[mswen]

Whether it is a consulting agency or freelancer, companies will often do a proposal process, sometimes with multiple providers at the same time, that enable them to harvest ideas and gain clarity in their own thinking about a project. They then either pick one of the providers or just turn around and do it in house and they got a bit of free consulting to get them started.

Is this ethical? Probably not, at least if the company is doing this deliberately, knowing all the while that they have no intention of hiring an outside firm.

I would reach out to him again with an email about getting started. You need to get a clear yes or no from him and put together a contract if the answer is yes. If the answer is no, chalk it up as a learning experience. Don't give away too many hours before the contract is signed.

It is not uncommon for a agency to put in 40 to 80 total working hours between sales calls, preparation, developing the proposal, and sometimes flying out to meet key executives at the client firm. Sometimes you still don't get the business, but other times you do. Now this kind of commitment of time and resources assumes that the minimum size project is something on the order of $50K and that once the client is on board there are possibilities for repeat projects of similar or larger size that don't require all the free prep and proposal development.

I guess what I am saying is that this kind of thing is not unusual and I wouldn't waste more time and energy trying to make it "right." Just move on.