# Gotchas Failure modes that lose money or lose the job. Proposals are binding documents — a mistake here has a dollar value attached. --- ## Gotcha: a quantity estimated from a photo **Why it matters:** This is the classic way a job goes underwater. A photo without a reference object cannot establish dimensions, and a square-footage guess that is 30% low turns a profitable job into a loss the owner cannot renegotiate. ### Bad ``` Approximately 4,200 sq ft based on the photos. ``` ### Good ``` Square footage not determinable from the photos — nothing in frame for scale. Two options: give me the number, or I price it per-unit and add a line that adjusts on field verification. ``` Photos establish make, model, condition, and access. They do not establish size. --- ## Gotcha: no "not included" section **Why it matters:** Scope disputes are the single largest source of lost margin in service businesses, and every one of them starts with something nobody wrote down. ### Bad Scope section only. Customer assumes ductwork is included. It wasn't. ### Good An explicit list of what a reasonable customer might assume is covered and isn't. It costs three lines and prevents the argument entirely. --- ## Gotcha: a silent assumption **Why it matters:** An assumption the owner knows about but the customer never saw is not protection. It becomes the owner's problem the moment it turns out wrong. ### Bad Price the job assuming ladder access. Mention it to the owner. Leave it out of the document. ### Good ``` This price assumes roof access by the existing ladder. If a crane or lift is required, add USD 1,800. ``` In the customer-visible text, with the consequence named. That converts a dispute into a pre-agreed change order. --- ## Gotcha: an invented rate **Why it matters:** Labor rate is the owner's core economics. A plausible-looking number they don't catch either loses them the job or loses them money on it. ### Bad ``` Line 4 — Controls integration: USD 4,200 ``` Derived from nothing. ### Good ``` Line 4 — Controls integration: $______ No comparable in your history, nothing in the rate card. Everything else is priced. Give me a number and it's ready. ``` A blank is honest and takes the owner five seconds. A fabricated number takes ten minutes to notice and might not get noticed. --- ## Gotcha: redesigning their template **Why it matters:** A proposal that doesn't look like their other proposals gets rebuilt by hand, which is the exact work this skill exists to remove. Familiar beats better. ### Bad Produce a cleaner, more modern layout than the owner's own. ### Good Match their template exactly, including the parts that could be improved. Offer improvements separately, after the proposal is out the door. --- ## Gotcha: writing an RFP response the owner is disqualified from **Why it matters:** A full RFP response is an evening of work. If a mandatory qualification can't be met, that evening is gone for nothing, and this segment has no spare evenings. ### Bad Write the whole response, then mention the insurance requirement at the end. ### Good Go/no-go first, before drafting anything: ``` Go/no-go: requires a USD 2M umbrella, you carry USD 1M. Disqualifying unless you can bind more before the 8th. Worth checking before I write the rest? ``` --- ## Gotcha: burying the risk in the customer document **Why it matters:** The owner needs the honest read; the customer needs the proposal. Mixing them either alarms the customer or hides the risk from the owner. ### Bad Soften the risk into the proposal's assumptions section and say nothing directly. ### Good Two separate things. The proposal contains assumptions in neutral, customer-appropriate language. The chat message to the owner says what actually worries you, bluntly. --- ## Gotcha: sending without explicit approval **Why it matters:** A priced proposal commits money, calendar, and reputation, and it cannot be recalled once the customer has read it. ### Bad Route to DocuSign because the owner said the proposal looked good. ### Good State what will happen — recipient, total, routing, what fires on acceptance — and wait for a yes on that specific action. --- ## Gotcha: not recording the outcome **Why it matters:** Won proposals are tomorrow's comparables. Lost ones are more valuable still, and nothing else in the plugin captures them. ### Bad Send it and move on. ### Good Record won, lost, or no response, with the final price and the reason when it's known: ``` Ridgeline — lost. USD 18,650. Dana said a competitor came in at USD 16,000. Our per-unit was USD 3,550; theirs implies about USD 3,050. ``` That single line makes every future quote in this category sharper, and the owner would never have written it down themselves. --- ## Gotcha: a deposit weaker than their standard **Why it matters:** Deposit terms are cash flow. A quiet drop from 50% to 25% on a material-heavy job can leave the owner financing the customer's equipment. ### Bad Use a reasonable-sounding deposit without checking what they normally do. ### Good Pull terms from past proposals, and flag any softening: ``` Your usual deposit is 50%. I put 40% here since it's a repeat-adjacent customer. Change it if you'd rather not. ```