Proposal software is an invaluable tool for salespeople and entrepreneurs. By having it as part of your sales process, you can create professional proposals quickly and easily, so you can win more business. Keep reading to learn what proposal software is and how it can benefit your business.

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The Purpose of a Business Proposal

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A business proposal is a sales document that persuades potential customers to partner with you. A basic proposal addresses the following criteria:

• The problem or issue that your customer is facing
• Your product or service as the solution to the problem
• Benefits of using your product or service
• Cost of using your product or service
• How you will deliver your product or service
• Timeline

Tailor each proposal to your customer’s specific needs and explain how your product or service can solve their problem.

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Types of Proposal Strategies

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Not all proposals have the same purpose. In fact, they serve one or a combination of strategies. The best proposals take elements of all three strategies and combine them into a singular narrative.

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Solution Proposals

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You present your product or service as the solution to your customer’s problem. This type of proposal is common in B2B sales.

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Problem-solution Proposals

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This proposal is a more detailed version of the solution-based proposal. You present your product or service as the solution to your customer's problem and outline how you’ll solve that problem. This type of proposal is common in B2C sales.

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Value Propositions

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A value proposition is a statement that explains the benefits of using your product or service. This type of proposal is common in B2B and B2C sales, when you want to persuade potential customers to partner with you.

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Why Most Proposals Don’t Work

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Proposals fail for multiple reasons:

• It’s not tailored to your audience.
• It has too much technical jargon.
• The pricing doesn’t encourage growth or is too low, detracting from its quality.
• It doesn’t not mention your unique selling point.
• It doens’t include your client's critical information.
• Your team failed to follow up.

Although winning a bid doesn’t come with any hard or fast rules, avoid these situations when submitting a proposal.

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Why You Need Proposal Software

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Proposal software helps you create professional proposals quickly and easily. It also enables you to customize recommendations for each customer. The software provides various templates and samples that you can use and reuse, reducing the amount of staff time needed to generate a proposal.

By using proposal software, you can easily track and measure the success of your proposals. You can see which ones resulted in a sale and track the average amount of time it takes to close a deal. With this information, you can improve your proposal templates to make them more effective.

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How to Choose the Right Proposal Software for You

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Just as each prospective client is unique, so is your business. When searching for the right proposal software, start by making a list of necessary items that you want to win proposals. Then, do your research until you find the software that meets your requirements.

Keep in mind the following questions when evaluating the right proposal software for you:

• What’s the intended use for the software?
• Does it accelerate your sales cycle, making you more productive?
• Does it track your progress and give you real-time notifications?
• Is it customizable, so it can match potential needs?
• Does it allow one-time implementation or recurring charges?
• Can you track metrics and monitor sales and proposal performance?
• Is flexible so you can tailor offerings to the specific needs of your client?

The goal of a proposal is to close the deal, and with the right software in your toolkit, you’ll be on your way to winning more business.

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Ready to take your sales to the next level? Request a demo of Zomentum today and see how our end-to-end solution can help you close more deals.