Here's how to send out your proposal on time every time.
Today's video is a part of my free freelance sales course.
Brought to you by Pipedrive.
Pipedrive is the first CRM designed by salespeople for salespeople.
Pipedrive allows you to not only keep track of your prospect's contact
info, but also move them through your sales funnel, keeping track of
each touchpoint you make with them.
Clicking on the yellow symbol here will prompt you to schedule
an activity with your prospect.
What you decide on really depends on the type of relationship you have
and your familiarity with the client.
If they're a brand new lead, you may wanna start by sending an email, but if you
have a mutual friend or colleague, you could consider inviting them to lunch.
Either way, note all of the details down in pipe drive, time of
meeting, location, guest, and notes.
You can even connect your Google calendar to see all of
your activities in one place.
And once the activity has occurred, mark it done and move them to contact made.
And then the next step is going to be to schedule a demo
with them if you're selling a software or product, for example.
But in the case of most freelancers, you're just gonna
go ahead and send a proposal.
The secret.
Is really a template.
Have a template for yourself that has all of your branding, all of your standard
packages loaded up in there, all of your, you know, brand details, contact info.
So really all you need to do is plug and play and choose, okay, this is the
package that I'm gonna suggest to them.
Or, you know, this is kind of the, um, timeline that's, Specific to them, and
all you need to do is change those small little details and send it off to 'em.
I have a template that I use in Canva that I just swap out really, a couple of those
pages, depending on the conversation, and it makes it really, really easy.
I'm taking notes during my discovery call.
I am prepared when it comes time to put that thing together.
Like I mentioned, you wanna do this sooner rather than later.
I try to send it out.
Honestly, same day, if I really want to work with a client, because you
have to put yourself in their shoes a little bit, whenever I'm, let's
say I'm shopping for a new car.
I'm not just going to one dealership.
I am looking on Google to find where can I find this specific
car that I'm looking for, and I'm willing to travel, you know, 50 to a
hundred miles for that car in some.
Situations.
Same thing for service providers.
When you know you're planning an event or hiring somebody to work with you,
you are actively doing so and you are reaching out to multiple people at once.
Your clients are gonna be doing the same thing.
So if you had a good connection, if you feel like this is a client
you really wanna work with, you wanna make sure to send that out.
As soon as possible.
Now, depending on how the call, that initial discovery call goes, I might
ask this question on the call or I might save it for an email later.
I will usually say, I'm gonna send you a proposal.
It should be coming over by the end of the week.
I.
When can I expect to hear back from you?
You have to use your best judgment here on whether or not that feels
appropriate to say on the call or not.
But I always like to ask and just set the expectations so that I'm not
left hanging, but that I also am not feeling annoying by following up.
If maybe they know, Hey, I'm gonna be out of town for the next week, or
My co-founder or my, you know, c e o, who I need to get approval from is
gonna be out of town or unavailable.
Communicate that.
And if they're open with you and they say, Hey, actually
our CEO's outta town right now.
I'm gonna have a meeting with them next week.
I'll be able to get back to you.
You know, on Wednesday.
That's a really good indicator that they're seriously
considering working with you.
If they're very vague about it and they're like, you know, I'll probably just need
like a week, or, you know, I don't know, like, That might be a bit of a red flag.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't still send out the proposal,
but just prepare yourself.
Don't you know, fire all your other clients because you think
this one is gonna replace them.
They might be a little bit on the fence, so depending on the answer,
you get to that question, you may.
Or may not want to do this extra step, add this extra step into your proposal.
This is a little magic sprinkling, a little magic fairy dust I
like to add onto my proposals.
When I really, really want a job, I will add a video to the proposal,
and what I do is I share my screen.
I use a tool like Vidyard or some other video recorder, QuickTime, whatever
you wanna do, and just record myself talking through the proposal as if
I was talking to them, you know?
In person.
I find that this can really help clear up any questions and really get ahead
of any questions and kind of act as an extension of that discovery call.
You're able to show them, Hey, here are the services that I recommend.
I.
We had just worked with a client last month that had this service, and actually
I can hop over to their website really quick and show you what it looks like live
on their website or their social channels.
You know, you can be a little bit more interactive and really
put that personality and put yourself in into that proposal.
I have done this many times for higher ticket contracts and.
How, knock on wood, it's always, always works because it really is the next best
thing to being able to ask you questions face-to-face or work with you directly.
So you've put together your proposal, you've maybe recorded
a video to go alongside it.
Then you just gotta draft the email, the communication that's
sent out to them, and you wanna make sure that you ask them again.
When can I hear back?
You may have already talked about this on the discovery call, like we
mentioned, so make sure you just reaffirm that, Hey, you mentioned that you're
gonna be out of town till Monday.
No worries at all.
Just sending this so it's here and ready for you when you return.
Let me know when you think you'll have a decision and asking an
open-ended question like that.
That kind of.
Encourages them to respond as opposed to saying, let me know if you have any
questions, or Please reach out if you wanna schedule a follow-up meeting.
Instead, just asking really directly when are you gonna have an answer for me.
Another thing that really helps with this is adding an expiration date to
your proposal, and this is not like a.
Sales tactic.
I mean, I think it does work somewhat as a sales tactic, but this is just honesty.
If you are a freelancer juggling multiple clients, you've
gotta know when to move on.
You cannot reserve months on end for a prospect for somebody
who's not actually paying you.
Right?
So I always add somewhere at the bottom of my proposal, you know, this proposal
is good until the end of the month, usually, depending on when I send it out.
But generally about.
30 days is how long.
That's kind of the maximum that they have to decide.
And otherwise it's subject to change, meaning the timeline might be affected.
I can't hold over a month on my calendar for you.
I'm probably gonna be working with another client or doing something
else in my life at that time.
So that might affect the timeline.
It might affect my availability at all.
I might no longer be available for the project, or it could affect the price.
Generally speaking, I raise my rates every single year.
So if somebody gets a proposal in December, that's kind of the last
chance for that year's price point.
So make sure that you add an expiration date onto your proposals
if you wanna make sure that you nudge that conversation along.
And lastly, I wanna mention this because, uh, it's, it's a
problem these days is ghosting.
I hear about it all the time, I've experienced it for sure.
There's this website that I'm gonna recommend to you.
It's called the magic email.com.
If you go there, they have a great script for you to use when you are
kind of in that ping pong match with your client of, oh yeah, like I
looked at the proposal, it looks good.
Let me just take another little bit of time with it.
Or, oh, yep, I'm gonna sign the contract.
I'm gonna do this.
Here, here's, here's what you do.
You just send through the magic email.
The script basically says, Hey, I haven't heard from you in a couple weeks.
I'm gonna assume your priorities have changed.
Please let me know if that's not the case, and it will spring them
into action one way or another.
They'll either say, oh my gosh, no, I do wanna work with you.
Or, oh my gosh, you're right.
Our priorities have changed.
The last thing I'll say on pitching is whether you are doing it in
person, whether you're doing it through video, whether you're just.
Typing up a proposal via email.
Confidence really matters here.
You know, it's all about how you show up.
That's a big piece of it as well.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna tell you.
It's all in your head and it's all mindset, but part of it is for sure, you
want to present yourself as an expert.
You want to present yourself as a professional, so you know, put on a
nice outfit if you were pitching them in person or even on video, right?
Like, Just taking a moment to put on a jacket versus just wearing
your crusty old hoodie that we all hang out and work at home in.
Typically, that can really change how you show up on these calls or even when you're
writing something, believe it or not.
Also think about the language that you're using.
You know, Hey, I recommend taking action on your website and increasing
your, your conversion rates.
Those types of.
Things that sounds like you know what you're talking about and like you're
making professional recommendations as opposed to saying, I really think
that your website could look a little bit more aesthetically pleasing.
Right?
Like, those are two very different recommendations.
One is kind of nice to have and like, okay, this person kind of thinks something
the other is authoritative and saying, listen, in my decade of experience, all
of my, you know, dozens of clients that I've worked with agree that having this.
Changed their website has really helped.
I definitely recommend that you do the same thing.
You know, think about how you're showing up, how you're presenting yourself.
Sometimes that little, that little boost of confidence can be what actually
wins you, the contract in the end.
So, lemme know in the comments, how do you hype yourself up?
For a discovery call or for a pitch call or email.
Let me know if there's any secrets that you have to share
and don't forget to come back.
Same time, same place for episode four in this series.
Thanks so much to Pipedrive for sponsoring this series.
We'll see you in the next one.