The software and software services business is changing, and with this software proposal, it is becoming more and more important. After many years of fairly static business models, traditional companies offered by software publishers are facing a number of new business models: software as a service (SaaS), open-source, outsourcing trends are all trends that affect the software industry. This can shorten the decision-making schedule for the customer and thus the sales cycle.
In today’s changing software services market, it is important to focus on five key elements of the winning software proposal:
Timeline!
Sales cycles are much shorter in the online services market than in traditional programs. It took 6-12 months or more to sell software in a business environment. Now, business customers can decide to buy software services in less than three months (often much less). You should be able to identify sufficient requirements and customize the customers needed to implement this proposal as quickly as possible. One of the advantages of a subscription service or offer is that it can be refined more easily over time as needed.
Price correctly product or service
If you are trying to sell a client with a permanent software license server of a million dollars, what they are looking for is to host a web service with a low monthly subscription fee per user… You will lose the agreement, which does not mean that your proposal is detailed. Make sure you are on the same wavelength as the customer has put in the type of service he needs to meet his requirements and that the price/position of your product is accordingly. You may want to provide a separate price list, perhaps on a subscription basis, rather than licensing traditional all-in-one business programs.
Talk to your client’s pain point
The program proposal must answer a question or address a concern that is best in the client’s mind. Otherwise, you’re just going to collect dust on your “things you should read when you have time” battery (we have them all, don’t we?). Choose the pain point (if possible, put it in the customer’s words) and address yourself precisely how to solve the program or service you provide for the problem. Link it to the value suggestion below. Return to the point of pain when closing with a concrete return on investment and possibly measures/benefits.
The committee sits on the list of parties to the agreement.
What is the greatest benefit of your program or service to this client? What is your main advantage over your competitors? It’s your value proposition. Keep it simple, and I assure you that it stands out in the summary of your proposal (your proposal contains a summary, right?). If you can quantify it (for example; with some king messages), do it. The more you can express the hard benefits at the beginning of the proposal, the more your client will continue to read.
Finally, make sure you have a clearly detailed value presented in this summary that is addressed to each of the stakeholders in the purchase decision. Make a list of stakeholders within the client company and place yourself in each of your shoes. Read the suggestion to think about. Have you included a profit statement that speaks directly to them?
Improve your suggested value with examples of ROI and customers
Therefore, a strong value proposition and benefits for each of your stakeholders were included in the proposal summary. good! That means they will keep reading.
Hopefully, you can communicate a strong and compelling return on investment, considering both hard ($) and soft benefits. A strong ROI methodology is essential to the success of your software proposal. Unless, of course, you have an impressive value proposition that customers are willing to pay for independently. You should include examples of clients or case studies that enhance the value of your proposal and the ROI message. It is even better if you can include some customer references that the customer can speak directly if they wish.
