Are your salespeople including cover letters with their proposals? Hi, I'm Jim Pancero, helping you become a stronger leader of your sales team. And most businesses today are using some kind of quote configurator, some kind of online software where it generates both a detailed and accurate quote for the customer, technically on what they need, as well as includes all of the terms and conditions as part of doing business with you.

Now, these configurators are great documents. They're great tools. The problem is they're not very good sales tools because they talk about the numbers of why somebody wants to buy from you, but they don't tend to talk about any of the value, especially if you're a higher price than the competitive alternatives. So one of the ways to improve your value communicating to prospects with your proposal is to make sure that you include a cover letter. Now because of these configurators, there's a good chance the cover letter will be a separate document, but you include it and you send it along with your proposal.

There are four paragraphs that can make a cover letter a very strong and persuasive selling document for your team. The first paragraph, you just outline and thank them for allowing you to propose and identify what it is, briefly, that you're proposing to them. This letter includes a proposal-for type of statement.

Then the second paragraph is a summary of everything you're proposing and how much it's going to cost in very non-technical language. See, the reality today is decisions are made now by consensus in business. There's not usually one final decision-maker. Because even if they're the final approval of it, they tend to get the consensus from the rest of the team to make sure they get full support from whoever they buy from. So because of this, there's a good chance your proposal will be shown to somebody that does not technically understand what it is your products or services do or what impact it can have on their business. So the goal of the second paragraph is for those outsiders that will be looking at your proposal and have a chance to have input, to tell them what it is they're looking at. So in non-technical language, including what the price is that you're proposing, you just give a brief summary of what it is you're proposing and what it can do for the client.

Then the third paragraph is we need to promote the brand or the products that you are proposing. Why is this product set or this brand of products the best choice for them, and how are they going to see a payoff from it?

And then the fourth paragraph focuses on your business, on your company. Why buy from us? Because in a lot of cases, they might be able to buy the product you're proposing from several different vendors. So it isn't just why this is a great product to buy, but why is it a great product to buy from us. What is your value and uniqueness of doing business with you that differentiates you over your competition? That's concluded in the fourth paragraph.

So now, just by having these four paragraph letter, thanking them for the business, explaining what it is you propose in non-technical language, promoting why you have proposed that brand or product line for them to consider and why they want to buy from you, what a great way to package your uniqueness and value, including with the financials of why somebody wants to buy from you.

Would love to know what you've done with this. Would love to answer any of your questions. Thanks for checking out my podcast. I'm posting two new podcasts each week, all aimed at helping you and your team increase your selling competitive advantage.