How to NOT waste time with proposals.

It’s 2020. There is a global pandemic. We are in the midst of a recession, leading to a depression. It’s time to guard your time and use the finite resource wisely.

Thread

If there was one piece of advice I wished I’d had since starting @nodeunlock, it is this.

Proposals are the biggest time and resource suck.

Often proposals take a lengthy amount of time to craft well, then go into a black hole never to be progressed. In 2.5 years I've had my fair share of this happen.

That’s why qualifying your sales leads is SO important. https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1231575395679526913?s=20

Where are they in the buying journey?

Whilst meditating I came up with this scale in my head & wrote it down when I’d finished (I call these my Meditation Notes FWIW).

Customer Buying Scale

1-3 = No proposal
4-5 = Proposal

How do you qualify a prospect?

BANT

[B]udget - Do they have one?

[A]uthority - Do they have the authority to sign it off?

[N]eed - Is it a must-have, or a nice to have?

[T] - Timeline - When do they need this? Where does it sit in their list of priorities?

Scenario

Client: “Could you create a proposal for that?”

You: “Sure, do you have budget allocated and are you the one who will be signing it off?“

It's time to take care of our resources.

Agree?

#sales #startup #entrepreneurship @IndieHackers