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I lost a $1,400 client after I sent a draft with their competitor's name in it
I used to proofread my proposals once and send them off, but after I mixed up two clients and called a landscaping business by the wrong name in the first paragraph, I lost that job in under an hour. Now I read every email and contract out loud to myself before I hit send, and I triple check the greeting. Has anyone else had a typo cost them a huge client?
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david_walker973mo ago
Actually I gotta say I think the proofreading thing gets a little overblown sometimes. I've sent out proposals with typos and even the wrong date before and still landed the job because the client cared more about my work and the value I offered. One time I accidentally left a placeholder that said "insert client name here" and the guy laughed it off and said "at least you're honest about it." Not saying mistakes are good, but this obsession with perfection can backfire if it makes you spend hours nitpicking instead of actually getting work done. Maybe that client would have overlooked the name mixup if your pitch was strong enough to begin with?
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jackson.max3mo ago
Not quite though - you left the placeholder in, which is a different kind of mistake than mixing up names. That one's actually kind of charming.
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skyler_kelly693mo ago
Three clients lost in my neighborhood last year over name mix-ups. A florist called a bride by the ex's name in the contract, a plumber sent the wrong address to a customer, and a web designer emailed the wrong company logo. All of them could have been saved by literally just reading it out loud once.
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