Now before you can start writing a proposal the a sales persons needs to obtain the precise information on what the proposal needs to prove or cover. Without this understanding you will only be writing a proposal for the average, typical or generalised client and it won't be effective. - Remember an effective proposal must be specific.
Premise of an Effective Proposal
The premise of an effective proposal will typically involve one or more of the following five factors:
- That there is a need;
- That the need is significant enough to justify spending money to fill it;
- That what you are offering will fill that need or needs;
- That it will fill the need better and more cost-effectively than that of any alternative approach, either from within the organisation or from a competitor; and
- That you and your organisation are reliable, trustworthy, professional, experienced, competent and likely to be in business at least long enough to fulfil your obligations under this sale.
Elements of an Effective Proposal
Effective proposals typically address the five factors outlined above within a three-point structure.
- The customer's Problem or needs;
- Your proposed Solution; and
- The Value of your solution to the customer.
Professionalism
Professionalism of a proposal is essential. Here are a few tips:
- During your initial meeting with the decision maker, negotiate a date for the delivery of the proposal and then ensure that you meet that deadline. If you are going to email the proposal arrange a time for a follow up meeting.
- Ensure that you get someone else to review your proposal for spelling and grammatical errors. Nothing is worst than reading a proposal full of mistakes.
- Ensure you use the same font type and size within the entire proposal. Paragraph and line spacing should also be consistent.
- Use graphics or diagrams where possible to visually represent any concepts but only if appropriate and specific to the proposal.
- Make sure the header contains your customer's name / company.
- Make sure the footer contains your business name, Date, Page number and "Commercial in Confidence".
- Always PDF a proposal before sending it via email. This will ensure that the customer doesn't make changes without your consent or knowledge.
- Hand delivered proposals should always be professionally bound and printed in colour.
Every sales situation has different circumstances and this will affect on the way you deliver your effective sales proposal. Here are a few tips:
New Customer
- Arrange a time to meet with the decision maker so you can go through the proposal together. This will give you the opportunity to answer any questions the decision maker may have about the proposal.
- Email the proposal to the customer before the meeting but only after you have arranged the follow up meeting time. This gives the decision maker the time to read the proposal and develop any questions prior to the meeting.
- When meeting with the decision maker always take two colour copies of the proposal that is professionally bound. Make sure you know how many people will be in the meeting and make sure you have a copy for each of them including yourself.
How you deliver a proposal to an existing customer depends on your relationship. You can follow the tips as outlined above for the new customer or you can take a different approach. Whichever way you deliver the proposal it should be appropriate to the size of the opportunity and what your customer expects.
Once you have a good relationship with the decision maker you will know exactly how they want you to deliver any proposal. Until you have gained the trust and a good solid relationship has been established then it is recommended that you follow the tips above.
Look out for future articles on the actual elements of effective short letter and formal proposals. I hope this information has been useful and good hunting. Please comment on this article below
