Monday 31 July - How to write compelling proposals

Hello Subscriber,

I hope that you’ve had a really good weekend!

Our emails this week are all about writing compelling proposals. Every day, we’ll look at one specific way you can improve your proposals and sell more effectively.

Today, we’re starting with the big picture. What do we mean when we say “compelling proposal”?

The answer is simple. When your customer reviews the proposal that you’ve prepared for them, do they find it so compelling that the only decision they can make is to proceed?

Genuinely compelling proposals make it easy for customers to say yes.

It’s important to understand the differences between compelling proposals and documents that might be called proposals but are far from compelling. Let me give you the most straightforward example. A simple quotation is NOT a compelling proposal!

We might turn our basic quotation into a polished proposal with lots of relevant information about ourselves and some case studies. We could make it look very professional with our design and presentation quality.

But it would still not be a compelling proposal.

Here’s a brand new Sales Reset Proposal Checklist that we’ve just created. The one thing you can practice today is using this checklist with some of your recent proposals. The more ticks your proposal achieves, the more compelling your proposal becomes.

You can download a copy of the Sales Reset Proposal Checklist by clicking here.

Here’s one area of practice to emphasise today

Why can it be hard to write compelling proposals?

• For many people in sales roles, their only conversations with customers are about the products and services they’re selling.

• All of these conversations are about the details of what is being sold.

• The salesperson might come out of the conversation with little understanding of what the customer is trying to achieve with the purchase.

• It’s then impossible to write a compelling proposal.

• The only way to write a compelling proposal is to have an excellent conversation with the customer.

• We develop the proposal while we’re still speaking with the customer.

• After the meeting, all we need to do is to confirm in writing what we’ve just discussed.

• But that’s easier said than done. We’ll learn more through the rest of this week!

Coaching Focus

1. Finish your review of recent proposals using the Sales Reset Proposal Checklist

2. Ask your sales team leader or coach to review one or more of your most recent proposals using the Sales Reset Proposal Checklist.

3. Have a coaching conversation about where you agree in your assessment of the proposals, where you disagree, and what you could do to make your proposals more compelling.

Reminder: One area of practice to emphasise today

If you have questions or comments, it would be great to hear from you. Just hit reply and send me an email.

Have a great day!

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