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Four years into running my agency and I just realized I was sending proposals completely backwards
So I'm sitting in a coffee shop last Tuesday, staring at my proposal template that I've used maybe 200 times... and it hits me like a brick. I was leading with deliverables and pricing on page two, burying the case studies and client results at the back. A client actually told me last month, 'I almost didn't read past the price because I had no idea what I was actually getting for it.' That's when it clicked - I was making people buy a service without showing them why they should care first. Switched the order around, put a three-bullet summary of past wins right up front, and my close rate on the next five proposals jumped from like 30% to 70%. Has anyone else had that moment where you realize your whole sales process is basically upside down?
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grays138d ago
Back when I started my grooming shop I had the price list on the front door and nobody came in. Moved a big photo of a happy poodle with a bow right next to it and suddenly people wanted to know what else I could do. Shows that folks need to see the good stuff first before they even think about what it costs.
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Have you thought about whether your old proposal layout actually trained clients to skip ahead to the price? Like, if they were used to seeing numbers on page two, maybe they started flipping past everything else without even reading it. That's what I'm wondering - you changed the order, but you also changed their expectations of where to look. I bet that shift alone might have made them slow down and actually digest your case studies for the first time. Kinda like how rearranging a room makes you notice stuff you walked past for years.
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seth_shah7d ago
That 30% to 70% jump is wild. So what was the one specific case study or result you put front and center that did the most work? I'm curious if it was a big name client or just a clear number that grabbed them. @grays13's poodle example makes me think the visual hook matters just as much as the words. Did you test different wins before landing on the one that stuck?
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