Client Magnets Blog

Wouldn’t it be nice if you never had to put together another sales proposal?  Certainly the concept of becoming a Client Magnet is about attracting clients and eliminating those time consuming steps for which we’re not paid.  But there will be times when you need to submit a proposal.

Make sure you’re not relying on a skimpy one page document with a price and overview as a sales proposal, you should be offering much more than that.  The proposal needs to be a selling document that takes someone through the whole process and establishes you as the logical choice to assist them with a particular problem or issue.

To help them reach this conclusion, which seems so logical to you, you need to:

Predict questions the clients may have and address them within the proposal.

Hopefully you’ve had the opportunity to build relationships with people within the organization before submitting your proposal, even if you were only there to observe people at work, meet people informally or conduct interviews.  That’s a prime opportunity to start winning friends and for delving into the internal politics of the organization.  But another benefit of this contact is that it is going to give you an idea of concerns and issues within the organization and you will have the opportunity to address within the proposal.  That’s a good way to avoid delays and stalls while your proposal makes its rounds.

So, if you put yourself in your client’s shoes, and put together a good offense in your proposal, it will certainly avoid you having the difficult task of defending your proposal as it’s making its way through the hierarchy.

Avoid complacency.

Even if you have a wonderful contact within an organization and they seem ready to hire you, there’s more than one person in the larger companies that make the decision.  Make sure your proposal doesn’t rest on the laurels of your cozy contact relationship.   Use your proposal to sell yourself to every single person within the organization.

Avoid scaring your client.

Now I know that sounds odd, but what frightens clients is the very product that you are offering, and that’s change.  Who wouldn’t want the change your service is offering, improved customer relations or increased sales?

I’ve done a fair amount of research in the psychological outlook of managers at both the senior and middle level, and one thing that really stands out is how fearful they are of change.  So how do you get past this Catch 22?  Avoid using words that signal a big change on the horizon, words such as transformation or dramatic results.  Use more moderate terminology to show how your product will fit seamlessly within their organization.

There are plenty of specifics that will help you produce a winning proposal.  I’ve not only outlined them in my Attracting Corporate Clients system, but I’ve gone through and pulled winning proposals from my files.  I’ve put together not only specific tips, such as binding methods so your information doesn’t become separated or methods of submission.  But these general tips outlined here will put you one step closer to avoiding the skimpy sales proposal syndrome that doesn’t sell your services properly.