Red flags in a proposal
Treat a proposal as unfinished when it will not name the weekly job, give you a price, or show a piece of work you can open.
A proposal that promises you another company's result is guessing, because nobody has looked at your files yet.
| Look for | Usable | Unfinished |
|---|---|---|
| The job | Last week's file is named | The word transformation |
| The person | One name checks the result | A department |
| The price | What it buys and when it stops | A monthly fee with no job attached |
| The proof | A case page you can open | A promise your result will match theirs |
No job, no file
A proposal can look complete and still describe every business. If you cannot tell which file from last week it is about, the writer has not seen the work. My method starts with that file, because a fix that is not about a real handoff is a guess.
Two or three people "keeping an eye on it" feels like cover. Each of them assumes another already checked, and a wrong draft can sit for weeks. A proposal that names a department and no person has that problem baked in.
A price with no edge
Ask what the money buys and when it stops. A chatbot proposal, while the booking is still Excel and WhatsApp, still needs the job named first.
Read a vendor's price on the vendor's own page. Mine is AED 750 for 60 minutes, and Ralveto prices the build.
Borrowed results
A case page should say what happened on that job. My finance case and order system do. When a proposal quotes someone else's result as yours, ask which of your files it was worked out from.
Steps
- Underline the sentence that names the weekly job. If it is missing, stop.
- Underline the person who checks the result.
- Open any case the proposal cites and see if it is a job, or a logo.
- Ask what the price buys and when it stops. If nobody can say, do not sign.
Questions
What is a red flag in an AI proposal?
No weekly job, no person who checks the result, and no work you can open.
Is a monthly retainer a red flag?
It is when it starts before anyone names the job. Name the job first.
Should a proposal promise a saving?
Ask which of your files the saving was worked out from. My case pages say what happened on those jobs, and none of them promises the same on yours.
Where do I take a proposal I already have?
Bring it to my hour. A second opinion on a quote you already have is one of the things we cover.
Related
Sources
Want this worked out on your own business? Book the hour, AED 750.