4 Key components of an impressive and winning proposal

Do your proposals leave a lasting impression with prospects?

Or does it leave them scratching their head, wondering if they’ve made the right decision to work with you?

It might sound trivial, but having an impressive proposal that clearly articulates the value you offer, your quoted fees, that is easy for clients to sign, can be the difference between winning and losing clients.

Here are the 4 key elements of an impressive and winning proposal...

What’s more underwhelming than receiving a word doc or PDF with a logo in the top left corner, black text on a white background throughout and not an image in sight?

That’s right, not much.

Proposals are your opportunity to really WOW your prospective clients into thinking you’re a smart and professional firm. So why not go the extra mile and turn your proposal into a marketing brochure for you and your services.

By having something that is branded up professionally with your logo and colours, where your service offering is clearly laid out in a way that’s not only easy to read, but looks and feels like something that somebody has spent a lot of time pulling together, it’s bound to impact your chances of winning them as a client.

Check out our range of free marketing brochure templates here which you can use. This is something that can even make the smaller firms look big!

Put yourself in the prospective clients shoes…

You go to meet a new accountant, and they’re awesome. Everything you’ve seen and heard so far points in one direction, these guys are going to put your mind at ease and look after your business. You leave the meeting excited about what the future holds and read to sign up straight away.

One day goes by...nothing. Two days, three days. Why haven’t they sent over the proposal yet? You were so keen to get things moving but so far, nothing has come through? You start to wonder if they were everything they said they were? If it takes them this long to send a proposal, how long will you be waiting for your questions to be answered? Eventually on day 4, a proposal arrives.

When it comes to sending proposals to prospective clients, speed stuns. The quicker you can get something out to them to review and hopefully sign, the more likely they are to sign up.

So tip #2 for impressive and winning proposals is one that can be sent fast! If you have to manually type things out in word, or another application, and then spend more time adjusting the scope of services and estimated fees, then it’s taking longer than it needs to. Using a system that can automate this and do the heavy lifting for you is a game-changer.

Every accounting firm has its own personality, and often when a client signs up, part of the reason they choose to work with you over the hundreds of other accountants is because they like what they see. They know that your personality and theirs is a match.

Yet when it comes to sending proposals, many accounting firms seem to neglect their personality in favour of a plain, bland and boring proposal.

Instead, why not consider injecting some of your personality into your proposals? A picture of you and your team? Images of your offices? Quotes from team members and clients? Even a video attached to the proposal where you leave the prospective client a message to explain how much you’re looking forward to working with them?

All of these things help to embed more of your personality which will in turn, help more prospects to say yes.

I remember when I was 5 years old I went to Disneyland in Paris.

I don’t remember this because it was an exciting few days spent with my favourite Disney characters going on all of the rides. I remember this because it rained the entire time we were there and to top it off, I lost my favourite toy. It was a bad experience.

Bad experiences stick with people, and there’s no worse experience than receiving a proposal in the post or attached to an email that you need to print, sign, scan, and email just to get it back to somebody. This entire process is a bad experience for your prospective client.

Using online proposals is the complete opposite. You receive them via email straight away, they look great on mobile or desktop, you can sign them electronically, and on some you can even put your card details in straight away to avoid filling out additional forms.

This is a great experience, and one that would leave your prospective clients looking forward to working with you further.

So there you have it, the 4 key components of an impressive and winning proposal:

1. It looks and feels smart
2. It can be sent fast
3. Your personality is embedded throughout
4. It’s a great experience for your prospect

Are your proposals leaving a lasting and impressive impression with your prospective clients? Or is there still room for improvement?