Ever notice that “customize” and “customer” have the same root word? If you don’t know, now you know. And hopefully this is something you never forget when it comes creating sales proposals as:
Every sales proposal you make should be customized, and
Almost every bit of customization should be done with the customer, not your business or yourself, in mind.
The good news is that if you’re using an online sales proposal tool, like iQuoteXpress, customized proposals for every customer are built in to every closing process..
Customized: where did we go wrong?
Nowadays, when people think of something customized, they usually think of it in the 1st person: e.g., “I have a customized car.”
But the fact of the matter is that these specialized products are usually the beneficiary of someone else’s specifications. You may own a customized car, but unless you have simply savage car modification skills, the customization was done by another person for you (you were the customer of a customizer).
Same goes for customized sales proposals. Yes, you can and should ensure your sales proposal generation system is customized for your unique business needs… but only so that you can quickly send customized sales proposals to each and every prospect.
In a configure, price, quote (CPQ) system, this usually means sales proposal templates customized for the industries you serve, as well as the ability to further customize each quote for the individual recipient.
With a CPQ system, customization (for you and your customers) is baked in:
You create templates (or have them created) that are customized to reflect your brand, and populate your system with them.
The provider of your online sales proposal tool further customizes your system with custom product/pricing configurations.
Each rep then chooses a template, selects the proper products and pricing, and edits content to further customize for each recipient (the last thing you want to send is a proposal that looks great but reads, “Dear friend…”).
It’s not rocket science, but it can take hours if you’re trying to do it manually. A sales proposal tool, especially a CPQ seamlessly integrated with your CRM or ERP system, can save endless hours of time while empowering every rep to send compelling, customized proposals to every prospect.
Keeping customized proposals “in-house”
Integration with established systems, ideally via a single sign-on, is one of the key features to look for if you’re in sales, especially if you’re managing a sales team. Salespeople are notorious for being late adopters to new tools or to always wanting to “do things my way, because it works.”
Ensure that customizing quotes is integrated into existing systems and workflows. Once sales reps see how quickly and easily they can create customized quotes directly from within their CRM or ERP systems, they’ll wonder how they ever got by without it. In fact, it’ll soon become a practice they’ll even find customary.
Want help making customized sales proposal templates? Contact IQX. We have a network of designers and content experts who can work wonders for you.
