Every product/service you sell = your brand. Every word out of your sales reps’ mouths = your brand. Every quote you send = your brand.
Which means sales proposal templates can and should be a BIG part of your brand.
Think about it: in most cases, until you send your client a sales quote, your company/offer/products/services/YOURSELF are likely only known to a handful of people, or even sometimes only one person – your main contact: the person you’ve been calling and emailing and giving demos to.
But when you send a quote, that person or small group has decided that you are now worthy of “meeting the rest of the family.” And this time, you won’t be there to coach anyone along, nor to add supporting context and content, field questions in real time, or otherwise do the interpersonal relationship type things that have brought you to where you are so far.
Your sales proposal now has to do the heavy lifting for you, speaking not just for your offer but for your brand. And this is where the professionally designed sales proposal templates that come with most configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions can help express your brand identity and further customer engagement.
Here are some specific tips to keep in mind when building, selecting, and customizing an ON-BRAND sales proposal template.
Don’t cut corners: go pro!
In most cases, your CPQ system will come populated with quote templates that seem to cover every need, and are often adapted to suit specific vertical markets and/or business use cases.
In most cases, this is still not enough.
Consider using a professional graphic designer to help customize those templates or build new ones. Because even if the proposal templates fit your general market, it’s highly unlikely they’re an exact match for your brand.
This is a very smart–and typically one-time–spend. A decent designer shouldn’t cost more than $100 an hour and shouldn’t take more than a day or so to help create some simple quote templates that help you stand apart from the competition and show off your brand.
K.I.S.S. – Keep it simple, salesperson!
More is not less: it’s too much. When building a sales proposal template from the ground up, remember that you’re building a showcase, not a warehouse.
You need not detail every use case, cram every detail, show every angle. In most cases, your prospect already has these details and doesn’t need them all over again.
Put your best foot forward: one or two clean images of applicable products against plenty of whitespace. Make the relevant, selling details POP and leave the rest for the fine print.
With sales quotes–especially digital ones–it’s better to have multiple pages that give product images and benefits room to breathe than to try and fit it all on one page. Related note: if you’re sending printed quotes, don’t print on two sides. It creates a crammed experience for your recipient and can often result in details being missed.
Tell a story–a RELEVANT story
Another thing to bake-in to every proposal is your brand story. It shouldn’t read like a Wikipedia page or anything, but there should be some facts and features about your business and your values alongside the facts and features connected to your products and services.
However… this is not a place to say “me, me, me!” When telling your brand story, tell it through your customer’s eyes, make it relevant to them, modify when necessary. E.g., if your prospect is within the same state, hammer that home in your brand story: “Like most companies from Wisconsin, we believe in putting people first,” etc.
Your brand story is more WHAT YOU DO than WHO YOU ARE. Because, in the end, every prospect you’re pitching is far more interested in what you can do; rather, what you can do for them.
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A strong brand makes for a strong sales pitch, and the strength of your brand must be in every customer contact: that first call, that first demo, every sales proposal template, every quote sent, and every customer relationship. Build your brand the right way, and you’ll build relationships that last a lifetime.
