Sales Proposal

---
name: sales-proposal
description: >
  Write a compelling sales proposal. Use when the user says "write a sales proposal",
  "put together a proposal", "draft a proposal for this prospect", "create a business case",
  "write up our recommendation", "how to structure a proposal", "proposal template",
  "executive summary for a deal", or wants to create a written document that moves a
  prospect toward a decision.
---

## Overview

Based on **"The Challenger Sale"** by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson. Dixon and Adamson's CEB research across 6,000 sales reps found that top performers don't just respond to what prospects ask for - they teach prospects something new about their business, tailor the message to what the stakeholder cares about, and take control of the commercial conversation. A Challenger proposal doesn't start with your product. It starts with the prospect's world.

## Workflow

### Step 1: Open with a reframe, not an introduction

The first section must teach the prospect something they don't already know about their own situation. This is the Challenger "teach" move.

Structure:
- Start with an industry or market insight the prospect hasn't considered
- Connect that insight to a specific gap or risk in how they currently operate
- Make it specific to their business, not generic to their industry

Example opening angle: "Most [industry] teams focus on [obvious metric], but the data shows that [non-obvious insight] is actually the leading indicator of [outcome they care about]. Teams that optimize for [metric] instead are seeing [specific result]."

Do not start with "Company X is pleased to present this proposal to [Prospect]." That is a brochure, not a proposal.

### Step 2: Quantify their current cost of inaction

Before presenting any solution, show the prospect what staying the same costs them. Use numbers from your discovery call.

Format:
- Current state: [what they're doing today]
- Friction: [what breaks or underperforms as a result]
- Cost: [time, revenue, headcount, or risk - in specific numbers]

Example:
- Current state: Manual reporting across 4 tools, reconciled weekly
- Friction: 6 hours per analyst per week, error rate of ~12% requiring rework
- Cost: ~$180K/year in analyst time, plus downstream decisions made on stale data

If the prospect supplied these numbers in discovery, quote them back verbatim. Their data is more credible than yours.

### Step 3: Present the recommendation - not the product

Lead with the outcome the prospect gets, not the features you provide. For each major problem area:

1. **The problem**: restate in their words from discovery
2. **The approach**: how [your product] addresses it specifically
3. **The result**: what measurably changes, in their terms

Avoid feature lists. Every sentence in the solution section should answer "so what?" If you can't answer "so what?", cut it.

### Step 4: Handle objections preemptively

Include a short section that acknowledges the top 2-3 concerns a skeptical stakeholder would have.

Format:
**"You might be wondering..."**
- "...whether this is a priority given [competing initiative]" + your answer
- "...how long implementation actually takes" + your answer with specifics
- "...what happens if [risk scenario]" + your answer

This signals confidence and builds trust with the Economic Buyer who wasn't in your discovery call.

### Step 5: Make the business case explicit

Include a simple ROI summary near the end, before pricing.

| | Year 1 | Year 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Investment | $[X] | $[X] |
| Estimated return | $[Y] | $[Y] |
| Net benefit | $[Z] | $[Z] |
| Payback period | [N months] | - |

Use conservative estimates. Label assumptions clearly. A credible conservative number beats an optimistic number no one believes.

### Step 6: Close with a specific ask and next step

The last section is a call to action with a specific decision request.

Structure:
- What you're asking them to decide
- What happens next if they say yes (timeline, first steps)
- Your proposed decision date - give them one, don't ask for one

Example: "To move forward, we need a signed order form by [date] to hold your implementation slot in [month]. Once signed, [first action] begins within [timeframe]. I'll follow up on [date] to answer any final questions before then."

## Anti-Patterns

**1. Starting with a company overview**
Bad: "Founded in [year], [your company] is a leading provider of..."
Good: Start with an insight about the prospect's world. They don't care about your founding date.

**2. Sending a generic capabilities deck**
Bad: Repurposing a standard deck with the prospect's logo on slide 1.
Good: Every section references something specific from your discovery conversation.

**3. Feature-first solution sections**
Bad: "[Your product] includes automated reporting, real-time dashboards, and 200+ integrations."
Good: "Your analysts spend 6 hours/week reconciling data across tools. [Your product] eliminates that with automated consolidation, returning ~300 hours/year to your team."

**4. Soft close**
Bad: "We hope you'll consider moving forward with us. Please let us know if you have questions."
Good: Give them a specific decision date, a named next step, and your direct contact.

## Quality Checklist

- [ ] Proposal opens with a reframe or insight, not a company introduction
- [ ] Cost of inaction is quantified with specific numbers
- [ ] Solution section is structured around problems, not features
- [ ] Each solution claim answers "so what?" for the prospect
- [ ] Top 2-3 objections are addressed preemptively
- [ ] ROI summary is included with labeled assumptions
- [ ] Final section contains a specific decision ask with a proposed date
- [ ] Language from discovery call is used throughout - their words, not your words