How to Write the Perfect Sales Proposal
April 8, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bryan Neale, Rules, Tools & Attitudes
How many times does this happen? You build the perfect DECK. (That’s slang for SLIDE DECK for some of you—LONG, BORING, MEANINGLESS POWERPOINT for the rest of you.) You rehearse it. You know it in and out. You anticipate OBJECTIONS and have an armory’s worth of ammunition to overcome them. You get to the meeting to present your proposal. You hand it to the two buyers. They completely ignore your attempted opening and turn to the price page and start reading.
Proposing is one of the most misunderstood sales elements we know.
Insights on the Sales Proposal 2.0
- It should always articulate the specific PAINS, PROBLEMS or OPPORTUNITIES. The proposal is about THEM not YOU. It should be specific. If the client said, “Our current system sucks!” then you type in your proposal: “Tom thinks the current system sucks!” More than anything else, this demonstrates that you’re both listening and hearing. Novel idea for a salesperson.
- It should be free of surprises. I got this from one of my clients. He calls it the NO SURPRISE PROPOSAL. That flipping to the back of the page stuff stops when you’ve talked about everything in your previous conversations. Let them flip. They should find exactly what you’ve talked about. If you agreed to a $560 a month fee, they should flip to the back and see: “Fee-$560/month.” This isn’t Christmas morning. It should be boring.
- It should include ALL ALTERNATIVES—including competitors AND doing nothing. This is the best new idea I can share with you. Too often proposals are done too soon and in a limiting fashion. They leave no room for tweaking, creativity or input. We actually title this ALTERNATIVES DISCUSSION DOCUMENT. It used to be called a proposal. Proposal sounds so final. Labeling it alternatives/discussion allows buy-in and input. It helps the prospect write the “proposal” and sell the deal for you.
Take a look at your proposals. Are they full of lots of useless fodder, or are they short, meaningful and relevant to the person reading them?
Related posts:
Priceless: Both this article and how I deliver initial proposals. I’ve learned that when you present a handout in any venue, human nature is to initially begin reading that what was presented and tune out the speaker. Magicians do it all the time on stage. However they call it “misdirection.” How about this: do a non-handout recap without even having the proposal in view; keep it in your brief case lest your prospect starts to daydream and muse while frequently glancing at the file-folder in front of you…”when’s he gonna pass those out???” Next, pass out “Proposal I” which recaps what has been discussed thus far…pain, opportunity, methodology, etc…but makes no mention of price, and immediately ask them to turn to a specific page as it’s being handed out. Recap and discuss this. Last, pass out a one page price document, “Proposal II.”