Creating your "Initial" Customer Proposal: Chapter 3

Congratulations for getting this far! If you have any questions on this topic or would like my assistance working through an opportunity, please reach out to me via LinkedIn Messaging. I will be happy to help. Stew

In Chapter 1, we looked at an overview of the entire process of defining, measuring, analyzing, improving, and finalizing your successful proposal. We’ve also used a SIPOC (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/sipoc-sales-professionals-stewart-sherman/?published=t), SWOT (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/swot-sales-professionals-stewart-sherman), and C&E (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/ce-sales-professionals-stewart-sherman) type analysis in the “Define” phase to determine whether it’s worth pursuing an opportunity or not. We’ll continue to ask that same question as we create the solution and proposal for the customer. Things often change, so we’re always checking to make sure we’re not wasting our valuable sales time chasing opportunities not likely to manifest in success. That’s a bigger key to your long-term success than you probably realize!

Where do I start? Where do I finish?

You already started, when you did a SIPOC analysis identifying at a high level, what you needed for the process of creating your proposal for the customer. 

You identified certain information you need in order to develop your strategy. You decided you need to understand the customer’s key requirements and how they would rate the importance of each of them. You decided you need to know with whom you’ll be compared along with their strengths and weaknesses relative to the customer’s requirements; this came out of a SWOT discussion.  You’ll want to consider your own goals and the goals of your organization when developing the proposal. You would have used a C&E analysis for goal/plan alignment. Those are some basic elements of information you’ll need and the tools you used to get to that information set.

You will also need an understanding of the specific solution. How does it create value for the customer (i.e. what will be your "customer value proposition"?)  How does the customer measure their ROI against their investment in your solution? 

You’ll develop your sales strategy. Most of that strategy comes from your goals. Let’s say your goal for this account was a take-over from a competitor. A reasonable selling strategy then, is to demonstrate your superior solution compared with the incumbent and offer the customer a great deal to get an opportunity to prove it with your actions. That sales strategy then leads you to your pricing strategy; suggesting it should probably be aggressive enough to make the decision easy for the customer. You might include a funding strategy that lines up the payments to you with the benefits to them … this is often done using financing. Your sales strategy is supported by a pricing strategy which includes a funding strategy. No – you’re not crazy, that’s a lot of strategy! But as I often say, you can’t figure out what actions to take if you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish. “Strategy” provides you that guidance.

You will need to determine the format of your proposal. Is it delivered in person, is there a supporting presentation that hits the high points in summary, who is on the presentation team, etc. That is how you started and proceeded.

Now, where do you finish?

Back to the SIPOC. You might not have realized it at the time, but the SIPOC defined the boundaries of the project. The Internal and External Customer’s, and their requirements dictated the output (your proposal and internal supporting analysis) of your process for creating the proposal. When you determined that your internal management required a detailed financial analysis, and your external customer needs your solution to meet certain requirements; you basically defined the end; at least the "initial end". 

"Initial End"????? Though we might be done with this phase of creating our initial proposal; we still want to vet and analyze to see if we can make our proposal better. It needs to be as good as it can be, before you bring it forward. A proposal that’s only 90% of what it could be, may only win 10% of the time. My anecdotal comment, not based in science, but if you think about it that way; you will never bring forward a proposal that isn’t 100% thought through.

Here’s a simple process guide to what we just covered:

As always; thank you for reading my article and I look forward to your comments.

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