TRANSCRIPTION:
PROPOSAL STRUCTURE
Your proposal should follow a structure similar to this –
Executive summary
It is clear and focused and contains all the essential facts and points. It draws conclusions rather than just talking fluff. And it pulls together all the information within the report in a logical order from analysis to objectives strategy and actions.
Analysis
This outlines the need for change which can be traced back to the different environments we talked about the previous video it perhaps includes SWOT diagrams and includes a key account evaluation of how you can help the supplier. They wrapped up by confirming the key accounts competitive position in their own marketplace and how we can potentially help them.
Objectives
Internally this will discuss your customers wallet. How much money essentially are spending each year in different segments how much of that budget you can potentially take from both direct and in can direct competitors within the account in an external document the goal here is to show that our objectives for the accounts match with the data that was proposed so far.
Strategy
This is the big one. This is the difference between someone who knows what they’re doing and someone who is making vague promises, or as Lee Bolman would put it, “a vision without a strategy is an illusion.” Your strategy must be clear, explicit and explained so that everyone who picks of the documents can understand it. It’s particularly important is to explain the value proposition that you are giving to the customer as we discussed earlier in this video. You must answer the question that is on the minds of potential key account which is “why you?”
You must answer the question that is on the minds of potential key account which is “why you?”
Your strategy must obviously be consistent with the analysis and the origins of your thoughts must be clear. Think of this as a science experiment, again not some wishy-washy attempt to grab all the cash you can from a big business.
The main way to describe the section is that it explains the strategy behind what you’re planning to achieve and it positions it in a way that shows that working with you is not just business as usual. That working with you is gonna be a game changer for everyone involved.
The final part of the strategy section is that it acknowledges the importance of your customer and for bonus points you can start to make assumptions or predictions of how your customers competition is going to react to the news of working with you, both good and bad.
Action
The final section is going to explain the big actions that can and need to take place to make all this happen. We don’t want to waste time talking about meetings here, we want to include the metrics that we think we can achieve, the big actions it will get and also the risks involved. No matter what your selling and how you’re going to mitigate them, there will always be risks.
Honestly, there are very few salespeople, key account managers and organisations who are this prepared to build strategic partnerships with key accounts.
You can put this together and it is actually useful for the key account you will get meeting with them. Prospecting accounts when you’ve done this much work and you are certain you can help them becomes easy at this point. Honestly, there are very few salespeople, key account managers and organisations who are this prepared to build strategic partnerships with key accounts.
The final piece of the puzzle here which goes beyond what I can really deliver in the sales school is to bring your marketing team on board as well. Outpaced marketing is a relatively new science but is something that can become more prevalent for sellers going after huge counts over the next few years.
If you get a little bit of traction within an account and you get a couple of meetings based on the back of what you’ve delivered by this workshop get in touch with your marketing director, get them sitting down with your sales VP or director and take all this to the next level with the more senior members of your team.
