How to evaluate agency proposals

Agencies write proposals in formats that flatter their strengths. Some lead with case studies. Some lead with team bios. Some lead with a 30-page methodology section. Side by side, they look incomparable. That is the point.

Build your own one-page comparison sheet before any proposal arrives. The columns are non-negotiable: scope items, deliverables, timeline, fixed price, named team with rates per role, change-order rate, warranty period, IP and code ownership, handover plan. Force every proposal into your template. The ones that resist tell you something.

Most proposals are evaluated on the headline price. The headline price is the least informative number in the document. Three other numbers move the project's real cost more than the topline:

• Scope per kroner. Two proposals at 800.000 DKK can include very different amounts of work. Read the deliverables list, not the cover.
• Change-order rate. The hourly rate billed for any work outside the fixed scope. This number governs the next twelve months of your invoice. A 1.500 DKK/hour change rate vs 1.250 DKK/hour is a 20% margin you'll pay on every late request.
• Warranty and post-launch rates. Bug fixes inside warranty are free; outside, they're billed. Get the cutoff date and the rate in writing.

A proposal that quotes a single blended rate hides who is actually doing the work. The senior architect at the kickoff is not the mid-level developer who writes the code. Insist on rates per role and the names of the people who will be on the project.

For Danish reference, senior consultants are billed at 1.250–1.500 DKK/hour, mid-level around 950–1.150 DKK/hour, junior under 800 DKK/hour. A "blended rate" of 1.300 DKK that turns out to be 80% mid-level and 20% senior is a 200 DKK/hour overcharge on most of the actual work.

If the answer to any of these is missing, the proposal is incomplete and you can ask for it before you decide:

1. Who, by name, is on this project, what is their rate, and what percentage of the work do they personally do?
2. What is the change-order process, the change-order rate, and the warranty period?
3. What is explicitly out-of-scope, and what does it cost to add later?
4. What is the handover plan: documentation, runbooks, repo access, training — and does it require your retainer to use?

A proposal contains comfort and contract. The comfort sections — the methodology overview, the team values, the case studies, the org chart — feel reassuring and bind nothing. The contract sections — scope, deliverables, price, timeline, change orders, warranty, IP — are the only parts that hold up in a dispute.

Read the contract sections first. If they are vague or absent, the comfort sections won't save you when there is a disagreement six months in.

• A blended rate without per-role rates.
• A scope written in marketing language, with no acceptance criteria.
• No explicit out-of-scope section, or one that says "to be determined."
• A warranty period under 30 days, or one that excludes "performance issues" or "browser compatibility."
• An IP clause that gives them the right to reuse your code in other projects without notice.
• A handover plan that requires their staff to be present, on a billable retainer, for any future change.
• A timeline measured in months without milestones or staged deliverables.