You lost that great proposal. The client didn’t buy it. So what happened? Let me share a secret with you…

You are convinced your proposal was great. Boy, it was costly to pull together. And it was comprehensive!

No doubt because you picked all the great slides from previous proposals.

And you even threw in two pages upfront letting the client know about your firm’s setup.

Right?

You had the best approach, the best credentials, the best team.

And you lost it.

Still convinced this one is a winner?

Here’s the secret

It is a fact of life: clients need to understand the value they’ll get by hiring you.

Your credentials and team may be the best but you need to sell it to the client.

And if they don’t get it, they go to buy it from someone else.

A truly great proposal needs to do three things:

1. Reiterate the value your client gets,

2. Identify the problem that your client needs fixing, and

3. Let your client know how their lives will be better as a result of working with you.

So, why don’t you do a post-mortem on the last few proposals you lost?

On a low-to-high, 1-to-10 scale, grade each of the proposals.

Think about, really honestly, how well you did on providing clarity on value creation? How clearly did you identify the problem? And did you explain exactly how you would improve your client’s life?

Do this for the last three to five proposals. Are there any patterns there?

Maybe you do things differently now to make the next proposal really a great one.

Want to find out where you are at with your partner powers? And get some tips on getting there? Perhaps my PartnerPowers Scorecard is for you. It will take you 2 minutes to find out where you stand with the market, your team, as a leader.