Sales Proposals the Right Way

Not really a major change, but I’ve tried to get feedback from people who have taken the course and I made some minor edits to the course content itself and also a bunch of adjustments to the sales page to try to answer questions and guide the right people into the course, and the guide people who aren’t a fit away from the course.

Podia (www.podia.com, which has definitely been mentioned on Indie Hackers) made this all really easy. They host the course content, the sales page, handle payments, access, affiliates, etc. It’s a great platform and they are good to work with. I probably wouldn’t have started if I hadn’t had the platform as a foundation. I got my first sales before my free trial expired-- hard to beat that.

Spread the word. If you know anyone who’d like to get better at sales proposals, point them to the course. ;-)

Also, if you have tips about being clever about marketing courses, I’m new to selling “digital products”, and I’m all ears.

I should have done this years ago. ;-) It’s great to keep things simple, and I didn’t want to be distracted. But I’m supposed to be here to help-- I could have been helpful like this sooner.

I have a small list, so I let them know and got a few sales. I also asked some friends and software customers to take the course (for free) just to get feedback.

Once I knew I had something useful, I reached out to people who had been through the course and some of the guests on my podcast (Sales for Nerds) who might have audiences that would appreciate this and asked if they’d like to do an affiliate mail. This got more customers and let me get testimonials and boost credibility.

Not too bad, because I already had the content from doing this kind of training offline. Of course, it’s a little different to record yourself. For example, I made the decision to put a video of me in the corner, to try to carry over a little bit of that live feeling, even though I like looking at a video of myself even less than I like hearing myself talk. ;-) (Incidentally, some people have said they really like the video. Others have said it’s distracting and they’d rather not have it.)

I struggled a lot with proposals when I was consulting. It took me years to figure out how to do them effectively, where I could close reliably and also prepare the proposal without a lot of stress. I didn’t realize how widespread this issue was until I built my CRM system (www.mimiran.com), which includes proposal automation features. I realized that it wasn’t enough to just move the proposal process online, I had to spend a lot of time working with people on the content of their proposals. This turned into proposal coaching even outside the application.

Each time I did this, I got very positive feedback and thought I should create an online course that I could refer people to. I finally got annoyed enough with myself to overcome my (consciously irrational) self-doubt and create the course.

When I was a developer, I sometimes got called in to work on RFP (Request for Proposal) responses, but when I started consulting on my own, I had no idea how to do sales proposals. I tried mimicking other examples, which mostly led to picking up a lot of bad habits.

Over time, I realized I was doing it all wrong. I was trying to sound like a giant, buzzword-producing corporation. It wasn't at all how I'd talk to a friend. I also realized that a proposal is a story, not a brochure. I needed to tell the buyer's story through the proposal. My close rates went up and my close times went down. As did my stress.

I didn't realize how common this problem was until I stopped traveling and developed a CRM that included proposal automation. I figured I'd just help people move their proposals online. Then I realized that most people struggled with proposals as much as I had.

Through coaching, I was able to help my CRM customers improve their close rates (and lower their heart rates). Each time I did a coaching session, I thought, "I should really record this and turn it into an online course, so more people would have access." (My whole mission is basically to spare nerdy people the sales and marketing pains that I went through.) But I made excuses like "but I'm not a 'real' sales expert."

After a while, I got asked to train people on proposals outside the context of my software. This went really well, too. "But what if pre-recorded training doesn't work for some reason?" the little voice in my head said. By this point, I know enough about the voice in my head that I should just create the course and see what happens.

Sure enough, people get great benefits, and change their whole approach to proposals.