The_Contractor - 9:31 pm on Feb 5, 2007 (gmt 0)

Any suggestions / thoughts on how to gain more business? Also any ideas on why we generally never hear back from the client after pitching our proposal?

Go local.... Get local clients/businesses. I know several web development companies in my general area, and am sorry to say if I didn't know about them from "offline" advertising I would never know about them. Their sites don't come up for any terms and neither do their clients, but they have some very high dollar clients. I am sure they do very, very well.

So, when building out your own site...go local at first (local can be city or state etc.). Try to come up for local terms for web development.

It may also help to choose a "niche" at first. Is there any type of local "niche" businesses? For instance, if you lived by popular attractions, and bed and breakfast accommodations were popular, hit up all the local B&B's.

Look at what type of site it is, who their "online" competition is, be informed on their niche, etc. Talk to them, give them a little info on what you figured out from your research etc and be honest in what they can expect, after asking what their goals are for having the site. It's a pain, but if you do your homework you should be able to land almost all of those quote request you receive. Don't give them one price, ask what their budget is right up front and work off of that (if you can). Why waste time dealing with someone that wants to spend $500 for a $10,000 site? Don't waste time writing up proposals/quotes etcetera unless you have both already agreed to everything verbally.
I never "purchased" templates for quoting and always preferred to come up with my own. Personalize each quote and tailor it to the site and niche (do a little research).

[edited by: The_Contractor at 9:33 pm (utc) on Feb. 5, 2007]