We all want our proposals, tenders, pitches, and presentations to produce results. Power up your proposal with these proven techniques:
- Make the client the subject. Avoid the temptation of talking all about you, your firm, your team, and your processes to the exclusion of what should be central: the client.
- What the client wants, needs, values, and benefits from is the focus of a powerful proposal.
- Work out why what you offer will be good for the prospective client - and then say this clearly and unambiguously. Don't make a busy prospective purchaser do the work and "join the dots" - do it for them.
- If you don't know why your service will be of benefit, then either find out or work it out before you propose.
- Don't just cut and paste your last proposal. Tailor all the information to this occasion - make it relevant and meaningful to this prospective client.
- Use style and language which will make sense and feel right to the reader. This is not the time for excessive formality, complex structures, unusual terminology, or your firm's favourite jargon, let alone strange acronyms.
- Make your proposal attractive and easy to read - not daunting, dense slabs of text crowded onto a page. Diagrams, charts, pictures, quality paper and printing, and stylish covers help make your document appealing.
- Make it safe for the client to move their business to you. Address their fears and show how you reduce their risks.
- Ease the transition: present a well-conceived plan to smoothly transition to the new service relationship.
- Show you value the business by reducing, minimising, or eliminating the cost of changing to you and your firm. Bear some or all of the cost of your "learning curve".
- Anticipate the prospective client's concerns. Address these in your proposal, rather than hoping they'll be flagged and you'll have a chance to deal with these later.
- Let the prospective client take it a step at a time. Wherever feasible, divide your service offering into steps and stages rather than asking for a big "jump in at the deep end" commitment up front.
Put real power in your proposal and make it easy to say "yes" because you've addressed their fears, uncertainties, and doubts and presented an attractive option or appealing alternatives which make it safe and easy to start doing business with you.
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