Introduction
The day has come. You've started a new business, and your customers are increasing. Even if you're making progress, you get the impression that you might be doing better.
There's a universe of untapped potential all around you – prospects that you know might benefit from your product or service. And the challenges you're encountering are less about the soundness of your solution and more about how you might reach your potential base.
Presenting your business plan to customers is the climax of a lengthy sales process. You most likely spent a significant amount of time preparing your business proposal presentation, but the prospect of delivering it could be frightening. This article will undoubtedly assist you in presenting your business proposal in an efficient and successful manner.
What is a business proposal?
A business proposal is a formal document that a company creates and sends to a prospect in order to achieve a business deal.
A common misconception is that business proposals and business plans are identical. The purpose of a good business proposal is to sell your product or service, not your business. Rather than supporting you in your hunt for investors to finance your business, a proposal assists you in your search for new clients.
📌 Related resource: 5 Free Business Plan Templates to Simplify Your Planning Process
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How to successfully present business proposals to clients
1. Start straight from the point
Your customers are busy, so don't waste their time by starting with an introduction about yourself or your organization. Their most valuable asset is time, and they don't want to squander it by listening to your story. So, never mess with the projector, never come late, and avoid anything that gives the impression that you don't value their time.
Begin by addressing the major issue of your proposal; ideally, do it within the first minute of your speech. Because there is a considerable probability that your audience will want to ask you questions, it is best to address the major topic right away.
2. Ask questions in between
After a few minutes of speaking, break the monotony by asking your customers some informative questions. If they've lost interest in your business proposal, these questions will pique their attention again.
Here are a few examples of questions you might ask your audience to keep them interested:
- How would you describe success if someone asked you, "What is success to you?"
- Have you ever used this strategy before? If so, then when?
- Is this your company's most significant challenge?
3. Leverage visuals
Add graphics to your business proposal to attract more attention; using images when presenting business proposals can captivate the audience's attention more effectively than merely using words. Including graphics in your business proposal presentation will increase its impact.
However, knowing which images to use in your business proposal is equally critical. Not every picture is effective. Charts and graphs may be tedious, and they may distract rather than engage your viewers. As a result, do a lot of thinking and choose your photographs wisely.
Identify images that will impact, or take advantage of tools like Scribe to showcase processes — complete with written steps and annotated screenshots.
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It's a fast and easy way to illustrate exactly how to use your product. Here's an example of Scribe in action (that only took 15 seconds to make).
4. Sell your vision
Clients hate speakers who constantly talk about their firm and themselves. Remember that they are there to see whether you can assist them, not simply to listen to your stories. They are more interested in learning how to outperform their competition, get new clients, retain existing ones, and quadruple their earnings.
So, instead of delivering uninteresting statistics and data while presenting your business plan, sell your company's vision by proposing answers to these difficulties.
5. Keep a clear agenda in mind
A good business proposal presentation is all about engaging them and demonstrating why you are their best option. This is why you should have a clear and engaging objective for your business proposal. When you make your company proposal, you should start with arguments that urge the customer to think about it and conclude with them approving it.
- Opportunity: Begin your business proposal presentation by describing the opportunities or difficulties that your customers are missing. Make it as interesting as possible so that your audience looks forward to seeing the rest of your presentation.
- Benefits: State the advantages that your customers will get if they listen to the full presentation.
- Plan: Display the strategy you designed to tackle the client's challenges.
- Introduce your company: Explain briefly your company's origins, history, and so forth.
- Recommend: Finish your business proposal presentation by inviting the customer to conduct business with you.
6. Address common customer problems
Start the meeting with a challenge or an opportunity. Don't enter into a meeting and start talking about yourself, your company, or your products right away. If you do this, your customer will quickly focus on price and product characteristics, frequently ending the meeting before you've finished.
Instead, emphasize the customer's difficulties and pain areas. Your customers want to know how they can outperform their competition, reach new consumers, retain current customers, and boost profit margins.
But, before you can offer them your solution, you must underline the severity of the problem and demonstrate how their obstacles will prohibit them from accomplishing their objectives.
7. Inject stories in your presentation
Since our brains are built to comprehend the information provided in a story, thus storytelling makes it easier for your audience to grasp your business proposal presentation.
People used to communicate news and attempt to explain natural events such as lightning, rain, and even the seasons. We're still doing it decades later. Whether you're telling the latest news to a close friend or your boss about how the presentation went, you're definitely going to be telling a story.
Incorporating stories also makes your business presentation 100 times more memorable to your audience. This is critical because important decision-makers will only examine proposals that have made an indelible impression on them.
8. Let your stories lead
While customers appreciate facts and numbers, they are as interested in learning about what the statistics and figures cannot tell them. Stats are vital in a business presentation, but telling a story can help you attract the attention of your audience.
Begin with a story that is supported by facts and research that you have conducted. The story can be extremely basic; for example, you can describe your customers' demands and skillfully portray them in the story. If you include an emotional appeal in your pitch, it will become much more powerful.
9. Don't simply start reading your slides
Let your presentation deck replenish your points. You'll immediately bore your customer if you read directly from the slides, and the significance of what you're saying will be lost.
Keep your slides simple as well, so you're not tempted to read from them. Most presentations are far too complicated, with excessive text, confusing designs, and scattered graphics.
A slide should only include one image and one line of text. No more. Your consumers can only take so much information at once, and if they're too preoccupied with sorting through paragraphs upon paragraphs on the screen, they'll miss much of what you'll say.
10. Leverage presentation templates
Standard PowerPoint templates have become something of a cliché, and they could weaken the overall effect of your presentation. If you want to seem professional, you must go beyond PowerPoint.
SlideUpLift has a large collection of free PowerPoint templates, and Google Slides Templates that you can rapidly change to fit your brand and use for your company proposal presentation.
11. Set up a clear follow-up timeline as the meeting ends
This is possibly the most crucial aspect of your business proposal presentation. Tell your consumer what will happen after the presentation, so there is no confusion regarding the subsequent steps.
Share a clear follow-up date and set a timeline. For example, you may claim you'll call on a specific day and then deliver the contract. Your contract will be in your client's hands for a week, after which you will follow up on the following Wednesday to see if the consumer has any questions.
This timeline should be adjusted based on your customer, sales cycle duration, and industry. A product that costs thousands of dollars and demands a yearlong commitment may not be appropriate for such a short timetable. However, it can be appropriate for a product that only costs a few hundred dollars per year.
Wrapping up on how to present business proposals
Your business proposal features will differ depending on the demands of the prospect and the type of company you're in. Prospective consumers should have very few questions about your organization and what it can achieve for them after going through your strategy.
The ability to present a company proposal effectively is critical to your success. By following these eleven recommendations, you will be able to present your business proposal in such a manner that your customers will enjoy it, and you will gain more business.
