The discovery call went well. They nodded in the right places, asked good questions, and said they'd love to see a proposal. You sent it. And then: nothing. Or worse, a polite "we've decided to go in a different direction," with no explanation of what that direction was. If this happens regularly, it's tempting to blame price, but the data points somewhere else. Most proposals lose not because the solution was wrong, but because the proposal didn't reflect the client's actual
