Solutions-focused proposals
CorsPro deals with lots of companies who are resellers of technology such as business telephone systems and computer networks. Many times, the “proposal” efforts of these companies are restricted to schedules of equipment that place the focus on pricing, resulting far too often in customer buying decisions that are based on the best price available and – at the end of the day – low-margin sales.
Companies can use proposals to differentiate themselves from the competition and increase margins by focusing on two basic areas within their proposals:
- The benefit(s) to the customer provided by the proposed hardware/software solution.
- The benefit(s) to the customer provided by the company implementing the proposed solution.
If your company competes in a market where many (or most) of the products or services that you offer are also offered by your competitors – which is probably the case with most companies – then it’s the second area that can truly set you apart from your competition.
How can you go about crafting benefits-oriented proposal template documents? We recommend starting the process by mapping the features that your products, services and company provide against the business benefits provided by those features. For example, a “starter” benefits map for a company selling customer relationship management (CRM software solutions might look something like this (click to enlarge)…
The blue branch in the diagram above gets close to being complete, but in fact doesn’t even get to the level of detail where the key features are described. However, this example graphic gives you an idea as to how to start the features/benefits mapping process.
The next step in the process is to actually write the proposal documents. These documents should be concise, compelling and focused on the needs of the likely reader. The goal is not to overwhelm the reader with information, but to provide the reader with information so that they can make an informed choice as to whether the solution will provide an impact on their business that will justify an investment in your solution.
We also recommend supplementing benefits-oriented proposal template documents with proof that these benefits can indeed be realized. Customer testimonials are best for this purpose, but case studies, user survey results and customer reference lists are also effective.
Finally, even though proposal template documents have been developed, the final proposals must be customized by each sales person to reflect the specific needs of the propect to whom the proposal is addressed. Hopefully, the salesperson has fully investigated the needs, areas of pain and benefits sought by the prospect, and the final proposal should be customized to reflect those findings.
Our company sells a software solution (SalesDoc Architect™) that enables companies to configure, price and generate proposals for complex solutions. Even if you don’t need a sophisticated proposal generation tool like SalesDoc Architect, you should be able to craft proposal template documents that explain the benefits of your solutions and – most importantly – the unique benefits that your company provides. These proposal template documents should be placed in a shared drive or other location that all salespeople can access.
In addition to helping sales people more effectively sell your solutions and your company, a shared proposal document library also saves them time because they don’t have to write proposals from scratch. Instead, they can draw upon well-written, up-to-date, accurate proposal template documents as the starting point for the proposals that they will customize for their prospective customers.