Email and sales proposals that sell
Persuading people to do business with you can be tough at times. It can be even harder when you are not in the room and your sales documents will have to do all the talking. How can you write proposals that actually win the deal?
Before getting started
Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. It is very tempting to dive in and start writing at the very sign of interest someone has shown in your business. Or, to just cut and paste the content you wrote for the past similar proposal and only change the name to top and tail the document.
Neither of these approaches is good. Neither of them accounts for what the customer really needs. And what do they need? Nothing more than what you want when you are looking to buy - do they understand my business challenge? How will they get me from A to B? Do they really have my best interests at heart? Make sure you are able to answer your prospect’s questions before you set off to write your proposal.
Know your objectives
These may be as follows:
- to educate the prospective client about the full nature of their need, of which they may not be aware,
- to convince the prospect that you have the competence to deliver what they need,
- to justify the prospect’s investment in terms that are useful and understandable to them.
Once you have decided whether you want to pursue the first, the second or the third goal, or perhaps all the three at once, think of how you can get the potential clients to read your proposal. Now is the right time to demonstrate you have a full understanding of their needs, to present your ideas in a way that will convince them your company can best handle the task, to persuade them they need external expertise to ease their pain, and finally that you are the best choice for the job.
Confusing numerals
Dates. The British and the US date formats differ – mm/dd/yyyy in the US and dd/mm/yyyy in Europe. It means the American and the European will read 6/4/2007 as 4th of June 2007 and 6th of April 2007 respectively. Even more interesting is that the same date in Asia will refer to the 7th of April 2006.
Measurement systems. Many British people still use the old imperial measurement system, which means that where the rest of Europe would use kilometers, centimeters, kilograms, litres, etc., the British will use miles, inches, pounds and gallons.
Decimal separators. Great Britain and the United States are two of the few places in the world that use a period to indicate the decimal place. Many other countries use a comma instead, e.g. 4.294.967.295,000 (Norwegian) - 4,294,967,295.00 (English)
Hour-format. The British use both the 24-hour and 12-hour notations, with the 24-hour notation used in timetables and on most digital clocks, and 12-hour notation used in ordinary life.
The body of your proposal
The theme.
It is the first thing a prospect sees about the proposal, so make sure it is meaningful. It should clearly inform the prospect of the reason for the proposal.
Example:
If you are in the education industry, your proposal theme might be the following: “Providing the greatest value in education services to ABC Corp”.
Personalized introduction.
If your proposal follows an inquiry or a meeting, thank the prospect for taking interest in your company. Address the contact person on the part of the client directly, refer to the inquiry and encourage them to contact you if they have further questions.
Example:
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for inviting us to the meeting on Friday. Following the discussion, I drafted a proposal that encompasses all the challenges we were talking about. Please read through it carefully and if you have any further questions please email me at yourname@yourcompany.com or call me on 12 345 678 91.
Current situation.
Another option for beginning your proposal is to start with the context. Set up the scene by addressing the prospect’s challenge first and then relating all subsequent messages and details to their current situation.
Example:
Over the past 10 years, Your Company Inc. has assisted over 50 companies in improving their productivity. Like these companies, Corp Inc. is looking to achieve higher productivity. In the following proposal we will discuss our approach to achieve higher efficiencies and eliminate wasteful functions.
The process.
Describe the ”how”. Show the prospect how you will get from A to B, including a simple timeline, showing key deliverables, who is delivering what and when. Showing the process of how you will work together will help the prospect visualize how you will get the job done and reassure them you are the right person to lead them to a desired place.
Example:
If you are an HR consultancy and undertake to carry out an employee satisfaction research, you may specify the steps as follows:
The cost for your product or services.
This section should never appear at he beginning before you manage to fully explain your approach and the resulting benefits. People like to know what they are buying before they are willing to spend the money. Otherwise, the chances are the prospect will reject the offer before he has a chance to understand it fully.
Be explicitly clear about the costs.
You do not want your potential client to be surprised with hidden costs once they have accepted your proposal. Include the information about all potential costs even if you are not sure what exactly they would be like – the prospect should know at least what they are. Most people operate within a specific budget and it is fair to help them calculate if they can afford your product or service.
Customer testimonials.
Including testimonials may be a good idea because buyers love to hear what you have done for others with similar cases. If you decide to use them, choose testimonials from relevant industries as this will increase your credibility.
Writing preparation hints
Regardless of whether you write your proposal in the form of a separate document or include it in the body of an email (e.g. answering an inquiry), there certain things to remember.
Helping over selling
Focus on proving how you can help solve the customer’s problems, rather than just list your attributes. This may mean, for example, freely sharing your ideas as part of the proposal by proving links to the relevant content - articles, blog posts, models, research. Just to be clear – it is not about solving the problem before you do any work. It is about demonstrating your approach and showing you would like to be genuinely helpful.
Personalized email cover letter
Sales proposals and a good cover letter go hand in hand. The former reveals the details of what it means to do business with you, while the latter should convince the reader why he should go over the proposal at all. Make it warm and friendly, and, at the same time, persuasive.
Since the cover letter will naturally receive the most views, it needs to capture the prospect’s attention and create an emotional connection. This is why the most important information, i.e. what makes you stand out from competition and how you can provide value to the prospect, should appear in the space before your prospect will need to scroll. With languages using a left-to-right reading pattern, the left side is crucial, so maximize the left side of the email by placing important elements there.
Equally useful will be breaking the content into paragraphs – people absorb the information best when it is provided in chunks, as well as including the white space, which facilitates movement through the page by allowing the human eye to “rest”. It will make the email easy to read, giving the reader a positive experience of contacting your company.
Being clear about the benefits
A typical mistake is to promote the features of the business, product or service, neglecting to point out how they will benefit the customer. Features enable the product or service perform its function, whereas benefits show how the prospect’s life will change for better using the product or service.
So, for example, if you are in the education industry, instead of writing “You will master your English in 6 months, supported by the best teachers using the best teaching methods”, write “After six months you will efficiently communicate in oral and written English”.
Editing
Editing, or the lack of it, can heavily influence how you are perceived by potential buyers. Different types of font, mixed colours and styles suggest you have compiled the proposal of something you had previously written, or fragments of proposals prepared by someone else. And if this is so, the client may start wondering what it really means to do business with you and whether it will be equally sloppy.
Get the tone right
It is not worth using overly solicitous statements like “We deeply appreciate the opportunity to present our proposal”, as they may suggest you are subordinate to the prospect. Show you are an expert, assuming a positive, friendly and professional tone. Both in email and the proposal, the language should be conversational, human and jargon-free to make sure the prospect understands everything you communicate to him. Corporate and stuffy language is by no means professional.
And finally…
Double check your writing. Sending an email or a proposal to the client without re-reading it is a common mistake we all make. It resembles assembling the jigsaw puzzle segments without looking at the final effect. In fact, writing a proposal should be split into three parts: preparing, writing and revising, and time is your most precious resource here. So, take the time necessary to create an outline, so that you write a quality document the first time, and when you finish, use the same amount of time to revise it. Just to make sure it looks like a proposal you would like to receive yourself.
