“The proposal is the words that come out of your mouth. The document is the contract.”
— Blair Enns, “Proposal or Contract”
“Consultants and client service-based businesses often make this critical error that almost guarantees they won’t land the client.
You send a proposal.”
— Bobby Gillespie, Propr Agency
“Once you send a proposal, you’ve lost all control of the conversation. I always want to continue delivering value until they say, ‘How can we pay you for this? It’s so valuable!’”
— Brad Farris, Anchor Advisors.
Proposals have plagued agencies for too long
I don’t usually advocate for murder, but proposals are killing your sales pipeline, and sometimes it’s “kill or be killed.”
But I wasn’t always so bloodthirsty. In fact, I’ve written over a thousand proposals at my previous agency, and it took me a while to understand what the issue was. It kinda always seemed like a pretty inefficient process at best and a lot of unpaid work at worst, but what was the alternative? My first solve was proposal software. This was helpful because you could save all the little bits and pieces of copy you use regularly in a program for easy access, and tools like Proposify come with features for embedding video and photos and customizing design and adding electronic signatures. You can even get notices when prospects open the proposal or scroll to a certain page. (They always scroll to the pricing page.)
But this nifty software is the gateway drug. It perpetuates the idea that a pitch deck, pricing sheet, and contract can all be a single document. This may seem efficient at first. But when you give a client a price, they scroll right past all your hard work.
Clients want proposals so they can decide who to work with. And as service providers, we want clients to work with us. So on the surface it seems like we should give clients proposals to win work. But the trouble is, proposals are a horrible vehicle for establishing value and relationship (no matter how well put together they are).
When you send a prospect a proposal, YOUR PRICE gets added to a stack of OTHER PRICES, which the client will compare using pretty rudimentary means.
(I’ll even share their secret formula for proposal evaluation)
Highest price = bad. Lowest price = bad Price closest to lowest price = good
Proposals do not win work. People win work.
It’s easy to lull ourselves into thinking that if we make our proposal document really awesome, it’s going to win the client over. But trust me, they skip straight to the bottom line. They do not read your beautiful prose or sift through the painstaking details you put into the website scope. They compare prices. And generally, they are not very well equipped to even understand why one price is higher or lower. In these cases you are doing a disservice to the client. You are contributing to a process that will most likely end in failure and mistrust, whether you get chosen or not.
“But clients always ask for proposals,” you say.
You’re right. So, let’s say you meet a potential client, have a great conversation. And as things wrap up, they ask…
“How soon can I get a proposal?”
If you say “yes” you give up all your leverage and any chance of actually figuring out if you’re a good fit. You become a human pricing machine and the client no longer needs you. All you are providing is a little extra context that the client can use to choose someone else.
But wait . . . it gets worse!
Clients rarely know what kind of solutions they actually need. When they say, “We need a new marketing strategy,” they might actually need a new brand strategy. When they say, “We need a new website,” they may actually need an eCommerce integration. So your proposal could be completely misaligned on multiple levels.
“But what if Im lucky and win the work?” you say.
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees!
Even if the proposal somehow lands you the project (you had the price closest to the lowest price), you’re now stuck in a relationship where you’ll quickly learn:
1. Expectations aren’t aligned.
2. The SOW doesn’t actually cover what they need.
3. Things are going south, fast.
(Trust me, I’ve suffered through this enough times for all of us.)
“So, what do you say when someone asks for a proposal?“
Well, you say something like:
“This is how we usually do things…”
Then, outline next steps. Now you’re in the driver’s seat, and if they don’t like it, they can get out. If they tell you that won’t work, you never would have won the business anyway—so it’s A-OK!
“But what if it’s urgent?!?”
I’m pretty sure almost nothing in business, aside from maybe medical and food supplies, should be considered urgent.
But besides that, urgency just means you have more power.
Don’t cave. Let them know next steps. If it’s feasible (or desirable) to clear your schedule and make things happen quickly, just be wary of setting a precedent.
“OK, so what are these ‘next steps’ you speak of?”
Glad you asked at such an appropriate time in the essay. Well, it’s your process, not mine. But generally:
• You learn as much as you can about their problems and budget.
• You introduce them to any subject matter experts they need to meet. (You know, the people they’d actually be working with.)
• And then you send them a proposal!
(Just kidding. I hate proposals.)
• THEN . . . you build a scope of work together. You collaborate with the client, your project managers, subject matter experts, contractors, etc. and when everyone is happy, you sign a contract.
See? No proposal.
Let’s put proposals to rest
In the sales process, a proposal is usually the bastard child of a sales deck and a scope of work.
I have nothing against sales decks with beautiful case studies. I just don’t think they should be combined with scopes of work. It’s like a peanut butter and motor oil sandwich. (And no one likes those).
Personally, I’m determined to eliminate “proposal” from my vocabulary entirely and just use “scope” or “SOW”—but it’s going to take some practice.
I invite you to join me!
