Improving Your Sales Proposals: Part I
March 04, 2008
By Jeff Schmitt
A request for a proposal is truly a mixed blessing. On one hand, it validates your persuasive skills and brand image. On the other, it requires you to devote valuable time and resources towards an uncertain result. But at least it's time well-spent—a superbly-written proposal will help you keep your foot in the door.
Here are eight ways to enhance the quality and effectiveness of your sales proposals.
1. Teamwork
Preparing a sales proposal can be collaborative in nature. In this model, your account executive is a project leader, responsible for outlining tasks and timelines to various knowledge centers and collecting and reviewing responses. A team-based model enables the project leader to disperse workload, which is a plus in environments with tight deadlines and multi-tasking. However, it is critical for this leader to clearly communicate expectations to ensure stakeholders deliver the appropriate information, quality and format.
2. Research
Go on the Internet and look up your prospect. What products or services do they market? What company developments have been reported, and how could they relate to your solution? Similarly, research your prospect's industry. Visit the websites of their popular trade publications or associations. Brush up on the challenges and emerging trends in their industry and pinpoint ways to integrate them into your proposal.
3. Call Your Prospect
Many times, you'll find a larger story behind the evaluation criteria, so you'll want to contact your prospects before writing. Use consultative questioning to gauge their values, motives, hot buttons and historical underpinnings. Gather intelligence on their scoring system and the personalities involved in decision-making. Most importantly, isolate the factors crucial to reaching the next level and incorporate these insights into your proposal.
4. Think Strategically
Put yourself in your prospect's shoes before you write. What questions will they ask themselves when they read your proposal. Here are some examples:
• Do you have the expertise to handle every facet of this job?
• How well do you understand our challenges? Why will your solution work in our unique situation? How does it align with our corporate objectives?
• How are you different? Why should we buy now—and why from you?
Bottom line: Always set your proposals up to address any potential source of uncertainty.
5. Write Strategically
As you formulate your responses, be sure to back up everything you say. Always ask yourself "how" and "why," and provide supporting details. Don't assume your readers automatically associate benefits with features you cite. Similarly, customize your boilerplate responses to ensure they truly answer the requirements. As you write, return to the original request. This will help you avoid straying from the issues that prompted it.
6. Edit Strategically
During editing, act as a devil's advocate. Ask yourself: how well does a response reinforce a key advantage or benefit? Do I clearly illustrate how my solution resolves the concern buried in the question? In addition, look for opportunities to show your solution in day-to-day activities to tap into your audience's experience and emotions.
7. Use Visuals
You want your proposal to stand out. Unfortunately, your content may not always be enough. As a result, your proposals should have visual appeal. To do this, you need consistency and flair. Your page format should stay the same, including the size and location of graphic elements, footers, page numbers and white space. You'll also want certain page elements to catch the eye. Always include a caption below your graphics to reinforce their point and use bullet points to break up text clusters or highlight critical information.
8. Executive Summary
Always open your proposals with an executive summary. This one-pager should introduce your company and thank the prospect for the bid. Most importantly, it should outline why this partnership will be successful. It's a place to highlight key points where prospects should focus special attention.
For more tips on writing successful sales proposals, read Improbing Your Sales Proposals, Part II.
Jeff Schmitt is a Marketing Consultant from Dubuque, IA. His e-mail is jschmittdbq@mchsi.com. This article originally appeared in The Tri-State Business Times, a monthly business magazine published by Woodward Communications (www.wcinet.com) and has been reproduced with theirs and the author's permission. It has been edited for length.
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