The Outline Proposal

We have quite a long convoluted process for handling new sales. It takes a while, it means I have to write lots of documents and deal with lots of details, long before we ever think about money.

And the first of these documents is the “Outline Proposal’.

This is vitally important to our process, because it states what I think your business needs. Not what we’re going to build, not how we’re going to build it, not how much it will cost (although I sometimes include a “ballpark” figure in there).

Because no business project is worth pursuing unless the numbers stack up. So I try to figure out what your business needs, which problems need solving and how much it will make you (or save you). Then we talk through these to decide on some objectives for the project - and how we will measure progress towards those objectives.

The Outline Proposal, once agreed, can then form the basis for our discussion of how to move forward - the Action Plan - which is a much more in-depth document that has specific tasks that need to be completed to meet those objectives.

Take Action: What are your business objectives for the next three months? Are they written down? And how are you measuring progress towards them?