Nine ways to improve your proposal conversion rate

Writing proposals and pitching for business is a fact of life, but it's time wasted if the project goes to a competitor. We show you nine ways to increase your pitch/win ratio. Go get 'em tiger.

  1. Be meticulous about Please, Thank you and Summary emails. Clients love people who do the legwork for them, so take every opportunity to summarise items agreed, actions or questions by email. The idea is to give the prospect a chance to experience what working with you is like so show them how positive and responsive you are, whenever you can.
  2. Be proactive - send over articles (relevant only!) or your own personal insight into some of the challenges they are facing. A list of things they should consider when running the project will go down a treat. Make sure you frame it in a non-salesy format. For example, don't send a list of things they should consider when picking a supplier that eliminates the majority of the competition, other than yourself. They're buyers, but they're not stupid.
  3. Write succinct, well structured proposals. We have some examples which you can request. No one likes writing or reading long proposals. Don't do it.
  4. Include graphics (even if only screenshots of Word documents) in your proposal. This provides tangible evidence of previous work you have done. To take a screen shot, look along the very top line of your keyboard until you find "PrtSc" or something similar. You may need to use your function (Fn) button to access Print Screen. Open the document you would to take snapshot of, click PrtSc, then go to your proposal document and paste it in place. You may need to crop and resize it. If you're really keen, pop a border around it by selecting the image and using the object line tool to draw a grey, 3pt border around it. This contains it and just makes everything look a bit cleaner. Ta da!
  5. Create a webpage, just for this pitch, with a log in for your prospect. Add resources (e.g. articles, the proposal, links etc). Send the link and log in details and wait for the 'wow - thank you!' email. Request info on our Client Rooms technology.
  6. Hire a Non Exec Director who is heavyweight in your industry. Take them to beauty parades. The more grey hair the better. If they are so experienced that they have no hair (and better still, no teeth), you are 99.9% certain to win the pitch. It's the law.
  7. Give the prospect an opportunity to sample your work. Offer to deliver something for free or invite them to something you are delivering for another client. Nothing beats personal experience (apart from no teeth, which trumps everything).
  8. Be fast. Get proposals out of the door within 48 hours. Respond to email queries within an hour - faster if possible. Harsh but fair.
  9. Include a section in your proposals on 'Things we thought of, didn't include, and why'. This shows depth of thinking, creative ideas and ensures that your pitch doesn't look like a copy and paste supreme.