Even professionals in the business need help with this.
Last week I got a message from a marketing director who knows her stuff. She said:
“I’m not sure if you do this or if so how much you would charge, but I’m looking for someone who can help me.
I don’t want someone to tell me what to do, I just want someone to put together the information I give them and turn it into a successful proposal (including some packages and pricing) for my services that is compelling and will get clients to take me seriously, but not be so complicated that they don’t understand what I’m offering.
That is the one thing that always trips me up. Despite how good I am at describing what I do in person as well as opening doors for myself and writing tons of copy for the million things I manage as a marketing director, I don’t like creating structured and written proposals for my own services.
It is the stumbling block that keeps me from being able to follow up any initial email with an automatic proposal to get the conversation rolling. I agonize over creating different proposals for each company if they express interest.
And while I know that, yes, you should tailor your proposals to each business – it stops me from getting farther with a lot of companies.
I’d pitch a lot more companies if I had something ready to go and on-hand.”
There are so many things I could say about this, and I’ll continue in another post.
A few thoughts today:
- We let other people pull us off our game when we customize proposals for every inquiry.
- We should stick to our game plan, regardless of incoming prospects’ needs.
- To stick to it, we need to HAVE a game plan.
- That plan should include ONE THING we do really well, something we do best.
- We should package and price it in a way that makes it simple for people to buy.
- We need to get it in front of enough people to put the laws of Supply & Demand and Positioning in our favor.
- We need to limit the amount of time we’re available to work on projects.
This all ties in with my ongoing themes of the Hot 150™, Client Conversations, and playing the long game by building relationships.
I believe this is THE fundamental missing piece for many of us, and when we figure it out and put it into action, it will radically transform our businesses.
I’m in the process of doing it myself, after years away from it. I’m back, and couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities for me and you.
