Don't Write That Proposal Until You Ask The 'Magic Question"

by Tessa Stowe

Have you ever had a potential client ask you to write a proposal or give a presentation only to respond with "Thank you for doing this and we'll get back to you at some time in the future if we decide to do something"? All that wasted time for nothing.

If only you'd known they were going to say that before you wasted all that time writing the proposal. If you knew they were going to say this, would you have written the proposal? So how do you find out what they are going to say? The way to find out what they are going to say after you have given them your proposal is to ask them the 'magic question' before you have spent time and money preparing the proposal. Simple really.

The 'magic question' is magical for two reasons. It's magical as it transports you both into the future (to the time when they have received the proposal you have yet to write) and it's also magical because much of the need for writing the proposal will vanish after you have asked this question.

So what is this 'magic question'?

When someone asks you to write a proposal (or give a presentation), just reply with this question "Imagine that you've read my proposal and, without doubt, the solution proposed is a perfect fit for what you want then what will happen next?"

Let's suppose that the response to your 'magic question' was one of the following:

"I would then discuss it with my manager (partner, etc.) to see if they want to move ahead."

"We'd need to assess it along with everything else we are doing right now and decide on our priorities."

"I'd need to make sure that the costs are within our budget."

These answers will have identified to you that writing a proposal is not really the next best step and may, in fact, not be necessary at all. So for the time being at least, the need for writing a proposal has vanished (magical!).

With the above examples instead of spending your time and money writing a proposal, the best next steps could be:

- Meeting with the manager (partner) as they appear to be involved in the decision making process. Who else is?

- To ask a lot more questions to find a compelling reason for why they should solve this problem now. If you can't find a compelling reason, chances are high they won't be doing anything.

- To discuss your pricing range to confirm it is within their budget.

Depending on the outcome of these next steps, it may become obvious that this is not a qualified prospect or that you to need to meet with more people and ask a lot more questions before writing a proposal.

Make it a rule that you only write proposals if you know in advance what they are going to say after they have read your proposal and are happy with the solution you are proposing. Only write proposals if you are satisfied with this answer and you know that writing a proposal is therefore the next best step for them to become your client.

(c) 2007, Tessa Stowe, Sales Conversation. WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE? Yes, you can, provided you make all links live and include this copyright and by-line below.



Tessa Stowe teaches small business owners and recovering salespeople 10 simple steps to turn conversations into clients without being sales-y or pushy. Sign-up for her FREE monthly newsletter that is full of tips on how to sell your services by just being yourself at http://www.salesconversation.com

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A Virtual Assistant Proposal That Wins the Contract Every Time

by Denise Willms

In a Virtual Assistant business, one of the most time-consuming and unrewarding tasks is writing business proposals in response to RFPs.

Have you experienced this? You find an RFP posted in your favorite VA forum or association website. You quickly research the business and determine that this is indeed your ideal client. You have just the skills the person is looking for, and you know that you’re a perfect fit for the contract.

You put together a beautiful proposal that describes your business, how you can help this person, and why your Virtual Assistant business is the best one for this contract. By the time you're done, you've got one impressive proposal and, better yet, everything you wrote is true.

You click "Send" and wait for the phone call or the email that tells you you've got the contract, or, at the very least, asks for more information.

It never comes.

What went wrong?

Probably nothing. In fact, there's a good chance you did everything right. The problem is that responding to RFPs is simply not the best way to get clients for your Virtual Assistant business.

Even though your business and your proposal may have everything a potential client is looking for, there are just too many variables that affect the client's ultimate decision. Perhaps she was ready to accept the first proposal that came in, and yours was the third or fourth. Maybe she saw a familiar name in the proposals she received and decided to go with someone she had heard of before. It could be that the project suddenly fell through.

That only proposal guaranteed to win you that next contract is no proposal at all.

How does that work? Become the expert in your field for and potential clients will be coming to you instead of you having to hunt for them.

So, how do you become known as the expert?

Find the forums your target market frequents and let the members get to know you. Write articles about your field of expertise and get them published where your target market will read them. Create podcasts, tele-seminars and free classes for your target market and show them that, when it comes to contracting a Virtual Assistant for their business, there really is no other choice but you.

If this sounds like hard work, that's because it is. Building relationships and achieving expert status is definitely hard work, but it's much more rewarding than simply responding to RFPs and crossing your fingers and toes that someone will finally call.



Denise Willms,a homeschooling mother of two, helps work-at-home-moms get targeted traffic to their websites through copywriting, article writing, and press releases. Subscribe to her newsletter, WAHM-Articles Ezine, and receive 105 Power Tips to Get Your Online Business Noticed and Profiting.

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