Protect Your Proposals

If you’ve got too little time on your hands already, you don’t need to waste more of it writing sales proposals that don’t win sales. Proposals can be profitable, but to get a positive response you have to be selective about when and why you write them. Only qualified prospects who’ve proven their sincere interest in your product merit a proposal. With the following ground rules, you can be sure the time you spend writing proposals is time well spent.

1) Beware of multiple-bid seekers. When a prospect appears from out of nowhere and seems more concerned with the speed of your proposal than its content, don’t be too quick to turn on your printer. Ask questions to uncover hidden motives – some of these prospects may already have a preferred buyer but are required by corporate policy to have another bid in hand. If the answers you get are vague, do some more digging. Ask, “If I do submit the best proposal, measured according to your decision-making criteria, will I be the one you select?” or ask directly if the decision has already been made. If it has, you might want to question the prospect’s choice or tell them you’d like to be considered for a future opportunity. When the prospect seems suspicious but promising, consider sending a quick, fill-in-the-blanks proposal to get your foot in the door for upcoming opportunities.

2) Don’t take sides in a price battle. People who call to get your best price on a specific quantity of your product may be using your bid to get a lower price from their current supplier. Again, asking questions about their business and specific needs is key to finding out the whole story. After their initial request, tell them you’ll be happy to give them your best possible price, but to do that you need to know more about their situation. If they cooperate, consider them as prospects. If not, quote them a price over the phone, but don’t spend hours or days on a formal proposal.

3) Don’t be an endless supply of information. It’s your duty to educate and inform legitimate prospects, but if an education is all someone wants, you’ve got better ways to spend your time. People who are new to an industry or job or who are only in the initial research stages of a future purchase might want to use you as an information and proposal resource just to further their own education. Some of these “prospects” may turn to a full-service supplier for advice on a purchase, then go to a discounter for the actual buying. Even if prospects seem like they might buy from you later, that doesn’t mean you have to send a formal proposal now. Ask people who call for information about their intent to purchase and their buying schedule with questions like “When do you plan on buying?” or “Have you decided that you will eventually make this purchase?” Callers that give you specific dates or tell you they’re close to making a buying decision may deserve a closer look. Otherwise, use your judgment to decide how much of your time a prospect is worth.

4) Don’t mistake permission to send a proposal for a request for one. When a prospect says, “Oh, all right, send me a proposal; I’ll take a look at it” that prospect isn’t expressing interest in your product so much as he is simply allowing your proposal to enter his mailbox. There’s a big difference. Before you draw up a proposal, ask yourself if your prospect seemed to be actively interested in your product or just passively going along with what you were saying. What reasons does the prospect have for being interested? If you and your prospect engaged in a good two-way conversation or if the prospect did most of the talking, that may indicate a higher level of interest. Tailor the time you spend on your proposal to the degree of interest you sense when talking with him.

Although you shouldn’t hesitate to draw up proposals for legitimate prospects, it’s counterproductive to waste time writing them for anyone else. Everyone’s anxious to make their next sale, but in the time it takes you to write one good proposal for an unqualified prospect you could make dozens of calls to legitimate ones. Save your proposals for your best prospects and you’ll save a lot of time for more profitable selling activities.