Proposal Power: The Key to Closing More Deals

Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'd like to look at what the key elements are for a wedding sales presentation. And by the way, for the purpose of this episode, if I say presentation or I say proposal, I mean the same thing. Now, technically speaking, you know, some people might try to split hairs. They say a presentation is not the same thing as a proposal, but for the purposes of this episode, just remember I'm using them in the same context and I'm using that to mean the same thing.

So when I say presentation or I mean proposal, it's just the stage in the business conversation or in the relationship where we try to answer a few important questions that are supposed to get people to take the next step with us. We're trying to answer the question, this is what my product or service can do for you, or this is how my product or my service can solve your problem. So whatever stage where you try to set things up, where you're now addressing the customer or you're trying to tell them, this is how I can solve your problem,

this is how I can help you get to the promised land, then that is called the presentation or the proposal stage. Now, another way that I like to define it, that makes it easier to remember because I deal with people who think they've made a proposal or a presentation, but then I ask them, did you ask them a question that required a yes or a no? Or did you leave something with them that required them to say yes or no? And then they get the point.

So another definition, well my own definition for a proposal is it is that stage where you ask someone something or you give someone something that the person can either say yes or no to. If you go and you do a song and dance and you do a PowerPoint presentation and whatever and everybody claps for you and blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, you didn't ask a question that required a yes or a no, or you didn't give them something that requires a yes or a no.

Then you can call it whatever you want. But for the purposes of sales, that was not really a presentation, was not really a proposal because everybody came, everybody had a good time, everybody was wowed. But then people left the meeting with no clear course of action and there was no clear call to action on whether we should go ahead with this aspect of the proposal or that aspect of the presentation. So those are the two definitions every single time you hear me talking about presentation or proposal, not just on this podcast episode, but also in future episodes.

So if we're at this stage of the business relationship or the conversation where I now have to say this is what my product or service can do for you. So what do you think? You want to give it a try or this is how I can help you solve your problem. This is how I can help you make more money. This is how I can improve your marriage. This is how I can do this, do this, do that, and this is how I can make your hair undergrowth double in six months, You know,

whatever it is your product or service does. So are you interested when we get to that stage? That is the presentation, that is the proposal. But ultimately, we should be leaving this stage either asking somebody some form of question that they can either say yes or no to. Because if you've been listening to the older episodes, especially the episodes that we did on advancements, if there's no, yes or no, if there's no,

what is the next step? If there's not all that, you've had a good time. But then when you have to call up on the person again, you wouldn't know exactly what it is you're supposed to do. And you end up in that, that useless full of cycle where you're calling to say, I just call to greet you. How's the family? How are you enjoying the public holiday? You know, blah, blah, blah. You're not sure how to move the deal forward.

So that's it on definitions then. OK, Now before we can say that we're going to get to the proposal stage, there are a number of prerequisites that we need to meet. Now, depending on who you talk to, people are going to come up with different stages and things like that. But for me, I'd like to keep it nice and simple. Before we get to the proposal, you must have passed through what we call qualification. Summary Qualification just means, am I talking to the right person?

This is really, really important. Now, talking to the right person is not just ICP ideal customer profile, the kind of people that we know we can help. It is also that we want to be sure that the person that you're talking to has a budget for what it is and that the person can actually say yes or no. Because sometimes you're making a proposal representation to someone and that person can only say no. For instance, let's say we're talking about pyjamas for the kids and you're trying to make a proposal or a presentation to me to sell pyjamas.

Now, in my household, my wife pyjamas, clothes, that's her thing. So if I'm making the proposal to me or the presentation to me, the only thing I can say is no, I don't like this. But I can't say yes because I will have to call my wife and say, hey babe, this person came by the office, this person came by the house. They left some samples. Check it out. What do you think? Is this cool? Should I go ahead or not? So talking to the right person means you should be talking to the person who can say either yes or no.

Because a lot of times you people are only talking to someone who can say no. So be sure of that. That's the reason why in the old podcast episode, I can't remember what the title was, I said make sure you're not talking to the houseboy or to the PA or to the whatever because PA can say no. I don't think our guy will be interested in this, but PAS rarely have the authority to say yes. Let us go ahead. So make sure you're doing your proposal or your presentation to someone who is qualified.

Qualified just means you're talking to the right person. So the right person is somebody who could say yes or who could say no. Save yourself a lot of time. Then we should have also gone through discovery. Discovery is when you're liaising with the person, both of you are chatting, you guys are yawning and as they're talking, you're talking. In your mind, you're doing that mental calculation. This is the problem that they have.

This is the problem that they have. But my product can only do this, it's not good at this. Or my service can only do this, It's not good at that. You want to be sure that if they have two main problems, AB and C, sorry, three main problems, AB and C, you want to be sure that your product to your service can solve those problems AB and C. Because if you're talking to the right person who can say yes or no and they have problems AB and C, but your product can only solve a.

Think about it. Do you think your chances of closing the deal are high or low? So these are the sorts of things you should be going through through in our minds. And that's the reason why I say these things are prerequisites. They need to line up before you make your proposal or presentation. By the way, it is not a given that if all these things line up that the deal will close. It's not a given. I'm just saying that these are the things that improve the odds, make the odds move in your favor.

Then of course, I've also mentioned you guys need to be close enough for money expectations, which is why I'm a fan of making sure that you guys talk early now. OK, boss, Madam, based on what we've spoken about, we could either do 1-2 or three, but all these ranges that we're talking, it can cost anything between 600K and 450K. Is that did you come ready for that? Is that an investment you're willing to make right now?

How do you feel about that? Does that match your budget? You know, different ways. Pick whatever catches your fancy, but you need to have that soft conversation first of giving a range so that the person who is going to get angry and fade out of the conversation or abuse you let the person fade out now instead of you investing time to build a relationship. So you guys have been gisting 3 weeks, you now get into a proposal and then the person fades that proposal after you've invested 3 weeks.

It is best to get people to fade from the beginning if it's not going to be a good fit. And then sometimes money expectations might be there, but then other things don't quite pan out, like on the discovery pathway I'm talking about. So the money, yes, it's clear they have the money. But in your heart of hearts, you know that if you go ahead, this thing might cause quarrel because this person wants to solve problem AB and C, you can only solve A.

So if we go ahead, they'll be fighting in the future. So you might, you now know that this is the stage where you fade or refer them to someone else. Then let's see. OK, There's also the form of the presentation For me. I'm not particular about this. Some people insist everything has to be written out depending on the context, you know, yes, a written thing would help. So whether it's verbal or written or whether it's a PowerPoint presentation or it's a video, because some people do make video presentations or it's an online Zoom presentation,

whatever it is, I'll leave that guys, I'll leave that to to you guys and girls to determine according to the context. But this is the way that I look at things. I'd like to make sure that we discuss all the key points ahead of time, as in mouth to mouth, verbal, whether we see face to face or over the phone. I'd like to make sure that we have discussed all the key terms 1st and we have agreed softly, softly to the key terms first.

So that for me, the proposal or the presentation is only a formality. I do not use the proposal or the presentation to sell. I use the proposal or the presentation as a formality to say, oh, bro or Madam based on why we've been yawning. This is the issue of what we've said. This is how I understand your problem. This is what I think you're trying to solve. So all these phone calls we've been having, we came down to these proposals 123 and this is how I think everything can help.

This is how I think we can solve your problem. So is everything correct or did I miss out something? You always have to gain feedback. Remember that. So at this stage, Madam says, and yes, but what about that time when we're talking about so and so you now know that something is missing from your proposal, which is why for me, it's not the main, the proposal is not the selling thing. It's just merely a formality. And I'm using it to confirm a bunch of stuff.

So I now know that OK, ad hoc, on the spot, I can cater for that or to say, oh, you know what, let me get back to you. And then we fix another meeting where we're going over another proposal or another presentation. But for me, the proposal or the presentation is just a formality. I like to do all the selling beforehand so that the proposal or presentation stage, I'm just saying this is everything we've discussed, which is what I think the next step is going to be.

So how do you see it? Are we cool? OK, no, I'll ask. So the next step is if we're going to start on December 30th, I will need deposit before. So, so, so and so I will also need access to this and this and that and that for me to be able to do my job. So yeah, if you want to flow with my own spirit of how to do things, don't use the proposal or presentation to close the sale in quote. Just use it as a formality while showing up here as a formality just to be sure that we're all on the same page and that we all understand.

But we have already concluded the sale before we got here. So that's my own take. So whether it's verbal written, PowerPoint video, whatever it is that you want to do, I'll leave that up to to you guys. But for practical purposes, yes, it always helps when there's something that is in writing. If there's going to be something in writing or if you're going to have a PowerPoint presentation or if you're going to have a video presentation, make sure that whatever it is you choose to do is simple.

Also make sure that it is short. I have not witnessed, but I have heard of one hour presentations or proposals. My own opinion, I think, well, it depends if you're talking about complex solutions, let's say you're trying to sell engineering services to TCN, that is a transmission company of Nigeria. You're an engineer, you're trying to sell them some latest engineering, whatever that will help them generate power at 1.5

output or something. Yeah, that's a highly technical thing. So I understand that you have to sit down, Group MD will be there, maybe a Minister for Power Steel will be there, and then it has to be a one hour presentation. But a whole bunch of us listening to this podcast are not at that stage yet. I see no reason why the wedding photographer or the commodities trader or the architect or the medical doctor or whatever it is you do.

I see no reason why presentation is entering 45 minutes, one hour, except if they have lots of questions. And by the way, that's the reason why I treat the presentation or the proposal as a formality. I prefer to do all the hard work before. So by the time we get here, there are no major questions. It's just a matter of are we on course or we are not. So yeah, simple and short depending on the context. Now, the thing about simplicity,

simple language that is also contextual. So for someone who is a wedding photographer, I made episodes where I said stop talking about things like aperture, ISO, shorter speed, blah, blah, blah, because the average bride and groom don't know that. However, if you're talking to a bride and a groom and both of them happen to be photographers, then it might be crucial or it might be important in your proposal or presentation to say that when we're shooting your wedding, we're going to be shooting at apertures between 2.8 and 3.5 for this part of the ceremony.

And for this part of the ceremony and during the evening section, we're going to be looking at Isos between this and this to guarantee that we don't have this much level of noise in your wedding photographs. So for a bride and a groom who are photographers, they know the lingo, so it makes sense. But to the average person, they're like, what are you talking about? I just want wonderful photos like the ones that I saw on my sister's Instagram.

If you start talking aperture, ISO, shorter speed, you will confuse them. So when I say simple, it depends on who are you talking to. So back to the example about the TCN, the transmission company of Nigeria, that one all over. Now you people are engineers, apart from maybe the minister of power and works, you know, minister for Power works most likely to be a politician, but the group MD of TCN and PHCN, NEPA, all of them, they'll be technical people.

So there, yes, if you're talking about kilowatts and megawatts and up cycle down cycle transmission latency and you know, all those technical, technical stuff, in that case it won't be a problem. In that case, that is simple and straight to the point because all of you are engineers. You all understand the the lingo and in fact, using those terms is helping people get straight to the point to understand. It's like when lawyers are together and you know, a lawyer says Nemo that you know, you just say Nemo that the lawyer understands the average person is like Nemo that like what?

What does that mean? Then you will not have to explain. Sorry, I can't remember. It's been a long time. Nemo dot quad non habit or something like that. Like, you cannot give what you don't have. So for when tour lawyers are together and they're arguing back and forth, one lawyer says, you know, Nemo dot. Sorry. Is it Nemo dot or Nemo dot? It's been a while, Forgive me. So I can't remember the right lawyer. The other lawyer will understand that you're talking about some form of lack of capacity in this case, like you cannot give what you do not have.

So yeah, when I say simple, I mean relative to the context. Then we also want to make sure that for our proposal, we lay out the mutual obligations. Rosa should also say if we're going to move forward, ABC and D is what I need from you. And by the way, it's not always money working to jump to the money. So yes, mention the money that you need, but the other things that you need, sometimes you need access to some files or access to the site.

So like an architect, for instance. OK, my guess is if you're an architect or you're a draftsman or you're a site supervisor or something, you will also need access to the site. So it's something you'd want to mention. Depending on how you work, you might want to tell them that look, I need access to the site 24, seven, 365 like any time of the day if I want to show up at 3:00 AM at night, because I want to verify this, verify that there should be somebody on ground to give me access to the site.

So mutual obligations are supposed to be there. This is what I need from you. This is what you guys owe me. And then you also lay it out. This is what I'm going to deliver to you. This is what I owe you. It also has to be in the proposal or the presentation. And finally, this is 1 overlooked portion. I've mentioned it, but I want to stress it again because I know there are some of you who didn't get it the first time.

We need clear calls to action whenever we deliver a proposal or a presentation. Sometimes the call to action is review timelines. So, OK, now that we're done with the proposal, you've given me a standing ovation. Everybody is happy. Normally we like to give one week for each party to go back and review this contract and then e-mail their questions and objections, if any. Is one week fine for everybody? Everybody will say yes, You can see now that in this case there's a clear call to action.

It's not just that everybody has heard. They've given me a standing ovation and then we leave and we don't know the next step. Everybody now knows that the next step is we are leaving here. If anybody has a problem, they have one week to send in an e-mail to say these are my problems. So a call to action can be, you know, review timelines. For those of us who come from a legal background, we usually there are calls to actions and timelines around redlining.

Redlining just means some people submit a proposal, a contract, you know, whatever it is. And then you give it to your own lawyer. Your own lawyer will say this time I know you agree to it, but this time it's not going to work. Then the person will now draw a line across it. I say no, no, no, no, why we can't do this. And the person will write that, OK, this is what we want instead. So that's the process of redlining, I guess, because maybe in the old days it used to be done with red viral, you know, but now people just use whatever viral it is that they need.

So it's called redlining. So we have some expectations around that. Like, OK, we're done with this, blah, blah, blah. Here it is. I know you have to hand it over to your lawyer or to your accountant. So redlining, we should be done by next week Friday. I'll be we'll say, yeah, cool. Next week Friday is too much. By Wednesday itself, we should be done. You ask everybody else. So Tunji has said Wednesday. Is that good? Ching Airy, you're OK with Wednesday?

Abdullahi, you're OK with Wednesday? OK, fine. So Wednesday next week, then I'll call everybody on Tuesday so that we'll know the next step from there. So in that case, you can see we're setting clear cost actions, clear timelines, clear expectations, then payment. Sometimes it is in the proposal that the amount IS350K, but then people are shy of asking for money, so they just leave it there. You're happy that everybody's smiling.

But you didn't quite ask for the 350K. You have to ask. That's to be a clear call to action. OK. If we're happy with everything and nobody has objected to the amount, this thing we're planning for is December 1st. Before I mobilize the boy, the boys, and the girls, I actually need payments two weeks before. So if we're good with everything so far, I will need 200K payment by what's that November 15th. So I need we need payment by November 15th.

So Madam, are we good to go and you ask outright. I know it's scary in the beginning, but we have to ask. You can't just say I put it in the proposal 350K nobody objected. Then you now go home and you'll be expecting the 350K If you just materialize. There are some people who will just go ahead and say, oh, so payment is the next step. I'll be, but if you don't ask for the money, this is where you enter into ghosting.

Let me think about it. Let me get back to you. My brother said, my uncle said, my wife said, my accountant said, so payment, ask for the payment. I'm sure you've noticed in Section 2, whatever, whatever of the proposal that the final amount is going to be 1.2 M The 1.2 M, we expect it to be paid out over a tranche of three different payments. The first set of payments is supposed to end in February. 2nd is supposed to end in March.

The final one is supposed to come in October. So for us to start this project in January, we need payment by so so so and so date. So Olga Madame, are we good to go? Can I, can I rely on you guys for payments before XYZ date in February? Like ask, but of course use your own verbiage, the way that you, the way that you sound, the way that you flow normally. But you need to ask then from a legal point of view, we also some, you know, your lawyer would say, put things there about dispute resolution.

If there's quarrel, if there's big a, if something goes wrong, how are we going to solve it? Let's see what else? But most importantly, at the end of the day, you should be asking people for a yes or a no. So are we good to go with everything here? Yes, Nobody has any objection. Yes. You notice here that the next step is we need 300K to mobilize the boys and the girls. It's OK, no problem. Yes. So can I expect payment by February 14th?

You need to ask if you do not leave these meetings, proposal or presentation meeting, you did not ask anyone question or any series of questions that required a yes or a no answer. You're putting yourself on some long jump and that is how you wake up and you realize that this proposal meeting, we had this meeting 3 weeks ago. I have not heard from them what happened. And then you are now picking up the phone call. You're picking up the phone trying to call here, trying to call here and you know ghost mode, they're not answering.

They're not answering. And then they say, well it was OK. But then I spoke to MD and MD said, or I spoke to my wife and my wife said, and I spoke to my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law said, Oh yes, we're good with it. But then my uncle said and then on and on and on and on and on. So ask a question or a series of questions that requires a yes or a no answer. If the answer is yes, fantastic, you're making progress. If the answer is no, it just means that you missed out an essential stage in the beginning.

You're probably talking to the wrong person or your product or service probably cannot deliver what it is that they are trying to solve. Or maybe you guys are part of money, money expectations. But you see that if the answer is no, it just means we need to rewind, go back to previous sales steps and fix something there before moving ahead. So that's all for today. Thank you very much for your time and attention. My name is Tavishim Iyede, I'm the host of the show.

That is the name you should be looking for if you want to connect with me on LinkedIn. So the correct spelling of my name is on the link. We're listening to this episode. So if you're on YouTube, look bottom left above the title of today's podcast and that's my name there. Just copy, highlight, paste it in LinkedIn and my handsome face will show up and then send me a request connection request, then also connect with me on WhatsApp.

The phone number 0806466 2140. The country code is +234. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.