Should you explain your proposal or let them read it and ask questions?

Hey,

Now before I get into what i was going to say. Be aware I am only a beginner in offline selling, and have only just signed my first 3 clients after starting this 7 days ago. And have closed 3 clients out of 3 appointments

What I like to do is this (or what I have done 3 times)

1. organize appointment over the phone, telling them I have a free report.
2. Sit down with them and discuss the free report (just a 3-4 page report on their websites problem areas, what can be done to improve it, a little about competition and then results they can achieve online)
3. At the end of the appointment I gage their interest levels in what I offer. If they are interested, I tell them I will go away and create a plan of action for them. They agree.
4. Meet a final time, make a quick proposal in words, then hand then a 1 page proposal on paper and say they should ready it.

And in my 3 appointments so far all have loved it and gone straight ahead. (mind you I am charging very little because I am trying to get 10 clients who I can use as proof my service works + testimonials)

How long is your proposal? How long will it take them to read it, Is it in easy to follow laymans terms, ideally it shouldnt need explaining if youve written it from their viewpoint and with them reading it in mind ?

Let them read it , watch them like a hawk, you can tell if theyre thinking, impressed, pondering, stuck on something , then respond accordingly to what you see , if stuck on something simply suggest you can explain anything theyre unsure of and then shut up (if theyre genuinely interested theyll ask, if not theyll pretend they understand it ), if impressed say ' yes it will be of tremendous advantage to your business ' just plant the seed that theyre right to be impressed so youre not actually interupting them just coercing them along

I personally don't like handing a proposal over to a client and having them read it on the spot while I just sit there. In full disclosure, I usually don't make a proposal for selling a mobile website & QR Code (my main business) when I am first getting a client. I find that the product speaks for itself and people are usually ready to buy on the spot.

Once I have them as a client though I will work on upselling them for different services. This could be SMS Text Marketing, full blown website design, SEO, pretty much anything they are interested in.

I will use proposals for larger projects like website design & SEO. My proposals can range anywhere from 3 - 10 pages, depending on the project, so having somebody sit and read 10 pages in front of me can get somewhat awkward. Instead, I go through the proposal page by page and highlight the important points. I then let them keep a copy of the proposal so they can read it over by themselves at a later time.

As BKH mentioned above, there is no exact science to it. It is much more important to do what is comfortable for you so that you can project confidence to your prospect. You also want to present in a way that the prospect will respond to.

-Ben

This post should be helpful for you. I don't think you should be submitting proposals, either.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Here's my plan for the first meeting, it's a short and sweet approach as I'm not really interested in becoming a full time consultant, once I secure five or so clients I will be satisfied.

So as you can see at the end of it I'm basically showing them the proposals or marketing agreements and was curious if I should guide them through it or let them read it on their own.

I agree with the above posts that it would be awkward to sit there while they read it and I will be going over it with them to provide comfort.

Thanks again everyone and I hope someone can get some ideas from my approach.

Back in my outside sales days I would hold the agreement myself and turn it toward my prospect....with a pen I would briefly cover each paragraph of the agreement in a sentence, maybe two at the most.

Then I would simply state, "I wanted to be sure you understand what you're signing" and then I would put it in front of them with my pen.

I was taught to NEVER let a prospect touch an agreement or a document because the moment you do that, it becomes their show, not yours.

I do have one question however, I think 3/3 is amazing and it doesn't matter if your price point is high or low, congratulations are in order for that closing ratio. But, are you walking out of the clients office with a check?