As a training exercise, I’ve been taking a look at proposals before our sales reps send them out to customers.

Before I even look at the proposal I ask the sales rep “What’s important to this customer?” It might be lead time, price, color matching, control of a specific frequency, you name it. I can’t evaluate the job we did preparing our proposal until I know what’s important to the customer who will receive it.

This implies another truth: Effective sales involves listening a lot, not talking a lot. If you listen, customers will tell you all about what’s important to them. You don’t even need to ask, they’ll start telling you from the minute you answer the phone. Once you know, you can make a relevant and genuinely helpful proposal.