - all the things that help you get to that number. - Um, - but as you see the slide, - I want to talk to you about some exceptions to when I talk about not feeling hourly. - There are some exceptions to the rule. - Some exceptions are production related projects and revisions. - So when this tactical work, - it's purely production work, - and it's not trendy evaluated. - If it's really just hours like you're doing type changes and extensive time to induce, - then you might be able to charge hourly. - Or if it's a monthly retainer, - where you're doing purely production works such as, - like, - newsletters. - You've done the newsletter you designed it, - and you're just completed in putting new content each month. - And there's not a lot of design. - My people do it based on hours alone, - Um, - so if its execution base not value based, - you possibly can do it by hours. - Although I still don't love it, - it's it's one way to protect yourself. - It also is for clients where the hours that you work exceed the value over project. - So if you've worked with a client before and they drive you absolutely crazy, - they, - um, - constantly keep you on the phone A, - um they just post that they, - you know, - they keep you busy. - They call you all the time. - They give you a million's revisions. - You might say, - You know what? - This project's getting crazy. - Let's re negotiate based on my hours because the hours on spending is much more than the - project extended, - Exceed is starting to exceed what we anticipated. - So facing. - Sometimes if you've worked with a client before, - you can say, - Look, - Ben, - based on the last relationship, - I really feel like it's almost impossible to determine how many hours you need. - I'm just gonna bill you hourly and a lot of clients like that. - I don't love that, - but it's sometimes a way to deal with those clients is very activating. - Um, - one last live that I love, - but I wanted to show here, - um, - this was a light bike shop. - So this goes back to the activation factor and just loved this life. - You know, - your base rate is this be but you If they watch, - if they involve themselves too much, - if they helped too much or if they think they can do it better than you, - you charge more. - I just love this. - It's it was for a bike shop, - but I think it could be the final answer for how the price of projects. - Um, - lastly, - I wanted just thank you, - Um, - for just saying this lesson. - I really enjoy doing it. - I'm hoping you guys enjoyed it. - Um, - and here's my information. - If you need some consulting or if you want to get additional information My, - um I am on Twitter. - Um, - here's my block on my website and my mail and you're welcome to contact me. - So thank you. - Grand again. - And I hope you enjoy the class. - I'd love your feedback. - Have a great day. - And again, - Thank you.