Proposals: How Much is Too Much?

njwebwiz asks a question in the forums regarding how much time and effort should be put into winning a web development project. He's asking because he spent 13 hours trying to win a project only to lose out at the last minute.

I feel your pain. We missed a job last year after spending a massive amount of time doing exactly what you did and I was a whole lot grumpier than you seem to be!

After a conversation with my brother (he runs a decent-sized landscaping business) I felt a whole lot better. You see, in other industries, 13 hours putting together a proposal is considered hardly any time at all. My brother employs a full-time estimator to put proposals together.

With web projects there's no right answer of course, aside from "Whatever it takes to make a profit."

If it's a $50,000 project, then 13 hours to put the proposal together is a short amount of time. For a $1,000 project, 13 hours on a speculative quote makes no sense.

This could have been a waste of 13 hours work on njwebwiz's part, but he's turned it into a learning experience and understands his business a little better.

He has learned about major influencing factors (he lost some credibility with the prospect because he's without a web site) and he'll almost certainly commit far less time and energy to speculative quotes in the future.

He goes on to say in the post, "I realize that I can't respond to potential clients with, 'You have to pay me a $250 retainer before I'll even discuss your project with you'."

Actually njwebwiz, you can.

I've done this on more than one occasion when a new prospect has asked for a quote. I pitch it this way: We can do this two ways; you tell me exactly what you want your web site to look like and do and I'll quote, or I'll take the time to figure out the smartest approach, research how it is best developed, assess your competitors, and so on for an initial fee."

I've charged $500 for that review and, unsurprisingly, every prospect who said "Yes" then went ahead with the full proposal (probably to avoid feeling as though they wasted that first $500).

Web design is vastly different to landscaping -- there's no set area of turf to lay or trees to plant. Much of the value that we all provide as web developers is because we bring different experiences, knowledge, expertise, and more to each project -- and what we know and research can make the difference between a successful site or not.