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Setting the Presentation/Proposal Meeting Date

Guest post by: Todd Willard

Article Overview: A quick view and advice on the difficulties associated with the timing and timeframe of proposals.

Setting the Presentation/Proposal Meeting Date

The majority of sales professionals when setting the date for the presentation meeting will ask the potential buyer the following question: "When would you like to see a proposal?" The typical response back from the buyer is: "As soon as you can get it to us."

This question and approach creates a number of difficulties for the seller in that it can put a tremendous strain on the account team to respond with a very impressive proposal in the timeframe outlined by the buyer.

The more appropriate approach is to ask a question that will put the proposal date as close to the decision date as possible.

As a result, the question that should be asked is: "What timeframe will be required from the time you receive the proposal to make a decision?" The typical response is the buyer will need about 2 weeks or so to make the decision once they have a proposal in hand. Once the buyer shares their timeframe with us, we can then work backwards from their decision date and suggest a date to present to them with the proposal document.

Again, our goal is to get as close to the decision date as possible with our proposal and presentation. The longer the timeframe in between these two dates just creates more time for "bad things" to happen and we are looking to prevent that if possible.

WILLARD'S WISDOM

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Article Tags: executive sales, sales, sales meetings, sales training, selling



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