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7321d689
Community Member

History - Proposals are less

I found this position that I bid on that I'm really excited about. When I applied, it said there were 20-50 proposals. Now, I looked at it and it says less than 5 proposals. Does this mean, that the person posting the job, weeded out all those proposals? If it does, then do I know if I've been weeded out? It says that I submitted a proposal.

 

Thanks, in advance,

Kevin

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gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Kevin, I saw your post earlier this morning and thought to answer your very reasonable questions and realized I didn't know the answers. (I also knew Petra or someone would come along.) Here's what I do know: For me, the biggest difference between freelancing on UW and in the b&m world is how I handle proposals. Off the platform, I typically invest substantially in a proposal which includes getting to know the prospect's business and their project objectives. That's an investment on their part, as well. For any that I don't win, I try to understand as much as possible about why, so going forward I can adjust either my targeting or my follow-through (or both).

 

UW is an entirely different ballgame. It's short attention span theater on the client's part -- any good job post is swamped with responses -- so I keep it short to the point of bluntness. My goal is to open a conversation during which we (1) vet each other for fit and (2) thoroughly hash out the project specs. But once I click 'submit' I don't think about it again unless I hear back from the client. And I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard back from a client who wasn't hiring me, over five years (during which I've earned $100k here). Submit it and forget it is my advice. When you eventually find yourself juggling more positive responses than you're prepared to service, it'll be a good problem to have.

 

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5 REPLIES 5
JoanneP
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Kevin,

 

When clients receive proposals from freelancers, they can review them and have the option to decline the freelancer's proposal if they do not see them fit for the job.

~ Joanne
Upwork
7321d689
Community Member

Thank you for responding. When a client does that, will the proposal stats for the job decrease or will it still display the same value? I'm really excited about this project, and I noticed the proposal starts are much less now, and it still shows that I have a proposal submitted. If they declined, would this be removed from my proposals? 


Kevin Q wrote:

Thank you for responding. When a client does that, will the proposal stats for the job decrease or will it still display the same value? I'm really excited about this project, and I noticed the proposal starts are much less now, and it still shows that I have a proposal submitted. If they declined, would this be removed from my proposals? 


As I understand it, your proposal would be deducted from the proposals count and moved to your Archived Proposals folder if the client archived OR declined your proposal.  In the latter case you would also receive a Declined message.

 

Declining seems to be rare.  I think I've only once received a Declined message. But archiving is not unusual, I believe,  though I've never paid attention to whether I've been archived. 


Richard W wrote:

As I understand it, your proposal would be deducted from the proposals count and moved to your Archived Proposals folder if the client archived OR declined your proposal.  In the latter case you would also receive a Declined message.

The number is the freelancers still in the running. This excludes those who are archived or declined, who withdrew their proposal or declined invites.

 

If you were declined, your proposal moves to your archived proposals.

If the client archived your proposal, but didn't decline it, it will not move to your archived proposals on your side. 

gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Kevin, I saw your post earlier this morning and thought to answer your very reasonable questions and realized I didn't know the answers. (I also knew Petra or someone would come along.) Here's what I do know: For me, the biggest difference between freelancing on UW and in the b&m world is how I handle proposals. Off the platform, I typically invest substantially in a proposal which includes getting to know the prospect's business and their project objectives. That's an investment on their part, as well. For any that I don't win, I try to understand as much as possible about why, so going forward I can adjust either my targeting or my follow-through (or both).

 

UW is an entirely different ballgame. It's short attention span theater on the client's part -- any good job post is swamped with responses -- so I keep it short to the point of bluntness. My goal is to open a conversation during which we (1) vet each other for fit and (2) thoroughly hash out the project specs. But once I click 'submit' I don't think about it again unless I hear back from the client. And I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard back from a client who wasn't hiring me, over five years (during which I've earned $100k here). Submit it and forget it is my advice. When you eventually find yourself juggling more positive responses than you're prepared to service, it'll be a good problem to have.

 

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