RE: bidding question

Hi,

Here's our local chamber
http://www.waterburychamber.org/

And their hosting / solutions provider:
http://www.ebiz-america.com/

If you bid something for them you better make sure you bid a portal solution.  
Most chambers are on a mailing list that gets mail from lots of solution 
providers, including technology partners. I've seen a lot of portal or CMS 
sysmtems pitch to them, and I believe if you don't make an attempt to offer 
self managed content, your bid may not get the attention it needs.

The good part is that they (chamber staff) typically ignore most junk mail, or 
dont' know enough on what it is they need.  The bad news is they can learn, and 
they're not too far out of reach of the next mailer getting their attention.

While chambers may want to give the business to a local company, if you don't 
offer the same level of services, then it will be a hard sell, low cost 
notwithstanding.

With a $400 annual membership, I'm sure my chamber doesn't even come close to 
reaching it's targeted audience.  Therefore you wonder if they're not in touch 
with thei rwhole customer base.  The question is, will they really know what 
they want, or do you have to do a little preaching while you bid?

Having bid many municipal bids, I can tell you, if you show a littel glitz, 
promise a litte blue sky potential, and offer a concrete solution they can 
start with that they can build on without spending $1000s then you should get 
their attention.

Might I suggest you work with a Portal solution (Postnuke, Nuke, , to see if 
you can add that to your repitior in case the conversation goes there.  There 
are too many solution providers offering this, and if we don't bid that way, we 
end up being considered a design boutique rather than a "solution provider".

Her's a decent place to get a handle for some of the many ones out there:
http://www.plainblack.com/product_comparison

Best of Luck,

Jon


Quoting Carol Parent <cbwd(at)means.net>:

> Hi Karen,
> 
> From my experience with our Chamber I can offer the following:
> 
> 1) Do not bid with the thought in mind that it may bring in future business
> - BUT there is MUCH exposure in having your name at the bottom of a chamber
> website.
> 2) Find out who is bidding (you should have an idea of who all 'works' in
> your area.  Take a look at their sites and pricing, etc.
> 3) I don't know how 'friendly' you are with the chamber - BUT DON'T GIVE
> AWAY ANY IDEAS YOU HAVE FOR THE SITE - if you don't win the bid you may
> find
> your ideas implemented by someone else because the chamber liked your ideas
> but wanted the project to go elsewhere.
> 4) Remember - a lot of times when dealing with organizations like chambers,
> it isn't what you can do and how much it will cost BUT who is related to
> which member and how much 'pull' the member has - I suppose this can be
> said
> for a lot of businesses too. 
> 
> I designed and take care of our chamber site.  I bid 'low' because I REALLY
> wanted this site and I saw it more as a community service than anything
> else
> - but I wasn't going to do it for 'free.'  I find that 'free' tends to be
> treated as 'no value'.
> 
> In my bid I put down my hourly fees and hosting costs, etc.  I do charge
> them for the hosting and the cost of their domains but I have never billed
> them again for my updating time.
> 
> Reason - because I can do pretty much what I want without anyone
> complaining.  So I get to 'try' things (like my panoramic view of the whole
> town) and create pages like 'local talent' to show off some of our local
> ppl
> who have 'individual' memberships rather than business ones.  (like Ms.
> Donavon's watercolor paintings, and Dona's ceramic tiles)
> www.remerchamber.com 
> 
> :)
> 
> Good luck and let us know what happens.
> 
> Carol
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org [mailto:owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org] On
> Behalf Of Karen Stafford
> Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 4:08 PM
> To: hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
> Subject: bidding question
> 
> 
> I posted this on the business list, but nothing came thru, and apparently,
> it's pretty quiet, so I'm going to try here:-) I'm actually going to be
> placing a bid for the first time on a pretty major website (most of what
> I've done so far is pretty small). It will be for my town's chamber of
> commerce, and I'm anxious to look good, of course! (although I'm more
> anxious to get the job). Does anyone have a template of a bid form? Also,
> any words of advice? I do plan on setting up a mock-up based on the style
> of
> a site (but, yes, not copying it!) they mentioned they would like to base
> theirs on, plus including my portfolio (and, yes, I'll be working on
> tweaking my own site, too, to make sure it's absolutely right. There are
> updates I need to do on it:-) But, any bid form or advice would be
> wonderful. Thanks!
> 
> Karen Stafford
> Noteworthy Cybersolutions
> "Big business solutions at a small business price"
> http://www.noteworthycybersolutions.com
> 
> 
> 


***********************************************
CivicRADAR - Connecting Citizens to Government
www.civicRADAR.com
***********************************************

HWG hwg-techniques mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA