Concept Doc
Many, many solution salespeople I met get frustrated by what they perceive as unappreciated effort. Spending hefty chunks of time crafting proposal-style documents often goes unrewarded when the pdf emailed over does not get read.
Where it even exists (which is in a surprisingly small amount of cases) standardised documentation stretches to being just one single proposal doc.
On the basis that without a proper Process, solution sales endeavours are ultimately doomed, there is a strong case for having more than one, if not several, papers that get produced.
I can hear salespeople the world over groaning, ‘not more docs!’
Yet what a great opportunity. You gauge prospect leanings, you test relationships, you gain chances to bring people towards you.
One company I worked with last year created a new step in its process; the Pre-Proposal Meeting. It appeared to work well.
And I came across another allied approach last week. It was called “The Concept Doc”.
The main purpose of this was twofold:
- “it must dangle the juicy worm in front of the fishy” (in a way that gains acceptance of big picture figures), and
- “it must be a study to confirm feasibility” (and not called something like ‘pre-feasibility study’, which was considered totally the wrong vibe).
I suspect that in cases where you are creating the need, especially where there’s no pre-assigned budget process, this will prove a winning addition to your armoury.