4 Challenges Event Planners Face in Writing an Event Proposal

Are you facing challenges in developing an event proposal template? Deadline is approaching fast and you are not sure how to start writing the proposal?

It’s not you but it’s the sales process that needs to be corrected. An event proposal creation is a kind of process that demands a well-designed approach and a thorough investigation before submitting the document to the prospective client. This article is written to highlight the challenges you and your sales team faces when developing an event proposal template and how you can overcome those challenges by avoiding a few mistakes.

Challenge #1: Multiple drafts of proposals due to lack of collaboration

Every single proposal ‘writer/contributor/reviewer’ involved in the process of proposal creation, continues creating his/her own version of an event proposal and because no one knows who is filling which particular portion of the proposal.

Solution

Proposal software offers a feature of proposal comments where the team members involved in the proposal creation process can add their comments specific to a given proposal. These comments are internal to the team. Client’s will not see those. Even better, teams can discuss activities too, such as the client’s online visit, its interaction, etc. It not only creates transparency but also helps you get your team on the same page.

Challenge #2: Proposal creation taking too much time

Not having a centralized content library for standard marketing collateral such as logo, visuals like images, videos, infographics best-written piece/well crafted ‘About Us’, Why Us’ ‘pricing/investment’ and likewise branding stuff and every time you have to search through folders and email marketing tools. Unable to find the files, you get frustrated and end up creating or modifying some of these elements thus more time is wasted, no easy way to schedule content for event proposal sections.

Solution

Online proposal software offers a central library that everyone on your team can access to find everything they need to build a proposal; right from event planning service descriptions to bios, fee tables, proposal sections, images, videos, snippets, or any other pieces of content that don’t really change from each proposal to proposal. 

Type of content you can store in a content library:

Company description: You can store multiple versions of company descriptions and ensure consistency across all the sales proposals.

Proposal contents: Most of the content used in your proposal can be classified as long-term content although some may require regular attention such as product specifications.

Case studies: A case study is one of the most powerful content materials in the sales proposal. So you can store multiple evidence-based materials in the form of case studies and testimonials to suit all occasions. 

Service information: Storing this information in a centralized place makes the process of managing and updating far easier when necessary.

Proposal sections: Storing proposal sections gives you an opportunity to reuse the frequently used proposal sections such as about us/why us, fees/investment tables.

Fee table:  Storing the fee table in the content library will spare you from building the new one each time when you send out a sales proposal.

Images and videos: Instead of digging through dozens of images and videos every time you need one, you can store and reuse images and videos in different proposals and templates.

Challenge #3: Requesting teams for review and approvals

Then there are challenges related to review and approval. Reviewers and approvers get plenty of files and versions of those files to look and they are in a puzzle to figure out which file to take up (so they call the proposal manager to send the LATEST file again.

Solution

But with proposal software, you can involve proposal writers at a central online platform and allow all your internal team members from sales, pre-sales, marketing, accounting to work together. Proposal software allows you to invite internal reviewers, approvers set a deadline for the review. In fact, it automatically sends a reminder about the pending review/approval.

Challenge #4: Delay in closing the deal

Physical sign-off comes with its own struggle of sending the document to one individual, get print, sign, and scan, sending the same document to the next individual, and then again repeating the process down the line. Event planning and management agencies using the traditional method for signing have to do many steps to get their event proposals signed by prospective clients. 

Solution

Thanks to e-signature, you can get any contracts and proposals signed off almost instantly, by using tables, mobiles, or computers with a click of a button. As a result, you save time. With e-signature printing and sending a paper, documents are unnecessary. Therefore printing and shipping costs will automatically go down. Daily expenses for printing and shipping may not be huge but over a year such cost can really add up. So, you can dramatically decrease the cost by switching to e-signatures. With e-signature managing and tracking the sales proposals become easier and faster. With a lesser delay, it ensures better workflow efficiency. 

It’s time to go for the right process to structure and manage an event proposal template. You know these issues already. It is a time to correct the process to create an event proposal that converts, automates most of the mundane tasks of the proposal creation (by using the right proposal template), increases collaboration among team members, and brings more transparency as well as clarity to everyone involved. 

With proposal software, save more than 30% of the time, every time you create an event proposal template. The biggest benefit of using a proposal software is that it not only saves significant time but also increases the productivity of your sales team enabling them to contribute best of their abilities.