Writing
Sales Proposals In
this section we will look at the sales proposal in written form. The material
presented here is a section adapted from a sales course I have run for several
years, tailored specifically for the IT industry.
Proposals take a variety
of forms, but they have one thing in common. A proposal is your offer to sell
to your client. Their choice is to either accept or reject your proposal. Timing
plays an important part of the sales process. The timing of the proposal must
match with the willingness of the client to purchase. GATEWAY screens . кухни . корм для собак . детские коляски Most
of the information presented concentrates on written proposals, provided in response
to a specification (which you might well have had to determine yourself through
discussions with your prospect). The proposal may take the form of a simple letter,
or be fully blown tender response. In my opinion, the simpler the proposal, the
more likelihood of winning the business.
Proposals are often prepared in
response to a Request for Proposal (RFP). An RFP is a formal request to vendors
for a proposal of products and/or services, and will usually be some form of specification.
The specification details what it is that the client requires of the supplier.
Specifications are often written by external consultants. The
RFP might be for example advertised in news papers andto all comers,
or it might be private.
Whatever
the form of the RFP, preparing a proposal is usually best organized as a project.
It also needs to have a single person managing the proposal process. Choosing
to respond to an RFP is a serious decision and as such the project plan provides
an opportunity to detail the resources and time frame requirements. It needs to
be signed off by management and have agreed milestones. At each milestone the
decision to continue (or not) with the proposal process needs to be made. There
is really very little difference between preparing a written sales proposal and
making a presentation face to face with your client. The only difference is the
form that it takes. For some sales staff a written proposal gives them an advantage.
It allows the opportunity to carefully and clearly detail exactly what they have
to offer and to present their organisation and offerings in a very positive light.
And let's face it, not all presentations go well.
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The
best proposal you can make is to formalize the verbal agreement you've already
reached with your client. If you like the deal has already been done but the paper
work needs to be completed. But
even if your proposal takes the form of multiple volumes of information, the proposal
itself should be summarized in a covering letter. The covering letter summarizes
the product/services, the bottom-line price and the delivery dates.
Request
for Information To
avoid the work involved in evaluating large numbers of proposals, some organisations
publicly issue a Request for Information (RFI). Some do this on a regular basis,
perhaps annually or biannually.
The
responses to the RFI allow the organisation to cull the number of firms that they
might want to do business with, and are usually followed a few months later by
an RFP being issued to those companies that have passed the grade with their response
to the RFI.
An RFI will usually request basic information from prospective
vendors. In simple terms the organization wants to know, what respondents sell,
their ownership and information about financial well being, locations and staff
numbers. | | |
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