Proposal Presentation Approaches

I’ve recently got delegated a new role, that of Purchasing Manager 🙂 where I’m poacher turned gamekeeper and am actually out buying some stuff.  All a bit new to me, it’s looking to get some creative and technical work done.  What’s interesting is that I’ve had initial meetings with several prospective vendors to outline my requirements, and we’re now at the numbers stage.

As this is inside ‘new media’ space, it should be no surprise each ‘seller’ is fronted by a lady.  Yet it is surprising that, despite their apparent lack of formalised sales training, or indeed no need to proactively ‘chase’ uncovering new business opportunities, a couple of them have shown flashes of sales brilliance.

The biggest single thing that has separated the winners from wannabees so far is the approach to delivering their Proposals.  The ones that have clearly bought into what I’m after have all called me up, and asked whether they can run me through the costings in person.  The premise being, they know they’re offering a menu of choices, and want me to understand each one, allowing me to pick and choose the elements required.  All have also reassured me of their excitement towards the project.

There’s such a glorious message in this.  How often do I (even today) fire off a quick pdf of a mini-Prop, only to suffer the death of silence.  You absolutely must must must run through every Prop with a punter face-to-face.