It's a common problem.
The potential client sounds incredibly interested, you have some great conversations, they are excited about the project, so you spend ages putting together a proposal and then nothing. Crickets. Tumbleweed.
In our proposals we tend to talk about how great we are. We list out the deliverables that the client is going to receive. We bang on about our amazing process and fantastic secret sauce and all this stuff about how amazing we are.
But we forget that a proposal is a sales document.
And sales isn't about us, it's about them.
Ultimately, there are three things your potential client wants from you.
- Do you understand what the client is looking to achieve?
- Can you deliver what the client is looking to achieve?
- Is it worth it for the client to choose you?
The client doesn't want deliverables. They want outcomes.
The client doesn't care about your process. They just want you to get it right.
The client doesn't care about the price. They just want it to be something that will make or save them money with minimal risk.
A 30 page proposal is just going to bore them - making them read, making them think, when all they want is to get to the decision as quickly as possible.
A 7 page proposal that says "this is what you're looking to achieve, this is how we prove you're going to get there, this is what it's worth, here are three pricing options and this is what we do next" tells them everything they need to know and guides them to their answer.
Don't waste your time on a load of crap that they don't care about in your proposals. Get straight to the point and answer their questions.