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[Music] as a small business owner writing a decent proposal takes a good portion of your time it's very easy for a prospect to say come back to me with a proposal when they might not even have any intention of moving forward with the project businesses often asked for proposals from lots of companies at once to weigh up their options but when you enter this game unfortunately it's not one you can win and it's simply not feasible as a small business to send out hundreds of proposals in the hope that you'll and a few as you grow your business and speak to an increasing number of potential customers you could easily end up with a mile-long list of proposals to write with all other factors the same those who send fewer higher-quality proposals are likely to get better results we want to be highly targeted in our approach rather than casting a wide net so there are a lot of hurdles to navigate when it comes to proposals but to overcome this proposal paralysis I put together five tips to help you decide when and how to send a proposal first and foremost you want to make sure that the project is aligned with your business goals and objectives although it can be tempting to take some jobs because they seem like quick cash there's rarely such thing as a quick job in our industry you're better off using the time to find work that you really care about and we'll be happy to show future prospects there's nothing more frustrating than seeing business owners get caught up in projects that seem important in the moment but are actually just the distraction covered in dollar bills a quote that I heard is to make sure that you don't major in the minors that is don't spend your energy and attention on minor things so how can you make sure the project in question is aligned with your goals and ambitions simply keep a clear list of your goals nearby so that you can refer to them any given time whether it's on your phone or in a notebook the simple act of referring to your goals on a daily basis can go a long way to making sure you achieve them I always know who my top five ideal clients are so if I'm being asked to get involved in a project that requires a proposal I can decide whether or not the job in question will bring me closer to my five ideal clients tip number two is to replace documents with conversations ask yourself is the proposal absolutely necessary and the best way to demonstrate my value in other words is a piece of paper or PDF document really what's needed this stage could you instead arrange a conversation over the phone or ideally in person to find out more details about the project and gain a deeper understanding of the prospects business business is all about relationship building and if a business owner is confronted with two options one being a beautifully created PDF document from a company that they spoke to once and the other being no formal proposal but time spent building a relationship and creating trust the latter will usually win if you're uncertain whether or not to send a proposal pick up the phone to your prospect and follow the questions I set out in my video called master the meeting this will give you all the information you need to make an educated decision and move forward talking of meetings the next tip is to close in the meeting whenever possible with smaller budgets usually under 5k and with smaller companies when you're speaking directly to the sole decision maker there's often no need to prolong the process by going for more meetings or writing proposals doing this comes with practice but when you follow the steps set out a muster the meeting video and apply results based pricing you have all the information you need to cost the project on the spot the other benefit of going for the close early is that it brings up any objections and obstacles that the prospect might be hiding when you ask someone to bring out their checkbook they'll quickly reveal anything that might be holding them back from making a decision this isn't something you should shy away from in fact it's better to uncover and tackle objections early than to let them come out later when they're much more difficult to resolve I go into handling these in the video on overcoming objections if you can't close the deal right away then one thing you absolutely must do is set a price anchor which is my fourth tip today this is a point I keep coming back to time and time again simply because it's so essential to many different aspects of business mastery when I first went into business I remember going into meetings chatting with the prospect for an hour then more often than not I've been asked to come back with a proposal without ever having discussed a price to be honest I was too scared to say any number in the first meeting for fear of putting them off after the meeting I go home and start writing down all the brilliant creative ideas I had and ways I could approach the project I'd always leave the budget until last because I believe the creative would cost however in business that couldn't be further from the truth there's no point writing a script or treatment unless you know what the budget is first there's really nothing more challenging than coming away from a meeting not knowing how to position your offer instead of drawing blind you want to come away from a meeting having laid a clear price anchor it ensures our budgets are relevant and expected so what do I mean by that well if you drop a hundred thousand dollar price anchor in the meeting and the prospect doesn't have checked then you know that three thousand dollars is going to be laughed out the door and two hundred thousand dollars is too much you can now create a proposal that's relevant and expected my fifth and final tip today is don't be afraid to ask the important questions I've already said how fear and scarcity used to drive my early meetings and that went beyond just talking about price when deciding whether or not to send a proposal you want to give yourself as much information as possible to make the right decision unfortunately most people feel too uncomfortable or forget to ask these two important questions the first is to ask the prospect whether or not they're talking to other suppliers by asking this you can find out if the prospect is serious about hiring you or if they're fishing for options sometimes companies are obliged to send proposals out to lots of people to give the appearance of a fair game even when they already have a vendor in mind this can be insanely frustrating but the simple solution is to make sure you ask the prospect how many other vendors they're sending their proposals to and if they've worked with any of them before it's not unreasonable for someone to ask for quotes from three or so companies at the same time but the way you'll respond to a company doing this will be different to one who only has the eyes set on you furthermore if they say they're speaking to lots of companies or that one of the companies is a close friend or has done video work before then that's a big red flag and it's probably better to move on the second question to ask the prospect is what criteria they're using to make their decision this is one of my all-time favorite questions and is so often overlooked what better way to get ahead of the competition than by asking the exact criteria by which the prospect will be choosing a winner since I started asking this question I can't think of a single proposal I've lost and the feedback I get from the prospects is often amazement as I to create something that was so perfectly fitting to what they wanted and finally a small bonus tip if you find yourself in a situation after a meeting your cool where you've agreed on a price but you're not sure whether or not they want to propose all you can say this in your follow-up email as discuss the price is X please let me know if you'd like more information or a formal quotation my invoicing terms are 60% deposit due before pre production begins and 40% on completion payable within 14 days are you happy with everything we've discussed so far when I receive your confirmation I'll send over the first invoice and work will begin well there you have my five tips on when and how to send a proposal to recap they were to make sure the project is aligned with your business goals replace documents with boring conversations close in the meeting whenever possible set a price anchor and don't be afraid to ask important questions if you have any questions about this video or any other topics we've covered then don't hesitate to email me or ask in the members Facebook group thanks for watching and I'll see in the next video [Applause]