An entire work day. That’s how long it took to create the 8-page project proposal you wrote, edited, and packaged to perfection for a potential client. It’s the third one you’re sending out this month.

It looks ready. It feels ready. You’re confident it’s going to blow the client’s socks off.

You wait a couple of days. The client hasn’t responded yet. Did he get the proposal? Should you send a follow-up email? Maybe send another copy of the proposal just to be sure (might have been trapped in their spam folder by accident).

Eventually, you hear back from the client. But his email brings in some shattering news: He thinks you’re a talented professional, but he decides to pass on your project proposal.

What happened?

It’s tough to handle the rejection after putting in all those hours. But the truth is many freelancers struggle even in just convincing the client to read their proposal its entirety and to truly consider their offer. Besides losing out on potential business, these service providers spent time and effort they can never take back and reuse on actual paid work.

READ ALSO: Why Designers Should Get Paid for Proposals (designinstruct.com)

Rather than beating ourselves about it, let’s try to understand the reasons why clients aren’t interested in our proposals so we can tweak our approach to create better ones.

Your Proposal Doesn’t State the Problem You’re Solving

If you can’t identify the client’s problems and needs, it tells them that you don’t understand their business. Employers are hesitant to work with people who aren’t on the same page.

Before sitting down to create your next proposal, ask yourself these two questions:

1. What problem is the client trying to solve with this project?
2. What solution can I offer to the problem?

Successful proposals present solutions that will address the problems and needs of the client. It has to be detailed enough so the client can see how you are intending to deliver on your promises.

Most project proposals get thrown into the trash folder because they focus too much on credentials, past work experiences and capabilities of the service provider. Their proposals read like a resume.

The 8-page proposal you spent an entire work day on? It’s filled with fluff meant to increase the proposal’s page count, and doesn’t mention anything that can move the needle forward for the prospective client.

But if you want to set your proposal apart from the rest of the proposals the client will be reading that day, you need to be bold and state what you will achieve for them.

Will your proposed solutions improve customer acquisition? Will the project open up new opportunities for revenue? How?

In other words: What objectives will be met after the project has been completed?

In his article on Forbes.com, August Turak emphasizes the importance of knowing and stating the goals in a proposal:

"Great plans start with projections or outputs, and work their way back through the activities and money needed as inputs. Poor plans focus instead on activities and ‘budget’ in the forlorn hope that if we just stir up enough dust some of it may magically settle into money."

Your Proposal Isn’t Supported by Facts

For your proposal to have a stronger argument and a tighter hold on your client, invest some time in research.

Find relevant data, articles and research study results, then use these resources to bolster your proposed solutions.

Your Proposal Doesn’t Describe Your Project Methodology

Traditional proposals are often written and presented to the client without a project plan. It’s because, at this early stage, you won’t have enough data to plot out how and when the project will be completed.

However, you can outline the general stages of your projects, such as the research phase, planning phase, production phase, post-launch phase, and so on. Perhaps you use a standard project methodology like Agile, Getting Real or Lean Startup — you could mention that too.

Describe how your methodology helps complete projects efficiently and successfully.

Doing so gives the potential client an idea of what it will be like to work with you. And it shows that you mean business.

Also, describing your project methodology adds to the perceived value of your services.

SEE ALSO: How I Earned A Lot More on Projects by Changing My Pricing Strategy

Summary

By understanding the prospective client’s needs, he will be more likely to take your proposals seriously. And at that point, you will be a step closer to winning the client’s trust and landing new business.

Related Content

• How to Fire Bad Clients
• 7 Tips for Giving Effective Design Project Quotes
• 5 Pricing Tips to Earn More on Client Projects
• Related categories: Business and Project Management

About the Author

Stef Gonzaga is all about creating great content for a better Web. She’s a resident blogger for the project scheduling software, TeamGantt, where she writes about productivity, project management, and the latest apps. Connect with Stef on Twitter @stefgonzaga.

The post Why Clients Aren’t Interested in Your Proposals appeared first on Six Revisions.

Welcome back, WDD readers! It’s time for this month’s round of WordPress plugin goodness.

As usual, we’ve got quite a variety of plugins, with a variety of potential use cases. Take note, though: some of these plugins are very new, and some might need a few more iterations before they’re perfect; that said, they’re all pretty awesome right now, so let’s jump right in…

Bump This

Bump This adds a button when viewing a post that will allow users to “bump” the post. If enough people click that button, the “bumped” post will be moved to the top of the list of posts. This is a great way for your users to help you to put popular content where others will see it.

Some small issues: currently, only logged-in users can “bump” posts. Worse, one user can bump the same post over and over again by navigating away from the post, coming back, and just hitting the button again. That said, I’m interested to see where this idea goes once the plugin gets updated a couple of times.

Video Capture

This plugin brings video capturing to your WordPress installation. Place a shortcode into any page or post, and users will be able to record short videos, up to three minutes in length.

Once the videos are recorded, you can access them from the WordPress admin panel. You can download or delete them… and, I imagine, embed them elsewhere.

The videos themselves are rather low-quality .flv files, and are stored on a third-party server. (Boy does that ring a few alarm bells!) Still, if you need a simple, free way to get webcam video from your users, and you’re okay with the terms and conditions, this plugin can do it well.

LeadIn

LeadIn is one of the more polished plugins on this list, and incredibly useful. It integrates with a number of form plugins for WordPress, and anytime someone submits a form (ie. a contact form) on your website, they are added to a database of contacts.

The page view history for each contact is listed in their file, so you can see what parts of your website interested them most.

The plugin also comes with a simple, optional newsletter sign-up form that only appears when a user scrolls all the way to the bottom of any page on your site. Signing up, or simply closing the “pop-in” sign up form keeps the user from ever having to see it again.

Gmail Comment Approval

Gmail Comment Approval takes a bit of set-up to make it work, but the end results are pretty awesome. Once the plugin is installed, your WordPress notification e-mails are DKIM signed, and you’ve registered your e-mail address with Google for doing this kind of thing, you can approve new comments on your WordPress site without ever leaving Gmail.

Flaunt Your Clients – Free

While it was originally designed with photographers in mind, this plugin could be used for a variety of scenarios. Essentially, it creates a new custom post type designed to accommodate client stories and testimonials. These “client pages” can be sorted by category, linked to blog posts, and more.

Google Web Fonts Customizer (GWFC)

Not happy with the fonts in your pre-made theme? GWFC adds a section to the “theme customizer” in your admin panel. This will allow you to choose any font from Google Web Fonts for your headings, paragraph text, blockquotes, and for some unfathomable reason, list items.

Meet My Team

Ever seen one of those websites where they have pictures of their team members, and you can click on them to load more information in a lightbox-like modal window? I can tell you from experience that those can be a pain in the rear to make from scratch (though it is doable).

If you can’t make one from scratch, this plugin will provide you with a custom post type designed for displaying team members and their info. A shortcode displays the team members in a responsive grid on any page or post you like.

There aren’t any settings as such. Any visual changes you wish to make will need to be done via CSS. If you have to do that, might as well just roll your own. However, if all you need is a plug-and-play solution, this’ll do it!

tinyfier-wp

tinyfier-wp optimizes your CSS, JS, and (if you want) HTML assets, removing all unnecessary data to make your site load faster. I tried it out, and well… it works. The code gets minified.

I didn’t see a huge increase in speed, probably because I’m using a basic WordPress install with the default theme as a test environment. Still, if counting bytes is your thing, give it a try.

WP Club Manager

Here’s one for the sports geeks. Simply put, WP Club Manager is designed for managing sports club websites. I’ll let their feature list tell the rest of the story:

• Can be used for almost any team sport
• Manage multiple teams
• Player and staff profiles
• Player ratings
• Player stats for each season
• Fixtures and results tables
• League tables
• Match reports
• Sponsors
• Fixture, results, player, table and sponsor widgets

Firefox OS Bookmark

Firefox OS Bookmark may be a newcomer to the market, but the reviews are glowing. If you want to register your WordPress-based site as a “hosted app” on their marketplace, this plugin will give you everything you need to pull that off.

Zethos for WordPress

A mobile app that has recently piqued my curiosity is Spritz. Basically, it makes speed reading easier by allowing you to focus on just one word at a time.

Zethos has re-created this functionality with JavaScript, allowing anyone to embed it in their web pages. This plugin embeds Zethos in every post, enabling readers to choose how they want to read your article.

The plugin needs work because, currently, there are no configuration options whatsoever. In addition, the Zethos embeds currently show up in posts in the main loop. If there is more than one post on a page, each instance of Zethos will “play” them all.

With time, though, I could see this plugin becoming a useful and fun addition to text-heavy blogs.

Featured image/thumbnail, WordPress image via Shutterstock.

WP Plugin: Add Legal Pages to your Site – only $17!

Fabulous Frosh

Two UMBC freshmen win conference Rookie of the Year honors in basketball

March Madness is the ultimate hoops party � and two standout UMBC freshmen are giving the Retriever Nation renewed hope that their basketball squads soon will return to the Big Dance for the first time since 2007 and 2008, when the women�s and men�s teams debuted at the NCAA Championships in back-to-back years.

Sara Tarbert, a Delta, Pa. native, and Rodney Elliott, a local product with exceptional pedigree, were named America East Conference Rookies of the Year at the end of this season. Both players also were named to the league�s Third Team � the only freshmen to earn that position amongst the conference�s elite.

Tarbert, a 5�11� forward, received a UMBC program-record five America East Rookie of the Week honors during the 2013-14 campaign and led all conference freshmen in scoring (13.8) and rebounding (7.1). She also led the league in minutes per game (36.3) and ranked eighth in both field goal (43.5) and seventh in free throw (76.3) percentage.

�There are so many good, young players in the league and I am truly honored,� Tarbert said upon receiving the award. �Honestly, it�s kind of shocking. You really don�t play for an award, you play to play, so it�s great to be recognized for it.�

Tarbert ended the season on a 13-game double-digit scoring streak and finished the year with exactly 400 points, the fourth-highest total ever for a UMBC freshman. She added 205 rebounds, sixth-highest all-time among UMBC freshmen, and recorded six games with double figures in both points and caroms.

“We are so proud of Sara and all the hard work she put into her freshman season,” head coach Phil Stern said. “It’s a great honor and something Sara should be very proud of. For me, the most impressive thing about her freshman year was how consistent she was on a nightly basis.”

Elliott became UMBC’s first men’s basketball player to earn Rookie-of-the-Year honors in 11 league seasons. earned Rookie-of-Week honors a UMBC-record five times during the 2013-14 campaign. Like Tarbert, he finished the year as the leading scorer amongst all league freshmen with 15.0 points per game, which was the fifth-best overall figure in the conference. In addition, Elliott was fourth in America East in assists (3.6), sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.0), and eighth in steals (1.3).

The 6�0� point guard � the son of former Maryland Terrapin standout Rodney Elliott, Sr.� became UMBC’s second NCAA Division I player and America East�s lone competitor this season to record 400 points (451), 100 rebounds (118) and 100 assists (108) in a season. The first-year player�s 451 points scored in the most by a freshman in UMBC�s 27 years of NCAA Division I competition.

Elliott was also selected as the America East Fans’ Choice Player of the Year, UMBC’s first in the eight-year history of the award and the first Retriever freshman in any sport to earn the selection.

�I am really honored to receive this award, it�s a humbling experience,� Elliott said. �I want to thank my family, my parents and my coaching staff – who knows where I would be without their support.�

“Rodney was thrust into a major role as a first-year college player and did a tremendous job,� said head coach Aki Thomas. �His consistency off of the court really helped him be consistent on the court. Rodney is a hard worker in the classroom, a good citizen, and a good teammate. These are all mature qualities that you normally see in veteran players.�

The last time that one conference institution could brag about two first-year honorees was in 2004-05, when Northeastern�s Shawn James and Shaylese Smallwood earned the distinctions. It has only happened four times in the four decades of America East basketball competition.

Tarbert and Elliott will have help leading the Retrievers back to national prominence. On the women�s side, another freshman, Taylor McCarley, also earned America East All-Rookie team honors and a third classmate, Emily Russo, recovered from knee surgery to record an outstanding initial campaign. For Coach Thomas� squad, freshmen Will Darley, David Kadiri and Charles Taylor, Jr. all played substantial minutes in 2013-14 and, with Elliott, form the nucleus of a team with limitless potential.

�Rodney has definitely served as a catalyst in the maturation process of our basketball program,� said Thomas. �He is a true student of the game of basketball, and I look forward to watching him grow as a player.”

(03/31/2014)

While network scientists have been poring over data from Twitter and Facebook, they’ve forgotten about Tumblr. Now they’ve begun to ask how this network differs from the rest.

The study of social networks has gripped computer scientists in recent years. In particular, researchers have focused on a few of the biggest networks that have made their data available, such as some mobile phone networks, Wikipedia and Twitter.