5 Best Practices for Better Sales Proposals

5. BE CLEAR, COMPELLING AND CONFIDENT.  
Did you know that ideally in your business writing you should be at about the 8th grade level?  Short words, short sentences get better results.  But that doesn’t mean it is going to be easy.  In fact, it is harder to tell your story with fewer words.  At least, it is harder to tell an interesting story with fewer words.

4. MAKE YOUR PROPOSAL ABOUT YOUR PROSPECT.  
Of course, you want to tell your prospect how great your product is, but they will only see that value if you somehow connect it to them.  Make them the hero of your story, not your product.  How can your hotel make them a hero?  Paint that picture and you will win the business.

3. BENEFITS BEFORE RATES.
Don’t lead with your rates and restrictions.  We see so many proposals that start out with a room block table with room type names that only mean something to the hotel employees.  Your prospect wants to know your rates, they are going to read until they find your rates, so why not give them an idea of your value before you tell them how much?

2. ASK FOR A NEXT STEP.
We have found that by simply asking for a reservation we are four times more like to get the reservations – the same is true for proposals – ask your prospect for the next step in your proposal.  And you want to make the next step a logical one.  If you are asking for a large investment, the next step might be a site inspection or a follow up phone call.  Clearly outline what you want them to do next and ask them to do it.

 1. BE FIRST
Research has shown over and over that first responders more frequently get the business.  The easier you set yourself up to be a fast responder – with clear, compelling information that paints your prospect as the hero, the easier it will be to respond quickly.  Set up templates with your most frequently asked questions and responses so you don’t need to start from scratch every time.  Make it easy on yourself to respond quickly and you will.  Make it difficult and you will procrastinate and lose the business.  Your choice.

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