How To: Master Your Proposal Follow Ups

You got a lead that you’re excited about!

The client said they had already decided to spend the money ✅

You crafted your best work into a proposal, and hit send.

…and crickets.

Nothing.

It’s been a few days, and you are getting antsy.

You could send: “Hey, just following up on the proposal that I sent….”

But how can you follow up without sounding weak, desperate, or needy?

I believe that winning in this scenario isn’t necessarily wordsmithing that follow up text or email.

Rather, it’s setting expectations well, long before you get to this point – to ensure you’re not in that weak position.

Because once you’re in that weak position – it’ll be tough to send any message that doesn’t sound needy.

The right process and expectation setting does depend somewhat on how high or low ticket your jobs are.

I’ll run through an example for higher end, bigger ticket style sales process here in this article.

Vetting & qualifying

First, you’ll want to do a good job of vetting and qualifying that prospect.

They need to “earn” the privilege of getting a proposal from you.

You don’t send out proposals to just anyone.

What kind of work do you want to get done? (Checking that it matches up with what you do)

What kind of budget range are you wanting to invest? (Checking that they are educated and aware as to what things cost)

Communication and setting expectations

Once they’ve “earned” the privilege of getting a proposal from you, communicate well.

Tell them exactly what will happen.

Set expectations.

For example:

• you tell them that you’ll gather all the info you need and create their proposal
• You’ll send or present it to them
• If sending it, you’re going to ask them to confirm that they got it right away.
• You’re going to ask them to confirm whether the scope of work in the proposal matches what they asked for
• You explain that you have no desire to waste their time, and you want to ensure you’re serving them well – so if there’s anything they don’t love about the proposal, or they decide not to go with you – you ask them if they could inform you right away.
• If they decide to go with you – here’s the process to get started (e.g. down payment to get on the schedule, etc)

The principle here is you map out the future.

You tell them exactly what will happen next, so that when they do get the follow up text/email/call from you, it’s expected.

You’re just following the process you already told them about.

After you have sent or presented the proposal

As soon as you send the proposal, you do exactly what you told them you’d do earlier.

You text or call them within minutes of sending it to make sure they got it.

Now that they’ve got it, the question is “when do you follow up?”

According to a study done on proposals, on average, if the proposal is going to get approved, it’s going to get approved within 2-3 days.

So if you haven’t heard anything in 2-3 days, it’s time.

And instead of sending a weak sounding message of “Hey… just following up on that proposal I sent…”

Rather – you have set the expectations, and you ask them exactly what you told them you would ask them: “Hey [client’s name], does the proposal’s scope of work match your vision and what you wanted?”

If yes, then “Can you give me an update on where you are at in your decision making process? I either want to address any concerns or changes you need, or take you off my list so I don’t waste your time.”

If you’re going to get a no, you want that no asap.

Conclusion

I know that many of you have your own unique sales process.

If my examples above don’t match your sales process, I don’t intend for you to get hung up on the specific details.

For example – I know some of you present your proposals in person, or on a zoom call. And for higher ticket stuff, I think that is brilliant.

You can address concerns in real time.

The idea is – regardless of your specific process, you want to unearth/expose concerns before they come up as objections, and address them in real time.

Don’t be afraid to ask for the no, so you can move on.

The one thing to take away from this is: explain exactly what happens next, so that when next happens, you are not in a weak position.

They were expecting it.

You simply did what you told them you’d do.

That’s how you switch from a position of weakness to authority.

If you’re interested in streamlining your own proposal process – check out the SynkedUP app.

It allows you to send beautiful proposals that can be signed and paid for electronically.

You can see every time the prospect opened it (no more excuses of “I never got it” 😜)

And it allows you to automatically follow up if they don’t approve it within your expected time frame.

You can get on a call with my team to check it out here.

Happy selling!

Sell from a position of authority – not weakness. 💪

Cheers!

Weston Zimmerman

SynkedUP CEO & founder