Powerful Proposals for Resistant Prospects

We have all encountered the tough-as-nails buyer out there. You walk in, the buyer plops down in their chair and immediately says “Alright sales guy, what do you have to sell me today? And let’s keep this short, because I had two people call in sick today, our order system is down, and I’ve got customers in Chicago setting fire to just about everything around here; what company are you with again?”

By preparing highly effective—and highly engaging—proposals and presentations, you can reclaim control of the sales process. Asking questions becomes difficult when prospects want you to hurry up and present.

Today, people want to get to the bottom line sooner rather than later, and many want to hear the pitch, ask questions, and evaluate your presentation before you have the opportunity to understand what the prospect truly wants or needs. Not only that, if the prospect maintains such tight control over the selling process, you can feel as if you are wrestling to get the vital data you need to outline the best solution for the prospect.

Many salespeople assume a submissive role; giving their prospect what they want, painting themselves in the best possible light, and accommodating their prospect’s whims. As the salesperson becomes more and more invested in the pursuit, the pressure to “get the order” increases and tension mounts. They might find themselves inclined to make greater concessions just to close the deal.

Put It in Writing

You’ve just gotten off of the phone or returned from your initial meeting with the new prospect and you’ve done your fact finding, ok so now what? Before diving into the proposal take a minute to draft a follow-up summary email. This will verify the information you’ve collected, validate the next steps and confirm that you should actually spend your valuable time building a detailed proposal.

Determine requirements

The goal is to distill key issues from the meeting into a succinct, well-phrased, numbered list that belongs in the first section of the proposal. This demonstrates to the prospect that you understand the reason that he or she needs your help and at the same time, what they are looking to accomplish.

Engage the client

Let the prospect know what they are specifically responsible for providing to you, so that you can help them. Perhaps they need to give you detailed information, or make themselves and others available for additional meetings, phone conversations, and so on.

If they are resistant, it is best to nail down a follow-up date and time while in the initial meeting, and send them a calendar invitation immediately following the meeting. Offer to do the leg work and pre-selling internally to save them the hassle.

For instance if the client identified that speaking with the sales manager would be part of the decision making process say, “I tell you what, to save you the hassle of having to rehash our conversation to the sales manager would you mind giving he or she a heads-up that I’ll be giving them a call?”

Assume responsibility

Now it’s your turn to list what you will do in response to the information that they have provided. Numbered lists are best, allowing everyone concerned to see your approach and your action plan. It might involve providing a scope of work, a product list, timeframes, and so on.

Optimal outcome

This section lists the points that you believe determine the project to have been a success. This could include the client significantly improving their productivity, an increase in sales, an improvement in margins, or the client recommending you to other business owners. The email should be concise and informal. Commit to sending the email within 24 hours of your meeting.

Self-Selecting Prospects

After receiving your proposal, your prospective client may call or email back with a comment: “You forgot that we need the CRM system to access order history, as well.” Is this a bad thing? No, it’s great. Why? Because your client is engaged in the process and you are getting some of the answers you need.

The worst thing for salespeople in this situation is when clients go “radio silent.” You don’t get any feedback whatsoever. This leaves you guessing.

Imagine for a moment that you commit to sending out a summary email after every first face-to-face call that you go on. Let’s say, on average, that you go on 4 of these appointments per week, or 16 per month. Which of the 16 prospects are you going to focus on first? You got it—the ones that provide a response. This is a “self-select mechanism.” The client willingly “selects” into the selling process. This removes that horrible behavior of the rep chasing, pestering, or stalking the prospect. Not a good beginning.

Now, that’s not to say that you ignore the other deals. It only means that you might choose to work on the deals where you have active buy-in. If you walk into a meeting and promise that within 24 hours, you’ll summarize this meeting with this type of proposal, what do you think will happen to the nature of the meeting itself? We consistently hear from clients that they truly appreciate sales reps who use this approach.

This proposal document can also serve as a good tool to bring your service or other fulfillment group (if it exists) into the picture after the sale. By forwarding the final iteration of the proposal, you’ve created a fast way to let the delivery side of the house know what’s going on. It can easily unify your three key constituents: client, sales, and service.

The sales process can be intimidating, demanding, fast-paced and downright nerve-wracking. Give yourself a leg up by following these steps, to ensure there are clearly identified, actionable items as a result of your meeting, and to increase your chances of closing the deal.