By Ahmed al-Akber/Manama

There is a significant difference between providing a prospect with a quotation and a proposal. The earlier tends to simply state deliverables and commodities, along with a price. The latter, if done well, specifies value that can make all the difference when selling a high-end product or service. Companies facing stiff price competition will especially need to take this route, as it helps differentiate from mere deliverables to a set of value-rich elements that buyers will fall over themselves for.
No one has mastered this better than Alan Weiss, who wrote the book How to Write a Proposal That’s Accepted Every Time. Alan espouses first establishing conceptual agreement with the buyer during a sales call so that nothing that is written in the proposal is confusing or not agreed to. In other words, you walk out of the sales meeting with the proposal.
Below is what Alan calls the basic framework for a proposal that can be adapted depending on the nature of the business you are in.
Situation appraisal. Here you want to summarise the prospect’s biggest issues. Avoid stating the obvious with sentences like, “Company X was established in 2002 and sells widgets”. Go straight into why they agreed to meet with you in the first place, and what it is that needs to be improved. “Company X is facing increased price competition that has eroded its market share in the last 18 months” is a much better example.
Objectives. What outcomes will the company experience upon buying from you? State tangible and intangible, quantifiable and non-quantifiable objectives. “To grow your sales of product X by 20% within the next three months” and “To have the sales teams accountabilities and targets set and communicated” are sound objectives.
Value: If the above objectives are met, what value will that bring to the company? So if sales of product X increase by 20%, what would that mean to the company? To the prospect?
Methodology and/or details of what they will get: How will the objectives be achieved? What details that the prospect is interested in should be included?
Metrics: They say what gets measured gets improved. Use time, revenue, productivity, communication, or other indicators of success as measures of whether the objectives are met. “How would clients know if they fell over it?”, says Alan Weiss.
Timing: State when the project starts and ends, and when any key milestones in between need to be achieved.
Accountabilities: What elements that are important to the success of the project need to be provided by the client? By you? What is important to mention about how you will work together?
Fees, terms and conditions: Mention your fees, and if there are one or more options of differing value to choose from (recommended). Also state what your payment terms are, and anything else that needs to be mentioned.
Acceptance: A place for you and the economic buyer to sign off the proposal, which clear instructions on what to do immediately after that.
None of the elements above needs to be followed rigidly except for one thing: ensuring that the buyer and you are clear about what value will be provided if your proposal is accepted. Once that is established, the process of closing the deal becomes much easier.

- Ahmed al-Akber is the managing director of ACK Solutions, a firm that helps companies to improve their marketing and sales results by offering more effective ways attracting customers and significantly better products and services. Ahmed has worked internationally in marketing, sales, and strategic planning at companies such as the Coca-Cola Company, Philip Morris International and Dell. Questions or comments can be sent to Ahmed on [email protected]