Outsourcing: Choosing the Right Bidders for Your Dream Team

Once your project gets posted on the website, it will start to get bids from different providers, just like products get their bids on Ebay. There is a bidding time during which bidding is allowed from the users. After that the project is frozen. This is the time for you to choose among all these the right bid.

While selecting the right bid, keep in mind that you are in charge. This is an important and fundamental step in building up your outsourcing team. I’ve personally been through the trenches many times before. So I’ve outlined some of the most important steps in finding the right freelancers.

Go through all off them and choose whichever one you like. So it is up to you to define the criteria you will use to select your man.

Feedback Count and Score/Total Earning

All freelancers have feedbacks from previous clients they have worked for, except for new providers. The greater the number of feedbacks, the more projects they have done before. Elance.com also shows the total lifetime income in the profile, so that you can judge his/her experience. The two parties exchange the ratings at the end of
the project, and a cumulative is calculated, much like on Ebay.

From my own experience I would say never trust a new provider. There is always a large swarm of new providers on any website that you cannot be sure are serious. You can choose them if they are convincing enough of course, and there is the cost benefit to it.

But in any case, there is a high risk they may run away during the project. If you do hire them, make sure that it’s for projects that are not urgent; you can play the gamble, and if that provider is genuinely capable, you have had it done cheaply.

As for the rest, decide based on both ratings and number of feedbacks. A provider with only one feedback may have 100% ratings while another with 200 past projects just 90%. Not all clients are good judges, and ratings are very subjective.

Here are the rules I personally set for myself when it comes to feedback.

Definitively:

1. For important projects, never choose bidders with less than 5 clients, no matter what their feedback.  
2. Go for bidders with a minimum of 100% or higher positive feedback for a provider with a 5-10 clients.
3. Aim for 95% or higher positive feedback with providers with a solid 11-20 clients.
4. Go for at least 92% positive feedback with providers with at 21+ clients.This may seem like a high rating system to some of you. However, you should never put your business at risk with a bad provider.

Also, dig deeply into their feedback comments to see what the previous clients have to say. If many comments stress the same thing, good or bad, it is usually true.

The Actual Bid and Samples

Now that you selected a few based on feedbacks, go through their proposals in the bid.

Did they really give a thought to your project description, or wrote a generic response?
Can you feel a genuine interest on their part?

If yes, then it’s a green light. Go through the samples and portfolio if they have provided, or ask them for some.

• Is the work similar and up to the mark? Look for someone who has a unique advantage over others, like a writer who has always mostly written on topics similar to yours. Don’t be afraid to ask for samples closest to the project you are currently doing.
• Communication. Ask them some questions about how their game-plan. Not only that their response would tell you more about what they have in their mind, it will signal that they are genuinely interested in your bid. But more on this later.
• Negotiate the Price.  Once you have short-listed less than three strong bids to choose from, start negotiating the price. Do not put a cap on what you are willing to pay; instead ask them why they are charging higher than the rest. If they really have something different to offer, perhaps you will be interested in paying a little out of your budget too.

However, if price becomes too prohibitive, try bringing it down by negotiating. In any case, do not bump up the price issue, the other issues are far more important, as a bad freelancer can become more expensive for you if selected. Bring it up only on the last level of selection.