Upwork Proposal Sample (2021 Update)
Are you looking to write Upwork proposals that get responses and actually get clients to buy from you in the end? Are you looking to have Upwork proposals with a response rate between 10% and 20%? Well, in this video, I'm going to give you exactly that.
So many people spend hours and hours writing and perfecting your proposals without actually getting the result that they want. They get clients that don't pay enough. They get clients that are not ready to buy. And some clients just ignore the proposals altogether after an hour of research into writing a proposal. In this video, we're going to solve that problem once and for all.
So why am I qualified to talk about this? Well, I've been on Upwork myself since 2011 (back when it was called Odesk. And I also worked with hundreds of agencies, I currently work with 226 agencies that are using Upwork, as well. So you know, we kind of know what we're doing in terms of proposals, and I'm gonna give you the tips that we've collected and the techniques that we've collected over five years of doing this. Before we continue,
Now, to jump right into this. This is the updated version of the proposal template that I'm going to give you. You should also watch the original. It gives you more clarity and more details.
Video proposals tend to have a higher response rate.
So we're going to focus on video proposals today. Video proposals tend to have a high response rate compared to text proposals. And as such, we're going to focus on that. The purpose of proposals is to get more sales. The purpose of proposals is to get more sales calls that lead to sales.
You can no longer use booking forms on Upwork.
A lot of people try to chat to clients and communicate via email, and you know, back and forth via the Upwork chat process. I don't recommend that. What I recommend is structuring everything, including your profile, to get people on sales calls. And there's a terms-of-service-compliant way of doing this on Upwork. Because they changed the terms of service last year. You can no longer use booking forms where you ask client’s info if you want to stay terms-of-service-complaint.
That being said, I've noticed a lot of freelancers still send booking links by asking for contact information. (I don't recommend doing this. You know, Upwork doesn't want you to do this.) You could actually get your account suspended if you do that. So don't do that. We're going to do the terms-of-service-complaint way in this video, because that's the way to do it.
How to do video proposals?
So how do you do video proposals? How do you record them and send them to clients? The easiest way is to use a tool like Loom without asking for contact information. Because Loom also has forms. Don't put forms in there. So use a tool like Loom where you record your screen and your camera with a microphone, and then talk into the microphone and say the following things. (I'm going to give you the things to say in the video so that you get a high response rate.)
You want to hook people.
So the first thing you want to do is you want to hook people into watching your video. You want to talk about what they wrote in their job description. And then you want to talk about how you're going to help them solve the problem that they say they have. Now, don't go into all your qualifications and the things you're good at. No one really cares about that. Talk about the client and talk about what they're interested in, their pain points, their desires, and so on.
Have you solved this problem in the past?
So the first thing we do is hook them in so that they read the rest of the proposal by saying something like, “Hi, are you ready to solve this problem? I noticed that you have this problem. And here's how I solved it for clients in the past.” Because that's what they really care about. They care about “have you solved this in the past, do you know how to do this?”
You need lots of proof.
So what you need to provide is quality, quantity and variety of proof. And you can't skip one of these. It has to be quantity of variety, and quality of proof. Different types of proof, lots of its and quality, which means lots of different numbers and things that are important to the clients, in a well-presented package.
You can create proof using tools like Canva, for example, where you put in all your testimonials, all your portfolio items, or your white papers. You could put it all on the cover, make it look really pretty like a slide deck presentation, even with audio if you want. So what you need to do is you need to put as much proof in your video or alongside your video with a link in a PDF, for example, or another video just for proof or integrate those two videos into one single video. That's what you need to do to really get the most out of this.
If you provide proof sales is going to be easier, lead generation is going to be easier and people are going to justifiably trust you more because you do have more proof. Yes, you do need lots of proof if you want to succeed as a freelancer or agency owner. It’s a lot easier to run a business providing a service if you have lots of proof. It doesn't matter what you say you know how to do. It matters what you can prove that you promise that you can do. And then things go much smoother, because the sales call is not going to be like “oh, I don't believe you, let me talk to some other people.” The sales call is going to be more like them wanting to work with you. That's the goal of this.
What are the things you are going to talk about on the phone.
Then you want to also talk in the video about what the things are that you're going to discuss on the call because essentially you're doing a sales call. And the things you're going to discuss are the things that are going to help the client. So talk about the client and how you will help them on the call solve their issue by analyzing whatever project you're working on, and giving them a step-by-step plan to get the problem solved using your system. That's what he's talking about in the Loom video.
Help the client book a time with you.
Then at the end of the video or the proposal, what you do is you have a call to action. Now the call to action is for them to select the time in your schedule. You can propose times you can give them a form without asking for contact info. Do something where they can book a time with you, essentially, and then follow up with them to make sure that they show up on time and they know how to get on a call with you. The Upwork complaint way of getting on calls is using the Upwork Zoom, or the Upwork internal call booking tool that they have inbuilt into their chat. We found that Zoom works much better.
So just to summarize, here are the parts of the proposal. You need to hook them in with what they're looking for, what they're interested in, what their emotional state is, and what they're looking to solve in terms of the problem, their business and the problems that they're facing while looking for freelancers and Upwork.
You need to provide the steps you're going to go through with them on a call, pitch to call. Then you need to provide lots and lots of proof, variety, quality, and quantity. And then you need to have a call to action. If you follow these steps in the proposals, which are very simple steps, but, you know, they require a lot of work because you need to gather all that proof from your existing clients, then you'll see a huge uptake, and you're going to have a response rate between 10% and 20%.
Next up, I want you to
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