为什么您永远不应该通过电子邮件发送提案

您的团队花了几个小时的研究，写作和完善您的潜在客户渴望获得的建议。

现在，当您在数周内撰写第三封后续电子邮件时，您会沮丧地盯着您的电子邮件帐户。

What could have caused this disappearing act? Was it the content of the proposal? Did the client get cold feet?

发生这种情况时，有些人甚至开始想象前景未能做出回应的古怪原因，例如一个月的假期（她忘了告诉您）到没有互联网访问的位置。也许潜在客户出乎意料地离开了公司，但忘了更新她的LinkedIn帐户（不是您每天都bob全站app在检查）吗？也许她的电子邮件帐户被黑客攻击了，她被迫恢复到纸质通信和归巢鸽子中？

It's possible ... right?

真正的问题与电子邮件无关

The issues illustrated above don't occur because of the method of proposal delivery -- though email is probably not the best way to communicate something of such importance to your business. Rather, the problem begins during the sales process.

For starters, if you are simply responding to the client's comment -- even if they seemed earnest in their request -- that they would love to see a proposal, you're wasting time. From the beginning, you're putting your agency in a position of lower authority, which will destroy any谈判权力您最初有。此外，您很可能几乎没有深入了解客户的挑战，需求和目标是 - 或应该 - 导致一项提案，该提案几乎没有机会转换前景，因为它与痛苦点无关。

急于编写提案和由于缺乏反馈甚至简单的“否”而导致的挫败感是不存在的销售过程的结果，或者是由客户的需求驱动的结果，而不是代理机构试图合格的。并推动正确的新业务类型。

如何定义销售过程

您无法自动化销售过程，但是您可以确保创建更少的忽略建议。

1) Understand Your Ideal Client

第一步是确定要使用的客户端类型的属性。通过创建一个ideal client profile这与您最好的客户类型相吻合，您将能够筛选那些只是购物，会感到不高兴甚至更糟的潜在客户，这会使您的团队成员不高兴。

By focusing on the right type of client, you'll better understand your target prospects, and you'll increase sales and retention.

2) Create Qualifying Questions

If you understand your ideal client, you'll be able to create questions that help you to discover who you should spend time with and who you shouldn't. These questions can be used in lead generation forms, an intake questionnaire, or during a more formal meeting to discuss a future relationship. (Here's a list of26个合格问题to get your started, or you can review these销售资格框架在建立自己的之前。）

These questions should move your conversation to the point where your team feels confident it can help the client overcome her challenges, providing value to the client in ways beyond simply producing work.

In addition, you should see the client's interest and trust in your abilities increase during the process. Her tone and line of questioning should change from "Can you do this?" or "Do you have experience in this?" to "How would you overcome this challenge?" or "What has successes have you seen with other brands?".

这是一个简单的开关，但它表明客户已经超越了“向我证明您可以做自己可以做的事情”的思维方式，并估价了您的建议和专业知识。

3）创建一个建议模板

Finally, you should create a simple建议模板you can use to reduce the time it takes to create the document.

Many agencies spend countless hours writing up details on the client's challenges, the prescribed strategy, and why their agency is the right partner. While there are many differing opinions on how long and in-depth a proposal should be, the basis is that the proposal should be a written confirmation of what you have discussed. And that the client should understand this isn't a document that will outline how exactly you will solve their problem because 1) you don't know enough about the brand, its competitors, its problems, etc., and 2) you don't give away your agency's strategy prior to even winning the account.

潜在客户应该已经知道您的团队有多伟大，案例研究，流程等获得成功的记录，因此该提案可以像一页文档一样简单，其中包含签署合同的一页文件。

You should only send proposals to prospects you are certain will sign a contract. (And you should make sure you are sending it to the people who actually have the authority to sign on the dotted line.) If you're not confident, then you need to do more work to nurture the prospect to the point where they are actually ready to review and sign a contract.

(Check out these提案工具使其易于自定义，跟踪和管理流程。）

How to Present a Proposal

最后，当您准备移交提案（甚至更好的是合同）时，请不要通过电子邮件发送电子邮件 - 至少直到您准备好进行审查之前和客户端。

Before you even begin writing the proposal, schedule an hour meeting with the prospect to review the proposal in-person or over the phone. Make it clear that the proposal document is not the first step in the sales process, rather the last. The proposal should confirm and clarify the client's understanding of the relationship, provide timelines and legal terms, and serve to inspire any final questions before beginning the first step in a new partnership.

如果潜在客户无法参加一个小时的会议，这是一个迹象，这不是合适的，您不应该浪费时间创建提案。而且，如果客户只想提出建议，以便她可以为商店定价，那么您在销售过程中就没有完成工作。您的服务价格绝不应该是惊喜。

Fewer Proposals, More Contracts

Defining your own sales process, rather than letting prospects control it, is the first step to improving your proposal win rates and the types of clients your agency works with. According toVantage Point绩效和销售管理协会的研究，销售过程定义的公司的收入增长比没有正式流程的公司高出18％。

将您的团队团结在一起，并开始记录您的销售过程应该和可能的样子。希望这包括更少的提案和更多（已签署的）合同。