Former journalists, like me, gravitate toward Copyblogger, a fantastic blog about all things words, and specifically, copywriting tips for marketing success. Quotes and proposals are by definition things with words, so there’s a lot that can be gleaned from Copyblogger.

Former journalists, like me, are also suckers for lists. Say “top 10” anything, and we’ll read it. You can see why Copyblogger’s “101 Ways to Make More Sales Online,” caught my eye. In fact, “put a number in the headline” is one of the 101 Ways.

But what really made me sit up and take notice was how Quosal fit into those 101 suggestions.

Let prospects know they’re buying from a human being.

Honestly, this is the very reason behind Order Porter’s personal video feature. People tend to buy things from people. You are not a vending machine, so your quote or proposal document should not act like one. Adding a personal video to your quote – even just to say “thanks” — and delivering it through Order Porter is a great way to make one more memorable impression on your customer.

Tell a story about how you solved this problem for yourself before you started selling the solution to others.

Quosal CEO Kent McNall loves telling the story about how Quosal got started when, in one of Kent’s past businesses, a lack of a good quoting tool led directly to a salesman’s six-figure mistake. Knowledge Transfer is a key problem Quosal solves.

Make sure you’ve described your product or service in enough detail. If it’s physical, give the dimensions and some great photos. … Don’t assume your prospects already know any details — spell everything out.

Include a photograph of what you’re selling, if you can.

It’s for this very reason that Quosal works with Etilize, allowing you to smoothly include product details and product photographs into your quotes and proposals. Quosal + Etilize is a powerful, powerful combination.

Put your photo on your sales page. Human beings are hard-wired to connect to faces. If prospects can see you, it’s easier for them to trust you.

Not only does Quosal recognize this as a fundamental truth, we built this feature right into the application – an optional space for a personal photo is built right in, ready to go.

Does the prospect know everything he needs to know in order to make this purchase? What questions might still be on his mind? How can you educate him to make him more confident about his decision to buy?

You probably already have product brochures, descriptions of your services and various sales sheets. Quosal’s PDF Merge Manager feature makes it easy to include these materials with your quote and proposal documents. No more cobbling together documents – they can be merged into one, smooth-looking professional package.

Can you provide a demonstration of the product or service?

As a matter of fact, we can.


 

In the world of online shopping, we’ve all become very used to seeing product images while we add things to the shopping cart. In fact, we wouldn’t be very likely to spend a lot of time on a Web site that didn’t present attractive product images.

Yet, in the world of quotes and proposals, we’ve been conditioned by preparing quotes with spreadsheets, browser-based apps and old-school quoting tools to presenting quote and proposal documents that are text-heavy and don’t present images at all.

In 2008, Quosal introduced the capability to quickly and easily add product images to quotes and proposals, leveraging the availability of online content through such partners as Etilize.

Yet, many prospective users of Quosal express doubt about whether they need product images on their quotes, because they themselves don’t like them.

It’s not about what you like, I tell them. It’s about what your CUSTOMERS will like – and your customers like product images, nice product descriptions and, in some cases, as much information as you can give them.

They also like the fact that you spent the extra time and effort to put that beautiful quote together for them. We all know that a picture is worth 1000 words about a product you’re quoting, but it’s also worth 1000 words about the person that put the quote together, and those 1000 words say nothing but good things about you.

You’re spending your time, expertise and energy to put together just what the customer wants and needs in the selection of products and services you are quoting. It’s important to take that extra step and also present it to them the way anyone would want it to be presented – professionally, graphically, richly. It makes a world of difference to the customer’s perception about you and your company.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Getting product images on your quotes will soon follow.

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