Why Clients Ignore Most Freelance Proposals

For many independent professionals in the United States, sending in a proposal for a project feels like writing messages to a giant black hole in corporate space. You discover a project that suits your professional background, allocate one hour to put together a relevant response, press the button, and wait for an answer that does not come back for several days. The worst part is that watching your conversion rates in project proposals stagnate while your non-billable time increases exponentially is the ultimate frustration of being self-employed nowadays.

The sad truth of being a modern freelancer in a remote working environment is that the business leaders responsible for signing a contract are overwhelmed with too many choices. When a company publishes a job posting, their inbox receives hundreds of pitches during the first twenty-four hours after the job posting appears online. Having only a limited amount of time to go through each and every proposal, these individuals scan them quickly and look for reasons to delete them. Understanding the reason behind rejecting hundreds of pitches can help you redesign your approach to sending in offers and receive far more successful outcomes.

The Absolute Quickest Way to Get Your Offer Ignored: Writing About You Instead of Them

Most independent professionals start writing a job offer by describing themselves with a brief story of their professional history. You may find yourself typing something like “Hi, my name is John. I have spent ten years working in the field, developing websites with modern frameworks”. While this looks good at first glance, your client immediately understands that you have no idea about their specific business issues. Hiring an expert is not about getting interested in their background, but solving an existing problem.

The best way to catch a leader’s attention is to completely reverse the logic of writing a pitch. Instead of starting off with talking about yourself, you need to make sure that your opening lines are all dedicated to the client’s business and its goals. Moreover, it would be great to show that you have already done a bit of research on the client’s problems. You need to start off by repeating their main ideas back to them and prove that you can analyze their business problems effectively.

Blindly Sending the Same Generic Template to Every Available Opportunity

Since preparing pitches for different projects requires substantial effort, many freelancers try to scale their operations by creating a single generic template and sending it to several clients at once. You simply put a new logo at the beginning of the text and repeat the same set of phrases for other clients, regardless of their business vertical and specific needs.

It is easy to recognize a generic message by the tone of the pitch itself. All copy and paste solutions sound robotic and contain general statements, which cannot possibly be useful. You may hear things like “I’m a great worker who completes all assignments timely” or something like this. The point is that your client needs you to think strategically about their business, not give them general answers and solutions. If you do not want to invest your time in analyzing their business, how can you expect them to allocate funds for that?

Thinking That a Proposal Is the Same Thing As an Invoice

Many highly skilled professionals, including software engineers, web developers, and network architects face the common issue of sending out an invoice instead of a pitch. They believe that adding lots of technical jargon and detailing the structure of backend infrastructure makes them look extremely experienced. In most cases, such a move only adds confusion and leaves the client with questions instead of answers.

Unfortunately, your project manager is likely to be a person with no technical background. They are not interested in all those complex tools you are working with and complicated code you type. Instead, you need to focus on business outcomes. By showing that you are able to cut costs for a company or optimize their business processes, you will definitely attract their attention and win another lucrative contract.

The Lack of Any Verifiable Case Study

Another crucial step that most freelancers miss when preparing a business pitch is forgetting to add relevant case studies. As we mentioned above, companies that consider hiring a remote professional are quite concerned about risks and losses associated with making the wrong choice. Therefore, you need to prove to them that your previous projects were a success and you have enough practical experience to handle the proposed task.

Mentioning your portfolio is not going to work in your favor. First of all, a client will never spend much time analyzing your old projects and checking whether any of them is suitable for a new venture. Instead, you need to describe one project in detail that matches your current offer exactly. If a company wants an optimized checkout system, for instance, show them the case of doing exactly the same thing for another client.

Unclear Scope Definition and the Risk of Creeping

As the third mistake, we would like to discuss scope definition. Mid-sized business managers do not like working with unclear projects, which might turn out to be much bigger than expected. When you promise to carry out some actions, such as search engine optimization and building several pages, the client will feel uncomfortable because the budget is not transparent anymore.

To become a professional freelancer, you need to learn how to define the scope clearly. Your offer should state what exactly the project will contain and when it is expected to be completed. Also, mention what actions the company’s team should complete in order for the project to go smoothly. Defining the boundaries of a project is always appreciated by clients.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Should the Ideal Freelance Proposal Be?

In order to catch the reader’s attention, it is recommended that your job pitch should be rather short. Ideally, you should create a document that is not longer than one or two pages in length. In case of sending a long text to a professional, you will risk losing their interest in reading it till the end. Therefore, focus on using concise human-readable sentences and clear markdown headings.

Is It Appropriate to State Your Prices for the Project Upfront?

Asking the client about their budget can be tricky because sometimes they prefer not to share it openly. However, if you have received the required information, you can mention your price for the entire project right away. On the other hand, if the scope is not defined, you should consider suggesting a pricing range or offering a discovery consultation at first.

What Are Good Follow-Up Strategies for Silent Clients?

Following up on a silent client is not recommended unless you are certain that it is still worth your efforts. You should wait for some days before sending an email, mentioning the fact that your proposal was approved. Do not send a weak follow-up that will show your lack of professionalism. Instead, share a case study or an observation that can help improve the client’s workflow.

How Can I Get to Know the Client Better Before Writing the Proposal?

If you wish to make your pitch unique, you need to research the client’s business before you start putting together your proposal. Analyze their website, look for new updates posted to LinkedIn and pay attention to their digital platforms. Mentioning specific details about a company’s operation will significantly increase your chances of winning the contract.

Can I Offer Some Free Work Within the Pitch?

While it is nice that you are ready to provide some free technical insights for the client, you should never engage in large scale projects and complete all kinds of tasks without being paid. Instead, you can make an insightful observation in relation to their business and highlight some errors that need to be fixed.