Great point. Most of the time the client themselves are very unclear on EXACTLY what they want. So do most of you out there give proposals based on your own assumption and discussion with the client and then once awarded the job write the specs? There could be a big discrepancy between the proposal and the actual specs which might greatly affect the time and cost of the project. Ben, you suggest keeping the proposal short and sweet and admit clients will skim only to see what they really want – the price. How do you handle the proposal vs. the spec and the possible difference in cost between the 2. Thanks.

Don’t forget that it’s sometimes okay to say “we don’t know, but part of our process is finding out”. Proposals that claim to “know it all” about what a customer needs or is thinking are self-deluding. If there’s a gray area that needs to be addressed, be honest about it and just state that your process includes requirements discovery, prioritization, prototyping, etc. That, in itself, is a valid solution.

Rob’s right on – admit that part of the project is unclear and you’re proposing what you can based on what you know.

As you get more experience finding out what customers want, guessing, questioning properly, etc. you’ll find that your proposals and specs start to get very close on price.

My other piece of advice — take what you THINK it will cost, add 20-50% and quote that.

All of your points are very valuable. I especially like numbers 2 and 4, as they are very connected. Clearly state the pain the customer feels in number 2 and then clearly state in number 4 that your product or service will provide the best relief and solution to the pain described earlier. I believe number 4 would be best substituted for number 3. Without an effective 2 and 4, the rest of the proposal will have little value to the customer. Put them first and as close to each other as possible.

I also believe that a point number 11 would be very beneficial. Number 11 being that proposals rarely complete a sale on their own. Personal contact to generate positive people to people relationships are vital to almost all real proposal type transactions. In fact, a written proposal would be best used as the entrance document to create and establish the personal contact needed to complete the transaction.

Bill – there’s no question that a sale isn’t completed very often just with a proposal. There’s much more to sales than that – the personal relationship being critical.

Thanks for your comment and stopping by, hope to see you around some more!

Ben,

The pleasure was all mine.

With the excellent way you write and explain things, I hope to join in on the fun again.

I emphasized the personal contact factor, because I believe too many corporations and IT groups forget that people like to work with people. Obviously you fully appreciate the value of personal contacts.

Ben makes the point “take what you THINK it will cost, add 20-50% and quote that.”

Sadly, that’s often the reason that proposals fail…they are over or underestimating the value of fixing that pain. My only suggestion here is to offer a prospect a ‘shopping list’ of individually-priced elements (just as long as each element is profitable on its own…in case they only buy one)…a good way to reduce ‘sticker shock’ and also to get a foot in the door with new clients.

Patrick – adding to your quote is a good way of covering scope creep and your own inability to quote accurately (which most people have a problem with.) Everything takes longer than you think it will…

But I do agree with the “a la carte” approach – break up deliverables and costs.

I love this post. I have read it at least 5 times since it was posted. As a new startup we began working on creating and fine tuning our standard proposal document about two weeks before this post. This has been our check list to compare against.

So where do I send it for a little review

Ethan – email it to me, I’ll take a look.

I highly recommend the book “The One Page Proposal” by Patrick Riley. It provides a great framework that applies many of the ideas outlined here. It’s really changed the way I write proposals, although they’re not always one page.

Great post.

Ben, great, blunt tips here. With the help of Mark Silver(HeartofBusiness.com) and Dawud Miracle HealthyWebDesign.com) I have a fledgling website and blog site, both still in development. Your information is realistic and to the point. Thank you.

Great post, Ben.

The same 10 points could be applied to any number of situations in the modern workplace as they are all examples of ways to practice “principles-based business.”

Make sure whatever you are working on is:
-Audience Centric
-As Simple As Possible
-Valuable Enough For All Involved
-Real / Genuine / Authentic
-At Least As Good As It Should Be
-In Some Way Remarkable

Thanks, -Adam

http://www.BadSlacks.com

Good post – thanks!

This is great. Thank you. Sounds like tips from a great copywriter.

Seems there is hardly any difference between a proposal and a long sales letter.

Proposals are sales letters, so the rules and best practices applied to proposals can apply to sales letters – both long and short…

Excellent advice! One other thing I like to do is add an “executive summary page” that highlights the key benefits, cost and ROI. Even a twenty-page proposal on a complex product or service can usually be boiled down to a page or less. Maybe that’s the best place to start writing a proposal…?