At the heart of any commercial proposal (warm and cold) is a story about the client’s tasks that you can solve. Remember this and get rid of hackneyed formulations about a “customer-oriented, stable and reliable company.” Their problem is not in the template, but in the fact that the client absolutely does not care what kind of company you are. Each phrase of the commercial proposal should be about him, not about you.
When talking about your company and its USP (unique selling proposition), try to look at it from the customers’ perspective. Even if you don’t know anything about them yet, you are probably aware of the problems that most of your customers face.
When talking about customer focus, offer manufacturers the opportunity to store purchased materials in your warehouse. Instead of talking about reliability, tell them what guarantees your customers will receive. And how you resolve unexpected situations.
Be sure to write answers to expected objections. “Why should I trust you?”, “Why is it so expensive/cheap?” If you don’t write about this, the questions will remain in the client’s head as doubts. And a few words about important details:
- Write down the name of the file, from recent mobile phone number data which the client will understand what your commercial proposal is about.
- Take the time to check for grammatical and stylistic errors.
- Make sure your formatting is neat with consistent fonts, spacing, and colors.
Features of a cold commercial proposal
The success of a cold proposal depends on how much information you have managed to collect about the client from open sources. And how accurately you have analyzed it. Choose several companies that you would like to focus on. Study research shows that more and more corporate websites, search the Internet for interviews with company executives. What information will be useful to you:
- area of activity and segment (large, medium, small);
- availability of branches, dealers and representatives in the regions;
- company plans;
- clients and competitors of your potential customer;
- with whom he already cooperates.
This work takes time. Choose a few key companies that you will collect information about. For the rest, create a general commercial offer with a story about your advantages.
Write only the most important things:
- arguments why it is profitable to buy from you;
- information about the product marketing list or service, competitive advantages;
- responses to possible objections;
- social proof (your big clients);
- price and contacts.
You can use the classic AIDA scheme for advertising and sales: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
Features of a warm commercial proposal
A warm offer means you know your customers’ problems and the reasons they make decisions. And they know you. That makes your job easier.
- Start your commercial proposal with a personalized greeting. Remind them of your cooperation or of the client’s request to your company.
- Write about what is important to them. What does your client want? To increase the number of clients, to reduce costs, to help differentiate themselves from competitors. Tell them how they can do this with your help.
- Offer a personal price and set a time frame for receiving a favorable offer. To avoid this looking like coercion, justify your actions. For example, write that you plan to import a new batch of materials next month. And to free up space in the warehouse, you offer regular customers to buy them at a discount.
- At the end, leave the contact details of your personal manager.
How to write a commercial proposal
Regardless of whether you are talking about “warm” or “cold” clients, start the letter with a catchy subject line . You can immediately write about the benefits:
- We will deliver your cargo 2 times faster, 10% discount in January.
- How to buy commercial equipment for a third less.
Or write an intriguing headline that will entice people to read the letter:
- Why your shipments take twice as long as they could.
- Reasons Why You Will Spend More to Open a Store.
The title field contains the lead – the first paragraph , the task of which is to hold the attention attracted by the title. And to generate interest in your offer. In the lead, you can write that only 10% of companies know how to save on advertising. Or that a well-organized accounting department allows you to legally save up to 40% of profits. If a potential client has reached this point, he is ready to meet your offer. The offer is what you wrote the commercial proposal for. Here, in 2-3 phrases, you need to tell what you offer. The message should be extremely clear and specific. You can even highlight it with a frame or a larger font.