3/21/2025-Agonize over your proposals

Proposals don’t close business. Heck, you aren’t guaranteed the proposal will even get read after you send it. Help yourself by creating proposals that are flawless.

Forget trying to make your proposals fun (sorry, Sir Richard), at the least make yours brief, clear, and clean.

Ask yourself, "Would I take the time to review a proposal that I created and delivered?"

Reviewing your proposals is not about catching typos or ensuring all page headers have the correct font size; it’s about clearly – and quickly – presenting relevant value.

The buyer won’t read past slides two or three, so front-load your best pitch. Stuff all that junk you think is essential in a back-of-deck appendix.

For your next proposal, apply the following checklist to ensure you’ve created the best possible product:

1. Brevity: After completing v1, cut the proposal by 50%. (Nobody cares about slides 4-X.)

2. Verbal review: Read it aloud – word for word – as if you were presenting it to the buyer in person.

3. Peer review. Enlist your BFF seller friend to review the proposal. (You’ll be blind after about five or six reviews.) Also, get your manager involved in the big proposals.

You work hard to cultivate interest amongst all your prospects and strategically move them through the funnel, so keeping your intensity through the proposal phase makes sense. After all, you’re at the one-foot line, ready to take the ball across the goal.

And while proposals don’t close business, they can and DO help…but only if constructed with care and scrutiny.

The one thing you must commit to is time. You can’t rush proposal creation.

Whenever you pick it up and review it, you will find ways to improve it. The only way you know it’s ready for prime time is when you’re sick of reviewing and editing it.

Is the design sharp and enticing?

Is it easy to comprehend your points and summaries?

Is the proposal brief and clear?

If "YES" answers these questions, you have a fighting chance of delivering something that will get read….and considered.

Perfecting your craft is how pros roll. In this YT Short, you’ll see how a pro like Tom Brady rolls. But you’ll want to watch the other guy in this clip…his parlor tricks are waaaay better than Tom’s.

Mastering proposals is as essential as skillfully moving your opportunities down the funnel.