Writing Marketing Proposals for B2B Clients

I looked at over 100 proposals worth over $500K as a B2B buyer. I only remember a few. Here are 4 ways you can set yourself apart (and why most proposals never get looked at): 1. Built for the buying committee - not just the champion Most proposals assume one person makes the decision. That’s rarely true. The best ones were written with execs in mind. Mobile-friendly, easy to skim, and structured like a story, not a spec sheet. The kind of doc I could forward without rewriting a single thing. (like Qwilr!) 2. Helped me sell internally The proposals that stood out made me look good. They included visual slides I could screenshot into a board deck. Framed the problem. Showed the cost of inaction. Made the ROI feel obvious. They gave me language to use with my CFO, not just the vendor’s pitch. 3. AEs tracked engagement and followed up with a purpose Great sellers didn’t “check in.” They followed up based on what I actually did. They knew when I viewed the proposal, which sections got read, and what was skipped. Every email felt relevant—because it was. They weren’t guessing what mattered. They had data. 4. AEs pre-empted objections I hadn’t even voiced yet Before legal asked for terms, I had a friendly breakdown of the key clauses. Before procurement jumped in, I had a clear explanation of how pricing scaled. It felt like the AE knew my internal process better than I did - and helped me get ahead of it. TAKEAWAY: Most proposals are written to present. The best proposals are built to sell. Qwilr turns your proposal into a selling tool—one that’s interactive, trackable, mobile-ready, and designed for the whole buying committee. It helps your champion make the case. And it helps you win deals - even when you’re not in the room. If you want to stand out, build proposals that do more than inform. Build proposals that close.

Here’s the proposal template that helped me close over $100 million in enterprise sales: It’s also helped my clients close more than 50% of their deals when they use it. And until now, I’ve never shared it publicly. Most sellers are great at pitching features. But the ones who consistently win big deals? They know how to tell a great story. The truth is, executives don’t buy products - they buy confidence. They buy vision. They buy a story they want to be part of. If you want to sell like a top 1% seller, you need a proposal that doesn’t just inform… it moves people. Here’s how I do it 👇 The Story Mountain Framework for Sales Proposals: 1. Exposition – Introduce the characters and setting. Start with them: → “You’re trying to expand into new markets… to grow revenue… to unify your tech stack…” Set the vision. Make them the hero. 2. Rising Action – Lay out the challenges and obstacles. → “But growth stalled. Competitors moved faster. Customer churn increased.” Quote discovery calls. Surface real pain. Build emotional tension. 3. Climax – Introduce your solution. → “Then you found a better way…” Now show how your solution helps them overcome the exact obstacles you outlined. 4. Falling Action – Ease the tension. → “Here’s our implementation plan. Here’s the ROI. Here’s how others in your industry succeeded.” Give them confidence that this won’t just work—it will work for them. 5. Resolution – End with clarity. → “Here’s our mutual action plan. Let’s get started.” Lock in buy-in, next steps, and forward momentum. This structure has helped me close some of the biggest deals of my career—including an $8-figure enterprise deal at Salesforce where I used this exact approach. I broke it all down in this week’s training—and for the first time ever, I show you the actual proposal I used AND tell you how to access my Killer Proposal Template for free. 👀 Watch the full training here: https://lnkd.in/gPY_cvv5 No more boring product pitches. No more ghosting after the readout. Just proposals that close.

Every single sales team I have ever evaluated has their lowest score on the closing competency.    This really boils down to really crappy proposal meetings and sales pitches.    First we should never be doing a discovery meeting and a proposal meeting at the same time.     If a sales person does split their discovery and proposal meeting, they usually show up with a boiler plate deck completely focused on why the company is so great.    They present every single capability that the prospect doesn't care about, so somewhere within the first 5 minutes the deal is lost.    Here are five things I teach my clients to do when presenting a proposal:    1) Customized each proposal to the client.     2) Start with an objectives slide.     This should be the 3-5 problems you extracted from the discovery call.    After presenting this slide, ask the client if you captured their needs.    It's pretty amazing to see how prospects lean in immediately because you have summarized their challenges so well.    This is a sign you have them hooked.    3) Connect each problem the client has with one of your solutions.    You could sell a 250K piece of equipment that has 100 different "cool" things    The only cool things that matter are the ones that solve the prospects problems.    Only share a maximum of five solutions.    4) Add in a maximum of two slide about your company.    This should be your company's unique value proposition    5) Drop in a testimonial or two that is relevant to that prospect    Always have a strong testimonial on the slide right before you share the pricing    The key to deliver flawless pitches and improving your close rate is about stepping into the prospects world.    I can guarantee you if you follow only one of these steps you with see your close rate increase by a few percent.    If you follow them all you can easily double your close rate    You will realize the problem with your proposal meeting is you don't actually have the information you need to properly present your solution to your client.    And you need to go back and do real discovery meeting to extract the prospects challenges.    Closing starts at the beginning of your sales process, not the end.     #wesleynewisdom