Make Your Own Lane: Nuances of Bid Description And High Level Quotes

Here is a live feedback shared for one of the gig sample I received last month.

Gig Title

I Will Help You With Market Research And Competitor Intelligence

Help sounds like charity; You can use Do/ Assist instead.

Market Research and Competitor Intelligence can be two different gigs as the line of research is different for the two themes.

Gig Description

Are you struggling with business plan? Do you have problems understanding the market and your competitors? Then let me help you out.

Your gig description is your pitch and your differentiator.

Is this description enough to instill confidence in a random buyer about your capabilities?

The key components reflect in the image – You may want to add that here.

o   Executive Summary
o   Methodology
o   Key Developments In The Market
o   The Future
o   Market Segmentation
o   Leading Market Players
o   SWOT Analysis
o   Recommendations
o   Conclusions

Image

Images should be relevant and make any sense.Gig image is part of your Gig brand

 

Image Credit: Canva Design

Rate/ Quote

Your rate ideally should not change based on the platforms/ portals

Even if the base price is $5 or $10, you can charge up to $10000 for a project

You obviously do not want buyers who want a plan for $15/ $20 because they are not ready for business yet. They can only get a template for that amount – You are not providing templates.

If others are able to give plans, presentations, research for $10 then that is their target buyers, not yours.

If your intention is to quote this rate till you get the hang of it, then that is your call.

See Custom Offer Sample in booklet to see how to justify your quotes/ rates/ price

When you do customized plans/ presentations – you require roughly 8/9 hours of research to build your conviction or write the first word of your storyboard. Imagine yourself in front of the panel (Investors/ Bank Managers/ Whoever) - Can you read their mind? Can you guess what you buyer (Business) is doing wrong? Can you manage that in the plan/ presentation? Just think real time. Period. All that thinking cannot happen for negligible quote please.  

Revision

Your profile shows several years of experience, so your audience know you are not an intern or college student here to make some pocket money.

You are a professional - Charge for revision

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com for a perspective and evaluation of your service description for more effective sales

How To Fix Rates As A Freelancer?

This is another frequent ask from the beginners.

I find many struggling with pricing model/ commercial piece of their proposal to bid for assignments. This is an issue with both the kinds -

(A) People who have extensive experience 

(B) Fresh graduates and work at home moms 

The point I will drive today is this, you should be able to do the following appropriately and effectively, regardless of what you charge your buyers

1. Alignment of skills and experience to your quote

2. Set your rate based on what value you bring to the table.

Here is an example for better understanding

Think about a job in a local health spa

After 35 years of corporate experience and career gap of two years if you are hired to provide spa treatment after in house training, will your remuneration be based on your corporate experience/ last drawn salary or based on your limited expertise in spa?

Now think about a project in an online portal that you want to bid for

You have 20 years of sales experience however you have never done a power point presentation from scratch - How fair is it to charge a buyer for a sales pitch deck, based on your sales experience alone? 

Are you not supposed to consider your expertise in content and power point as well while quoting your fee?

You have to acknowledge basic reality first.

1. Are you  still learning the tricks of the trade?

2. Is your experience relevant to the skill you are offering?

It is just a roundabout way of telling the beginners, it does not matter what experience you have, what skills you offer as services or what rates you want to set, you should 

(A) Be good in what you do

(B) Be able to articulate in your proposal what and how your offer is beneficial to your buyer and justify that rate.

In Buyer's Shoes.

Imagine a prospective buyer’s dilemma when he receives multiple quotes for the exact same job/ project/ assignment (say, creating a power point) and the quote ranges from $40 to $450.

Quote 1	Quote 2	Quote 3
$40 Content will be created after thorough research	$190 Content with research included.	$390 $80 Content Writing in story board format (Customized for target audience) – 8 Slides $20 Format and animation $90 Research (Feasibility, Industry and Competition analysis $10 Logo upload /Color schemes $20 Smart Art (Visual Theme) $20 Tagline in Title Slide $80 Talking points for each slide $70 Rationale Document or tips to prepare the presenter for dry run/ go live. Timelines: 7 Days $60 Express Delivery 4 Days
Vague	Buyer has no idea how many slides he will get  What sort of research will be done.	Here a buyer can assess if the rates for each piece of work quoted is exorbitant or reasonable. Here are a few possibilities: The buyer can increase his budget to accommodate your quote and award you the order because he knows he is getting a deck ready for real time presentation the minute he receives it.  The buyer may have limited budget and ask you, if you can drop it to $200 – You sure can as long as he is providing the researched inputs (That is what will take most of your time)  He will ask for samples because he cannot afford you and yet wants to see how your mind works.

Know your worth and when you quote, consider the following:

(A) Is your skill niche or easily available in the market?

(B) The time required to execute an assignment

(C) Inputs / research materials/ support that you need from buyer - the less your dependence on buyer, the more you can charge

(D) The depth of research you need to do

(E) The proportion between doing and thinking - The more thinking required, the higher the quote.

One last tip on justifying the quote -

Never sell the solution (your services) through a price. 

Aim to sell the price through your solution. 

Your solution - the detail inputs you provide in the proposal should be so good that the price will seem reasonable and affordable

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com to evaluate your proposal and share neutral perspectives. Know more here