The Nonproposal Proposal

My goal in this book is to help you become as successful as possible with Elance. However, everyone is different. I can’t know you and know what your individual personality and circumstances entail. So I must provide you with as much information as possible, and then you decide what works best for you.

In this light, I’d like to pass on the bidding technique of an über-successful freelancer named Alexander Rolek (his Elance user name is ARolek, and his website is www.tinyfactory.com). Alex designs mobile web applications and began his Elance career too broke to pay the $8 for a web domain name. (Now, let’s face it. That’s pretty broke.)

However, by using the bidding technique he shared with me, within 10 months Alex went from penniless to running his own company, Tiny Factory, in a 2,500-square-foot office in San Diego (not exactly the cheapest office space going ’round). He has become so successful he’s fully booked with projects through the next quarter and literally has more work than he can do.

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Combined with Alex’s unusual bidding technique, he also carefully studied the market and his specific skill sets. He ended up focusing on a specialty that allowed him to become the expert in this area and charge higher rates.

Alex credits this all to Elance and the fact he never wrote a single proposal. I can hear you now, “What? Wait a minute, Karen. You’ve just spent the entire chapter telling me how crucial proposals are!”

Yes, I have. But have a look at what Alex does and see how his method accomplishes the same thing—establishing a personal connection with the client—but just in a different way.

Instead of writing proposals for each project he bid on, Alex asked questions. He felt that there was no connection with the normal proposal process, and he wanted to dig deeper into what the client wanted. Through this question-asking process, he developed a dialogue with each prospective client and therefore a personal connection.

He didn’t even submit a bid amount until he knew the client better. To submit a proposal without a bid amount, click on the Will Submit Amount Later box in the Cost & Timing section of the proposal details as in Figure 6.5.

Figure 6.5: Click the Will Submit Amount Later box to submit a proposal without a bid price. This allows you to ask questions before you decide on a fee.

The client ends up spending enough time educating Alex on what he really wants that it’s a waste of time to educate some other contractor. A comfort level is established between Alex and the client. Once Alex understands the project at a deeper level, he almost always goes for the highest bid. He estimates his success rate at 70 percent.

The questions Alex asks are designed to challenge the client; to get him thinking more deeply about his project. This back-and-forth communication stretches out the timeline between when the project is posted and when it’s eventually awarded, but most of the time Alex wins the job. Because his award ratio is so high, he also uses fewer Connects—an added perk.

Because of his success on Elance, most of Alex’s work now comes via referrals and job invites. And when you’re invited to bid on a project, it doesn’t cost you any Connects. Extra bonus!

Alex’s logic led him to develop a relationship with the client before the project was awarded, and to understand what was needed so he could deliver it well and at a good price. He could only please the client if he knew exactly what he wanted. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

This is one more method for you to mull over and see if it fits your personality and specialty. Give it a try and see if it works for you.

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