Writing business cases / proposals Flashcards
If you have been asked to send across a proposal, what stage are you at in the buyer’s journey?
Comparing vendors.
You will now be in a very competitive environment (especially in bigger deals).
Smaller deals will be less fussed about competition/procurement etc.
Should business cases be the same each time?
No, it needs to be tweaked based on who you’ve spoken to, the pains you’ve identified + the solution you’re offering
What does the lion and 3 bulls fable tell us about sales?
Isolating individuals and speaking to them 1:1 builds a stronger connection with you + weakens their collective
Who do you build business cases for?
The economic buyer
Who should help you build the business case? And why?
The Champion because they have likely worked with the economic buyer a lot in the past and presented to them
Even if the business case isn’t for everyone, how should you deal with them?
You should still speak to them individually and let them know what’s going on (i.e., I’m building the business case for the economic buyer with the champion, you can look at it once it’s done).
Who should receive follow ups? And what type of follow ups?
Everyone who you have ever met on a call
They should either get an ‘action needed’ email
Or a ‘no action needed’ email
Where do a lot of salespeople fall down, regarding proposals?
They fail to put down on one-page, the value that they have worked so hard to build over calls
Do not under-estimate proposals. They’re so so important
What do people NOT want to see in proposals?
ROI calculators - they’re bullshit
Case studies / landing pages
Lots of resources
What do people want to see in proposals?
A complete storyline for where your customer is today and where they want to go tomorrow
What are the 5 parts of a great proposal?
Headline
Outline of the core problem
The Bridge
Scenarios
Dependencies
What does the headline part of a proposal do?
Just state the pain you’re solving
What does the outline part of a proposal do?
It’s 3-4 sentences, demonstrating:
- Why is this a problem?
What are the impacts of the problem?
- What could you be achieving without the problem?
What does the bridge part of a proposal do?
Take your buyer from where they are now, to where they want to be (and make them not feel like it’s impossible to solve).
What does the scenarios part of a proposal do?
Outline 3 scenarios (cost of inaction) to the buyer:
1 - do nothing, get nothing, still have the problem
2 - take half of UpSlide’s offering, get halfway
3 - take all of this offering, solve the pain faster + more completely
