A few months back I was thinking about the golden rule. Ya know, the whole, “Treat others the way you would want to be treaded” thing. What’s interesting is that this principal is amplified in power when it’s applied in business. Putting yourself in the other guys shoes will answer almost all of your business questions.
Just ask yourself, “How would I want to be treated in this situation? What would I want to happen?.” Then, do that thing the way you would want it done. So, I wrote up the rejection letter I would want to receive if I sent in a design project proposal. It goes a little something like this:
After reviewing all of the proposals for (project name), I have decided to move forward with a different (service firm).
Your proposal was not selected because (short honest reason in one sentence).
I believe your proposal was an excellent introduction and I hope to be in contact with you about future projects.
If you are ever in (city name) please let me know because I would love to set up an in-person meeting. Thank you again for your diligent work in getting me your proposal.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Rejector Name
Rejector
Contact
Info
There you go :) I suggested my project manager make it an email signature and fill in the blanks as necessary whenever she needed to use a different designer on a project. Her response: “After reading it I was thinking that it’s exactly what I’d want to hear ya know? Especially the ‘short/honest reason’ part.”
So, maybe I’ve brightened the day of a design proposal rejectee in the near future. I hope I have :)
What about your rejected proposals? What kind of rejections email have you received? If a prospect is not professional enough to send at least a rejection email, you probably shouldn't work with them anyway. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Please post your helpful comments and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your time :)
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