I read a great blog post by Jason Fried, a genius guy (he hates meetings, so I like him) who owns a super innovative web company called 37Signals.

The post, to summarize, is about how simple doing business can be. In the post, Jason outlines a refreshing interaction he had with a landscaper.  It was refreshing because the guy chatted with Jason about the project, quoted a bid right there on the spot and Jason hired him.

There were no proposals with action plans and critical paths, no waiting weeks for the bid, no spreadsheet with deadlines and areas of responsibilities, no formal process in which contractors develop a whole heck of a lot of hooha to show off how fancy and smart they are in order to get the job.

The guy knew his business, he had done the same kind of work before, he told Jason the price.

I get a lot of people wanting to meet with me to discuss my website, Restaurant Intelligence Agency.  I understand why.  We haven't done much in the area of sales presentations or even much in the way of sales copy and what I am doing is not what anyone else is doing. It's computers. Computers can be scary.

So, I meet with people, explain to them what we do and tell them how much it costs.  Our system is the same for everyone, so there is no hashing out goals and objectives.  No discussing strategy and execution.  We are a tool that connects media and restaurants, period.

More often than not, people "get it" pretty quickly. It's simple, after all:  have an annual plan of what chefs need to be thinking about (Valentine's Day in October, Christmas in July), collect every bit of data possible, get the news  out to media who want it.  Done.

Our goals are pretty simple concepts, easy for anyone to understand:
• Build easy-to-use web tools to keep current on what is going on at our client's restaurants so we can be sure we've discovered all the relevant news;
• Create a process as transparent as possible so our clients can understand what's really going on in their PR and what garners the most media coverage and why;
• Build bridges so our clients can foster their own relationships with the media, helping them navigate those relationships along the way--rather than hijacking those relationships for our own good.

These concepts are so refreshing, so logical and right, the meetings are generally convivial.  We usually share horror stories of what really went on in PR "back in the day" and I explain why there was no other option for PR but to do the business they did the way they did it. But now, at R.I.A., we've built a better way.

Sometimes I end up getting a big bear hug or even a kiss on the cheek, people are so relieved and happy. It makes such sense that it doesn't take much for people to get what we do.

But more often than not, despite the nods of understanding and chuckling grunts of recognition of PR relationships past, as I am getting up to leave that meeting, the meetee asks for a proposal.

So, I ask: Proposal for what?  Well, you know, so I know what you are going to be doing. Didn't we just go over that? Yes, they say, but I'd just like one. I politely explain that I don't have one.  That we don't need to complicate this with jazzed up PowerPoint presentations and pages of pie-in-the-sky media targets and strategies recycled from one client to the next, paid for afresh each time.

I think fancy proposals are not only a waste of time but they are a sure sign that the price you are gonna pay is inflated.  I don't want to raise my prices.