I’ve been working with a client in the services industry recently to streamline the sales process and improve the percentage of pipeline that closes - and the value it closes at. A key part of that process has been taking a careful look at every ‘touch’ along the way, with a special emphasis on the proposal document.
Here’s five things we’ve put into practice that can help you win more business.
1.Stop Talking About Yourself
The hardest but most important lesson to learn. Nobody cares. Nobody cares, for example, that you have an office in Singapore. It just might be a box that needs to be checked further down the line, but that can be firmly filed under ‘cross that bridge when we come to it’. So although you may be very proud of your achievements, your management team, your corporate culture and so on and so forth, your prospect is interested in what you can do for their own business.
Start from their perspective. Be direct and to the point and only include information that is relevant to how you will deliver for them. To extend the Singapore office example, if you’re pitching for global PR work for an organisation with a large presence in South East Asia, suddenly that is relevant. By all means flesh out why your local presence will help deliver on the prospect’s business objectives. But everything you write should be on those terms and those terms alone.
2. Answer The Question
Your teacher was right: it is important to read the question and answer the question. The ‘question’ in this context is everything you have heard to date relating to what the business you are pitching to want to achieve. Some of that communication will be explicit. The prospect may request certain specific information within a proposal, so make sure you provide it. In some cases overlooking an apparently minor request knock you out of the process entirely, so be diligent.
But in addition, ‘the question’ includes your response to any stated business objectives that are relevant to the project, or anything else that you have learned is important to the prospect. Don’t be afraid to infer those objectives (some customers won’t state them explicitly) but do make that clear in the proposal. State what you believe the organisation wants, and how you intend to deliver it. Make sure to leave open the opportunity to clarify down the line.
3. Understand That Less Is More
It is extraordinary how many of us still believe that “if we write it, they will read it”. Particularly when we skim documents ourselves every day. The harsh reality is that in a great number of cases the typical reader scans the executive summary and flicks through to the price. So if you have any notions about delivering some sort of novella to the prospect, let them go now.
In particular, say what you need to say early and often. If you have something important to communicate, never, ever, leave it buried somewhere in the middle of the document. Consider re-structuring what you have in a way that enables you to be clear and concise within a brief document whilst including additional information (like that office in Singapore) within a range of appendices. A sharp 4 or 5 pages is likely to get read. Faced with 30 or more the average reader will skip or skim the lot.
Lastly - shorter, tighter proposals make it more likely that each individual proposal will be truly tailored to the requirements of the prospect. Yes, we all claim to do that in practice - but when things get busy the old “global replace” shortcut starts to look mighty tempting, particularly when we have to write 30 pages from scratch. Keep things short and you’ll avoid that particular trap.
4. Keep Marketing
It’s a common mistake to assume the proposal is a ‘formal’ document that is pulled together by a salesperson - almost a box-checking exercise. Nonsense. Until the contract is signed, for the marketers in the room “our campaign continues” as Al Gore might or might not say. What that means in practical terms: whilst making sure you answer the question (see above), you deliver something that sells your business in as compelling a way as possible.
What do I mean by that? Well, take social proof as one example. Instead of burying a set of quotes and case studies somewhere in the heart of the document, take the best thing anyone’s ever said about you and stick it right up there next to the executive summary. Similarly, don’t be afraid to go above and beyond. Always respecting the points made above, if you have an opportunity to show the prospect what their world could look like after an engagement with your business - do it.
Keep marketing until they sign on the line that is dotted!
5. Write With Impact
On the same theme, or at least a similar one, there is an almost universal tendency to clam up and begin to communicate in arcane, stilted and formal language when confronted with the ‘proposal’. This is also a mistake. The person reading your document is a human being, and like all human beings they will respond to engaging, compelling and just plain interesting copy.
Be direct, be bold, and if you feel it’s appropriate by all means introduce humour (as a rule of thumb if you think it might be OK, it probably is). Boring copy, like a boring person, is soon forgotten and will never stand out from the crowd. Dare to be a little different and you’ll reap the benefits.
But finally - a caveat. There are, obviously, some organisations for which this approach will not play well. Similarly, there are situations - particularly when your proposal is in response to an RFP, when you may not have sufficient wriggle room to follow all the advice above. Nevertheless, I would endeavour to apply as much of it as possible. The executive summary will always give you some freedom - even if it has to be followed by a more formal document.
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