How do you ask a potential client for clarification? Some jobs descriptions are poorly written

[zarifis]

Looking at some posted jobs, the request is not clear and before submitting a proposal I need clarification on exactly what is needed.  How can I reach out to the potential client for additional details before submitting a proposal?

[gilbert-phyllis · Accepted solution]

If you find one posting in ten where the specs are clear and complete, you'll be doing better than average. There is no way to ask questions or get more information ahead of submitting a proposal. If the project looks like a good fit for you, then qualify your bid by clearly calling out assumptions and flagging variables that would drive the cost up or down. Or identify your quote as a placeholder pending additiona information.

Use the info-gathering to position yourself as the expert partner they need.

Keep it short and sweet--the client only sees the first couple of lines unless they open the document, so you need to hook them as they scan through dozens (or more).

Welcome to Upwork!

[zarifis]

Phyllis, thank you for the advice!  Based on your reply and Jason's, it looks like Upwork needs to add this functionality.

I really appreciate the help!

[jtmichelsen]

Frustrating, isn't it?  Like Phyllis said, just make sure you let them know that your figures are subject to change once you get further information.  Maybe someone with more time around here can confirm this, but I don't believe that you have any negative effects from sending a proposal as a query for additional information.  Just don't accept a job until everything has been worked out and understood, of course.  

[zarifis]

Jason, thanks for the feedback.  The advice from you and Phyllis is very helpful!

[gilbert-phyllis]

You are welcome. I find UW's Help & Support materials to be rather vague and/or opaque sometimes, and this forum contains a wealth of information about how it actually works. (It's usually worthwhile to use the search bar first, before posting a question. You can often get your answer and enough context to prompt next-level, follow-up questions that you get answered by forum members.)

The ability to contact clients ahead of submitting a proposal will not be added or even considered, because clients would face deluges of queries, only some of which would be worth their while to answer. It would be helpful all round if clients did a better job of spec'ing their projects, but it is what it is.

Some FLs complain about having to spend connects on proposals where they can't even tell what the project is, and that's a legitimate gripe. But my experience, echoed by many others here, is that once you get a little bit of traction, connects become a lot less precious. I've only been here a year and a half and it's been nearly a year since I used my monthly allotment.

[zarifis]

Phyllis,

Thank you for the feedback and perspective - very helpful. I've saved your replies in OneNote for my future reference.

Jim

[jmeyn]

---

@Jim Z wrote:

Looking at some posted jobs, the request is not clear and before submitting a proposal I need clarification on exactly what is needed.  How can I reach out to the potential client for additional details before submitting a proposal?

---

 This issue is a continuing issue and a continous source of more or less angry feedback to Upwork. So far Upwork doesn't bother. With Elance we had the option to mark a job as having insufficient detail about the deliverables and it was taken down. Unfortunately Upwork doesn't seem to be interested in implementing this feature.

[richard_wein]

(Disclaimer: I'm still a relative newcomer to Upwork, with only 17 jobs received.)

With the kind of work I do (basically, small programming jobs) there is never really sufficient detail in the job description to make a confident estimate of the cost. In my early days here, I was prepared to take a chance on a fixed bid, because I was keen to get started. But now I always say at least that my bid is provisional, and often that it's only a placeholder. 

I can't say that this approach has worked for me yet. I don't think I've yet heard back from a client when I said the bid was a placeholder, and only once when I said it was provisional. In the latter case, the client offered me the job straight up at the provisional price, so I had to make a point of asking some questions about the work before accepting the offer. (I still didn't ask enough questions, and ended up underpricing the job!)

So I've hardly been getting any fixed price jobs from new clients recently. That may also be because I'm trying to get higher prices. I made a decision to start charging more realistically for fixed price jobs, as I didn't want my hourly clients to get a poorer deal than my fixed price clients. Fortunately, I seem to be getting more hourly jobs now, and I'm hoping they make up a larger proportion of my work in the future.

[zarifis]

Thank you. Your feedback regarding your experience is very helpful.  ~Jim