Ten tips for better sales proposals - Emphasis

Ten tips for better sales proposals Ten tips for better sales proposals Remember your prospect Dont get so carried away with what youre offering that you forget the person that youre trying to persuade. Always put the prospect first, by starting with their situation and the problems they need to solve. Remember other readers Are there other influencers and decision-makers who might read your proposal, and have you met them? If you havent, your proposal will be all they have to go on, so its vital that you address their needs too. Show understanding Impress your prospect by showing an understanding of their problems and how to fix them, rather than trying to dazzle them with how wonderful your company is. Your company facts and testimonials should just confirm that you know what youre talking about. Persuade You still need to sell the solution(s) youre proposing, so remember to write a persuasive sales argument dont just let the spec speak for itself. Check your facts Simple mistakes will seriously undermine even the best offering. One senior buyer of billion-pound contracts told Emphasis that he always circled the stupid mistakes first such as spelling product or place names incorrectly. Factual inaccuracies create a poor impression thats very hard to shift. Get the basics right Likewise, dont let your spelling, punctuation or grammar let you down. Basic errors do nothing to create a good impression. Dont waffle You may be very proud of your proposal, but your prospect probably has several others to read alongside yours. Even if they dont, theyll certainly have a backlog of other documents to read through. In a recent Emphasis survey, some buyers said that 90 per cent of what they read was badly written or hard to follow. So write to express, rather than to impress them with your splendid vocabulary. Cut and paste with care Cutting and pasting can be a good short cut if two proposals share common material. But its also fraught with danger. One Emphasis client told us of how theyd forgotten to take out a rival clients company name when they did this. It sounds obvious, but its easily done. The answer is to get someone else to proofread what youve written, as youll miss many of your own mistakes. Remember: love is blind. Take care with layout No matter how persuasive your argument, presentation is key and a poor layout can still let you down. Keep your layout uncluttered, crisp and professional. Use plenty of white space, and resist the temptation to cram too much information into every page. Less is definitely more. Talk them through it Finally, if you want to win, take it in. Make an appointment to talk your prospect through your proposal if at all possible. That way youll be able to handle any objections there and then, and maximise your chance of a successful close.