You spend so much of your time
getting in front of the right people,
making sure that their qualified and interested.
But once you actually have a great prospect,
does your sales proposal help close the sale
or does it actually create roadblocks
to truly closing the sale?
So many of my clients have never actually thought through
what their sales proposal actually looks like and whether
its a tool that actually helps them close sales.
Have you thought about it?
Well, I can tell you that a great sales proposal
has a massive impact on closing the sale.
It really can be the difference
between closing or not closing.
And the right sales proposal can also be the difference
between a really small sale or a massive sale.
So in this video, I'm going to show you the five keys
to a sales proposal that closes deals.
You need to know these now.
Check it out.
Number one.
Keep the sales proposal short.
Under three pages max.
Now there is such a temptation to put everything you got.
The entire kitchen sink into the sales proposal.
But the problem is that when you're giving
a really big, long sales proposal to prospects,
what are you ultimately doing to them?
You're giving them homework.
Imagine if someone came up to you
and just gave you a binder full of content and said,
here, read this, oh, by the way, we want your money.
It just doesn't make sense.
Proposals must be short.
And if your sales proposal is long,
is even three pages long.
Chances are its too long.
our proposals are always like two pages max.
And so, that means that the first page is really dedicated
to understanding what their situation is
and then the second page is focused on the deliverables.
And we want to keep this short.
We want to keep it short so that way they actually read it
and that they're not overwhelmed and turned off
and just kind of procrastinate and look at it later.
And also, we want to keep it short
because it forces us to think really sharply
about what's most important that must go in here
and what's other stuff that doesn't have to go in here.
Keeping your proposal short is going to make
a huge impact on both the quality of your proposals
and the likelihood that your prospect actually reads it.
So all of those pages about about us and our qualifications
and all of the awesome things that we've ever done before,
get rid of that stuff.
All of the terms and conditions,
unless you absolutely need it,
for example, in the financial space
where there are actual legal requirements, sure,
but if you don't have those types of things,
just get rid of it.
Keep it really simple and to the point.
Number two.
Begin the sales proposal by restating
the prospect's core objectives and challenges.
Now this is one of those things
where it can't be boiled or plate.
There is such a temptation to just give
every prospect essentially the same proposal.
But this step really requires that we put some thought into
the conversations that we've already had with the prospect.
And, by the way, if you don't know
your prospect's core objectives and challenges
as a result of your conversations,
then you're not ready for the proposal.
So this also forces us in the discovery phase
of the sale to be really thorough,
to really understand what they most care about,
what are those objectives
that they absolutely need to accomplish?
And then what are the challenges that they're facing?
That are currently holding them back
from achieving those objectives.
If you are able to restate those core objectives
and challenges in the first part of your proposal,
what you're doing to the prospect
is you're showing them that you really listened.
You really paid attention and you really understand
what's going on in their world.
By doing this, it's really creating so much value
in this process because you're also just putting on to paper
what's holding them back, what they want to accomplish.
Chances are they haven't even really looked
at those objectives and challenges on a piece of paper.
So you're creating a level of value for them
that they've never really thought about.
And by doing this, you're going to have a huge level
of differentiation from all of your competitors
because they're not doing this.
They're just sending out
the same crappy, boiler plate proposals
that the prospect has seen a million times.
You can be different right here by restating
those core objectives and challenges.
Number three.
Create three options for working with you
in your sales proposal.
It is so tempting to put everything in your proposal
in terms of the offering itself
to put it into one option,
and to just say, oh, you know what,
we know exactly what they need
and here's the one option.
But the reality is is you don't not know exactly
what your prospect is going to want exactly.
Even for someone like me who does a really thorough,
basically a two hour discovery meeting
with my consulting clients, and yet,
at the end of that, I never know,
are they going to be willing to go with the really,
the higher, the Mercedes-Benz option
or are they going to ultimately say,
hey, you know what, we really just want
to test this guy out and see how it goes.
And so by creating three options
for working with you in your sales proposal,
you're creating a level of optionality.
So on the low end, you're gonna have basically
the minimum option for working with you.
It's going to be paired down.
It's going to be basic.
It's almost like a first step of sorts.
But it's also less expensive and then the middle,
it's a bit more, it's probably your core offering,
and then on the high end, the third option,
it's going to be the absolute Mercedes-Benz of options.
It's the really high end option.
It's maybe an option that you've never even presented before
because you thought to yourself, geez,
this is such a big option, but by having the three options,
that third high end option is going to make
the first two options look like a no-brainer.
And so you're not only creating optionality
that gives your prospect the desire
and the ability to really feel like,
hey, you know what, I don't have to shop around
because I've got three options here.
But it's also creating value for that middle option,
in particular, and you know what,
sometimes prospect's just choose the third option.
I can't tell you the number of times my prospect's
have just gone with that third option and I think to myself,
there's no way they're gonna choose this,
it's so expensive and they choose that third option
because they're saying, you know what,
I trust this person and I want the absolute best.
Some people just buy the best.
Create that third option.
It's gonna make that second option seem like a no-brainer,
and you know what, sometimes you're gonna get
those big sales with that third option.
This is one of the most easy tactical changes to make
and it's going to have a huge impact,
both on the close rate of your sales
and also the sales size, the average sales size
'cause you're gonna make way bigger sales.
Number four.
Only address the prospect's stated issues
in your sales proposal.
There is such a temptation, like I said before,
to throw everything at the prospect.
Everything that you can do for them.
But you know what, the prospect doesn't care about
everything that you can do for them.
All they care about is that you are going to do
what you need to do in order to solve their challenge.
So only put in the proposal the solutions
to the stated issues that you have already discussed.
Have you ever been in a sales situation where you're really,
you were just on the goal line,
you were about to close the sale and then you say,
oh by the way, let me show you one last thing
that we can be doing, and then suddenly the prospect's like,
uh, I don't know, I don't really need that
and suddenly you're in back pedal mode 'cause you're like,
oh crap, I just went on something way on a limb
and it did not work.
We don't want to take those kinds of risks.
There are times to take risks in sales,
but not here with the proposal.
Only address what the prospect has already stated
is an issue and a challenge.
Nothing else.
Think of the car, the car buying experience
that you might've had.
You go to a dealership and you say, look,
I need a car for my family, and then the car dealer,
the salesman says, oh, we've also got this thing,
it's so fast, it's got so much horsepower
and the prospect immediately is like, well,
I don't want a fast car,
I want a car for my family that's safe, right.
Just address the challenges
that they have already talked about.
Number five.
Make the sales proposal a contract that can be signed.
This is really important.
There's a tendency to have to make a second step
after the prospect accepts the proposal.
So the prospect says, yeah, we'll move forward,
we'd like to go with option two, and then you say,
okay, great, I'll send over the contract.
That simple step is now creating a barrier
to closing the sale because life happens.
Your prospect's are busy.
If they're important people, which I hope they are,
then they're busy and they're likely to get distracted
and sidetracked and other things are going to come up.
Make the proposal itself a contract that can be signed.
Now again, I understand there are certain industries
where it has to be a big contract
and all the fancy jargon and all the lawyer stuff, fine,
but still, ideally make it so the proposal is still signable
and so that way it's at least feels like a signed contract.
Maybe there's a follow up contract that has to come after,
but at least lock in the deal and make it so that way
you can at least get that first payment initially,
hopefully, as a result of that signed contract.
We instituted this a while back
and it made a huge difference because, you know what,
things happen, things can fall apart
and this is just one way to bridge that second step
that just doesn't have to happen.
And so our proposals are always contracts.
The prospect signs the proposal,
it is the contract, that's it.
If they want to cancel down the road,
they cancel down the road, but it is the contract.
It makes things so easy.
This is a tactical easy thing that hopefully you can
make an impact with your own selling way.
So there are the five keys
to a sales proposal that closes deals.
I want to hear from you.
Which of these ideas did you find most useful?
Be sure to share below in the comment section
to get involved in the conversation.
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