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I was helping someone in the group win a proposal recently using the proposal template in the Templates section.

I asked why it worked better than their old way of selling their services and got some interesting feedback.

Here are a few lessons that stood out from the experience.

1. People don't buy deliverables, they buy outcomes.
2. People will only buy outcomes they want for the reasons they have.
3. They only buy those outcomes when you re-articulate them in your proposal and clearly state the problem and context.
4. You need to actually talk to people to get clear on what end results they actually want, why it matters, what the value is, and then create a proposal that maps precisely (or closely) to those expressed needs.
5. Later you can turn it into a productized service after going through this exercise successfully a few times.

Our tendency as consultants is to sell what we think people want: time, deliverables, plans, strategies, hours, etc.

What people actually want is solutions to their unique business challenges and aspirations.

Talk to people, understand what they want, then put that right in your proposal with 1-3 options for getting there.

Sell the destination, not the journey.

Listen in for more!