The RFQ issue.
Why some inquiries are simply worthless.
This is my first post on medium and it could sound like a complaint, but it isn’t meant to be. It’s my personal review concerning this “issue” after almost 3 years of self employment and freelancing in the design / dev industry and also an explanation of “how it should be.” from my point of view.
It’s getting more in the last time and I thought it’s time to leave some words on this topic, let you know what’s “wrong” from my point of view and how it could / should be.
What it’s about? Basically a good thing: Inquiries. The bad thing? Mails from someone you never heard of before, someone you don’t know, writing to you as if you were friends for over a decade. Sloppy written letters about a friendship there never was, without even the least necessary information regarding the person itself, his / her company / project, or even the rough idea / product they are dealing with…
This mostly sounds something like this:
Hey Justin,
I need a graphic designer to adjust a wordpress theme we bought a while ago. No big deal hehehe! ;) pretty simple, so it shouldn’t take you too much time ;) ;) ;)…. It’s pretty urgent and things need to get done AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. We don’t have much money! ;)
I am looking forward to read your response.
“Are you really complaining about inquiries here??? Dafuq?”
Nope, it’s just about the ones as the one above. I am always happy when I get any kind of inquiry! But it needs to be interesting and I don’t wanna feel like being #56 on the list.
Some points on this and what I’d like to read:
- So you want it the old fashioned formal way, yay?
Nope, not at all. I don’t want to read something exorbitant formal bullshit like “Dear Mr. blaaa” — You can even call me “dude” or whatever, as long as you’re providing some basic information, professionalism, integrity, authenticity and personality along your inquiry that kinda attracts my attention.
2. What?? — Please give me some input.
Introduce yourself, your company, your project, your idea. Just give me a few insides that could lead me to instantly say: Uhhh, that’s nice! Let’s work together!!”
3. Why me? — There are thousands of great designers out there.
Only 1-2 sentences concerning the reason you chose me. Great! (Double win for you — 1.: Probably no matter what you’ll write — it’ll make me happy. And 2.: I’ve got some input for my “personal analytics” ;).
4. “It’s simple.”… “ASAP!” … “No money.”… etc.
If you know it’s that simple — why not doing it on your own? Yep, that’s an old one, but I like to compare this with something more tangible: If I’ve got trouble with my car and I get it to the garage, I am not telling the mechanic: “There’s just some oil dripping out of the engine all time. Probably just a small hole or so. A simple thing, not a big deal, shouldn’t be too expensive.” This dude may tells me that there’s a small broken pipeline that needs to get fixed, which is right inside the engine so they have to break up the entire block, what leads to several working hours. There we’ve got this “tiny little something” that doesn’t cost a thing. And that’s similar to what I mean concerning these inquiries.
5. Please, no “Smilyfication”.
The 5th smily doesn’t make you a closer friend or a more serious entrepreneur. A few, well placed can be nice and pleasant, but not three in a row… ;) ;) ;)
After stating the status quo,
this is how I think it could / should look like:
Hey Justin,
my name is Mr. / Mrs. Good and I am the CEO of TheGoodCompany. We are focusing on doing good things of all kinds.
I stumbled upon your website, checked your portfolio and your philosophy and I really like it. As I am recently searching for a freelance UI Designer I thought you might be interested in working with us :) We are building…. etc (more details ab out the idea, 2-3 line — totally enough)….
Thanks so far! Don’t hesitate to contact me and feel free to check our website to get to know more about me and our company. (link to website, his / her linked profile etc…)
Good bye and cheers!
My beautiful utopia.
Sure, this what I am dreaming of at night… Kind of. But this is just an example so you get the idea of what I have in mind, when I think of an interesting and appealing inquiry mail. It’s no formal bullshit and it’s no lose letter of “hey, we need someone doing some work for some company”… but, well , I think you get the picture ;)
What do you think about this topic? Got the same experiences? Or is it me, being kinda stickler expecting too much?
Thanks for reading!
