Most salespeople hate writing a proposal. Consequently, we’re pretty good at coming up with reasons why a quick email and attachment will do. We tend to tell ourselves things like:
“I’ve covered everything off already with the customer”
“Its all in the media kit”
“They’ve bought from us before”
“This opportunity isn’t big enough to justify the time”
In the past, we could just about get away with it. Not anymore though. Here are 3 reasons why writing a proper proposal is worth your time
1. Your contact needs it
Your contact is bought in and they tell you they have all that they need. The problem is that regardless of how senior they are, they will involve their colleagues in this decision. This wider decision-making group haven’t been involved in any of the previous conversations so they don’t know much about you, your company or what you’re selling. Your contact needs help selling your solution to this group (even if they don’t realise it) and an email listing features and giving a price simply isn’t good enough. Remember that it only takes one of these guys to say ‘no’ and you’ve lost your deal.
2. It saves time in the long run (honest)
Putting together a simple email might seem like the quicker option but it isn’t. When your contact inevitably shares your email with their colleagues they will ask questions- questions your contact can’t answer. This leads to a string of emails and the whole process slows down. This in turn increases the risk of one or more of the stakeholders losing interest and your deal slowly dying. A comprehensive proposal that answers all of those questions in the first place stops this happening. Slow down to speed up!
3. Your competitors want this business too
Even if you’re the incumbent supplier, it’s likely that the client will be looking at other proposals. Clients are choosing to work with salespeople that deliver the best possible sales experience and sending over generic media kits or copying and pasting emails simply doesn’t cut it. Now is not the time to take short cuts. Don’t waste all that hard work by not putting in enough effort right at the end of the sales process.
Writing great proposals is more important now than ever before but it’s not easy. We want to help so we’ve produced a brand new public course.
Our ‘Winning Sales Proposals’ course enables salespeople to quickly produce high quality proposals which speed up decisions and improve conversion rate. Find out more.
