How to create that proposal which wins you the new business

Over the years I have read hundreds of proposals from a wide range of agencies (as well as from freelancers) and to be truthful, most of them are just filled with waffle to beef the proposal up. The first five pages are all about how great they are.

I just don’t get it at all!

You need to put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. They don’t need to be told how great you are - all that should have been discussed prior to them receiving a proposal. If you had not already built a certain amount of trust up, then they would not have accepted your request to send them a proposal to be considered.

Keep the proposal short and sweet. You can even say to your potential client that you wanted to keep your proposal to the point instead of filling it up with fancy graphs that don’t mean a whole lot. I’ve gained some respect by saying this as most directors and decision makers are very busy people and don’t want to go through a fifty-page proposal. Obviously, if you are pitching at high-level for a large contract, then you just need to provide what the prospect wants to see.

Apart from a personalised front cover, a proposal should include four key things:

1. The goals and objectives of the prospect.
2. How you are going to achieve those goals.
3. Your fees.
4. The ROI, as demonstrated previously.

Directors or decision makers don’t care if their site has loads of 404 errors or their mobile speed score is 40/100. What they care about is HOW you are going to help them increase new business. If you focus on what directors WANT to read then your lead to sales conversion rate will be a lot higher, as you are talking in their language.

I have even gone as far as asking prospects what they want me to document within their proposal. I get around this by saying…

“I don’t believe in templated proposals and want to make sure that you receive exactly what you need to see…”

If nothing else, the director will remember you.