If you’re writing proposals for security companies, mistakes will cost you, big time. Because security companies need to know that any possible business partner runs a tight ship, and your chance to prove you have your act together begins when you reply to an RFP.
Don’t worry: if you’re using CPQ solutions to prepare, deliver, and track your proposal, your ship is most certainly “tight.” Because the features built-in to that solution ensure nothing is left to chance:
Your quote properly positions your brand and your offer
Your pricing and product configurations have been optimized
Your quote is sent quickly and tracked accurately
Think of it this way: would you hire a company that — during the process of attempting to secure your business — sent the wrong info at the wrong time and failed to follow up with you in a timely manner? Of course not. What you look for in a security company is exactly what they look for you.
Writing a security proposal
Whether you’re talking about online services (e.g. malware detection), or offline (e.g. home protection), security is an industry with both a lot of players and a long history. Which means that the prospect you’re pitching has likely heard and seen every possible pitch under the sun. But this is, in fact, good news. Why?
Because it means the perfect security proposal or something like it has already been written and used successfully. And while there are the occasional breakthroughs and moves made outside the box, let’s not kid ourselves: being an effective salesperson most often means taking an approach, pitch, or proposal that has been proven to work and making it better.
If you’re using CPQ solutions to build, send, and track quotes, you will have an advantage right out of the gate: proven-effective proposal + automated proposal process = the right pitch getting into the right hands, and ahead of the competition.
Security proposal templates
Using a proven approach does not mean plagiarizing! You need to take that pitch and present it in your own language and under the banner of your own brand, and here’s where taking time to make templates is critical.
You can create security proposal templates from scratch (if you have the in-house design skills) or hire an agency, but if you want an effective, error-free, quote building process, use templates!
Proposal templates speed the overall process: instead of wasting hours (days?) building one from scratch, a rep simply picks a template from a library stored in your configure, price, quote system — and that library has different templates for different verticals.
Proposal templates reduce opportunities for errors: manual work leaves too much up for grabs — an errant keystroke can cost you a deal, especially in the security space where mistakes are anathema. The less manual labor required for every quote you send, the better.
Proposal templates let you present a consistent brand: security companies abhor mistakes, but adore consistency. When you create your templates, you have the opportunity to insert a consistent brand voice and values throughout, which means every rep using the templates in on-brand by default.
