The Presentation and Proposal
This is where the rubber hits the road: the proposal. "Press hard; you're making five copies" – remember when it was that easy?
Ah, yes. That all-encompassing, heart-pounding, Toastmasters moment. The culmination of months of presales, assessment, subject matter expert content, leasing approval, cost calculating, margin calculating, big deal pricing, hardware configurations, sales forecasting, funnel management, account diagramming, proposal generating, bond-and-rapport'ing, role playing and management harrasment all comes down to your very pretty toner on paper – single-sided, I'm guessing.
Did you let your all-in-one assessment package generate a cold, heartless piece of work? Did you utilize your dealership's rehashed copier proposal template? Or did you print out a simple price list complete with manufacturers' SKUs?
After whatever it was that you did in presales, doesn't it make sense to put something in front of the client that reflects your commitment and also shows great respect for your prospect's time – and is closeable?
Let's outline the basic reasons for a proposal:
-
Explaining what you did
-
Explaining what you will do
-
Explaining how much it will impact your client
-
Moving forward.
Explaining what you did
Simple. Outline the process you went through to gain insight into their world. Explain your assessment process, how long it lasted, the walk-around, the DCA, software installations, internal meetings and your application of business acumen, droppping quotes from end users. It doesn’t need to be extremely detailed – just a cusory explanation of your unique process.
Explaining what you will do
This is your promise. This is an illustration of what your customer can expect from you, including your MpS engagement, service-level agreements, statement of work, etc.
Outline your internal support/infrasctructure as it pertains to superior customer service. Introduce the escalation, toner-delivery and service-call procedures. Tell them how this works and show them the machine behind the curtain – just a little.
Explaining how much it will impact your client
Straightforward, right? Not really. You are defining impact in money, time and their level of commitment to you. For example, when explaining how your toner delivery works, you're going to ask them, "When one of your employees misplaces one of our cartridges, how should we respond? Should we call you directly?" Consider the impact the answer to this simple question entails – for both you and your client. Talk about the money; will your system save hard dollars? If so, explain how and how much. If not, simply review the overall cultural or procedural impact of your system. Explain and confirm your MpS vision and how partnering with you secures a future with less stress.
Moving forward – the close
There is a reason for all this: It is to make money and provide food and shelter for yourself, your family and the families of your co-workers supported by high intent. This is the point. Have everything ready to go the day after the proposal. All signature documents are in the proposal. All pricing is in the proposal. Timelines, team members, commitments and expectations are in the proposal.
Now is the time to get the approval, the commitment, the agreement to move forward; now is the time to simply ask, to make all this real or to smoke out any doubts and objections. Address them now with high intent and "disconnect."
What is 'disconnect'?
Your sales manager probably doesn't want you to act this way; he may not even understand the concept of 'disconnect,' but the good ones do. Completlely illustrated, closing with disconnect means not owning any emotional connection to the outcome of the close. For example, when you ask for the order, your mentality stands at the edge of being personally connected to the successful close and obtaining money for the work you've performed. You are ready for every possibility, and if the close does not go your way, you are not personally destroyed. You are not personally invested in the results. On the flip side, when you do sign an agreement and move forward and receive compensation for your efforts, you have no emotional tie to the reward; act like you've been there before.
There is, of course, one more thing …
When preparing to submit a proposal, how difficult is it to ask your prospects exactly what they would like to see? Not only does their answer give an outline of what they think they want, but it tells you what kind of people they are and how they view you. When a client responds, "I am glad you asked that. Please don't bring me a 400-pound chunk of paper with all sorts of marketing crap in it," how will you respond? "Sure, no problem. How about simply the master services agreement and pricing? That way, we can move forward before the next billing cycle. Sound good?"
It might be just that easy.
Posted by Greg Walters on 11/11/2011