The 1-2-3 of a Successful Written Sales Proposal

In many sectors – especially professional services, where I have had my career – sales are often made with the help of a written proposal. And, while this could be a course all on its own, here are a few tips and pointers.
The Book of the Course!
Sales Skills: A Management Courses Introduction
This book gives a broad introduction to the topic, for managers and professionals who don’t want or intend to specialize in sales and selling. And as a fast start for someone needing to make a start in selling, for whatever reason.
Get the kindle Exclusive book from: https://geni.us/TL5BKeD
Watching this video is worth 3 Management Courses CPD Points.
See below for details
Sales and Selling Skills
This video is part of course module 8.4.3
Program 8: Managing Customers and Clients
Course 4: Sales / Selling Skills
Section 3: Selling Techniques
Other videos in this section include:
You Need a Sales Strategy: Which One? https://youtu.be/oOsZg7tQcII
Cold Calling to Get a Sales Appointment https://youtu.be/WKL1IcRZzLk
Pricing and Fear of Price https://youtu.be/Sp6NTiFtzQE
Account Management: Account-based Selling https://youtu.be/YfyQFfEOCyk
Sales optimization: Upselling, Down-selling, and Cross-selling https://youtu.be/hBmriRpdWkc
The Complex Sale: 101 https://youtu.be/7ZelzJSnu8A
LESSON NOTES
Basic Content
• An executive summary
• Contact details
• Demonstration that you understand the requirement
• A statement of your proposed solution and how it addresses the needs (benefits)
• Commercial terms, including pricing
• Call to action – what to do next
• Your credentials
The 1-2-3 of a successful proposal:
1. Make it easy
2. Make it Persuasive
3. Make it about Value
Remember what Mark Anthony told the Romans in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:
‘The evil that men do lives on; the truth is oft’ interred with their bones.’
RECOMMENDED EXERCISE
1. Make yourself a checklist for the types of proposals you need to prepare in your organization (2 MC CPD Points)
2. Review the last proposal you were involved in. How well did it match up to my 1-2-3? (2 MC CPD Points)
DOWNLOADS
Free Resources
CPD Tools - https://gum.co/MC-CPD
Paid resources
Management Courses Onboarding Kit - https://gum.co/MC-ObK ($3)
RECOMMENDED READING
There are many books that introduce Nsales and sellingLP. These are the ones I have, and can recommend:
To Sell Is Human https://geni.us/L2EQmt
The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need https://geni.us/AEAVD5
The New Strategic Selling https://geni.us/Zt2Z9n3
SPIN Selling https://geni.us/Ir5xu
The Psychology of Selling https://geni.us/AjR8AA
Links to our book recommendations are affiliated through Amazon and help support our free videos
Managers Need a Basic set of kit to do your job well. Here are my top recommendations: https://kit.co/MikeClayton/manager-s-work-kit (the links are affiliated)
MANAGEMENT COURSES CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) POINTS
You can record your Management Courses CPD points on our free, downloadable CPD record log.
Download it at: https://gum.co/MC-CPD
Each video has two levels of MC CPD points. For this video:
- If you simply watched the video, record 3 MC CPD points
- If you also carried out all of the recommended exercises, score a total of 7 MC CPD points
CHAPTER MARKERS
00:00 - Written Sales proposals
00:30 - Sales Proposal Structure
02:38 - The 1-2-3 of a successful proposal
03:05 - 1: Make it Easy
05:19 - 2: Make it Persuasive
08:02 - 3: Make it about Value
08:54 - Four things you must ALWAYS do
09:44 - From the school of ‘oh $^!’
10:13 - Mark Anthony’s Rule
#ManagementCourses #Sales #SalesProposal