1 Step to Take for Better Sales and Proposal Alignment

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Today I want to show you how to get your sales team to align with your proposal team at one of the most crucial times in sales. Right during the proposal phase.

Tensions run high throughout the sales process. Leadership isn't always confined to those in traditional leadership positions. Tensions can be the highest right as the proposal is being written.

Sometimes, the true leaders are the unsung heroes who have earned their colleagues' respect and trust through their dedication and hard work.

Communication, high-quality work, and alignment are critical. Let’s get us all on the same page. Here is an easy way to address it.

Let’s dance.

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First Touch - Why This is So Important

Let’s break this down. Sales (depending on how your customer buys) can spend months, even years, building credibility with the customer to get to the point of being able to submit a proposal.

I’ve seen this again, and again, and again. Sales does not talk to their proposal teams (until they absolutely have to), or with marketing. This causes tensions and communication issues, and ultimately it can create burdens that can be avoided.

All internal issues that can be addressed.

This is the point where you are soooooo close to the finish line.

The bigger the project, the more eyeballs on the project.

We need to properly document everything that we are going to do, the subcontractors, kickoff dates, why us, the list goes on.

Your sales team should have so much knowledge of the customer, they know the customer, the last step. Proposal Managers and their teams take over to build a final deliverable. And this is where tensions are incredibly high.

Depending on the relationship between sales and proposals, sales will say “this is a priority” or “I need you to focus on this asap".” The list goes on.

The one area sales sometimes forgets to do, is build that internal relationship with their proposal team. You can think that there is blind trust in the proposal team to deliver a bang-up job on the proposal, but really, this is where trust is critical. The last step to cross the finish line.

The stronger the relationship is with the proposal team, the better that proposal will be going out the door and to the customer that speaks to the customer.

You want your proposal to get out the door, get done professionally, high-quality, you need to make sure you have the right individuals on the project.

Address the issues now, not when the proposal you’re working on has a fast approaching due date.

Second Touch - Don’t Overlook This

Just because the sales manager brought the deal to this point, doesn’t mean they should be the main lead for the project.

They might want to be and will provide every convincing argument to be.

Trust is what will get the best quality proposal out the door. The proposal team has to dedicate hours to a proposal.

A proposal manager will run the project, there are individuals that your team looks to for support, for help on all sorts of task, they also talk about things outside of work (i.e., life, kids, sports, etc.).

Proposals are already stressful enough. Proposal teams, managers, technical writers, etc. have little to no say over all the work that sales did to build up to writing a proposal.

Depending on the turnaround time, you might have 5 days, 7, or 30 days to submit a response.

You work better, smarter, and more efficient when you know those around you. That goes in any field. So maximize on the individuals you have and communication, but relationships so when you do have time crunches, communication and quality doesn’t break down.

If You are an Executive - Here’s what I recommend

1. Ask your sales team to walk you through the proposal kick plan - make sure they know how your proposal planning, development, and execution work (i.e., kick plans, due dates, review teams, etc. However you are setup).

   1. Don’t have to go into the level of details that a proposal manager should know, but make sure they get a pretty good idea

2. Ask them if they know the proposal managers and vice-versa

   1. I mean…really do they know them outside of just their name and they write proposals?

   2. Depth of conversations, working relationships, wins, etc.

If You are a Sales Manager - Here’s what I recommend

1. Find out who your proposal manager is (if you have several, find out)

   1. If you already know. Good.

2. Introduce yourself, start to engage in friendly conversation with them

3. Build a relationship beyond “when are you going to get this done.”

Based on the feedback you get or your team gets. Give yourself steps to build the trust, communication, the ideas, and build a stronger understanding of each other. Proposal teams understand that you pay their bills, their vacations, keep their lights on, and so on.

However the stronger relationship you build, when there are those crunch times, those late night hours when the customer throws in an addendum (or several) and you want to scream, you have to collect new pricing from subcontractors, there is an underlying level of appreciation for how hard proposal teams work.

Pack Some Additional Punch

One of the first things I do working with a client (and at my past companies) is to build strong relationships with my proposal, pricing, graphics, and engineering team. All critical aspects of a proposal.

I got to know them, who they are, they got to know me. We built trust amongst each other so we could more quickly when the time was needed on opportunities.

If they needed help, I gave it to them as they were critical to my success, my team, and the company.

Relationships aren’t born overnight, but you need to start somewhere. So start small. Have your team build and build. Your proposals need to be developed.

Your sales teams need to factor this critical step into their overall project development building relationship with key internal stakeholders.

Take the initiative and ask where the pain points are from both sales and proposals on where the problems might be and streamline the communication.

That’s all I have this week. Happy Monday and I’ll see you next week.

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