Sign it Services Proposal Template Online

How to eSign a document: how to start a business proposal

do you like submitting custom proposals nobody does hey it's Al's a Calhoun with coveted consultant and let's be honest do you really enjoy submitting custom proposals nobody does the custom proposal process is truly a broken process today I want to talk about why it's broken and what you should be doing instead first let's cover how the process typically works so typically the prospective client reaches out in some way you may get a request via email you may get it from an RFP process or request for proposal process but there's some sort of connection that happens here then you have a conversation with the prospective client right so you have this back and forth but really it's the prospective client trying to articulate what they think they want in services they're not really sure because it's not their expertise but you try you go back and forth so they're guessing at what they think they want and then you try to talk back about what you think you could do for them and you kind of do that thing right all right so then your job is to make the conversation concrete by submitting a proposal so now you and your team got to go back and now you got to submit this thing so it could take you six hours it could take you take you six days it could take six weeks it takes six months to create this beautiful well laid out proposal document within which really is your best guess at what the client or prospective client thinks they want in services so you create your best guess you send that off then and you hope and pray right that they say yes but normally a stop sign shows up because when they finally see that document they look at it and go this is kind of what we want would think of something more like this could you make a revision and so you go okay but really what they've done is they've changed they're requesting it right so then this entire loop happens again they change the request you're gonna be clear on what they think they want you submit it another document I think could you make another change for us we're still considering the following which the loop begins again and this loop goes around and around and around and all it does is waste everybody's time but wait now let's talk about the real pains that show up in your business because of this process so in your business you're experiencing these incredibly long sales cycles a conversation that should have been over one or two days ends up being one or two weeks one or two months or one or two years by the time you finally get a decision to be made you experienced these incredibly long scope creeps so a project that you thought was gonna be four elements of five elements ends up being 17 elements ends up being 67 elements because the client or prospective client was talking their way into clarity so they keep talking during during the project making the project bigger and bigger and bigger which Dave takes the project timeline and extends it so you should have been done in two weeks you should have been done in six weeks but instead you're done in four months you're done in nine months because the scope creep got way out of control and all of that puts pressure on your profit margins where you thought you were going to make this much in the project now you're making this much in the project because the inefficiency took all your profits away now let's go even deeper why is this process so inefficient because on its face it sounds exactly right you listen to the person to the perspective client they tell you what they want you do the work form and life continues right like that should that should work but something about it doesn't work for any of us why is that reason number one the wrong person is controlling this conversation in a typical custom proposal process is the perspective client you know the person that knows the least they're the person with the most responsibility and making all of these things happen that's backwards the perspective if the prospective client knew what to do they would be doing it already the reason why they go through all these steps is because they're looking for expertise the expert you should be driving this process not the prospective client reason number two you agree with this process you are willing to play along you opt into it and so you allow your company to go around this time clock around and around and around and waste your time when you agree to the custom proposal process you are agreeing to be inefficient reason number three this process pushes you out of your excellence at some point in this inefficient process you agree to something that you shouldn't something that's out of bounds it's out of scope your company doesn't do it very well but you just say yes because you want to because either you're a nice guy a nice gal because you want to just close the business because you want to move on to something else because you just get tired of going through this but when you say yes the things that you shouldn't it opens up these pain points later in your business when you've productized it gives you the chance to say the following hey perspective client it was good talking to you today I've listened to your problem and I understand where you're coming from I got I got what's going on I know what the problem is good news is we can fix that for you in fact we got it all spelled out we know exactly how long as you take we know what the important elements are to complete it and this is what we charge to relieve that problem is that's something you want to go ahead and get started with today that was good wasn't it but there's no way you can have that kind of conversation if you don't have a product a service what you'll find is that you just need one premium prepackaged product higher service to take your business to the next level or you can keep doing custom proposals talk to you soon