Killer proposals aren’t born. They’re made. And here’s how.
Direct personal contact offers many advantages, not the least of which is a higher success rate.
For example, summarizing the results of your discovery as part of presenting the proposal-and getting real-time reaction, both verbal and non-verbal-quickly helps determine whether the solution portion of your proposal is on target. If it’s not, you can immediately shift gears to find out why by performing additional discovery. If you’re presenting to a group, disagreements or corrections within the prospect’s team will often surface and allow you to get everyone on the same page as far as which problems need to be solved-or at least give you a shot.
A CEO once told one of our consultants, for instance, that what we had learned about his company applied only to the one individual we talked to. Our consultant asked who else he should see and restarted the discovery process to learn more of the company’s issues.
Key Point: Talk about “what” you’re going to do-that is, the expected outcomes. Don’t explain “how” in any detail. No need to give away intellectual property, which is your “secret sauce.” If you do, your prospect can react in two or three different ways, either telling you outright or just thinking to himself:
While it’s okay to let marketing leverage your time, you must provide input or, despite marketing’s best intentions, the fallback will be boilerplate. It’s tough to create a customized presentation without knowing the specifics of why this prospect is different. Make the proposal an integrated work between sales and marketing.
We have seen clients spend significant amounts of time meeting with prospective customers, then turning over the proposal preparation to a marketing team that has no access to the history or notes created by the sales team. Marketing either wastes time by coming back to sales to get the information necessary for a strong proposal or by creating an incomplete and uninspired one.
From this perspective, the proposal is simply a tool to help the prospect make a decision in your favor. It is a good idea, however, to try to set a time for a follow-up meeting or phone call.
Our goal is always to help our clients win more business. Effective proposals are just one way we achieve that goal. We also offer consultative sales training, lead generation, and marketing communications.
Want to learn more about killer proposals—or need help writing one? We frequently help our clients write proposals for major opportunities. Just call us at 847-446-0008 or e-mail pkrone@productivestrategies.com .
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