Ways to Land More Clients with a Winning Proposal
Creating a winning proposal can offer you a large financial gain. Research has shown statistically that a difference of $270 million dollars is at stake when looking at over 25,000 proposals that can make or break you. Here is a look at what goes into an effective proposal.
Understanding the Basics of a Proposal
The best place to always start begins at the basics. An average proposal has a 43% chance of winning. This means a greater chance exists that you will lose. Proposals should be designed to be persuasive, discuss price, and relay an understanding you have of their problems and business needs.
An estimate on the other hand has a slimmer chance of winning at an average of 35%. While these offer similarities of being focused on a price, a quote based mentality tells a client what will be done and at what costs but does not generate a form of value to the prospective client.
What It Takes to be a Winner
There are five basic steps to creating a winning proposal.
1. Have a Problem Statement
This statement shows the client that you understand their needs. By clearly outlining the problems they face with use of terminology and language they can understand, you will increase their trust while encouraging them to read further in search of a solution.
2. Recommend a Solution
The solution is what will show the client how their problems will be directly addressed. Ensure not to use industry related terminology that may not be understood by the client and talk about the measures that will be taken to complete the solution.
3. Outline the Benefits
Showing the benefits is based on the end result that the solution will provide. The client wants to see a long term gain that follows the solution.
4. Project Fees
Pricing is not the best thing to end a proposal with so keep it high level and easy to digest. It should tie directly into the recommended solution to show the price associated with the above benefits as a way to further increase value from your services outside of the dollar amount.
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5. Include a Call to Action
Every proposal should end with a call to action to let the clients know how to immediately get the project stated. This should be simple, yet clear.
Taking that First Step
Proposals should be less than 5 pages long to keep them short and sweet. This will provide you with a 31% more chance of winning a client. When proposals are offered online, they are accepted 60% faster than traditional methods and 18% more likely to be accepted in the first place. With traditional proposals, the average time to accept is 29 days versus online at an expected timeframe of 18 days.
Be sure that your proposals are sent as soon as possible. Winning proposals are normally offered to clients on an average timeframe of 2.7 days and accepted 26% faster than the average losing proposal of 3.4 days. By following these above steps, you will help yourself to increase your business opportunities and client base.
