What is Wrong with Your Sales Proposal

Gaining new clients is the cornerstone of having a successful business. Many businesses do this through formal sales that require a salesman to give a presentation demonstrating the quality of the product and the benefit that it offers for the consumer. This is called a sales proposal and its strength is your products strengths and also its weaknesses. The problem with most sales proposals is that it doesn't convey to the possible consumer the true benefit of the product at hand. Understanding how to develop your sales proposal can make or break your company.

When beginning writing your sales proposal it is important to have a theme in mind. By theme I mean the specific benefits that your product will offer to the person purchasing. The theme of your proposal can, and should change based on your clients. The more that you focus on having your proposal specifically engineered for the clients at hand the better the outcome will be. Even if you sell to only one kind of industry, every company will have its own interests and worries. It is your job to develop your sales pitch to cater to each specific company; this will require some research on your part.

After a brief introduction of what you are offering you want to dive straight into the meat of the product. You should include details about your company and your history, and then you should jump right into the benefits for the customer. Selling is simply painting a picture of benefits, not features. If your sales proposal is not getting clients that should be interested in your work then the problem probably lies in you presenting features and not benefits.

Look at the following text and think about which of these statements grab your attention.

"A new diet pill with no caffeine that will help lose weight!"

"A diet pill that will strip the fat of your body so you can finally fit into that dress you wore in high school."

Remember that benefits are not implied in features.

Once you have given the company the benefits that they need to be able to consider your product you need to provide proof of it actually working. Give industry examples that your prospective clients will be able to relate to. Testimonials with numbers that they will be able to call can have the biggest impact.

What is wrong with your sales pitch?

You're focusing too much on features not benefits. You're not delivering a message catered to the company that you are giving it too and you're not being concrete enough for the company to take you seriously.

Source: http://www.njbiz.com/article.asp?aID=80004, NJ Biz