How to increase calls number by 15% without investments

One of key tools in sales of any sector is commercial proposal. The commercial proposal can be sent via email or in print to potential clients. In average, head of companies receive 2-3 commercial proposals per day. One of them is filtered by secretary and one of five reach the head of company.

The reasons for low feedback for commercial proposals are:

1. Faceless. Largest number of commercial proposals is sent without indicating recipient. In the start, it is written “Dear ladies and gentlemen”. It is unknown how this trend appeared. In our country, it is accepted to address with name and patronymic name or surname. For example, “Dear Mr. Ivanov”. In title of the letter, it is better not to write “To all interested persons”, it is better to write the aim of your proposal. In this case, the proposal will reach targeted person and your proposal will not be thrown to bin. On benefits and danger of commercial posts, I will write in another article.

2. Large number of content, which has no relation to business. Head of the companies had no time to read all proposals and you should focus on concrete details: a) what it gives to client, b) main aim of the goal, c) why your proposal is beneficial compared to others, d) convenient forms of cooperation. Various content, which have no relation to the business, is better to remove and change it with concrete statements.

3. Unfeasible phraseology. It is proposed to use such phrases as “We have honour to propose our product to you”, “with pleasure our service”, “express our respect”, “unique proposal”, “progressive system of discounts”, “incommensurable benefits”. At its beauty, the average reader will feel distrust. After communication with manager, who sent letter, it is turnout that he/she does not know “respect” and “progressive system of discounts”. It is necessary to be simple and frank with clients. What about form of your text?

4. Use of various fonts, size of fonts and colors in texts is one of main reasons for clients’ refusal. In order to make commercial proposal beautiful, managers misuse opportunities of MS Word. Good text should be in one font. The readers’ eyes get tired from coloring part of text or background color. Only headlines and separate sections can be separated with large fonts. Try to use bold and italic fonts as less as possible. Use of CAPS LOCK function in text is also considered as bad tone.

Introduce these simple changes to commercial proposals and you will get results soon. Feedback of clients, who received your proposal, will increase by 10-15%.

Should you invest to expensive advertisement, if your commercial proposal was not correctly written? Any work on increasing sales should be started with quality change of commercial proposal.

I can say two reasons to support this statement: introduction of changes will not require investment and it bring concrete results.

Artem Safarov is author of the section “People and Brands”. He is specialist in marketing and PR. He studied crisis management at World Technological University. He worked as manager and director of marketing and PR. He launched his first product in the market at his 20s.