Bids and Proposals - Part 1
The terms may seem similar or even identical. They are certainly used similarly and, occasionally, identically. The danger in viewing them as interchangeable is that you might actually believe they are interchangeable; that will cost you time and money. They are not the same thing.
Commodity Goods and Services
A “bid” is for a commodity, something that is identical no matter who does it or what the description of the item is. An example of a commodity is 20 tons of sand, fine grade 0.075 mm to 0.425 mm, in 500-pound burlap bags, delivered to the corner of First Street and Grand Avenue, East Absurdia, California, between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. on June 31, 2025. With that description, it doesn’t matter who fills the order and how. You’ll get the same result in every case. You can probably award the contract on the basis of price and DTP (Delivery to Promise) history.
Likewise, there are commodity services. Much of computer programming is now a commodity service. Creating a web page is, for the most part, filling in the blanks in a content management system. Creating content intended to optimize a site for search engines is also largely a commodity. Receptionists are usually a commodity, as are many factory workers.
Some services are treated as commodities with unfortunate results. The best example of this is call center operations. I recall one worrisome trip from Cleveland to Dayton, Ohio. I had driven to Cleveland for a meeting and had an afternoon flight out of Dayton the next day. During the trip to Dayton, I encountered an unexpected heavy snowstorm. It became apparent I would miss my late afternoon flight to Los Angeles, so I called the airline to change the reservation and the hotel chain to change my arrival date. The hotel customer service representative was apparently in India. He asked me for my reservation confirmation number. I was traveling uncomfortably fast on an interstate highway in heavy snow and the number was in my briefcase. I explained this to the Customer Service Representative, who asked me “What is snow?” The rest of the conversation was predictably unproductive. He had to have the reservation number; I was not going to imperil my life and others’ trying to retrieve the information. I explained that the hotel was the only one of that brand name on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles; he still needed my reservation number. I asked for the phone number of the hotel, but without the reservation number he could not proceed.
In another case I had a hotel reservation in St Louis. I needed directions to the hotel. As I was approaching one of the only two intersections in the country involving four separate interstate highways, the representative began spelling the name of the first street in the directions: B as in boy; R as in Romeo; O as in Ongole (which turns out to be a city in India) and so forth until he had spelled Broadway. By then I was four miles past the road.
I urged my own company, which ran call centers in multiple foreign countries, to bring them back onshore. They were the face of our company and of our clients’ companies, and should not just speak fluent English, but also fluent customer culture. Nearly all our clients, and all our clients’ customers, were in North America and Western Europe. No success.
Other Goods and Services
A “proposal” is an entirely different species. It is for non-commodity goods and services. Price is still important, but the proposal focuses on how the job will be done. A strong proposal will typically begin with Our Understanding of the Current Situation. Demonstrating that you have a firm grasp on what the client is facing makes the client more comfortable with you. This is then followed by questions to clarify the client's own understanding and his needs. It is rare for a client to include all necessary information in a Request for Proposals.
Questions are the opportunity to shine. Before submitting a proposal, I always did due diligence on the company and industry. That can take as little as ten minutes or more than thirty minutes. I would ask questions to imply my competence, e.g., “As you know, your industry is faced with a need to consolidate in order to deal with increasingly intrusive government regulations. How is your firm addressing this?” “As you’re aware, your industry faces increasing price pressure from abroad. How do you plan to remain competitive?” Standard questions were whether the client sold goods, or services, or both; how geographically spread the client is; the nature of the client’s target market; and another half dozen items. In many cases the client’s target market was “Anyone with money.” In those instances, the first step was obvious: define a target market and an ideal client.
Content
Regardless of the nature of the engagement, a brief period will be used to validate the information provided. This period should not be excessive, although I’m not sure what to tell you about what excessive means. If the work will be done in phases, this must be spelled out, including what reasonable results are expected from the phase, and why the phases are sequenced as they are.
Key members of the team should be identified, with a brief biography for each. There are political realities to be considered. When I was selling a significant amount of work in absolute monarchies in the Middle East, every team member was male, and no team members were Jewish. The countries involved prohibited the entry of Jews; women were considered prostitutes, no matter their resumes, if they were traveling without their husbands. Both issues have since eased in the region.
Output
It is necessary to specify what the output of the work will be. For example, you might specify “As a result of our efforts, you will receive an actionable plan to . . .” Complex engagements can contain ten or 25 separate “deliverables.”
Whether or not you choose to have an attorney review your proposal is, obviously, your choice. Remember that attorneys are born with a red pencil in hand and are eager to use it. You may have done thirty hours of research on the company and industry, but most attorneys are genetically unable to refrain from changing your words. I never let an attorney near a proposal that I wrote, except for one that involved me and an attorney collaborating on a piece of work.
Part II will be published within a month, if possible.
Bill, I'm a young 30 something guy who was lucky enough to come across your UpWork job to read/review Sea monsters. You gave me the chance despite having no formal experience book reviewing. My output back to you was minimal. However, selfishly, now I've had the chance to read your work on Substack and I can confidently say I'm better for it. Thank you.
I'm glad you forgot to paywall this because I enjoyed it tremendously. I feel you could save the nation if someone with wits put you in charge.
The downside is having to work with so many morons would be likely to kill you faster and I really want to find that which would keep you alive and kicking very much longer.