10.1 The Importance of a Good Sales Proposal

We begin by discussing the importance of a good sales proposal as there is no doubt that this is going to make or break any deal.Now, very few sales people actually enjoy writing these sales proposals, but they form such an integral part of any deal that they are an absolutely essential item.

It has been shown that a well written sales proposal does increase the chances of you not only being able to close the deal, but to seal a deal which is bigger than you had initially hopedYou must remember that you will have limited time to really catch the attention of the potential client, so you need to make sure everything you say has merit and value to them.

Do not go over the same point time and time again as if you are trying to stress something, as that is just not going to work. A good salesproposal should be able to encapsulate everything you want the individual, or company, to know about the product or service you are offering to allow them to make their decision as to whether or not they want to then spend money with you.It should focus on trying to convince them you have the exact thing that will satisfy their need or deal with their want, as we have already covered how those two things play such an important role in the scheme of things.

Another point that should be mentioned regarding why a good sales proposal is so important, is due to the way in which it can clarify so many questions about the product or service you are offering. The chances are that the person you are trying to sell to may have a basic understanding of what you do, but this is your opportunity to make sure they completely understand every aspect and reduce the need for them to ask any questions. If they need to seek clarification of basic parts of what you are selling, then you can safely assume that you have not done your job right and in all honesty, you should go back to the drawing board when it comes to your sales proposal.

In other words, a sales proposal should be an essential part of your idea of how you are going to be able to put your key points across to then be able to close that deal. However, there is a real need for you to be able to better understand what is generally included in a good sales proposal as it could be hit and miss if you are not aware of the basic concept of what needs to be included.

10.2 Key Points to Include in your Sales Proposal

Next, we will look at the key points you must focus on, and include, in your sales proposal as this is going to make all the difference to the way it is perceived by your potential buyer.Remember, each person is going to be different when it comes to what they want, expect, or need so even though this does make it harder for writing your sales proposal, as long as you keep these basic things in mind it should make life that little bit easier.

1. Always think about the needs of the prospect

One mistake often made with a sales proposal is that people focus on what they think they can deliver with their product or service.Now, this may very well be useful to the client, but only up to a certain point, after which they can become bored and they will have started to create more questions in their mind than answers. Instead, you need to think about what their needs are and how your product or service can address them.

This means your proposal should focus on the problems or issues it can resolve as this will allow the prospect to begin to understand their issues that can be dealt with by your product. In turn, this will create a need and a want, making it more likely they will then want to close the deal.

2. Focus on outcomes as the key

Once again we need to stress that most sales proposals will look at focusing on what they can deliver under the belief that this is the most important thing to include. However, the outcome of using your product or service is actually far more important, simply because this is what the buyer is going to want to hear about. That is not to say that you have to completely ignore what the product does because clearly this does play a role, but deal with the outcomes first as that is going to grab their attention and you are going to increase the chances of being able to close more deals as a result.

3. Consider a comparison

You should always seek to include some kind of a comparison in your proposal so basically you are looking at showing the before and after picture thanks to them purchasing your product or service. This is a method of being able to show them why they need to go ahead and make that all-important purchase. Now, we should add, this does not mean that you stand there and offer a comparison of products or services on offer from the competition because that is actually unprofessional. Instead, the comparison has to be focused on showing them the before and after picture of how their life will change if they go ahead and seal that deal with you.

4. Look at adding three options to the proposal

One thing potential buyers want to hear in your proposal is that they have more than one option available to them rather than just being stuck with one direction in which they can head. However, you should never add more than three as that will just confuse the issue and you hardly want to do that when trying to close the deal.

Only giving one option will make the customer feel they are being backed into a corner and that is hardly going to encourage them to go ahead and make the deal. Three options will provide the possible buyer with enough to think about without swamping them, as this can also be a negative thing.

5. Begin high and be prepared to drop

With your proposal you should always start off high to provide you with the room to drop to other products that are perhaps cheaper in order to close the deal. It may be seen by some as being slightly underhand as it does make the buyer feel they have had the upper hand in the negotiation, but they have merely followed your plan, so you have been able to achieve what you set out to do.

6. Choose key words to boost your proposal

The reason why you need to take your time with writing the proposal is simply because you need to choose the correct words from start to finish. It is surprising the terms that can put people off your proposal as they can just strike the wrong note. For example, try not to include the word 'fee' or 'fees' because this resonates as money they have to give over to you and that they will not see again. However, if you are able to refer to the same money as 'investment' then that does give the exact same information, but it does certainly sound rather different to the client.

7. Forget about a price range

One major thing you cannot include in a sales proposal is the idea of having a price range mentioned. This gives the potential client too much leeway in trying to work out how much they are going to spend and it does put you in a difficult position when it comes to the negotiation stage of the process. Forget about doing this and focus more on the products or services themselves and allow the prices to be handled at a later point to make life easier for yourself.

8. Make sure you talk on a personal level

One thing that is always going to put people off is if you do not appear to be dealing with them on a personal level.People love to hear you talking to them directly rather than giving them the general sales proposal that they get from every other individual. This will always result in you getting a better response as everything else sounds too robotic and that is certainly not the correct way of getting the interest of a potential client.

We have sought to avoid providing you with a number of different specific points that must be in each proposal simply because the actual meat of them will vary according to whatever it is you are trying to sell. However, the points mentioned above should be applied to every single proposal purely because they are simple points that can, and indeed will, make a huge difference to the potential outcome of the proposal.

FACT

95% of buyers chose a solution provider that “Provided them with ample content to help navigate through each stage of the buying process”

Source: blog.hubspot.com

10.3 The General Structure to Follow

Aside from being aware of the key points that you should either include or focus on in your proposal, it is also important you are aware of the kind of general structure these proposals should follow.As we said at the outset, there will be differences according to the general industry you are involved in as well as the products or services on offer, but that does not stop you from following a basic structure which will serve you well no matter what you are selling.

If we therefore look at providing a basic general structure which you can seek to build upon, we see the following kind of thing working quite well.

1. A title page

The first thing in any sales proposal has to be the title page. This is straightforward enough to do as it merely has the name of your proposal, your own name or company name, and of course your contact details.

2. A letter of introduction

After the title page, you must include a letter of introduction and this is merely intended to let people know what the proposal is about and the information that is generally contained within it. This letter has to be able to catch the attention of the person reading it because this is one area that is actually going to determine if the person will continue reading and even take in the details included in the proposal. We recommend you spend a considerable length of time trying to get this part of the proposal spot on.

3. The contents

With the contents, we are talking about laying out what is included in the proposal in the same way as you see in official reports. It gives the proposal a sense of structure to it and it makes it appear far more professional.

4. The introduction to your proposal

After the contents, you should then begin with the introduction to your proposal. This will lead into the proposal itself and it will expand on areas that were covered in your letter of introduction. This section should not cover too much detail as that is something you will expand on throughout the rest of the proposal.

5. The background

When discussing the background, you should focus on discussing what you believe to be the needs or wants of the client as well as their objectives. This is the perfect opportunity to show you have taken their thoughts and feelings into consideration.

6. The overview

At this point, you should discuss the overview of the proposal and what you hope to achieve. As you can perhaps see, the reason for the proposal is to provide the same information in a number of different ways, with you building more information in as part of the way to pull the person in and to allow them to better understand why they need to make that purchase.

7. Methodology and timeline

This is an important part because your potential client wants to understand what they are getting for their money and also the time it is going to take for it to be delivered. Now, the timeline part is not going to be applicable for every proposal simply because not every product or service is going to result in the end point being delivered sometime in the future. Instead, it can be signed and sealed at that very moment, so the timeline is something to keep in mind, although it is not always essential.

8. The price

Not every sales proposal is actually going to have the price included, so this has to be done on a per proposal basis. However, we will also cover later on what you should not include when it comes to the price aspect as you could easily make life harder for yourself in certain situations. If you do need to include it, then always put it near the end because, by rights, you should have been able to sell them the product or service by the time you get here and this is going to be the part that clinches the deal.

9. Any terms and conditions

Finally, your proposal should finish by mentioning terms and conditions that are linked to the product or service. This is the small print idea, but in actual fact you should not follow the idea that small print is essential. This can often be regarded as being slightly underhand and it has to be avoided.

This is not a set in stone formula for a sales proposal, but it does provide you with some insight into what is supposed to be in there with some changes according to the product, service, or potential client at the time.

10.4 What to Avoid in a Sales Proposal

Finally, we also need to discuss what to avoid, or for that matter what not to do, in a sales proposal because if you can avoid some common mistakes, then that is also going to improve your chances of closing the deal.

1. Avoid a long sales proposal

The biggest, and most common, mistake people make with a sales proposal is the belief that they need to include absolutely every type of detail and piece of information in there, but the only thing that will end up happening is you get a sales proposal that is too long. People have a relatively short attention span and if you appear to be producing a novel, then they will switch off and miss out on all of the key pieces of information you wanted them to hear.Keep it short. Use bullet points to your advantage. Never get drawn into painting this huge picture that is of no benefit to them whatsoever.

2. Be careful with the words

Following on from the point regarding avoiding a long sales proposal, we also have to note that there is a need for you to be careful with the terminology you use. While it may be the case that you need to include some technical terms, they should not be overused as this can put people off even paying attention simply because there is the belief that it comes across as the salesperson trying to show off.

3. Avoid sounding desperate

The final major thing you should never do in a sales proposal is to make yourself sound desperate. This can come in a number of ways since you could be tempted into bigging up your product more than is normal, but with that you are just setting yourself up for a fall. Do not plead or push too hard because being desperate is not actually the kind of thing that will draw people into you. Be clear in what you say, although you also need to avoid sounding too laid back as this is bad as well.