Map the customer buying process, needs, and situation before you invest time sending a detailed proposal. A quick request can mean you are column fodder.
Q: We are still trying to close our first paying customer. We have a website up and have talked to a number of people. More or less out of the blue we got a call from someone in a large firm who had looked at our website. They asked a few questions about our product and then said “Great! Send me a detailed proposal including pricing!”
At last a stranger recognizes the brilliance of your solution in just a few minutes of conversation! How often I tell myself that. How rarely it’s true, especially when you are just starting out with a new product or in a new market. You have to ask yourself:
- Do they really know enough about what we do to be able to start a purchase order?
- Do I know enough about their situation to be able to calculate our likely impact on their business and their return on investment?
- How can I justify the price to value in the proposal?
- Have I addressed the critical implementation and proliferation roadblocks we will face from pilot to production use?
You May Be Column Fodder
More often than not you are actually “column fodder” or a makeweight needed so that they can prove to their boss or the purchasing/finance team that they did a thorough job and solicited three bids. Especially if you don’t know much about their situation and they have not asked for a detailed demo you need to proceed a little more slowly.
Map The Customer Buying Process
Before you submit a proposal I would ask your contact these questions to get a better sense of the situation, in particular you need to learn as much as possible about who will make the decision and how they will make it (the customer buying process).
- Can you describe the process for making a decision after we submit this powerpoint proposal, who else is in involved, what questions are they likely to have?
- Who has to make the final decision to actually sign a contract?
- Can you provide an example of a standard contract so we can understand your typical deal structure and terms and conditions.
- Can you give some examples of other deals that your company has done in the last three years that might serve as a model for how our business relationship would work?
Understand Their Needs and Situation
You want to be easy to do business with but that requires that you have a thorough understanding of their needs. I would not send a powerpoint presentation, but ask for time to present it (if only via Webex/GoToMeeting) so that you can answer any questions that they have in the moment. I would also dry run this presentation with your contact if they are open to it. If they just default to “send me a detailed proposal” it’s probably not a real opportunity.