TFF #018 - Streamline Your Sales: How to Maximize Conversions with Structured Offers
This week, The Friday Fandango looks at how crafting a clear, structured offer can simplify the buying experience, skyrocket your chances of closing deals and help you to scale your business.
Welcome back to The Friday Fandango. I’m Janet and this is your weekly dose of communication inspiration for the week ahead.
Today, we'll explore the transformative power of structured offers in the sales journey. By methodically crafting and presenting our proposals, we can bring unparalleled clarity to our prospects and pave the way for business growth.
If you missed previous editions, head over here → The Friday Fandango
Enjoy today’s read and please don’t forget to subscribe, comment and share.
We’ve all experienced it
A prospective client asks for a proposal. You discussed it with your colleagues. You spend hours working on it. You made sure it addressed all their requirements. You agonized over the price and how to best position it.
Finally, you send it. And then… silence, while you wait for their answer.
When the result comes in and it is a "no-go" from the client, the sting of wasted effort is palpable. It feels like lost time and energy. But what if there was a way to streamline this process, ensuring that each pitch resonates with the right prospects and aligns with their needs? In this week’s TFF, we delve into the power of structured offers and how they can transform your sales strategy.
Understanding the “No”
Clients say “no” to a product or service offer for lots of different reasons, many of which are beyond our control. Things that we cannot influence include whether they are busy and have certain personal or professional problems. Maybe they’re just not ready for you. Maybe they had a bad experience with a similar offer and are wary. These are the things you cannot know.
However, there are things you can control, such as:
earning their trust
offering flexible pricing, and
clarifying the value they receive.
By controlling these factors, we can tilt the scales towards a 'yes.'
Before approaching a prospective client, it's imperative to ensure they are qualified. A qualified prospect isn't just someone who might need your product or service; it's someone who aligns with what you offer and has the potential to benefit from it.
Here are a few things to consider:
Alignment with Your Offerings: Does the potential client's needs match what you're offering? If you're selling high-end software solutions, for instance, approaching a small startup with a limited budget will likely not be a fit.
Financial Capability: Can they afford your services or products? Chasing leads who can't afford your offerings are going to be futile.
Decision-Making Power: Are you speaking to the decision-maker? Sometimes, you might find yourself pitching to someone who doesn't have the final say.
Genuine Need or Interest: Has the prospect expressed or shown signs of genuine interest in what you're offering? Or are they just window shopping?
Gauge Conversation Intent: Some people prolong conversations without true intent. They might keep the dialogue alive due to personal insecurities or a need to appear active in the buying or selling process. Recognizing these scenarios can save you time and prevent potential frustration.
Long-Term Potential: Consider the future potential of the prospect. Are they a one-time buyer, or is there potential for repeat business or referrals?
By identifying and focusing on qualified prospects, you're not only maximizing your chances of a sale but also ensuring that your efforts and resources are directed where they are most likely to bear fruit. This targeted approach streamlines the sales process, saves time, and boosts conversion rates.
So, assuming that you have a qualified prospect, you also need to ensure you have ready answers to these crucial questions:
What sets your product/service apart?
What benefits does it offer?
Which pain points does it address?
What are common objections?
Can you summarize it in 5 words or less?
A Structured Approach to Selling
Once you start thinking about your offer this way, you can improve your chances of a “yes” by creating structured product/service options to simply the buying process.
Attention spans are short!
Most prospects do not want to listen or read a long discourse on all the details of your offer.
They want a quick and easy understanding of it.
They want to know how it will help them solve their problems (eg, their pain points).
They want to quickly understand the options and pricing.
Start with a single product or service that you plan to sell. Remember, services can be productized, too. Turn your mind to creating “versions” of this single product, following an approach I’m sure you’ve seen many times before:
Silver: the basic tier, delivers a meaningful result with the lowest amount of effort
Platinum: it’s the full package with 100% of the features and benefits
Gold: is a version of your offer that falls somewhere in between.
When you adopt this kind of approach, effectively “small, medium and large” versions, it you are packaging and presenting your offer to prospects in a way that helps them both understand the offer and make a decision.
By presenting multiple packages, you amplify your chances of securing a positive decision.
Presenting Your Offer
Creating a tiered product or service structure is a win-win for everyone.
you help your prospective customer understand all the options
you clarify precisely what they will get and how much they have to pay.
you define in precise terms how you will deliver it.
The easiest way is to present your offer is by using a table. Again, you’ve seen this structure many times. Why not create a version that applies to what you are selling?
When you present just one option, they can either say “yes” or “no”. Two options increase your chances of getting them to make a decision. But don’t offer more than three. (Ever been to a mobile phone store trying to work out all the options?)
This tiered approach not only conserves your time but also elevates the client experience. By digitizing this process on a webpage and integrating a payment gateway, you enhance accessibility and convenience.
If it's presented on your website, you can link to additional information. But don’t clutter the initial offer with Too Much Information” (TMI) and detail. Find a separate place to offer additional information.
Even if you are not planning to present it on a website, or even if you decide not to present it to the client in this format, having the offers fully thought-out and articulated in a desk-top document will be an enormous time saver.
The same goes for standard texts to introduce yourself, or describe what your company is or what it does. Don’t re-create these texts on the fly. Easy to access standard texts will help you consolidate every aspect of your business messaging.
What are the key takeaways for today?
Structured offers simplify decision-making for clients and boost your efficiency.
By creating a compelling, structured offer you can significantly improve your chances of closing deals and expanding your business.
Put your prospects under your control.
Guide them to making a smart choice.
Provide complete information about what they will get.
Give them three price options for service / product level support.
Make it clear exactly how you will deliver it, and how long for.
It definitely serves your interests to invest time in developing such a framework and working this way!
Once the options are created, you can re-use the offer many times. Even if you plan to adapt it, you have a common foundation for how you present your products and services.
The added value here, too, is that you can generate revenue forecasts based on fixed pricing. In this way, you spend less time delivering custom solutions and increase the chances of scaling the sales of your product, for very little additional effort.
For example, by putting your structured offer on a webpage, you can point many people there, rather than manually doing a proposal every time. Bonus points if you can add a payment gateway and sign them up right away!
In conclusion, when you adopt this approach, the best news is that you’ll never have to write a proposal again! It really is the first step to scaling your business!
If you liked this article, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
I’m Janet Greco, and by night, I write The Friday Fandango and post on Linkedin.
By day, I run Broadcast Projects, a marketing consultancy for the broadcast and streaming media industry, where I help drive sales with customized market outreach for TV technology brands.
Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:
1) The Friday Fandango: The Friday Fandango is your go-to resource for unlocking the power of effective communication and mastering the art of soft skills. Subscribe here on Substack. Published every Friday, each new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox. It’s free.
2) Ask Me Anything - One-hour SESSIONS for those who need of quick answers to their most pressing business questions. Get on the mailing list for updates here.
3) Personalized Coaching and Training – if you’re looking for more formal training program for your company or team, don’t hesitate to reach out.
4) Last but not least, check out my website, Broadcast Projects, for a wealth of free resources of value to those working in the TV technology sector.
Don't hesitate to connect with me on LinkedIn or on X @janetgrecobiz!