A good proposal is like a book. It tells a story. It needs a clear beginning that sets the stage with the company background and introduction, followed by the problem statement and the client’s challenges. The climax comes with the investment that’s required, leading into the resolution where we outline our methodologies and case studies. Finally, it closes with a strong conclusion.

The hardest part, however, isn’t putting words on a page, but rather it’s deciding what story we are telling together.

Hi, I’m Adlin. I’m the Business and OPS Executive here at Stampede and this is my debut article. At Stampede, “Business and Ops” is really about making things work. I connect the dots between people, processes and projects. Some days that means handling timelines and documents, other days it’s about helping shape how we tell our story to clients. I’ve spent the past three years helping our team craft proposals for design and development projects.

What’s unique about our approach is that we don’t separate business development from delivery. When we respond to an RFP, the people writing the proposal are the same ones who will eventually build it. Designers, Developers and Ops come together to figure out what makes the most sense for the client. It’s a collaborative process that feels less like pitching and more like building, just on paper first.

What I’ve noticed is this: the stage that eats up the most time is not the writing itself, but the planning. Just like authors spend more time outlining, seeking inspirations, scheduling their time to write, we spend most of our effort aligning on ideas before we begin writing the proposal. And when you have several “authors” writing with different perspectives, it takes work to pull the story together. What separates a confusing and a clear proposal is how we communicate. Strong internal conversations between ops, design, and dev become the backbone of a strong solution proposal.

Internal alignment create external clarity

The first thing we do when a new RFP comes in is scan the scope of work. What’s needed? What’s the timeline? Who are the best resources we can send? We form assumptions here, but we don’t react yet. Instead, we gather every question we have, list them down, and send them to the client. It’s important to clarify these early because the cost of fixing a mistake later is far higher than the cost of validation.

Once the client replies, the real groundwork begins. My role in Ops is a bit like being the PM of a project. I’ve experimented with many PM tools for tracking proposal tasks, but for me, Notion is home base. It’s where we collect every piece of information so everyone has access to the same page.

This first step is crucial. If the team is misaligned internally, the proposal will read as vague, inconsistent, or overly technical. We don’t want that. A clear, aligned RFP tells the client we get you, we’re organised, and we can deliver.

The RFP is a reflection of a team dynamic

An RFP is often a client’s first impression of what it feels like to work with us. I don’t come from a design or dev background, so I look at our proposals differently, in the big-picture sense. Einstein once said,

If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.

Well, at Stampede, I am that six year old (Theoretically, of course. Don’t report me for child labour).

Because I don’t speak the same technical language, I make a good proof reader. If the flow makes sense to me, it’ll make sense to client’s procurement team. For me, that flow comes down to three simple questions:

1. What is the goal of this project?
2. Why us?
3. How can we help?

In fact, these are the first questions we ask each other during our kickoff call. Our internal conversations help surface the right differentiators, which case studies to showcase, what methodologies that are the right fit, the investment, and the timeline. When the story flows, clients don’t just see capability, they feel our confidence. A well-structured proposal signals discipline and care, which is why strong team dynamics matter.

Communication reduces last-minute stress

At Stampede, deadlines are everything. In projects, we set our own deadlines and take full accountability. But proposals work differently. The deadlines are strict, often dictated by the client’s internal portal. Sometimes even a minute past the cutoff means rejection.

That’s why we work backwards. If the submission is due on the 27th, we mark it as D-Day and then map out what needs to be completed on the 26th, 25th, and so on. From there, we assign specific tasks and resources. Designers handle design scope and methodologies, devs lead the dev scope, and ops take care of business documents while making sure everything matches the client’s requirements.

One trick we’ve adopted is setting an internal deadline before the actual one. That buffer gives us space to proofread and polish without panic. Early communication and clear delegation go a long way in avoiding last-minute stress.

When everything finally comes together, a good proposal becomes more than just a submission. It becomes a reflection of care. For the client, it brings clarity and a sense of confidence that they are in capable hands. For the procurement team, it makes their job easier by showing that we’ve understood not only the brief but the intent behind it.

Every proposal forces us to slow down and make sure we’re solving the right problem before we ever start building. It sharpens how we collaborate, how we communicate and how we grow as a team. So if you’ve ever received a proposal from Stampede, now you know where the quality and consideration came from. They came from a lot of conversations and probably a few very strong coffees.

A good proposal is like a book

As someone who loves a good storybook, I know the mixed feelings that come at the end of one. Relief, nostalgia, sometimes sadness and (mostly) joy especially when the questions you had at the beginning have been answered. You leave the book with more clarity than when you started.

Proposals work the same way. At the end of reading one, clients should walk away with confident answers, and the feeling that someone cared about their problem, not more questions. That’s the goal. And the best way to get there is through strong team communication.

Every proposal tells a story. This was ours and I’d love to hear yours!

Let’s connect on Linkedin?

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We are lucky to have good clients, who most of the time become good friends for life. There are instances where clients would fly over to Malaysia and the whole team would go and meet them. If any of our team members were to visit other countries, they’d take the opportunity to meet up with our clients there over dinner or coffee.

Sometimes we sit down and think, “Hey, we do have good people”. As we spend more time in the industry, we also realise that it is important to go that extra mile in developing client experience so that both parties can benefit from it. We also strongly believe in going that extra mile for those who are worth it.

Why Client Experience?

Client Experience is the practice of onboarding clients or leads with the focus on the quality and thoughtfulness of the user experience. Every touchpoint within the client’s first few interactions with the company is designed to deliver the best experiences. It requires extra thoughtfulness, loads of empathy, and above all, a highly personalised experience.

Similar to user experience, touchpoints begin as a lead to a client, with every touchpoint and pain point being noted. Every interaction and experience should be seamless and memorable.

Client onboarding tips

Stampede takes great care in every process, including onboarding leads or new clients in order to provide a good first impression. Here are some tips we’d like to offer.

Be ready with all the information

Put yourself in the shoes of a new client – they are brimming with ideas, they want to tell you what they are looking forward for their project, they want you to help them realise their idea.

As an agency, we must help them discover these budding ideas. What we do is we provide them with a requirements discovery form, asking them to fill it in with the following details:

• Background of project/company
• What they need
• Who are the target audience
• Any competitors’ website’ they have in mind? (for competitors review)
• What goal they are looking to achieve with this new site (e.g. I want to increase signup by 50% by January, I want to get 15000 traffic by the next quarter etc.)
• Who the contact person is (for liasing and approval purposes)

Often enough, if the leads or new clients are still unclear, we offer to do Skype calls or face-to-face meetings if they need further clarification.

Be prepared with checklists!

We at Stampede are big fans of to-do lists. Every workflow – internal review, UAT, launch list, HTML/CSS, user experience framework – we have lists for it all. This includes onboarding, once we have secured the client.

Here’s a quick example of ours – Stampede Client Onboarding List.

Be interested

There’s a quote by Dale Carnegie that we hold very dearly, “To be interesting, be interested.”

We really love to get to know our leads or clients, as they often do great things and if possible we would like to be involved with them. Hence every time an inquiry slides into our inbox, we like to do a little ‘sleuthing’ – how their current website looks like, who the founders are, the team members, what they have produced, etc.

During the initial meeting, we bring these details up with client. By doing so, the client recognises that we have made a conscious effort to get to know them.

This does not only apply to information we find – sometimes we have questions, loads of them in fact. Ask clients in those meetings. We are often surprised at how interesting everyone is when we take the effort to get to know them.

Be proud of your work, and its process

Let’s be real – our clients discovered us because they have probably heard of us somewhere, or stumbled upon our work from a related source. But what they do not know is how care and detail we at Stampede pour into our every projects, no matter big or small.

These are several things we do to show this:

• Update blog with case studies of projects
• Portfolio of projects we have done
• Get testimonials from current clients
• Keep sharing wonderful work on social media platforms

Once, we showed a client how we came up with styleguides, competitive reviews, user journeys and many more. The results of the work is one thing, the process is another.

Clients love it when they know we invest so much in their projects. Which is why we are often told by clients – we are unlike any other agency, we are just like an extension of their team 🙂

Be proud of the people you work with

Good work will not materialise by itself. We believe that good work is a product of good people. Hence, why we are so proud of our team.

In a kickoff team, bring in the team members who will be involved in the project. They may just sit there and take notes, but take the time to introduce each and every one of them. List down their achievements, sometimes, you’d be surprised that they have forgotten that they have achieved those as well. To be reminded how good you are is so motivating.

It also helps set the tone and relationship the clients’ team and your team will have. After all, they will be working together for the next few months – so it is vital to set up a good start.

Be on time

Being on time is one of the ten leadership traits that require zero talent, as mentioned in the image above. Always be punctual; be on time for meetings, send off documents on time, keep the client updated, and make sure the project delivers on time.

There are times when we foresee inevitable delays. In this event, we will make sure to let the client know beforehand so that the delivery dates can be rescheduled to achievable times. This is also fair to the client so that they can plan accordingly, and they are most often okay with the heads up.

Be ready to always improve

Sometimes, try hard as we might, the lead does not turn into a client. Take the time to get to know why. “Are there any shortcomings on our part? Is there any information they need from us but we overlooked it? Is our price reasonable? Will you consider us again?” Taking the time to follow up and ask these questions helps us improve our service.

Be ready to go the extra mile

Mr Wicky Sundram spotted in Stampede t-shirt!

Unfortunately, there are times that we have to turn down the lead’s project due to budget constants, schedule or resource allocation problems.

Do go the extra mile to find out what they need in the given time. “Should we recommend you to freelancers? Is it OK if we move the deadline in the next quarter so we should be able to accommodate you?”

More so than often, a lead is willing to wait until our schedule is cleared (it can sometimes take up to two months!) once we are willing to help them to move forward with their project. As mentioned, it does not hurt to do something extra.

Have any tips with onboarding new clients? We’d love to know! Please share a comment down below if you have any tips. Thank you.

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