Agency proposal mistakes, and the fix for each

Small agencies rarely lose proposals because of a typo or a font. They lose them, or win them at a loss, because of commercial mistakes: a scope with no edges, a price with no options, no deposit, no deadline, and nothing to show what the client actually agreed to. The table above prices ten of them on a fictional $12,000 website project. None of them is about writing style.

What a proposal should contain section by section is covered in how to write a business proposal. This article is the list of what goes wrong.

Mistakes in the scope

Unlimited revisions. “We’ll keep refining until you’re happy” sounds like good service. On a website it turns into a fourth and fifth design round that nobody priced. Two extra rounds at eight hours each is sixteen hours, $2,400 at $150 an hour, gone from a $12,000 job. Name the number of rounds and price each extra one.

Assumptions left unsaid. The client assumes you will write the copy; you assume they will supply it. Thirty pages of copy is twenty hours. Put exclusions in numbered terms: content writing, stock photography, third party licences, migration of more than a set number of pages. Scope that grows without a written variation is the subject of what is scope creep.

A proposal that should have been a statement of work. Some projects need detail a proposal does not usually carry: acceptance criteria, deliverable by deliverable sign off, change control. If the client’s procurement team asks for that, the difference is explained in statement of work vs proposal, and the statement of work example shows the format.

Mistakes in the price

One lump sum. A single number gives the client one lever: the price. Expect a request for 15% off, $1,800 on this job. A base price with one or two priced extras gives them other levers, such as dropping the logo refresh, and turns the question into which version.

Ongoing work given away. Hosting, updates and small fixes after launch become an unpaid retainer if they are not priced. Add a monthly care plan as an optional item. A client who declines it has chosen not to have support, and that is clear to both of you.

Discounts without a reason. If you discount, show the discount as a line with a reason, such as a not for profit rate. A silent price cut resets the client’s sense of your value.

Mistakes in the send

Opening with the agency. Page one is the most read page. Spend it on the client’s problem, in their words, with the one number that matters. The agency’s story belongs later, briefly, if at all.

No expiry date. A proposal without a valid until date can be accepted at your old rates months later, after your costs have changed. Put a date on the cover and in the terms; see proposal validity period.

Sent as an attachment. A PDF in an email tells you nothing about whether it was read. A link per recipient can tell you when it was opened and for how long, so your follow up is timed to their reading, not your guess.

Too many options. The opposite of the lump sum mistake. Nielsen Norman Group’s work on choice points out that each extra option adds effort to the decision. Two extras help; eight stall the yes.

Mistakes after the yes

Acceptance by email reply. “Looks good, go ahead” in an email does not say which version, which options or which price. When the invoice arrives, the client remembers a different scope. Online acceptance that records the exact selection, with a name, signature and time, ends that argument before it starts.

No deposit. Without a deposit, the agency finances the project until the final invoice is paid, often six weeks or more of wages. A deposit of 25% to 50% on acceptance covers the early work and confirms commitment. In the 18 OneCraft templates, the website design proposal sets 50%, and the proposal with deposit page shows how the deposit invoice is created at acceptance.

Invoicing late. Even with a deposit agreed, the deposit invoice is often sent days after the yes because someone has to create it. Each day of delay is a day later the money arrives. Issue it at acceptance, with a pay link, so the client can pay in the same sitting.

What the mistakes add up to

The costs in the table are not additive on every job, but two or three of them together are common, and they compound. Take the $12,000 website. Unlimited revisions cost $2,400 in unbilled hours. The copy nobody priced costs another $3,000. A 15% discount to close the deal costs $1,800. The agency has delivered $17,400 of work at its own rate for $10,200. The $7,200 gap is 48 hours of the studio’s time at $150 an hour, given away on one project.

Then the cash flow. With no deposit and the invoice raised a week after launch on 30 day terms, the agency waits about ten weeks from kickoff to the first dollar, paying four people throughout. A 50% deposit invoiced at acceptance would have put $6,600 including GST in the account before the first design was drawn.

None of these fixes makes the proposal harder to accept. Named revision rounds and listed exclusions read as professional. A base price with an optional extra gives the client room to say yes on their terms. A deposit and an expiry date are normal in every trade. The client who balks at all of them was going to be a difficult project anyway.

A checklist before you send

Before any proposal goes out, check that it:

1. Opens with the client’s problem, not the agency.
2. Names revision rounds and lists exclusions.
3. Prices a base with one or two optional extras.
4. Shows a deposit due now and a balance.
5. Has a valid until date.
6. Goes as a link that tells you when it is opened.
7. Can be accepted online with a record of what was chosen.
8. Shows GST correctly if you are registered, as the ATO’s tax invoice rules will apply to the invoices that follow.

A proposal that passes all eight is not guaranteed to win. But when it loses, it will lose on fit or price, not on a mistake you could have fixed.