How much time will you spend on a Proposal?

[fresh]

I got a call a few weeks ago about replacing signs at an apartment complex. They asked for something pretty simple, and I inquired about their budget before we went out to the site. The project manager didn't really know, but he felt that the developer would be willing to invest a decent amount in signs for this project.

When we go to visit the site, we see they could use much more than what they originally asked us to quote. Long story short, they asked us for a formal proposal including everything we saw at the property. Since they didn't have any specs to base my quote off of, I've spent WAY more time than I'd like to admit trying to come up with the best solution.

So my question is this, when presented with "What can you do for me?" How far do you go without getting a deposit? I was thinking I should have asked them for a consulting fee, but since this is pretty new for us, I didn't think of it until I'd already spent way too much time on it.

I already know I'm going to get sh it from some people here who apparently opened their shops and the next day had HUGE accounts and knew everything there is to know. I've been working really hard networking and getting our name out there, it feels good to have a big company with a reasonable budget actually call all us first. The quote for this job is 3 times what they asked me for originally, and at least 2 times our largest job, ever.

 

[Gino]

There's no sense in quoting unknowns. If they don't know what they want, then tell them it will be somewhere between $250. and $25,000. See what their reaction is and explain to them, it all depends on what you want, need and get.

There is no sense in you spinning your wheels if they don't even have a dog in the race.

If you give them a low number to get your foot in the door..... and they come back with wanting more, it's almost impossible to tell them after the fact, they're wanting more is gonna cost more.

Tell them you'll do a survey for them at.... and name a price, like $450., so they can spin a whole bunch of people's wheels, but at least you'll all be on the same page. Then it's fair across the board.

 

[fresh]

That's a tough question..... and I know how you feel. I recently spent about 5 hrs on the first "official formal proposal" I've ever worked on.... but got the contract and a ton of residual work from it. In that case it was worth it.

In your case....I would say it's too late to turn back. Get them some figures and details....but not TOO MANY details so that they can hand your proposal to sign shop "b".

Yeah, I included measurements on my quote. I probably should not have done that. Live and learn!

 

[fresh]

There's no sense in quoting unknowns. If they don't know what they want, then tell them it will be somewhere between $250. and $25,000. See what their reaction is and explain to them, it all depends on what you want, need and get.

There is no sense in you spinning your wheels if they don't even have a dog in the race.

If you give them a low number to get your foot in the door..... and they come back with wanting more, it's almost impossible to tell them after the fact, they're wanting more is gonna cost more.

Tell them you'll do a survey for them at.... and name a price, like $450., so they can spin a whole bunch of people's wheels, but at least you'll all be on the same page. Then it's fair across the board.

Project Manager said $10-20K wouldn't be unusual for a project of this size. The owner was thrilled with my initial informal proposal, and asked me to get a package together and include everything. So I'm not spinning my wheels, they have money to spend, I just need to convince them to spend it at my shop. And yes, I should have gotten a fee for the survey/ sign consulting.

 

[tsgstl]

a little late now but...... offer them a rate for your work on the proposal and tell them a % of that can be put towards the cost of the proposed signage. That way if they don't get any or some of the stuff you put work into at least you get paid for your time.

 

[fresh]

In case anyone was wondering, all of my initial hard work was not for nothing... They accepted my proposal, and even want to add to it! Woop!

 

[Gino]

That's a nice Christmas Present...........

 

[SightLine]

Really depends. For some of the big ones you might have to invest 20 or more hours in a proposal. Includes site visits, materials research, etc... try for a big Federal contract and the paperwork requirements alone drive most away from even trying. It can be VERY worth it though. The first time on a fed one can be very intimidating and overwhelming. Getting setup in all the required systems (wawf, dfas, etc) can be very tedious the first time. They are consolidating some of it though which is making things a little easier. One of the DOD projects we got, I had probably 40 hours in it, 23 page proposal, 3 site visits, etc. all on a "maybe", there were at least 2 others seriously trying for the same contract.

 

[Rick]

I have done quite a few apartment projects across the country... 10-20k is a pretty small budget for a complete package. Some of these larger project can get up to the 150-200k range depending on the scope. I can spend 80-120 hours on one project from the initial survey to designing it, to pricing. If this is for a larger apartment management company, you might want to invest a little time as they tend to be loyal to cost efficient vendors.