Are you a freelancer or a small web development/design firm? Well then you must have experienced the frustration and pain of spending hours creating proposals for potential clients and still not make the cut many times, wasting hours of work and research. Or your proposals might just lack that touch of professionalism in them.
Bidsketch is here to scratch that itch. It is an application that lets you create, track, customize, and design beautiful proposals. The developers claim that with this app you can create proposals in half the time.
A quote is the first vital step in a sales process. A competent quote doesn’t just have the right price, but also is a business document with all the details relevant to your bid. Professional formatting, highlighting important sections prominently and visual appeal are important factors that grab the attention of the clients.
When we launched Inc42, we needed a professional way to get proposals in front of potential clients, whom we generally don’t expect to meet in person until after a decision is reached. Our website is the first impression, but we knew the proposal experience would leave the most memorable taste for the average client. If the proposal is difficult to trudge through, comes via snail mail, and requires a signature and return postage, you’re hardly showing your business to be intuitive and forward thinking. Printed docs just won’t do.
We did find 2 other reputable providers in the online proposal app category: Quoteroller & QuoteRobot. But decided to go ahead with Bidsketch thanks to their ease of use and they suited our requirement more.
After using Bidsketch, you realize the kind of discipline and organization it brings forward in you. I would say that the templates feature is one of the major attractions of Bidsketch. It comes with three default templates with the option to create customized ones of your own. These templates are a lot of fun to use and is a quick way to mix and match proposal sections, fees and designs.
It’s this feature that has the potential to save a ton of time from the conventional alternatives. The sample content that comes with each template is another major time saver.
Another great feature are the analytics and proposal tracking. You can keep track of all the proposals you’ve sent out, whether the client has seen it yet, approved it or rejected it as well.
One other thing i’d like to mention is that i just loved the regular emails we got from Ruben, Bidsketch founder, with great tips and insights on how to improve our experience with Bidsketch as well as some nice tricks to convert more clients from proposals.
Without doubt, Bidsketch cuts down the time taken to generate a quote. Features like optional fees, electronic signatures, custom approval messages, and impressive client landing pages make it a compelling choice.
Bidsketch subscription plans start at $19 a month. It’s good that they have a plan that allows unlimited proposals and the number of quotes that you are allowed to create in the lowest tier is quite generous as well. Surprisingly, there are no free plans, but you can try all the plans for 14 days. Do note that you’ll have to submit credit card information even before starting the trial. Nonprofits can use the app for free. They offer a 14 day free trial on all their plans, so do yourself a favor and check it out. You’ll be glad you did.
