A pretty decent proposal*
One of my tasks as The Nerdery’s blogger is to pull back the curtain on the Willy-Wonkaesque machinations that make this the magical place that it is. This is sort of a challenge, what with non-disclosure agreements, busy nerds, and well, frankly, things that are really cool and interesting to us might not be so interesting to you, our readers.
But that’s one of our trademarks, we never back down from a challenge. So today I am going to tell you a story about proposals, the Wonder Twins (who hate being called that which makes calling them that much more fun), and why you should care about this.
The superhero moniker is pretty apt for Ryan and Adam who are Solutions Engineers here at Sierra Bravo. They are often thanked by our sales folks for being faster than speeding bullets and able to meet impossible deadlines in a single bound.
Ryan and Adam are responsible for putting together the proposals we give to prospective clients. When you’re looking for some outside help and look to The Nerdery as a potential partner, they’re the ones who are going to help you get started. They listen to what your looking for, what your risks are, and your deadlines, then they build these proposals that outline the scope of your project and how we’re going to go about getting it done.
And they really are listening, that’s not just marketing spin. I read through one of their recent proposals for a big project on a super-tight deadline that requires a specific application framework, and was surprised to find this:
These pages are a critical step in communicating your value proposition. . . and our development team will ensure that site visitors are able to easily navigate, read, and move within these pages without fear of compatibility issues or disruption of the browsing experience.
Not only do the Wonder Twins understand the technical aspects of their job, they understand what parts are crucial to your business. How awesome is that?
So why does this matter to you? I’m getting to that.
What I learned is that it’s unique for Web firms to have staff solely dedicated to working on proposals. Because this is what the Wonder Twins spend their day doing, they get to truly understand what you’re trying to accomplish and what you need to sell your project to your client.
Once they get that, they spend their time thinking of the best ways to approach your unique project, how to prepare for any foreseeable forks in the road and, basically, help you figure out if we’re the right people to help you with this project.
They’re doing all this before we’ve even won your business. And that’s why you should care, because this is the kind of standard you should hold your partners (and well, everyone you deal with) to, people will to invest time in understanding what you need before you even sign on the dotted line.
*I got to give credit to my cubemate, Trip, for the nice headline — a riff on “Indecent Proposal.”
