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The Proposal Document

Guest post by: Todd Willard

Article Overview: A simple overview on a few pointers for proposals.

The Proposal Document

When presenting the proposal, there are a couple of key considerations to keep in mind.

• 1) Ensure that you include an executive summary - which is a one-page synopsis of everything that is included in the entire proposal document.
• 2) Present the proposal in the format you follow when following a sales process.
• 3) Consider NOT including the "price" in the proposal document itself. We know that potential buyers go to the "pricing page" first - just consider not including it in the actual proposal document so that you can highlight the value of the proposal - prior to sharing the price.
• 4) Continue to differentiate yourself as much as you can - even in the written format of a proposal document.
• 5) Prepare the proposal document with the "personality type" of the individual you are presenting to in mind. In other words, if they are a "Driver" personality, I would keep the proposal document short and sweet - highlight your strengths. If you are presenting to an "Analytic" personality, ensure that you include all the supporting documentation that you can - they will analyze the proposal to the nth degree. If you are presenting to an "Expressive" personality, you will want to include colorful graphs and slides. You will want to appeal to their feelings about the proposal.
• 6) Don't include any more information than is absolutely necessary. Many buyers will simply not spend the time reading the entire document.

Hopefully, these tips will help you in the preparation of the proposal document.

WILLARD'S WISDOM

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



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Don't give up 40%! - Congrats on this milestone Evan... I agree with outsourcing any function that makes the business owner a Front-line worker as this is not best use of your time. I also agree with Louis that 40% is too much to give up. 40% may work if you have surpassed your income goals from the website and after you pay the 40% you are still within your monthly income goals. Would an RFP/RFI (Request For Proposal/Information) to companies like this Website Sales Team be a call you need to make?
Re: Have you tried Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1 - I use it. it is probably the fastest and is great for organizing my online business information, but the pictures load slower than Internet Explorer. Also it becomes irritating to open links in Word Document with FireFox. Hope it helps.
Re: Have you tried Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1 - [quote="orxan":1ys0lz55]I use it. it is probably the fastest and is great for organizing my online business information, but the pictures load slower than Internet Explorer. Also it becomes irritating to open links in Word Document with FireFox. Hope it helps.[/quote:1ys0lz55] Thanks Orxan, I did not notice the part of pictures loading between IE and Firefox
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