sales training: creating a professional proposal
DESCRIPTION
Steps on creating a professional proposal, in terms of content and designTRANSCRIPT
Practical Training: Tips on Creating a Professional Proposal November Sales Training Series, Week 1 Date: Thursday, November 11th, 2010 Location: Polytechnic University, BC 512
Presented by Hamilton Le
MC VP BD, Term 2010-11
Agenda 7:00pm - Practical training: Lecture Why, when, and how to make a professional Proposal 7:30pm - Practical Training: Own Work Creating your proposal on your own with help from Hamilton and each other 8:30pm - Theoretical Training: Discussion Leading a Sales Team to Success 9:30pm - End of Training
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Attendee Position If they were a food, what would they be?
Lincy Wang BD NST Watermelon Pasto Chan PolyU, VP ER Apple Rubyrubyrubyruby! HKBU, VP ER Apple Leo Lo Lingnan, VP OGX Noodle (if you were there, you know why) Wendy Sham HKUST, ER Manager
Hamilton Le MC VP ER Chicago deep dish pizza Christina Wong PolyU, OCP Kiwi Kelvin Kong PolyU, VP Projects Caesar Salad Jonas Schepens BD NST Beijing kaoya Nicolas Tan BD NST KFC HK
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
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What's the Rationale Behind a Professional Proposal? - To be taken serious by stakeholders - To be more structured in the sales meeting - To make selling easier - To be more confident about yourself when selling - Stakes are higher, money is involved, so professionalism is a must - Builds trust in your product - Builds brand and credibility - Makes the product clearer - Business people are busy, you need something that's fast to sell - Business people are more visually-oriented - Business people are more easily convinced by superficial means When Do You Need a Proposal? - When Raising Traineeships - When Raising Sponsorships - Raising Exchange opportunities to university departments - When in Need of an Event Partnership - Selling Conferences - Creating Strategic partners - Selling Pbox - When Proposing an Internal Initiative - When matching a Traineeship - When selling a H4TF Product -BASICALLY, WHENEVER YOU’RE CONVENING AN IDEA
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
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What Are the Different Steps For Making a Proposal? 1) The Key Answers Your reader will be asking 6 key questions. To make it simple and clear for them, list out the 5 W’s and the implementation plan of your idea: Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How On top of these, you may also want to include an Executive Sum-mary and Expected Outcomes. 2) The FAB List List out the Features, Advantages, and Benefits (FAB) of your idea and the Key Answers to your Readers Questions - Think about your audience (who do you think will be reading it?) - What’s the Return on Investment for your Audience? - What differentiates your idea from your competition? 3) Good Case Practices Find Good Examples of Proposals that you would like to utilize ideas from - What kind of proposal is necessary to best convey your idea? - Which professional organizations will have similar types of initiatives that they have created a proposal for? 4) Theme Design and Layout After choosing some good examples to draw ideas from, which themes would you like to use? - Are you going to use pictures throughout the proposal - What color(s) would you like to use? - Two or three columns? Side Column? 5) Creating Your Proposal Use a design program or just use Microsoft Word! In the end, it doesn’t matter how you made it, but what you made! 6) Brand Check, Finalize, Publish and START SELLling!!! - Put on the final touches - Get someone to check it branding purposes and consistency - Print it as a 1-pager? Or a booklet? - How will you use it to effectively sell? - What will be your approach with your new tool?
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
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Step 1: The Key Answers Your readers are busy people, so you’ll need to list out what they want to know in a clear manner. The clearest way is to address this is through the 5 W’s, How you plan on implementing your idea, and the expected outcomes 1) WHO Who is involved? Which entities have already committed to your idea? Who is leading the project? What profiles do the project leaders have? Which organization is this project being planned for? Who are the participants involved? Etc. 2) WHAT What is your idea about? Which issue is it tackling? What is the objective of the idea? Etc. 3) WHERE Where will your idea take place? Is it a physical or virtual environ-ment? Which locations are the most appropriate to carry out your idea? Etc. 4) WHEN When will this idea/project/product take place? What is the time-line for the implementation? Why have you decided on these dates? Etc. 5) WHY? What is the relevance of this project to your audience? Why do you need their support? Why is your organization initiating this idea? Etc. 6) HOW? How do you plan on carrying out this idea? What are the steps? Can you provide a project timeline? Etc. 7) OUTCOMES? What do you hope to accomplish by implementing your idea? How will it affect those involved with the initiative?
Tip #1 Always try to write your proposals from the perspective of your audience. This will help you think about your idea/product from an external perspective, therefore only including what is abso-lutely necessary in the proposal to effec-tively sell it. Often times, members will try to squeeze in EVERYTHING about the idea, as well as the organization. Externals don’t necessarily need to know EVERYTHING about the organiza-tion to buy into the product. They just need to know what the product is and how it’s going to benefit them.
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
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Step 2: The FAB List List out the Features, Advantages, and Benefits (FAB) of your idea and the Key Answers to your Readers Questions, - Think about your audience (who do you think will be reading it?) - What’s the Return on Investment for your Audience? - What differentiates your idea from your competition?
FEATURES The features of a product comprises of what the product has, or in other words, a description of the product. (Color, size, shape, digital, analog, etc) Example: This apartment is 200 square meters, has 3 bedrooms, and a large kitchen. ADVANTAGES The advantages of a product is what the product does, and how it compares with other products that are similar. Example: This apartment can comfortably accommodate a family of four. BENEFITS The benefits are the most compelling selling points for a product. This is where you can utilize a person’s personal life and use of the product to gain an emotional response and attachment to the product. Example: Since you work at HSBC, this apartment is great be-cause it is very close to Central and has a shuttle bus that stops right in front of HSBC. It also has a swimming pool and club-house to suit your active lifestyle.
Tip #2 Try to do as much research on your audience as possible and understand their needs. The more you know about their organization, challenges, and op-portunities, the better you can cater your proposal to fit what they are look-ing for in the market. It has always been known that people by nature, people first buy on emotional impulse, then later justify their purchase. If you can relate the product to their personal life (i.e. it saves them time so they can do other work, it saves them money to buy other things, etc), then they will have an emotional attachment to your product. The more research you do, the more you can relate the product to your audi-ence.
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
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Step 3: Good Case Practices Find Good Examples of document designs and layouts that you would like to utilize ideas from - What kind of proposal is necessary to best convey your idea? - Which professional organizations will have similar types of initiatives that they have created a proposal for? NEVER, EVER, EVER use a template from myaiesec.net. It’s not that they are bad, but that as a learning curve, you should be cre-ating your own proposals from scratch. The more you do it, the better you will be. Another point is that every time you copy someone’s work, the document gets worse and worse. For example, each time you copy a Music CD-ROM, the quality of the sound gets worse. Most of the documents on myaiesec.net have been copied sev-eral time. Instead, you should look at Good Proposals from OUTSIDE of AIESEC. Some good ones are from Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, McKinsey & Co., Booze & Co., Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, etc. After looking at some, pick 3 that you like and write down 3 things you like about each one. Why do you like it? What appeals to you? Would this go well with your proposal? Some good examples to look at: http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/WhoWeAre/Documents/Global-code-of-conduct.pdf http://images.apple.com/channel/us/podcasting/pdfs/Apple-Stanford011509.pdf http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/Beyond-Borders-Global-Innovation-1000.pdf http://www.pwc.com/en_GX/gx/technology/pdf/going-green.pdf http://hk.hudson.com/documents/Hudson-Report-q3-2010-Asia.pdf http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/Global_Talent_Innovation.pdf http://group.electrolux.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Electrolux-Annual-Report-2009-Part2-English.pdf http://www.oceanpark.com.hk/doc/common/footer/ar/ophk_ar08-09.pdf
Tip #3 You can search for good proposals on www.google.com. To help your search, here are some hints: - To search a particular company or website, use “site:”. For example McKinsey, type “site:Mckinsey.com” - To search a particular file format, use “filetype:” For example PDF, type “filetype:pdf” Google Scholar is also a very good re-source to find professional proposals
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
Practical Training | Tips on Creating a Professional Proposal
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Step 4: Theme Design and Layout After choosing some good examples to draw ideas from, which themes would you like to use? - Are you going to use pictures throughout the proposal - What color(s) would you like to use? - Two or three columns? Side Column? After picking 3 designs and layouts that you like and writing down 3 things you like about each one, choose a consistent layout for each page. During the training, many people chose these reasons for picking their top 3 proposals: - Used 2-3 columns instead of 1, which makes it look less like an essay - Used whitespace to make it clear, uncluttered, and to make a strong selling point - Strategic in size of font - Consistent in using italics, bold, underline, upper, and lower cases. - Lots of visuals - Used 2-3 color tones throughout the entire document - Large simple pictures to make a statement - Invert colors to draw attention - Used small pictures to break the line of a full text - Not overloaded with branding of that organization - Content is very thorough, yet to the point - Table of contents is very clear
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
Practical Training | Tips on Creating a Professional Proposal
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Step 5: Creating Your Proposal Use a design program or just use Microsoft Word! In the end, it doesn’t matter how you made it, but what you made! You can use numourous graphic design programs. Use this chance to learn a new program? Never used photoshop?....learn now! Here are a few suggestions: Adobe Illustrator
Microsoft Publisher
Tip #4 When designing your proposal, try to get inspiration from your surroundings. Think about what captures your atten-tion when shopping, watching TV, buy-ing a new item, etc. Whatever capti-vates you, will most likely captivate your audience when you present the pro-posal. Tip #5 Pictures work very well to convey sub-liminal messages. Use them to your advantage as a filler, to break a para-graph, or for impact!
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
Practical Training | Tips on Creating a Professional Proposal
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A few more suggestions: Adobe Photoshop
Microsoft Word
Tip #6 You may be using your proposal several times and to a diverse audience of read-ers, from those who are more visually –oriented, to people who respond better through verbal communication. Try to cater your proposal for a diverse audience and not only make it look visu-ally stunning, but comprehensive in content as well.
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
Practical Training | Tips on Creating a Professional Proposal
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Step 6: Brand Check, Finalize, Publish and START SELLing!!! - Put on the final touches - Get someone to check it for branding purposes and consistency - Print it as a 1-pager? Or a booklet? - How will you use it to effectively sell? - What will be your approach with your new tool?
Logo Check
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
Practical Training | Tips on Creating a Professional Proposal
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Color Check - Primary Colors Color Check - Stakeholder Colors
Tip #7 Business people are busy, so making your proposal as short and sweet as possible is ideal. Your audience should be able to just glance at the proposal for 30-45 seconds and get a general pic-ture of your proposition.
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
Practical Training | Tips on Creating a Professional Proposal
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Color Check - General Highlights
Tip #8 Testimonies work really well to build an organizations brand, reputation, and credibility. Be sure you include these into your proposal to build trust among your potential client and the product.
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
Practical Training | Tips on Creating a Professional Proposal
November Sales Training Series | Page 14
Font Check - Print and Web
Tip #9 Having a proposal is not good enough to make a sale. Be sure to complement it with further information, statistics, and testimonies. Having a proposal is nice, but what matters most is WHO is presenting that proposal, so make sure you know and understand your product, your organi-zation, as well as yourself. As I always say, making a sale is 20% WHAT is the product, 30% HOW you sell the product, and 50% WHO is sell-ing the product!
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited | www.aiesec.hk | E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: +852 3103 5311 | Add: GPO Box No.656, Central, HK
AIESEC Hong Kong Limited Document by Hamilton Le Member Committee Vice President Business Development
Notes by Jonas Schepens Business Development National Support Team Member
Thursday, November 11th, 2010