Why You Need 3 Options in Your Next Proposal

Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at how to use proposals to sell or the better way to use proposals and price quotations to sell. My name is Tavishma Ayede, I'm the host of the podcast making today's recording at home. So expect to hear some noise in the background. So again, we're going to be looking at how to use proposals to sell or the proper way to use proposals to sell. And the reason why was because lots of us over here in Niger,

we assume that the proposal is the end of the process. I repeat, we assume that we're going to show up, dazzle someone, then we'll send them a proposal or a price quote. And then based on the strength of that document, somebody's going to transfer money to us. Now, there are situations where that works and there's some people who know how to play that game, but except if somebody has actually trained you in the art of killing people with proposals and presentations.

In fact, that's where my mum puts it. Because remember, for those of you who listened for a while, my mum was a marketing exec and so that was her thing. She said she liked to kill people with PowerPoint presentations. That is a skill in itself. So unless you're one of those people who has learned how to kill people with PowerPoint or you seem to have that as an innate skill for the rest of us, we can't rely on the PowerPoint,

We can't rely on the PDF. We can't rely on the whatever to do the selling for us. I repeat, we can't rely on the PowerPoint. We can't rely on the PDF, on the Word document, on the invoice, on the treatment, on the whatever it is that we prepare. We can't allow that to do the selling for us, but we can use that as a tool to advance the conversation forward. And I'm going to explain how for those of you who are quick to drop a proposal or a price quote, I'm sure you guys have already realised a certain pattern of events that happens.

You talk to someone, sounds like you're doing OK, you guys are friendly, everything is cool. It sounds like you might get this deal. Then they say send me a proposal, send me a price point, a price quote. You send over that document, then they stop picking calls, they stop answering your messages. The reason why is because you've given them a proposal. That's the information that they need. They're going to take that.

They're going to price shop. There's no other reason for you to stay in the game. This is one of the reasons why in traditional sales theory, we do not issue one quote or one possible cause of action. We give two or three because there is room to continue the conversation and there's room to engage in something that is called priority ranking, or some people call it priority destabilization. Let me repeat. Some people call it priority ranking and some people call it priority destabilization.

Priority ranking. Priority just means what is important to this person, the thing that is important, that is priority. So if you're going to be issuing multiple proposals, multiple course of actions, multiple presentations, option A, option B, option C, you can now use that to stay in the conversation and engage in priority ranking. Let me give you an example. OK, let me start with the personal example, the one that happened to me before.

I talk about one that I'm currently working on with one of my clients. Now, when I had just landed fresh off the boat in the UKI needed to go and buy a computer. And like most people, I did the research on what I wanted and I went straight there and I picked up this computer. Then I went to the counter to go and pee and the guys had a chatting with me. So welcome. You're just brand new. Which school? I say University of Aberdeen.

The guys like, oh, OK, I went to Robert Gordon, blah, blah, blah. I'll be he's no, he was currently in Robert Gordon, but working there, you know, just make some extra pay. So currently Robert Gordon chatting. Oh, by the way, what are you buying this computer for? I said, well, I'm interested in photography. I want to be taking pictures and guys like, you know what, yes, this looks like a good deal because it is this size and that.

But if you're going to be doing photography, you're going to be spending lots of times looking at images on your computer. You want something that's going to be a bit more comfortable. Are you OK with me just showing you a couple of things? I'll leave this here on the counter in case I want to come back to it. I say sure. The guy got off from behind the counter. We begin the worker. We went to one place and the guy showed me one that was an Acer 17 inches.

I did not know the computers come in 17 inches. When I opened the thing and I saw it, I was like, ah, yeah, you're right, pictures will render well on this thing. The guy asked me what kind of camera do you have? I told him how many M BS. I told him was like OK, good, if you will render well on this sort of thing. The only problem is this particular computer, even though it's 17 inches and the display will work very well for you,

this is the speed everything would render Sharp, sharp, fast, fast, quick, quick. The problem is the hard drive is only so, so, so and so is not a problem. I say, well, I think I would like to have some space because apart from photography, I also like music and you know, I have my music library and stuff like that. The GAS, OK, no problem. All we can do is this. We have this external storage. So, so, so and so TB. That was back in the day when anything that was like one terabyte, it needed its own independent power source.

As per you have your hard drive, you will now plug your hard drive into the socket to power it before you can use it on your computer. So the guy gave me I think was like one terabyte or something like that, and I thought it was cool. Then he now said, OK, now with this, it's slightly more than the other whatever, but I honestly believe that you're going to be happier with this arrangement overall. And The thing is, I was happy paying more money because I

could see that the first one, everything fit in my budget, but then this one larger screen, I'm carrying extra stuff. But The thing is, you know, now I have more than enough storage for my files and I have a pleasant working environment because of the 17 inch screen. So what the guy did was this. Maybe he knows it, somebody taught him, or maybe he doesn't know what is what We do it in traditional sales, priority ranking or priority destabilization.

You're having a conversation with someone, you're trying to figure out their wants and their needs and then your mind, you begin to stack them one after another. Like which one does this guy value? The one that the guy values is the one that you key in and start to sell on. I repeat, as you're asking them questions to figure out what they want, you begin the rank it, stack it in your mind which one does the person value?

The one that is up, that's the one they begin to key in on the one that is down, you just leave it. So by asking me questions, what do you want to do? Where are you from, blah, blah, blah. The guy's just trying to figure out who is this guy, you know, what does he need this computer for, you know, and just, you know, so that's how he was ranking the whole thing, photography so that everything should see well, render well,

render quick, OK, that priority is up. So the guy put that one first and the guy keyed in. That's how he was selling. Eventually we got to the whole thing of memory space and say, OK, he can cure that problem by bringing a standard hard drive. But you can see how he was trying to figure out it was not just some of you are trying to sell computer. You just say, oh, buy this HP HP Vertigo is the best or something like like how do you know HP

Vertigo is the best? You calm down. You begin to ask the guy question, then start to rank his priority. There's some people that like the nicest, the best, the sweetest. If in your mind, you know, that is what the person wants, then by all means bring HP Vertigo or HP Stardust or HP Starship or whatever, because it is the latest that they just released in the UK Festival of Tech and Science or whatever. So there's no good, there's no ultimate.

You know, it depends on the priorities that the person has asked them questions, figure out what they want, rank the priority in your head. Of course, ask them more as their own opinion. Because if the guy asked me and I said, oh, that I'm not particular about the size of the screen, you know, of course, the answer is simple. The guy would have said, OK, in that case, no problem, Let's go back to the tail and I will check you out, Sir.

Enjoy the rest of your day, but because he asked and I was like, hey, 17 inches or modest in suite die. Then we started looking at options. So you see how it works. Stay in the conversation do need analysis, figure out what they want, rank the priority sell accordingly. Now some salespeople call it priority destabilization. What priority destabilization means is this. Sometimes people have a priority in their head, but the priority is not correct.

So you need to educate them and get them to flip the priority. It's not something I engage in, you know, but it's one of those theories. So in that case, even though, even if I had told the guy that 17 inches, well more, you know what doesn't make a difference to me? Priority. The distabulation would not have been him going in deeper to try and dig into the implications. Like, OK, said you're doing this for photography, right?

So is this going to be casual or eventually do you see of yourself working as a professional? If I had said casual now, OK, maybe who give up. But if I said eventually professional, he will not start to educate me. Professional photographers, yes, typically I want to start with smaller screens, but eventually, because of comfort of editing, you're sitting at the computer for long hours and this and this and that and that and that economic reasons, eye health,

please, that, that, that, that this is the reason why you should be considering a 17 inches and above. And by the way, that, you know, that kind of reasoning is correct because, yes, professional photographers, you know, for those of you been listening for a while, you know that I used to be, excuse me in the photography space. So I'm kind of retired now in photography. But you know, yes, the more time you spend, you know, when the screen is big shot, it's just it's just easy.

Like even for editing, you don't have to zoom, pinch zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom. And then, you know, clone as in once you just like, if you're sitting down with a 35 inch monitor, you just load the image. Everything just open bra, you can already see, Oh, OK, imperfections. Let me be carrying here. And you know, you just be moving sharp, sharp, sharp. So that kind of reasoning is correct. So that is what priority ranking is.

And that is what priority destabilization is. But either way, talk to the person, figure out what they want rank. The priorities in your head ask them questions to be sure that you understand that this ranking is correct. Then you make your professional recommendation for some people, if you think they're going to make a mistake you This is the point where you now educate them. You know this is when like 1. I watched on TV.

Where is one of these my wife shows my wife loves all these desperate. Sorry not desperate. Is it desperate? That's not it's desperate housewife. There's something housewives OK, there's basketball wives. Then there's something wives Potomac something wives. What again? Is it Desperate Housewives? OK, I can't remember. Anyway, something wives housewives of Orange County and all those shoes. So one of those shows now the lady went in to go and see the doctor and that was like, oh,

welcome any complaints. Woman said no complaints, it's OK, now let's do the examination. It was a, what do you call them? OPS guy, obstetrician, gynecologist, OB, Y/GYN, whatever they're called. So you want to say OBYGI gynecologist? So they started doing the scanning the room and say, oh, I can see small Poly up, I can see small fibroid, I can see small something. Well, it might be benign, it might not be benign, you know,

blah blah blah. They started discussing options. So basically don't mount once they did the example massaging one or two fibroids. Now the way that the client was looking at it, the client was thinking me that I'm supposed to be going on tour. I suppose they do shows that this is not the time for you to not be cutting me up anyhow, like if you caught me, the thing will spawn my body. That's what she was coming from. Now as a doctor in that case, of course you will advise the clients that you know.

Madam, I understand you don't want to see scar. You don't want to unsnatch. You suppose they tall, but you will not advise like the doctor side advising. Look Madam, you see this thing that we're seeing we're supposed to check out first. If this thing is benign, no problem, continue the tour, no problem. But if it looks as if one of these things is malignant, it means, Madam, that we're getting closer and closer to cancer.

That we suppose caught you up and remove this thing once and for all. So you can see that in that case, now you won't do priority ranking because as a doctor, this one is not about the money you make from the operation. Like you are duty bound to let the Madam load. I see, Madam touring is one thing, but if you go on your touring, but as you did tour, you're getting closer to cancer. Like Madam. Which one? Wait, Madam, check it.

So there are cases where you do priority destabilization. Now back to what we're talking about about the proposals. Now for those of you who think the proposal is the end of the process, you just submit the pros are the person who does go goes on you come up with option A, option B, option C and this is how I'm working. I one of my clients, both of us together as a training something I say, you know what, let me call the client.

You'll be listening. Well, what don't you will advise me on how I was supposed to do it, but holding this is the scope, I am going to get enough information so that we can come up with option A, option B, option C, since you're one has the technical knowledge, we'll now come up with the parameters. When I call her back, It is now to say, Madam, we're going to be sending you three options, all of them within your, all of them within your price range and everything is going to fit exactly what it is that you need as all of them will solve the outcome and the offer within your price range.

So I'm going to send it to you so that we can discuss some more. So you can see that in this case, sending over 3 proposals now is an invitation to continue the conversation so that we can figure out her priority and we will rank it or we would destabilize it. Of course, I prefer ranking, but destabilizing it's also an option. So this was the case, my client cells, solar systems. So we spoke to the lady, the customer and lady is like, Oh yeah, that she already has a system and the system is working fine.

I say, hey, I really have a system, but I'm using for the house or for the office. It says for the office. I say, oh, OK, really? So what what kind of setup do you have in the office? See, this is qualification and discovery, asking questions about the person, asking questions about the problem or trying to understand what's going on here. You cannot be making recommendations until you know what's up. But too many of you just jump quick.

The person will say, oh, I already have system for the office. You say, oh, it's just for the house. You say, yes, I said OK, tell me about your house. Ask questions. Now some of you are scared of this line of reasoning, but trust me, nobody will kill you. This conversation I'm talking about, I just did it two nights ago. So I said, tell me about the system in the office. And she said it and I said oh Madam, that's set up, everything is working well.

She say yes because what she has is 5 kva in the office with 12 panels. She say everything is working fine. So I said oh Madam, if everything is working fine and it's something that I gave you, why not just call something to do for the house? Some of you will be shaking. You say how can I ask that kind of thing? Listen, This is why because if somebody's perfectly happy with their system, they already have a provider that is no problem with, but the person is calling you.

There's a reason why the person is calling you. Figure that reason out. It might be good, it might be bad, we don't know, but figure it out. If I have a trusted tailor and my tailor is OK, I want to go and be looking for another tailor. So if I call you up and in the chat with me, you realize that I already have a regular tailor. Ask, say, OK, you already have a regular tailor, so how come you didn't go and meet him? Now all I was wrong.

Where did your tailor F up? And then here in my own case, I might now say as because my potbelly, my tailor always making things tight, tight, tight. You know, I like it nice and loose. Now you know what the problem is that when you're giving me design, you will not make anything tight so that my potbelly can breathe. This is why it is important to ask these kinds of questions like, OK, is your system in the office is really working?

If there's no problem, why didn't you just want to call Song King to do this thing? Of course, ask it a nice conversational way. And then she said I didn't because I I heard from other people that there are some things that you can extra things that you can fix on the solar system that Song King did not fix. I say, really, Ma? She said yes, So she wants to know about those extra things. So I now said, oh, Madam, yeah,

there's some other things that you can do, like with my own company, not my own company, you understand, I'm pretending to be a salesperson to this woman now on behalf of my clients. Hope you understand the scope. So, and I say, well, Madam, for my own company, one thing that we can attach is this not that, which has remote monitoring features. It allows us to be able to diagnose the system from our headquarters in Lagos so that if there's any problem with your system, we will even know before you do and we can send an engineer out to go out and fix it.

She was like, oh, good, good. Those are the kind of things I'm looking for. And I said, OK, we also have control, we also have AC and DC controls that can that are inbuilt to protect against Nepal fluctuation so it doesn't damage your equipment. She said Oh yes, yes, that's good. Those are some of the things that I was hearing. Then the final thing, what did I say? Hey, charge control that is going to be good with limiting the amount of money that you spend because it automatically switch between NEPA and solar,

whichever 1 is much more available. And she was like, Oh yes, yes, yes. All those things sound interesting. So it's like, OK, those are the things that you're curious about. We say yes. And then I told her, look, Madam, you know when you responded to our advert, what you pick was 3 to 5. But from all the things that you're saying, because I already asked her about her house, she has five bed, she has three freezers, 5TV2 AC, blah, blah,

blah. So from what she said, I said, Madam, you know what all the things that he was saying, you know, it would exceed this budget or say I say yes, my it will. But just so I know if I go out and talk to my sales engineer, by the time I come back, if I come with a budget that's between 10 and 15, it's not too much. She said I will be too much. Now see what I'm doing is this is qualification around money. I want to be sure that she has a realistic sense of budget.

I want to know who it is and I'm talking to. If somebody has on a realistic sense of budget, this is where we need to kill the conversation. Because if somebody thinks that the realistic budget is 1.5, but based on all the things that they are saying, honestly, it's more like 10 M, kill this conversation. The gap between 1.5 and 10 is too much. If you ask this kind of question and you figure out that the person is maybe like a 7.5

person, well, maybe we can stretch it between 7.5 and 10. I don't know. You know, we, we can come down to 8 point something. They might be able to come up to to 8 point something. You never know. But we need to have ways of asking these conversations. Now I am more on the direct side, so I just go out and ask it like that. That's so if I come up with a budget of 10 to 15, would that be too much? She said don't exceed 7 to 10.

I said really much. 7 to 10 is absolutely mean. She said yes. She said don't go a cobble above 10 M, Anything above 10 will be a problem for me. I'm quoting her word for word. Don't go a cobble above 10 M Anything above 10 M would be a problem for me. That's what she said word for word. I now have a sense of harm, financial expectations. Now my client was listening on this conversation. You can see that even though she selected 3 to 5 is looking as if 7 to 10, you go work, we can make it happen.

So we now need to ask questions about timelines. Call. If you just go and check any of my podcast episodes on qualification and discovery, you will hear about this in much more details. We always need to ask about timelines. That's OK, No problem. So if I can find something that's within this 7 to 10 that meets all these needs you're talking about, all these things you have in the house. And then plus we can also do this remote monitoring and then fluctuation control and you know, everything how soon we'll be willing to go ahead.

And she said around that kind next month, that's OK, no problem. Next month. So now this is where some of you mess up. So when you say, OK man, I'll be in touch. And then you send over the proposal and you wonder why she goes. We need to seek an advancement. And advancement is when both of you agree on what the next step is. You're the one as the salesperson to set that advancement. You're the professional. You know what is realistic?

So I told her, OK, so ma'am, all right, in this case, this is what we're going to do. I'm going to go back and talk to my sales engineer and he's going to come up with a series of proposals that match this budget so that we can talk some more. We should be able to have this proposal ready for you over the weekend. How does that sound? She now said, no weekend we have events, we have this, we have that. And in fact Monday I'll be resting.

So I think Tuesday is more like it's OK. So Tuesday I can send over the my sales engineer can my engineer can send over the proposal to you on Tuesday. She said yes, Tuesday. I now try to narrow it even down because some of you will say OK, Tuesday and leave it like that. And I asked, OK, So what do you prefer my morning or evening? We're trying to get an advancement. So excuse me, we're trying to get an advancement. We're trying to get the next step.

So the more narrow I can get it, the better. If she had told me morning, so I say morning after she had told me afternoon, no problem, I'll leave it like that. So it's nice if I the interrogate time, you understand, But how no case, she said morning preferably anytime after 10. AMI said, OK, that's not a problem, so we'll be in touch Tuesday morning at 10 AM. He said no problem. She said, Oh also asked, should I send it on e-mail or over here on WhatsApp?

You say you can send it over on WhatsApp? This is my WhatsApp number, by the way. Hint, hint. Regardless of what she has said, I was still going to send it over e-mail and WhatsApp anyway because people who say e-mail, I'll send it on e-mail. People who say WhatsApp, I'll still send it on e-mail so that you still have it in records, but also send it on WhatsApp because WhatsApp is a much more conversational channel. We can continue to chat in WhatsApp.

So regardless of whatever the person says, I still send an e-mail WhatsApp. So we now agree, Monday, all these things are writing it down. See, this is the reason why you need to have a pen and paper ready with you when you are selling. Now there's some of you who sell simple stuff, that's not a problem, but I'm talking to people who are in complex sales environments. These details are plenty. The system that she has in the office, I'm writing everything down.

Number of solar panel, number of KVA and this and this and that for the house, number of bedroom, the number of AC, number of freezer, number of TV, number of KVA that she wants. I'm writing everything down. So after the call told my clients, OK, you understand the game plan. Abby person said yes, but then he said, look, based on what we've been discussing there, to be honest, the best thing for this woman, what she has said,

they think that work for this house is 12 kva. It's just that that 12 kva will be 10 points something I said, ah, but you heard woman now. But the client said, you know what, let's just see, let's just try, OK, no problem. That one will be option C Let's now look at option A. The guy said OK, no problem. Since in the office she's already using 5 kva for the house, she's thinking 10 kva. What can we do? The guys OK, no problem.

We can definitely do A10 kva based on what you said, I think will be cost like around that kind. You know a point something I said, OK, let's write it down. That's option A. So I said what was option B now she said OK no problem the woman is saying 10KV but we can make an AKV work as well. She won't be powering everything so we'll do AKV at all across 6 point something. OK good I said that's option two. He already told me option C

which is the perfect one for him which is sorry 12 KV at 10 point something so OK fine no problem. So I now told him this is the scope. Before what you would normally do is you only send one document. Next, you now start following up with a woman. She will ghost you. What is what we'll do? First of all, go and talk to your boys. Be sure that the calculation is correct because it'll be embarrassing to give the man a figure only for the boys to tell you that Oh no, based on what we have in store, you know the price you give her is wrong.

So we'll confirm first. Then I will now call this woman up on Tuesday. I will send proposals, but I'll call up to say, Madam, we're ready. My engineers have looked and we have 3 proposals for you. They're all within your price range except one. When we went forward, we encroach it small, but all these options will be able to cater the load that you have for. And then it also has remote monitoring. It also has the currency fluctuation protection.

And then it also has the so what's it called again? Charge control so that we can keep your bills in check. Before I send over these proposals, would you like to hear about them? Of course you will say yes anyway. Some people say no, just send me the proposal anyway, no problem. But sending 3 puts us in a better position and not just sending 1. So I can now start engaging her on the conversation to say option A is this KVA and at this price we'll be able to achieve this, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But the drawback is you won't be able to run your ACS 24/7. Is that the problem? As you say, well, me, I have to sleep in my AC or the children, they can sleep with fun. That's OK. You can see that we're now trying to figure out what is important for her option B, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the problem is those 3D freezers, if there's a tough light situation, maybe we might only put one on 24 hours, you know, the other two, maybe we switch them off after, you know,

so, so, so hours. I know he was, she has to say. So the more she's talking, the more we're going to be able to figure out what are her priorities and we'll be able to rank it all. Some people would like to do. We'll be able to destabilize it and that is all be able to help us to make a professional recommendation at the end. But in this case, hope you can see now that for those of you who you rush quick, quick and then you send one proposal,

you're shooting yourself in the foot. The person will look at this document and then start pressure up with other people. You are no longer in the conversation. The proposal should help you stay in the conversation. But like I said, remember my mother used to be a marketing exec, All those people who studied, you know, MBA advertising, blah, blah, blah, and my mum worked in professional advertising circles. Look, that one is different.

They are trained in the art of pitching. So if you're in that environment, then yes, disregard all I've said because you have been trained to kill them with the PowerPoint presentation or to kill them with the PDF. For those of us who have not been in those circles, do not play that game because it's too high risk. You either hit or you miss. If you hit it, you collect good money. If you miss, they ghost you and you don't even know what you did wrong.

It is better to come up with Option A, Option B, Option C, and then engage in priority ranking or priority destabilization. At least we are staying in the conversation and we know how far we have hope. Now, let me repeat something because people like to get their hopes up. Because we're engaging in this exercise does not mean that this is a done deal. It does not mean that this deal is ours. Sales is a matter of probabilities.

We're trying to stay in the game long enough and we're trying to increase the odds in our favour, not just with this client, potential client, but with other potential client that we are talking to. It is a game of probabilities. Excuse me? It's a game of numbers, as the Americans like to say. So nothing is guaranteed in sales. So even if you do everything correct, but you lose the deal, then like I told you guys last week, as Jay-Z said, does the shirt, does the dirt off your shoulder?

Keep pimping, keep moving. Some will click, some will click. And so, and you know, we just keep moving. The one that clicks, we thank God we do Thanksgiving. You buy shawarma, you flex, you know, and then you keep it moving. The one that doesn't click, you know, that's what AB some click, some doesn't. Don't get depressed over nothing. Just keep moving. It's a game of numbers, as the Americans say. It's a game of probabilities.

Now, when I was in secondary school back then in Nigeria, people used to say you only need one. You know, that was back when the military was still in power. So, you know, people used to say you only need one contract and it will change your life. So that's it. Let's forget the ones that don't click. We only need one. Let one click. We thank God and we'll continue another one We click. We find God, we continue another one we click after a while.

All these are small, small victories. They compound and they add much. Anyway, it's 30 minutes. Let me just bring this to a close. So thanks for listening. Remember, if you'd love to connect, the number is 08064662140. You can send me a text message. You can call, you can send a WhatsApp message. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you at the next episode.