Do you know what terrifies your sales team? It’s the fact that the proposals they are putting together are not matching your brand. Your sales team is putting in the hard work and effort to find the right leads and pitch the right solution, but what they are delivering doesn’t reflect who you are as a business. It’s not capturing the essence of your brand and your values. This means you are losing out on potential customers who are looking to be inspired and intrigued by your brand. 

It’s time to look into the proposals your sales team is creating and ensure that they truly reflect who you are as a business. Make sure that your proposals are not only practical and accurate but also inspiring and engaging. Showcase your unique brand personality, showcase your values and vision, and make sure you are creating a compelling story. Invest in the design of your proposals and make sure they reflect the quality of your services. 

Make sure that your proposals are a representation of your brand and create an experience for your customers that will make them want to do business with you.

Why do sales documents fail to create a positive client experience?

Sales documents play an essential role in the customer experience, but when they go astray, it can have a negative impact on the customer. There are three basic ways that sales documents might fail to create a positive client experience. 

First, sales documents can be too complex, making it difficult for customers to understand the product or service. 

Second, sales documents can be too verbose, leading customers to be overwhelmed with information and not be able to find the information they need in an easily digestible format. 

Finally, sales documents can be too salesy, focusing more on selling the product or service than providing useful information. These three issues can lead customers to have a poor customer experience, and it is important for sales documents to be clear, concise, and informative in order to provide customers with the best possible experience. 

By addressing these three main areas, sales documents can help provide customers with a more positive customer experience.

We like to call these three main areas as 3V’s of sales documents: voice, value, and visuals.

In this article let’s take a look at these three areas in detail and how to get them right in your proposals.

Three main areas of every sales proposal and how to get them right

1. Voice

When you’re writing a proposal, it’s important to make sure that your tone and voice are consistent with your brand. This means that your proposal should reflect the same values, language, and style that your company represents.

Sometimes it is difficult to understand the voice and tone, so I’ll explain it with a few examples.

Fresh Proposals’ brand voice sounds helpful, informal, and clear.

Here’s how I would write the below sentence in Fresh Proposals’ brand voice: 

It can be extremely distracting when companies don’t keep their brand voice consistent throughout their sales documents. The lack of consistency can be off-putting and can put off potential customers, as it can make a company appear disorganized and unprofessional.

Now the same message can be written in a different brand voice. 

For example, H&M would sound like this:

The last thing you want to worry about is the inconsistency of your brand voice – Kill them (your customers) in style with your neat and clean sales documents.

Mercedes Benz

Experience the blend of brand voice consistency, professionalism, and performance throughout your sales documents

Communication is key when it comes to conveying the right message to your target audience. It’s all about creating content that is unique to your brand and resonates with your target audience. From the tone to the language used, it’s important to consider how to speak to your audience in a way that will be understood and appreciated. Would it be appealing to you if H&M sent out sales messages in the tones of some of the other brands I’ve highlighted here if you were one of their target customers? Most likely not. Brand voice is an important aspect of a successful business. It is the personality behind your brand and it’s important to stay true to it. It is the tone, language, and style you use to communicate with your customers

By focusing on word choice, sentence structure, and overall impression, you can identify the nuances of your brand’s voice and tone. That being said, it can be hard to master your brand voice, especially in writing.

One solution to streamline the proposal creation process is to use proposal software. Reps can easily obtain organised, reusable content from the content library. This will ensure consistency in content and help reps save time by not having to recreate the same information multiple times.

2. Value

Your proposed agreement doesn’t exist. The customer didn’t interact with your sales staff or visit your website. Would someone reading your proposal on its own be able to comprehend the distinctive value proposition of your business? 

To ensure that the customer understands your company’s unique value proposition, make sure that your proposal answers the following seven questions:

1. What is the problem or need that your company is addressing?
2. How does your company provide a solution that meets the customer’s needs?
3. What makes your company’s solution more effective or efficient than those of the competition?
4. What are the benefits of using your company’s solution?
5. How does your company differentiate itself from its competitors?
6. How will your company help the customer realize their goals?
7. What features or services does your company offer that are unique or different from the competition?

Answering these questions will help the customer to understand why your company’s solution is the best fit for their needs and why they should choose your company over the competition. By communicating your company’s unique value proposition in a persuasive and clear manner, you will be able to convince the customer that your company is the right choice for them.

Proposal templates allow you to quickly add stuff that does not require much editing in the value-communicating sections like about us, case study, and pricing. 

3. Visuals

Good proposal design is much more than just adding a logo onto a Word document. It is about creating an all-encompassing, visual representation of the company that you are proposing. The proposal design should be comprehensive, with all the important details about the company and its services clearly conveyed. 

The design should also be tailored to the individual client, as it can be used to demonstrate the company’s experience and approach to the client’s specific needs. This could include things like creating a color palette that reflects the company’s brand or using images and icons that are related to the project. 

Furthermore, the design should be organized and easy to follow, with each section clearly labeled and the most important information at the top. 

Finally, the proposal design should focus on the company’s strengths, and it should be visually appealing enough to capture the client’s attention. Good proposal design is essential for helping a company stand out and win the contract.

Wrap Up

Buyers like proposals that are easy on the eyes for many reasons. First and foremost, these proposals are more visually appealing and easier to read. By making the proposal look organised and aesthetically pleasing, it is easier for buyers to understand the message and take in the information quickly. 

Additionally, buyers are more likely to remember and recall information from proposals that are easy to read. This can be beneficial for the buyer as they can make decisions based on facts and figures provided in the proposal. Furthermore, buyers may be more likely to accept proposals that are presented in an organised and visually pleasing manner as it gives the impression that the seller is professional and reliable. 

Lastly, buyers may be more likely to trust and invest in proposals that look well-crafted, as they can be confident that the seller has taken the time to put together a quality presentation. 

All in all, buyers like proposals that are easy on the eyes.