You Ask, I Answer: How To Write Sales Proposals?

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You Ask, I Answer: How To Write Sales Proposals?

Kate asks, “When you write proposals, do you spell out everything or do you try to keep things simple/streamlined?”

It depends on what the proposal is, but we start with a template because otherwise we’ll forget things. Ours are typically 4 parts – strategy, tactics, execution, and payment, or STEP for short. The most detail is in execution – budget, timeframe, deliverables, prerequisites, fees and out of pocket costs, everything you’d need to set expectations properly.

We use this template because it’s a compendium of lessons learned, things that have gone wrong in the past, so that we cover the bases. I’m sure it’ll evolve as we make future mistakes.

You Ask, I Answer: How To Write Sales Proposals?

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In today’s episode, Kate asked when you write proposals do spell out everything or do you try and keep things simple and streamlined.

we’re debating whether or proposals should be super detailed or template Id make things fast and easy.

It depends.

It depends on what the proposal is.

Generally speaking, when I write proposals, I start with a template because otherwise I’ll forget things just to be perfectly honest.

There’s things that no, just forget to include.

And the worst thing you can do is forget to include something and then have to explain later to the to the client.

Oh, yeah, sorry about that forgot that.

That was a thing or you set expectations and properly.

The proposal templates that I use are typically four parts.

So it’s strategy, tactics, execution, and payment or step for short.

The most detail is in execution.

So strategies like why are we doing the thing that’s sort of like the executive summary tactics? Or what are the things that we’re going to do.

And then execution is how we’re going to do the thing.

And so all the detail really is in execution, budget, timeframe, deliverables, prerequisites, fees, out of pocket costs, all those things that someone can look at go, Okay, I know, what’s supposed to be happening.

And the one the things that I think are the most important are obviously budget and timeframe important, but the deliverables and the prerequisites are where I know I’ve gotten into trouble a lot in the past and also clients have gotten into trouble where they didn’t realize that there were expectations that were incumbent upon them.

So having those deliverables Those prerequisites are super important.

But prerequisites are here’s what we need to do the job.

If we don’t have these things, we can’t meet the timeframe.

And so being very clear, you know, we need access to Google Analytics or access to this data or an hour a week with stakeholders, whatever the thing is, you need to get the job done.

being super, super clear about that.

And it’s, I think it’s great to be detailed in the prerequisites so that you can later go back and say, we did we did not get the thing done.

The deliverables are also we have to be very, very clear.

And the deliverables are what are people doing? And again, one of the little tricks that I find so important with deliverables is making sure that both parties have deliverables.

So it’s not just your agency that is writing up the proposals.

Here’s what we’re going to do is here’s what everybody is doing.

If you’re, for example, doing a Google Analytics or Google Data Studio dashboard project, you know why the deliverables that the client would be responsible for would be what metrics matter to your organization, what are the key outcomes that you care about.

Without that information, you can deliver a dashboard, but it’s not going to be what the client wants.

So having having things spelled out for everybody involved in the project really is the value of a great proposal.

The template that we use and the structure that we use is more than anything, it’s a compendium of lessons learned, everything that’s gone wrong in the past, right so that we cover all the bases.

I remember, you know, back in the old days, I used to use a template provided to me by the company I work for and there was always stuff that was was unclear about billing, or there was always stuff that was missing from a proposal, particularly with it was a collaborative proposal with another team.

And we always got burned, we always got burned on something either.

Somebody didn’t have the data that they were expected to have.

Team members were not available that should have been.

And so especially for any kind of collaborative effort, a template proposal, that clearly spells out expectations is essential.

It’s almost like a project management plan.

In a lot of ways.

If you think about a proposal as a project management plan, it becomes a lot easier to write because you’re like, Okay, I need to put these things in.

You know, one of the things that I’m considering putting into proposals is spelling out in writing.

These are the stakeholders.

These are the people who are the points of contact so that again, it’s super clear.

Your participation is expected on this project.

It’s not either way.

It’s very clear who’s doing what.

When you look at a project management plan, there’s time.

There’s resources, there’s owners who owns what.

And all the expectations is spelled out.

Now, how detailed do you get? You get as detailed as you need to be in order to demonstrate your expertise is how I feel about in that proposal that’s too short and too vague, obviously burns you on the project management side, but it also makes you look generic, right? If you have a methodology that works for you, you know, whatever your strategy tactics execution, I spell out as much of that as you feel comfortable without giving away any proprietary you know, intellectual property, but spell out as much as you can so that it clearly demonstrates why somebody is hiring you.

Because one of the things that happens that scopes of work and proposals get circulated internally around the company and they will get into the hands of people who did not sit on the input call did not send them all the sales pitch if you’re pitching.

And as a result, they’re looking at this for the first time and trying to evaluate you as a company.

This is especially important if your point of contact is not the decision maker.

So you want to be as as detailed as possible to distinguish yourself from other proposals that may be in the mix.

And, to quote, my friend, Tamsin Webster, artfully restating the problem in great detail is a fantastic way of demonstrating your expertise and your understanding, because that’s how you know, well, that’s how you prove to a client that you know them that you know what you’re talking about, you’ve seen this problem before that you can deal with this problem on their behalf.

So in the strategy section, that’s typically where you’d spend a lot of time.

artfully restating the problem, the challenge that you’re trying to solve.

So that when a client picks up and reads it, they go, yep, that’s me.

That’s That’s exactly what I want.

I want someone to fix this problem, this is my big problem.

And then the tactics in execution to tell them what you’re going to do to solve that problem and how you’re going to do it.

Now, can somebody steal that? Of course they can.

But they would anyway.

I wouldn’t be so terribly concerned that somebody someone’s gonna try to something nefarious, because if they are they are, there’s not much you can do about that.

Be.

Here’s an example.

If I say, I’m going to do an attribution analysis for you, so we’re going to use it do an attribution analysis.

And we’re going to use machine learning algorithms are our choice.

Now.

Do you need to know Whether and does belong the proposal whether we’re going to use Shapley game theory versus Markov chains.

Now, that’s a level of detail too deep.

And it wouldn’t be helpful for the, for the most part unless your client contact as an engineer, as an AI engineer.

But for most people just being able to say, yes, we’re going to use machine learning algorithms, and we’ll choose the best algorithm based on the condition of your data and stuff is enough detail.

And yes, they could absolutely fine the data science team, their own company and do it themselves.

But if they were going to do that, they would have already done that.

They don’t need a proposal from you to tell them to do something that they already know how to do.

More often than not, they’re hiring you because they don’t have the bandwidth to do it as much as they might like to.

So that’s how we do proposals.

Your mileage may vary, your company may vary.

Things will vary, especially based on how many lawyers are involved.

I do strongly recommend that you have a master services agreement in place so that scopes of work and proposals can be short, shorter, you don’t want to have to put you know, 48 pages of legal ease on a proposal.

Make sure that that’s in place first.

If you have follow up questions about this, please leave a comment in the comments box below.

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