It’s important for both parties to understand the entire process before they settle on an agreement. Each must know how to work with the other. Just as the client is “interviewing” potential web design firms, the design firms are doing the same with the client.

Great post and very informational.

TJ
Boston Web Design

Thanks for the great post. I couldn’t agree more with what you’ve written here as well as what was mentioned in the article. I think it is best for us all (developers) to keep in mind too though is different clients/businesses have different priorities. Some haven’t had a bad experience, don’t care about up time, turn around, design, functionality, etc. and are simply looking for the cheapest simplest site out there to which companies or freelancers who do provide these things can’t (and really shouldn’t) compete.

After reading the comments I am really interested in what John said about not creating proposals if it’s being shopped around. This might be something we too have to implement as there are a lot of tire kickers out there, which detract from the overall quality existing, or definite future clients receive.

Finally, as someone in the sales process I’ve realized how important it is for you to let potential vendors know that you will not be using their services. Although if the person isn’t in sales this may not be obvious. Additionally 100% of the time we make an effort to get a definite yes or no. Even if the yes is “yes, but later.” Sometimes the time is not right (budget, key personnel time, etc.). And, if it’s a no we have hopefully built enough rapport to be told exactly what the problem was. This has been very effective and many potential clients (that turned out not to be clients) helped us grow and refine our process.

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I actually have experienced that with printing resources where I have in fact picked up a client who has had a flag put on their name with printing vendors. Turns out they had to be hunted down by a collection agency to pay for a large printing order which caused one printer to talk to all the printers they knew to be on the look out for company X. Upon learning that I was wary of the client as well.

Actions, or non-actions, against one vendor can have a far reaching impact.

As far as a client ignoring a quote, it happens all the time. Even worse are the ones that respond to the quote and try to barter – I had someone try to trade me some concert tickets for $xxx worth of work. A small amount, to be sure, but if I want concert tickets I’ll buy them with the money from the project!

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