Client stole my pitch
Out of context: Reply #48
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- Boz0
I agree with lukus_W.. I think they were more like "he was a good guyd, let's tell him we kind of took seriously what he was suggesting" rather than ripping methodology off.
But here's an advice:
You can't ask for NDA from a client you are trying to win business from.. That's not how it works. Nobody will sign stuff like that, or they will sign it but it just makes you look negative right from the start.
What you should do, is excursive restraint in telling the client how you would do everything and ideas and so on... Until you make a contract with them, you don't give them your all. You just tease them, let them imagine what your capabilities and ideas might be, but you never disclose them until you have a contract for work or you are 100% sure you have started on a project you can invoice.
Trust me, I made the same mistakes.. I still do sometimes.. I am so passionate about creative, technology and what they should be doing I sometime blab it out on meetings because I like the client.. but it's always bad.. it can work for you in many cases because you appear like the most passionate and knowledgable person to them but you also have situations like you have, where they wilil take your ideas and roll with someone else.
But unfortunately you really have no one else to blame but yourself.
Let this be a reminder for you that when you pitch for work and you do meetings like this, you keep your best stuff and how the project should go on to the minimium..
If they ask you "oh we want to know more" or "how do we do this".. you just play very professional and say "ABSOLUTELY, we can go into all of these details when we really get into the project"..
It doesn't make you an asshole, but they know that you are willing to share a lot more if they give you a project..
Makes sense?