BRX Pro Tip: No Proposals
Stone Payton: [00:00:01] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Stone Payton, Lee Kantor here with you, Lee, anyone who has hung out with me for any length of time knows I have never, I will never, I do not write proposals. But let’s talk it through a little bit and maybe describe why that’s our approach to this whole thing.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:20] Right. And some of it could be semantics and some of it is persuasion. But we do do recap conversations, we do make recommendations, and we do, you know, get agreement. So, all of that stuff happens, but we do not propose. And that’s an important distinction. So why don’t you explain the terms?
Stone Payton: [00:00:40] That’s a good point. So, I guess some of it could be semantics. And even if your prospect and sometimes, they will call something a proposal, “Hey, can you get a proposal over to me?” That kind of thing. You don’t have to be quite as abrupt as Stone might be. You might just say “yes” or you might say, “Hey, man, I will be delighted to get a recap or recommendation summary to you.” But again, it goes back to this framing, this positioning of coming out of a collaborative conversation or you’ve co-authored the show concept.
Stone Payton: [00:01:08] It comes back to positioning yourself as a definitive authority with specialized knowledge and expertise in the field. I genuinely am not proposing anything. Proposed literally means to set forth for a consideration. “Look, this is all I do. I’ve been doing it for 20+ years. I’m good at it. Based on what I’ve learned in this conversation, I’m recommending you take this course of action. I am not putting forth for your consideration something that maybe you ought to think about doing. I know what you ought to do. And I mean, look, if you ever get bored, go Google Stone Payton and the word proposal, and you’ll see articles on this stuff.”.
Stone Payton: [00:01:47] But from a positioning standpoint, you don’t have to be rude about it, you can be nice about it. But just reframing it in a discussion guide, a recap, you know, just anything like that, a recommendation summary, where you truly are peer-to-peer. They’re coming to you as experts in their field with some specific needs. You’re coming to them with based on their inputs and your expertise, your position to make recommendations. You’re gonna find that so much more effective. Now, look, let me not be the first one to tell you. Only top 5, 10 percent people, sales people on the planet do this.
Stone Payton: [00:02:22] So, I mean, not that many people will do it this way, but you’re gonna find it so much faster and more effective if you will get out of the habit of doing proposals. And maybe just a little baby step, Lee, if nothing else, just for God sakes, quit calling it a proposal. You know, if your first little baby step is, you know, “Look, Stone, you’re all wet. I’ve made sales like this before. I’m going to keep doing proposals.” Do this, try this, just the next proposal if you decide to do it, you send it out, just call it something else. See if you don’t get a little better result.
Lee Kantor: [00:02:55] And it’s important to understand that you can’t do any of this. You can’t prescribe any solution before you diagnose what the problem is. And you have to know what they’re trying to accomplish before you can make any kind of recommendation. It goes back to your saying in terms of the positioning, you’re an expert talking to another expert. You’re an expert in what you do. They’re an expert, theoretically, in what they do. These are two experts brainstorming the best way to work together. You’re determining if the relationship is a fit for you. They’re determining if your solutions are the right fit for them. So, what you’re doing is recommending this course of action based on hearing their problem and knowing what you do.
