Proposal Development
In the ever-changing and competitive business world, it has now become imperative for sales teams to leverage their resources and to manage processes in an efficient manner. This can be done by ensuring the effectiveness of your sales documents such as proposals. As a business owner or Sales Manager, you are aware by now that the efficiency of your sales team in generating proposals is an indicator of success in winning new clients and also meeting the expected sales growth.
Many organisations require different formats in regards to proposals that are submitted to them. Sales teams need proposals for different vertical markets, product sets and for different stages of the buyer process. When we create proposals for clients we include the following:
- A cover page
- Table of contents
- Project Description/Outcomes/Executive Summary
- Budget/Financial Information
- Potential Objections
- Resources
- References
- Additional information
- Certificates, Awards or Certification Standards
10 Important Proposal Development Steps
When creating proposals for clients we work out the buyer journey to determine the most relevant information required. This includes:
- Begin by identifying the needs of the client
- Collect the necessary background information/Target Audience
- Focus on the need/pain points or challenges
- Explain how you intend to address the need/pain points or challenges
- Indicate your timeline
- List the projected outcomes
- Describe how you will measure the expected outcomes
- List the people who will help you make your project successful
- Include the capacity of your organisation
- Explain how you came up with your budget.
Having the right documentation for your sales team means request for proposals (RFP), are responded to in the shortest time possible and sales teams don’t have to spend time re-creating the wheel or patching elements from other proposals together.
Depending on your situation, proposal automation software can really help your sales team to design winning proposals within a short time, and without any experience required.
Proposal automation software can let you know the status of all your deals by keeping track of your proposals. With the right software, your sales team won’t have to go through a new proposal development task each time because the automation software stores everything in an organised manner.