How to Write A Losing Proposal

Have you ever submitted a proposal for a prospect… but didn’t want to get the job?

I have.

It may surprise some, but sometimes you just don’t have a good feeling about somebody, know what I mean?

Choices, Choices

When this happens, you have two options:

1. Lie and say you’re not available, or you don’t do the specific assignment they want.

2. Submit a losing proposal.

I’m not a good liar. And besides, that sort of thing just leads to bigger problems later on down the road.

Which leaves us with… writing a proposal we purposely don’t want to get approved.

How NOT To Write A Winning Proposal

This isn’t as easy as simply doing the opposite of writing a winning proposal.

For example, you wouldn’t want to intentionally put a lot of typos, grammatical errors, or misspellings in your proposal. You still have a reputation to protect, after all.

There are more insidious ways of sabotaging your own proposal, without making you look like a bad freelancer.

For example:

1. Quote an unreasonably high price. If you publish fixed rates for your services, then you won’t be able to do this. I publish a starting fee, so I quote a fee for every project. This allows me some flexibility to quote high when necessary.
2. Request a very relaxed time table. Another way you could sabotage your proposal is by requesting to work on a timetable that would probably not work with your prospect’s schedule. For example, three months is usually way too much time for a copywriter to put together a sales page.
3. Make the project sound more complicated than it actually is. Don’t make anything up, but do get into minute details and hope that this gives your prospect a feeling of overwhelm.

Of course, you could always take the high road and go for…

Option Number 3

Go straight out and say you’re not interested in the project. The way I see it, you don’t need to even give a reason for this. Just be clear and straight to the point. I’m thinking, something like:

“Thank you for your interest in working with me. However, I am unable to send you a proposal for this project.”

It would be nice if you could then refer the prospect to a couple of other freelancers who may want to make a pitch for the assignment. That makes the prospect feel that you have their interests in mind, even if you can’t support them yourself.

What Do You Think?

Did I miss any other options for handling a situation like this? Can you think of better ways of responding to a prospect whom you’re not interested in working with? Do share!

photo credit: B Rosen

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