Kathleen

Behavior

A different kind of bait and switch

A unscientific survey of colleagues has confirmed my suspicion that many businesses are soliciting proposals as a way to bridge knowledge and staffing gaps. Consultants and small service agencies are particularly vulnerable to this practice. Colleagues stories include scenarios such as the prospective clients accepted the proposal then announced that they would be doing the project in-house with freelancers. Basically, they used the proposal process as a way to acquire the strategy and planning for free. An extreme case was where the executive who solicited the proposal presented it as his own using it launch his consulting career with this former employer.