The first proposal I sent after a 12 hour shift got me my biggest fish yet

Thursday I worked 6am to 6pm, burnt my forearm on the fryer, and got screamed at over a side of ranch. Got home, cracked a beer, and decided to just throw together a proposal for a web form gig I found at 2am. Didn't overthink it. Three paragraphs, a price of $450, and a note that said I could finish in 5 days. They said yes in 4 hours. I normally spend two evenings polishing every word and lose half the jobs I bid on. This one was pure garbage grammar and it worked. Has anyone else noticed their worst drafted proposals win more than the careful ones?

2 comments

2 Comments

morganl712d ago

Gotta call cap on the whole "exhausted brain = genius" angle. You got lucky, plain and simple. Probably hit some dude who just needed a quick yes and your price was low enough to not care about typos. Polished proposals have won me way more consistent work over the years, even if the numbers are wilder. Like, I once spent two hours on a pitch, got ghosted, then threw a five sentence email at a different client and landed a $2k job. Random wins happen, but they ain't a strategy.

scott.alex2d ago

Burnt forearm and a side of ranch scream sounds like a rough day, man. Good for you for even sending anything out after all that. It's weird how the brain just gives up overthinking when you're exhausted, and that raw version comes out clearer somehow. Clients can smell the desperation in a polished pitch, but that quick one probably read like you knew exactly what you were doing and had no time to waste. I bet the grammar didn't matter to them, they just saw a straight answer and a firm price. Maybe the real lesson is that our "worst" drafts are just us not getting in our own way. Hope that forearm heals up fast.