From my previous article (Effective Proposals), I outlined the main elements of an effective proposal and the five factors required before you should even consider writing one. Once you have decided that the opportunity is worth investing the time to write a proposal you should consider what type to write. There two main types of sales proposals and the one you choose will depend greatly on your relationship with the customer and the opportunity.

In this article I will address the short letter proposal (less than 5 pages) that is especially used when you already have an existing relationship with your customer and the opportunity can be easily covered. Do not consider using a short letter proposal when you are engaging a new customer.

Following on from my "Effective Articles" and "Effective Short Letter Proposal" this article I will address effective formal proposals (greater than 5 pages) that is especially used when you are engaging a new or potential customer or the opportunity can not be easily covered by the short letter proposal.

Formal Proposal (Greater than 5 pages)

A formal proposal is a full proposal that covers the core elements of Problem, Solution and Value (Effective Articles) in greater detail. The framework outlined below is a typical example of a formal proposal. Keep in mind that this is only a general framework and you will need to adapt it to the sales situation. Do not feel compelled to cover each of the categories, especially if the sale doesn't warrant that much detail.

When you are in a sales situation you may need to prove your case to the decision maker. Precisely what you need to prove will depend greatly on what occurred in your discussions. One way of proving your case is through the presentation of a proposal. Effective proposals persuade and are specific. They cannot be generic and they need to speak to the needs and interests of your specific prospect and not those of average, typical or generalised clients.

Many organisations provide their sales people with proposal templates that have been developed over time and have been rehashed by many different people. This causes the resulting proposal to be dysfunctional, difficult to read and ineffective. Sales Managers need to be aware of this and ensure that their salespeople are not blindly following a template that won't results in sales. I recommend that proposal templates be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that they remain effective.

Handling Questions and Objections

Of the many salespeople that I have trained, coached, mentored and managed, nearly all of them failed when handling questions and objections from a decision maker.  This results in salespeople leaving opportunities on the table for their competition to win.  

As this problem was so wide spread, I decided to develop a process that salespeople could easily use to handle questions and objections during a sales call.  This article outlines the process that I have been teaching salespeople for many years and has helped  them unblock and win many sales opportunities.

It is a fact that when selling, most of the time you will hear either “no” or a strong reason why a customer won’t buy when you ask for the order.   But it is also a fact that most of the time, the tough objections or even “no”, are intended to test your capability as a salesperson.

A Decision Maker may be thinking that it is easier to say “no” so not to change the status quo or take a risk.  Additionally, if the salesperson accepts the “no” then they can’t believe very strongly in the product or service they are selling.  If the salesperson is not enthusiastic enough to be willing to fight for the sale then they why should the decision maker buy from them.  

Common objections such as “We can’t afford it” or “We already deal with someone else” may sound like a “no”, but in fact it may be a question in disguise, intended to test you out and see how you can handle it.  Even a determined “NO” may be a subtle way of asking you to provide more reasons to support your offering.  

Some questions and objections can be easily handled especially when they relate to a strong feature of your product or service.  However when handling more difficult questions and objections I train salespeople to use the “SCORE” process.   

“SCORE” is a process consists of:
•    Search
•    Confirm
•    Observe
•    React
•    Exit

So what do each of these mean?