How much time do you spend writing, delivering and following up proposals? Add up that time and multiply it by your day/charge-out rate. How much is that costing you? How many proposals do you do per month? What does that add up to? And how many of these do you convert?
In many industries proposal writing/pitching (beauty parades comparing several different companies) is the norm, its just what we do. But does it really work for you, or for the prospective client? Too often the answer is no.
Opportunities that require you to go into a beauty parade are generally a weak lead and should be treated with healthy skepticism about whether pursuing this is a good investment of your time and effort. Do you have (and stick to) qualification criteria to decide whether or not to pursue an opportunity, or do you jump on any lead that comes in?
Of course there are situations when it may be more of an opportunity e.g if you have helped scope the opportunity with the client, or if you have an influential inside advocate. But if you can’t answer yes to these types of questions, should you be pursuing it, or would your time be better served finding and creating opportunities that don’t involve a beauty parade?
Open minded to considering a different way? Find out more by coming to our next Sales Tips for Business Owners seminar. Click here for more details.
You might also be interested in:
