Proposals have always played a pivotal role in the sales process, but in today’s digital landscape, they are more important than ever. Although in-person meetings have resumed after the requisite pause in face-to-face interactions during the pandemic, buyers are still craving—and expecting—a digital sales experience.
As a result, your sales proposals—typically delivered digitally via email, accessed by the prospective client via a shared drive, or viewed through the company website or client portal—carry the heavy responsibility of serving as the face of your organization and generating the results previously delivered predominantly by business development professionals through in-person meetings.
The good news is that learning how to write a sales proposal that converts prospects into clients doesn’t have to be complicated. Let’s review the essential strategies, tips, and best practices for writing a sales proposal that delivers the equivalent impact of in-person presentations by speaking directly to the buyer's unique challenges, needs, and goals.
Essentials matter
If you’re wondering how to write a sales proposal that resonates with prospective clients and wins business, begin by focusing on the essentials. These basics form the backbone of your sales proposal and, if neglected, can seriously undermine your business development efforts. Follow these essential tips and best practices when creating a sales proposal and you'll have the foundation for a proposal that will set your organization apart from the competition:
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Always begin with an Executive Summary.
The Executive Summary gives the buyer a concise overview of who your organization is and, most importantly, how your solution can solve their problem. This succinct synopsis draws the reader in and sets the stage for the rest of your proposal as you expand on the ideas introduced in the Executive Summary.
AI proposal management software, such as QorusDocs QPilot, simplifies and streamlines the process of writing a compelling Executive Summary. In fact, QPilot researches and generates a personalized draft in minutes, dramatically reducing the time and manual effort required on your part to create an Executive Summary—and the complete proposal—that distills your organization’s value.
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Include a list of clear objectives and quantifiable goals.
Buyers want to know that you're on the same page as they are—that you understand their business, their industry, and what challenges they’re trying to overcome to reach their goals. You need to be clear about how your solution can help prospects fulfill their objectives and how you will measure results.
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Describe the ROI customers can expect from working with your company.
Purchase decisions for large projects can consume a sizeable portion of a company’s annual budget. Understandably, prospective clients want to know that their investment will yield measurable results. To garner the win, you need to translate your services into tangible value for the customer.
Will your solution help your prospect do more with less—and by how much? Will they be able to cut operational expenses by 20% or double their annual revenue? Be as specific as possible about what results they can expect.
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Emphasize how your organization is committed to supporting its clients over the long haul.
Prospects want to know you’re invested in their success. They need reassuring that you’ll be there to service their needs through deployment, onboarding, and beyond. Share details of your customer support and service offerings and reinforce your commitment to building a long-term relationship with the client.
Pro tip: Use an AI proposal tool, such as the award-winning QorusDocs QPilot, to quickly and easily generate an up-to-date summary of your organization’s customer support and services offerings.
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Introduce the team who will be invested in the client's success.
As every sales professional knows, relationships are the foundation of successful deals. Buyers want to know who they will be working with on a day-to-day basis during the implementation and who will be providing customer support and service down the road.
Explain each team member's role and describe his or her professional background and previous project experience. Consider including team members’ photos and embedding links to LinkedIn profiles to enable prospects to learn more about each person if they wish.
With its ability to extract, summarize, and draft content in minutes, AI proposal software handles the heavy lifting here, generating accurate content outlining each team member’s bios, relevant experience, CVs, and/or photos.
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Devote a section of your proposal to case studies and client testimonials.
Social proof is invaluable for showcasing the capabilities of your team and solution. Highlight success stories of clients who have reaped big results from partnering with your organization. Use plenty of stats and data whenever possible.
Pro tip: AI proposal software (e.g., QorusDocs QPilot) can make easy work of this process by automatically identifying the case studies and testimonials most relevant to the prospect’s pain points.
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Conclude the proposal with sections dedicated to pricing and your terms and conditions.
While price is not the sole determinant for purchase decisions, it’s definitely a factor. Be sure to avoid ambiguity by presenting your pricing and terms and conditions clearly and accurately.
In addition to these seven essential tips for writing a winning sales proposal, apply the following best practices to help prospects engage more effectively with your proposal and simplify the decision-making process.
Establish common ground
Sales proposals should be personalized and clearly reflect that you understand the prospect's business environment. Summarize how your offering will help them achieve their specific goals. If your proposal fits into their thought process, you'll have a far greater chance of getting them to sign on the dotted line.
Fully understanding your prospective client and their circumstances is extremely valuable for ensuring your proposal effectively addresses their pain points. Leverage the speed and convenience of AI proposal software to quickly research and draft a summary of happenings within the prospect's business and industry.
On a human level, don't hesitate to ask insiders for advice. If you are fortunate enough to have a champion, leverage that relationship to find out what matters most to the people who will evaluate your proposal. What are their hot-button issues? What are the potential showstoppers? Once you've pinpointed the prospective client’s top challenges and goals, weave this insight into the opening sections of your sales proposal.
Another useful way of adding a personalized touch is to mimic your prospect's branding. AI proposal software, such as QorusDocs QPilot, can easily create a sales proposal that tastefully adopts a client’s color scheme, style, and tone throughout. With a professional, on-brand sales proposal, you’ll subtly reinforce the idea that your organization is the ideal fit for the project and shares similar values to their brand.
Make it as easy as possible
Most likely, your prospects will evaluate multiple proposals and won't have the time to dive into every single detail you provide. Instead, they will skim your proposal to gather the most important and compelling information. With that in mind, you should aim to make their life as easy as possible.
Your sales proposal should be succinct; the language should be direct and conversational. Avoid the use of confusing legalese and jargon, as this will cause the buyer’s eyes to glaze over. Include callouts and pull quotes to emphasize differentiators and key benefits; use graphics to illustrate concepts. If you see that a section is becoming too wordy, break it up into smaller sections with subheadings. And, in your table of contents, include links that let the reader easily jump to different sections of the proposal. (Don’t worry—AI proposal software makes this process fast and easy.)
Your goal is to create the most crisp, attractive, and user-friendly proposal of the bunch. If it makes your prospect's life easier, they will assume your product or service will do the same for their company.
Leverage the power of templates + AI-generated content
Proposal templates are your new best friends—and together with AI-generated content—they can simplify and accelerate the proposal writing process. Using the customizable content framework of proposal templates, AI proposal software quickly populates the template with draft content, tailoring it for each prospect’s unique needs.
Templates encourage repeatability and efficiency. And with QorusDocs QPilot expediting content creation and simplifying design (formatting, layout, branding), you’ll save even more valuable time and money, enabling your team to spend its time where it drives the greatest return.
[Did you know the QorusDocs Template Hub gives you access to a wide range of valuable proposal templates?]
There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to creating a winning sales proposal but focusing on your client’s needs and goals is essential. Aim to create tailored documents that reflect your understanding of your client’s pain points and concisely outline how your services/solution can solve their challenges.
The most effective and efficient way to accomplish this aim is to leverage AI proposal software to accelerate and simplify the proposal writing process. Generative AI proposal automation tools like QorusDocs QPilot help you extract, summarize, and draft personalized, branded proposals using your best content to convert prospects into clients.
Check out our Definitive Guide to AI in Proposal Management and The Buyer's Guide to Generative AI Proposal Management Software to learn more about how AI proposal software, like our very own award-winning QorusDocs QPilot, can help your organization shorten its deal cycle and improve win rates by generating sales proposals, pitches, and RFx documents that stand out from the crowd.
