How to Structure Proposals to Win High-Value Deals

Today on the podcast, we're going to be going over a proposal review. What should go into your proposal? How should you structure your proposal? You know, those sorts of questions. And the reason why we're doing that today is because we are continuing with the follow from last week. I don't want to use his real name because now we're going in depth. So I don't want to expose his, you know, so it's the fellow who is stepping in to run his father's tire company.

And I think that's commendable by the way. So for those of you who have family owned businesses, really just think of it as NYSE, think of it as National Youth Corps. Just go in there, bid your time, do your bid, you know, help the company blow. It's an asset that is going to pay all of you as a family at the end of the day. And also you're going to learn lots of transferable skills so that when you now start your own hustle, you'll be better off for it.

So this fellow is helping his father run the tyre company. And it's not just tyres, you know, like ordinary tyres for, you know, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Camry, those kinds of things. It's more like industrial, industrial tyres, industrial sized tyres, So tractors, truck heads, you know, all those sorts of things. Now, in stepping into this company, the fellow had a good idea that was going to help boost the sales of the company by running round a couple of corporate bodies and dropping proposals there about how it would be a good idea for them to do business with them.

Oh, by the way, for those of you who listened to that particular episode, remember that I pointed out one thing that lots of people don't realise, that when it comes to certain kinds of businesses, especially high value businesses like this where it's B to B, business to business, you will find that the company you're talking to already has somebody that they're doing business with. There is an incumbent. So you're actually trying to do 2 things when you're running around dropping your proposals just like this guy does.

You are not just trying to sell your own market, you are also trying to unseat whoever is inside that organization. So you sell tyres like this. The challenge is twofold. You're going to an organization to say buy from me. Or the truth of the matter is this, especially in B to B, business to business, the people that you're going to already have a vendor that they've been doing business with. No one is just standard. It is very rare that you are going to be the first person.

So just know if you're in this situation, you're trying to do 2 things, sell yourself, and you're trying to unseat somebody. Now we're also going to look at some ways that we can unseat somebody because truth be told, like I said, they will already be somebody who is there. So yeah, these are the sorts of things that we're going to be looking at today on the podcast. Now, if you love learning about these sorts of things and if you love scratching your head about these sorts of things, then stay tuned in to this podcast.

Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your choice. This is all we do here 2, three times a week. Business problems. How do you grow the business through sales? How do we grow it through marketing? How do we troubleshoot on a bunch of things? My name is Tavishy Mahade, I'm the host of the podcast. If you'd ever love love to connect with me, then call, send a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.

So like I said today we're doing a proposal review. The company based in Lagos, what they sell is tires and industrial tires for trucks, tractor heads, those sorts of things. And the fellow who is coming in to run the family business assumes that you can grow the business by dropping proposals with certain corporate entities saying buy from us. Now, that is a very good idea. There are lots of things that can be done when you want to grow your business.

I keep on talking about over here on the podcast. If you want to simplify it, you can think inbound and outbound. Inbound are tactics, tips, strategies that try to make you look pretty so that people can chase you. So you know all that SEO, content marketing, things like that. The whole idea is you're there in the office, you're chilling in the AC, and then people are sending you emails, they're sending you DMS, they're knocking on your front door to say, oh boy, how far, how much is your tire?

That is inbound. Then there is our bound. Our bound is you're going outside and chasing people. Now inbound is good, yes. Our bound is also good, yes. Which one is best? Neither of them. You should be doing both. However, inbound is a long term approach. If you're going to be putting our content on LinkedIn to establish thought leadership so that people will come and buy your tires, Just know that if you start it in January, don't expect that business will come from it in December.

It doesn't work that way. It takes a while to build thought leadership. So if you're going to do inbound, just know inbound is going to take time. So excuse me. So just know that inbound is going to take time. I'm putting it out there just so that you know. Now, one of the reasons why I favor outbound approaches is because when it comes to outbound, you have a certain measure of control over the results. So this guy now that is going out to go and drop proposals.

If he drops only one proposal, well, some success might come from it and some might not. If he drops 20 proposals a month, OK, now he's making sense. If he's able to drop 100 proposals in a month, OK, assuming that he's effective at what he's doing, excuse me, His effort will be directly correlated to how soon can he get progress and how much progress can he get. So that's one of the reasons why I like outbound approaches.

In a way. You are in control, small. If you do plenty of work, good. If you don't do work, work any work at all, then you know, too bad for you. But every business should be doing both. So it's my assumption that apart from dropping proposals that this guy is also trying to do some content marketing, some online, whatever to boost the business as well. But anyway, whenever people pick up the phone or whenever people go from office to office, I

always applaud them and say well done also because that is the kind of activity that builds all those transferable skills that I'm talking about. You will learn how to have a conversation with someone. You sit down in somebody's office, you shake their hand, you see them eye to eye. And whether you're a small boy or you're a big man, whether you're a small girl or a big girl, you have to sit down, you have to face somebody.

You have to know how to handle yourself, know how to carry yourself. So this kind of activity, whenever people do it, I say very, very good, very good, you know, continue. So where was I now before I started making this podcast episode? The guy had already listened to the previous episode and he sent me a message saying I had that. He has realized one problem. I said, what's the problem? He said that the problem is that he has been sending the same documents to every single company and he realizes that that was wrong and that's what he's going to change.

Now, I don't remember talking about that in any previous episode, but just in case, you know, I didn't, but somehow he inferred. Let me repeat it here just in case it wasn't clear enough. Yes, indeed, if you're running around dropping proposals, it actually is a problem. If you're dropping the exact same document in every single establishment, the only thing that you're changing is the company name. So your proposal is the same when you drop it for Zenith Bank, you just simply erase MD

Standard Chartered and you now put Zenith Bank. You carry the same document, you take it to Stampic IBTC, you now erase Zenith Bank and now put Stampic IBTC. Then you take the exact same proposal, you take it to Union Bank, you now erase Stampic IBTC and you now put Union Bank. No, you're not increasing the odds that your document is going to be read. Dropping the same document with every company is a problem. Proposals should be targeted or personalized or customized or whatever word you want to use to increase the chance of it being read or the chance of it being considered.

Because especially know that we're talking about business to business. Now you're selling to other businesses, B to B, other businesses. They receive proposals all the time. So they know all the tricks. They know when they receive a document that are this one, that template, they know. And nobody's going to waste time reading templated documents. They have a business to run. Other people are trying to sell to them every single week.

And 8090% or however many percent of people are sending in templates. So they already know. I can assure you, if your proposal looks like a template, if it smells like a template, it's going to be treated like a template document. So increase the odds in your favour. The guy has realized it, but that some of you maybe who you have not realized. If all you're doing is changing the name of the MD and changing the name of the institution when you submit the proposal, that is not enough to increase the chance that this thing is going to be read, considered, maybe acted upon.

Target it, customize it to each individual business. But then some of you say that has work. Of course it is work for those of us who are sales professionals. What do we get paid for? We get paid for the work. It was as simple as just taking templates and sending it out to organisations. Your auger would not hire you in the 1st place. Your auger will just create the template himself or herself and send it to 1000 companies and then problem solved.

No need to have a salesperson. So yes, it is work to customize these things, but that is precisely what we get paid for. Now, you, the business owner, just like this guy who's stepping in and running the company, it's the same thing. It's a lot of work, but you know, that's just life. We put in some hard work, we yield it yield some results. If it was that easy, because remember, he's stepping in to take over a family business.

It was that easy. His father who was running the business would have just been take printing template and sending it to 1000 companies and there'll be no need for the son to step into the family business because right now they'll be billionaires if it was that easy. So yes, it's a lot of work. So be a big boy, be a big girl, do the work. It's one of the reasons why I don't like when I hear people saying work harder, not smarter.

Like, can we stop all that rubbish please? It's both. You work hard and you work smart. But my fear is that with the way the world is, especially for men, young boys, when you hear work smart, it usually leads to boys thinking in shortcut mentality and that doesn't help in business. OK, so customize the document. Now the document starts off the proposal that this guy is going to submit because that's, for example, it starts off with a cover letter and you know,

that's good, that's good. So yeah, we all have a cover letter. I won't go into any more detail with that. Then the thing was addressed to the procurement manager and that was my first question. You addressed it to procurement manager. How do you know it should be addressed to or treated by the procurement manager? In the episode that I made before this one, I think maybe it was last week, I mentioned about how it's a good idea to show face in the company 1st or call the company 1st and try and figure out who is responsible for XYZ for whatever it is you sell.

Because for some companies it's different. There's one of my clients that before we started, we assumed that it was the business development manager we should be calling upon. By the time I made one or two phone calls, I said they say no, they gel, they say no, they blend. So I changed the approach. I started asking who should I be talking to, who is responsible for XYZ? And they say, oh, he actually is the community manager.

And then I started asking for the community manager and I started getting better results. So before you send your proposal, do not assume that The thing is getting to the right place. Except if you know like it's your business. You've been doing this for 25 years, so you already know the industry. You know the every every. In that case, no problem. But if you're coming in green, you're coming in fresh, it won't hurt. Pick up the phone and call.

Try to find out who's responsible for or walk into the office. The first person you meet will be the receptionist. Be polite, be a human being, be respectful, introduce yourself. And then you ask who's the person responsible for that is who, you know, who the proposal is supposed to be addressed to. But yes, I think it makes sense that he sent it to the procurement manager. But the reason why I'm asking, you know, is it the right person is because somebody's business also have a fleet manager.

Sometimes it's the fleet manager who's responsible for buying tires. Sometimes there's a maintenance department who is responsible for, you know, all these things. So it is not always procurement. Procurement definitely is the department that at the end of the day procurement we release the money. So procurement is the one that will authorize the transaction for the thing to heat your account. It doesn't necessarily mean that procurement is where the process starts.

So my brother, that's one thing you need to check. Don't be just addressing the whole thing to procurement manager, except if you know, POPSY has been doing this for like 25 years and you know, that's just the way Nigerian companies roll when it comes to buying tires. They're OK. Yeah, sure, no problem. But for this, your idea, you know, go to one or two offices, be nice to the receptionist and ask her who is responsible for,

you know, I don't know how you say it. Who's responsible for managing trucks? I'll be who's responsible for purchase replacements or whatever. Well, she tells you. Yeah, that's a good place to start. Then in the cover letter, they spoke about strategic partnerships. And I've said in the podcast in the past, but I guess I've not said it too many times. So let me say it again today, Please, in whatever document you sent to somebody, do not put strategic partnership there at the SME level, at the small level.

I'm not talking at the big boy level or the big girl level business. Don't don't the businesses don't understand what strategic partnership mean. It's just fancy grammar. What people like in this part of the world is they like money or they like customers. So if you're sending somebody a proposal to say that, look, I can save you XYZ amount or I can help you make XYZ amount or I can help you attract XYZ number of customers, people understand that that is a value proposition that business owners in the SME

space in Nigeria understand very well. If you go in and you're telling somebody strategic partnership, they would just know this guy his master's educated and this guy schooled abroad and you'll be impressive, but you know, that's it. So please at this SME level where we are now, when we become Titans of industry, won't reach down, go to his level and here we can start talking strategic partnership. It's always like down what it says.

I have strategic partnership, people will listen, but we're not there yet. So at this level, the value that people understand is money or customers. So if you're talking to somebody, you're either saving their money or you're helping them make money or you're helping them get customers. So start from there. You can't go wrong. Then in the document, in the cover letter, the the proposal also spoke about operational efficiency and cost savings.

Good. Now you're making sense. The only thing I will just say is in the proposal, yes, it's good to use big words like that, operational efficiency, but you need to look for ways to make it much more conversational to let the business know that. Look, the reason why I'm reaching out to you today is because by my XYZ product, I'm hoping to save you XYZ amount if we get the chance to work together. That's a much more given the Nigerian context, that is a much more how I put it.

Now let's say effective, it's a better way of saying operational efficiency then cost savings. OK, Yeah, that's OK. I think it's already I'll be I'll be all joined. OK, let me just say it's the same. When do you you get my point? So all these big words, they're good. We just look need to look for more conversational ways of fleshing it out. So it's nice that the cover letter hinted at that, that look, doing business with us,

you get more efficient, you'll be spending too much doing business with us. We're going to be saving costs. So that's good. Then the proposal also had a brochure attached. OK, there's another one of those words. I say brochure book, you know, I'm Catholic now in the Catholic Church, you know, we say brochure. So it had a brochure attached was my Catholic brothers who say a brochure. So the brochure was attached and that is good kind of.

But remember that you're reaching out to total strangers. So a personalized proposal letter in the beginning is the best. When they ask you for brochure, then you can now submit brochure. One thing you need to know about brochures is this. When you submit a brochure, I'm being real with you here yourself, you know because you've done it. Brochures are schemed. Somebody will give you a nice brochure for the business. They have spent money producing this thing.

It's nice and glossy. You will just take it and just flip through and then you drop it on your desk and then you forget and the thing better gets looked at again. So it's nice to have all these marketing collateral is good. We need it, we should make it. But don't lead with the brochure. Don't show up. Show that you're paying attention to people. Show that you understand what their problems are. Show that you have a sense of how you can help them.

Lead with all that. First, your brochure or your brochure can come later. Then there was an executive summary. You know, it's OK, it's OK. It's also not bad. You have to put your executive summary. But the problem is that, you know, executive summary in this case and talking about their years of experience. And of course that is chest beating. That's the problem in executive summary. Executive summary just means you're, you're, you start off by by boasting we're the greatest,

we're the best, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all these sorts of things. But from the executive summary, I found out some interesting, how I put it. There are some interesting UVP buried inside the executive summary. UVP is a unique value proposition. The unique value proposition is the answer to the question, why do people do business with me or why should people do business with me? And so there was something there that was buried in the executive summary, which I think should be the vanguard, like the focus,

the driving force of them going out to reach for people in the executive summary in the proposal they have here that their pricing average is on average 10% below the competition. I repeat, their pricing average is 10% below the competition. And they can achieve that because they do bulk imports. So the tire company is able to save 10% on costs on average because they buy in bulk, import from Obodo IBU and they import.

Now that is not a small thing. Think about it. In other words, what they're saying is if you have been spending one M buying tires, doing business with us, expect to spend 900K. Now that's not beans, especially for people who own a fleet of trucks. And of course, you can't buy tire one rather buy them two two or you buy them, you know, 4466 you understand. So 10% savings is huge. Then also in the executive summary, they also had it there that they have helped some of their clients achieve 20 to 30%

reduction in tire related costs, 20 to 30% reduction in tire reserve costs or more. That's huge. That is good. Remember at the beginning of the podcast, I was telling you people that this thing of strategic partnership, stop talking strategic partnership at the SME level. Nigerian businesses don't want to hear that what they know or what they value is. If you do business with me, I will help you save money or I will help you make money or I

will help you get customers. So speak in those terms. Now buried here in the executive summary, can you see that this is a sweet unique value proposition here? This is sweet. Do business with us, spend on average 10% less on buying the tire. Do business with us when it comes to anything tire related, we could be saving you anything between 20 to 30% in tire related costs. Now in my own opinion. Now this thing in the executive summary, especially if it is true, and I think it is true because they've been in business for over 15 years.

So I think it is true. This is a good problem statement to start the conversation, and this is precisely the reason why I think somebody in this guy situation should go in to start the conversation. This thing is buried in executive summary. People hardly read these things because everybody, you know, did not see templates up and down. You cannot emphasize it because it's buried in the document. But when you're talking to somebody face to face, it is something that you can say it is a good problem statement or a conversation opener.

You can go into the secretary's and say Madam, my name is Chukuye Buka. Something, something, something. I'm a so, so and so tyre company. I hope I can do some business with your company. I beg my Novak's please. Who is responsible for maintaining the fleet, replacing the tyre? Something, something, something. Oh, it's Boss Chukuna M. OK. Can I book an appointment with him? Chukuna M is not around. It's not on seats. And he traveled to the village.

He'll be back next week Wednesday. OK. Next week Wednesday. So can I come back next week Wednesday? And I won't promise you, Sir, but he can come and say our sister Beg. Let me get your phone number. You say? Why? No, No. I just want to No, nobody say anything. I just want to call you just to find out. When Boss Chukuna M is around, she won't give you her personal number because she thinks you know, you're a young man.

You look shifty, and she's happily married, so she'll give you the organization's number. So, Sister Novak, I beg your name, please. So when I call, like I ask for you by name. So my name is Patricia. OK. No problem, man. I'm Patricia. So since Boss is coming back on Wednesday, I bet Novak I'll call you on Tuesday. My name is Chukudi. It's OK, Chukudi. No problem. That's it. You leave then. You know, Boss, on Tuesday you say how far the weather, you know, if you could you know who came last week.

Oh, hey, I remember, blah, blah, blah, how it's working, how this disease that that how family. Then you move straight to the point. You know, bro stricken AM Is he going to be back tomorrow? Oh, yes, he is. I beg, please, I don't mind. Oh, I would like book appointment. Let me just see the guy. So anyhow, anyhow, sure, eventually you get to sit down with bro stricken AM instead of dropping broke your instead of dropping template proposal.

If you start off the conversation by saying good morning, Sir, thank you very much for your time. I know you're a busy man, so I'm not going to waste your time. The reason why I'm here basically is this we're from so so and so company. We've been doing business for 15 years. And for all the clients that we've been working with all of them, we've been able to save them 10% on the cost of buying tires. And I looked at your trucks outside, Sir, I recognize those models.

That is the MDZMDZ. So, so and so on average, we know that the competition spends 1.2 per tire. So if you're managing your whole fleet and going through us, we can be saving 120K per tire on every single thing that you have there on that fleet. So Sir, does that sound interesting to you or do you want to see how we can help us, how we can help you achieve that level of cost savings in your business? Bam, you give it like that opening statement, who is not going to be impressed or curious that for the fleet that I have in the back by 10 trucks each tire I've been buying 1.2 M

you're now coming and saying that you can help me save 120K per tire. Who will not be interested Or you start off the conversation by saying you know, of course the whole preamble, you know, brochure couldn't. I am. Thank you very much for your time. I know you're a busy guy. Let me get straight to the point. This is who we are. This is what we do 25 years experience on average we've been saving our customers 20 to 30%

reduction in tire related costs. Would you like to see how we can do that for your business? Now, I'm not saying that if you come in with that approach, you will close every single deal, but you will get somebody's, you will get lots of people's attention that way. Some people say 20% how you say you say, Sir, this one nobody say. It's not as if I'm boasting, Sir. We've been doing a study for our clients. All we have to do is let me just go back with you.

Now let's look at your trucks. Let me see the model. Let me gauge the tire. Let me see the everything you know, let's discuss just level will be how much have you been spending on this, on this, on that, on that, on that. Let me look at things right now. In fact, the thing wouldn't even take time. Pop C is in head office now as we finish this meeting and go back to your office, I'll call Pop C1 time and we can let you know how much we can save you if you start being if you start doing business with us today.

So bro, in this executive summary, this thing that you have there, especially if it is true and over the last 1520 years, This is why people have been helping people. One more, OK, that is a key something the key conversation starter that you used to be starting conversation with people. I really think you should enter and be starting conversation with people first. After that conversation, you will now send proposal because before everything you spoke was mouth, mouth, mouth.

So proposal is now you're putting it down on paper. The proposal will now be this company proposal for that company, you know, priority discussion that we had on so, so, so date and the need assessment, the assessment we did on so, so, so and so, you know, is it prior to following from those discussions? This is our proposal and this is how much we should be able to how much in savings we should be able to help you guys achieve blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah. Yeah, provided we can get a three-year contract from you guys, you know, something like that. You see the proposal will now be formality that you're doing after the fact to now wrap up the whole thing because you had a meeting, you gauged that they were interested. And then you're you, you, your unique value proposition. You put it out there, bam, are you interested? And it looks like they're interested. By the way, you now see how you will all seat somebody in this situation.

If what you're saying is true, that you're saving people 10% on average per tire. And then when you join all the cost, everything combined tire related, you're saving people 20 to 30%. See the truth of the matter is this. Even if you don't help somebody save 20%, you said 20 to 30% by the end of the day, you help them save 15.5 is still impressive. Trust me, still impressive anyway. So bro, in your executive summary, you have gold buried in there.

Remove it from the executive summary. Let that be part of a conversation starter that you're having with somebody face to face, provided you're talking with the right person. Then there was a company overview in the document. You know you have to pull company overview, but don't stress it because you're talking about yourself and talking about yourself honestly is not the way forward. I'm the greatest, I'm the best, I'm the brightest.

This is how we started the company. Black me, me, me, me, me, me, me. That's not the best. You'll be focused on your customer. Them, them, them, them, them. Then there was also a vision statement there. Well, you know you have to put vision statement, but then again, don't stress about this thing because to be honest, nobody cares about your vision statement. I can assure you. If you drop your proposal with 100 contacts, I can assure you 98 of them will not read your vision statement.

There was also a mission statement, I can assure you, nobody cares about your mission statement. Then there was also stuff there about your core values. I can assure you nobody cares about your core values. So some of these things are just taking up space then. I'm sorry, hold on. Let me check my notes because as I was reading the proposal, I was making some notes. I'm just free starting on the things here. Then there's a section in the proposal that was portfolio products ahead.

That is good because there they had different categories and different key products and different specs. You know, tractor tyre, this tyre, that tyre, this millimetre, this gross gross tonnage, gross metric ton, gross, all those things. No problem. Now those ones, that part of the document, they will read it because it makes sense to them which tyre, which metric ton, from which country, from which spec, how many millimetre, how many thread, they'll read that one.

It's important to them. People actually care about that instead of putting portfolio product in the back. This is actually stuff that you should move early on to the proposal so that people will see quick, quick. Then the section on pricing and delivery, of course they didn't put any number there, you know, which is smart. You should not put pricing number down until you have done qualification and discovery, until you have had a conversation with them about the company, what they do, you know,

stuff like that. They're interested, especially since your unique value proposition is saving 10% on the cost of each tire and then the total cost of everything combined saving 20 to 30%. You actually need to run some comps with them, run some comparisons with them. How much are you spending on this? How much are you spending on that? OK, going through US, this one, this one, this one, we could serve, we could be saving you X

amount if you go with option AX amount, if you go option BX amount if you go with option C. It is then that you now put something down on paper in a proposal after you have had the conversation mouth to mouth, face to face or phone to phone so that the proposal is just a summary. It's just, it's just a formality for me. Honestly, that's how I prefer to do business. I, I personally never leave with the proposal. We have the conversation 1st and it looks like we're making sense and we're going to work together, right?

No problem. Let me send you a proposal. So you have things in record on black and white so you can refer to. So where was I? Pricing and delivery? Yeah. So that's it. It's good that they didn't put price there, but then they say after vendor registration, you know, when you put things like this. So this is also after vendor registration. It looks kind of sneaky, you know, like I will show you my own until you show me your own first, you know, somehow.

So don't play those games with people. So in this case, it should be a straightforward conversation. Just like I said, we've been able to save our clients on average 20 to 30% in operational costs and we're sure that we should be able to do the rest by you as well. So let's just have a conversation. Let's go Outback, let's look at the trucks. Let me give you a sense of how much it is that we can save. OK, very cool. So this is the pricing that we can promise you.

But in exchange you will give us three years contractor and the person who say 3 year contract, how you say our boss now you sell check out now while giving you 10% in savings. You can't just buy from us once and then just expose like that. Now. Come on now, you know, saying our family business, you know, Popsy is in the head office. I can't go back and say that, you know, you only bought 2 tires. See bro, this is a sweet deal.

Trust me, this will pay you. Check the numbers. So you give us a three-year contract. OK, well maybe you should ask for a five year contract then you guys, you know, jump back and forth and then you settle on, you know, a two year contract or something, you know, but that's how you do it. Not this, you know, show me yours, I show you mine kind of thing, you know, payment and delivery after vendor registration, this Niger people will not want to register as vendor first and then now find out, oh this is the price and they say no, don't want to back out.

So let's see what else? What else, what else, what else? And then they also put value proposition of the company there. Nobody cares about that except if you're talking about causing value proposition that they were talking about. What did they talk about again? Is it professionalism and you know, stuff, stuff, stuff, you know, some of this fluffy stuff. Honestly, you can just take this out of your proposal. Then there's also a part where in the proposal they said that compliance and supporting documents available on requests and well, OK, that's not bad.

But The thing is, how about this should be another part where you make this thing conversational, Have a conversation with the person. When it looks like you are making progress, you will now ask the fleet manager or ask a procurement manager or ask whoever it is. So OK, cool. If I'm going to take the next step, then I need to know what documents you need for internal compliance. The guy will say, what do you mean? You say, you know, I work with some people.

There's some people that say procurement cannot pay to anybody unless we have CAC registration on file and we have what's this thing called TIN tax identification number CAC and teen and something and anti money, anti money Abby AM V AM something, something I can't remember anti money, anti anti money laundering something, something. So there's some businesses or there's some companies that that is just the those are just their protocols that before they buy with you, you must submit all of those clearance.

Anti money laundering submits the paper. Tax identification, submit the paper. Corporate Affairs Commission, submit the paper. Now for those of us who used to do charcoal, charcoal exports, Ministry of Agriculture was the Ministry of Agriculture or Ministry of Trade, I can't remember anyway, but there were some clearances that we needed a Ministry of Environment. You must submit all the papers. So ask them, they will now tell you this is what we need for compliance, internal compliance.

You say, oh sure, no problem. If that's what you need, I can make those documents available. Then when you're submitting the proposal in that section, instead of saying compliance and support available on request, you also put it there as per our conversation on so, so, so and so date. We will be supplying the follow documents as part of your internal compliance, CAC registration, blah, blah, anti money laundering something tax identification.

You just list everything down there. And then the proposal is more of a formality. As we've spoken, the main, the main proposal is just let me put this thing down in writing so that everybody can see what we've agreed. Then there was a section on references and testimonials, you know, available on request, you know, as usual. But, you know, like I said, instead of asking that, how about when you're having those meetings?

You ask when it looks like you're making progress now. Yeah, I've made lots of claims so far, and I can understand if you're skeptical, like, you're worried, like, can I really meet these claims? I'll be willing to share some phone numbers with you from our previous customers that we've worked with in construction. OK, yeah. Because for in this document actually they put one company that was construction and I think they put one company that was catering.

Was it catering or something? And I was, I was just wondering, you know, catering by the way, you would tell them we have wide variety of clients who work with people from construction all the way to catering. So I'm willing to give you 2 or 3 numbers so we can call people and verify our claims. So would you like that? Yes. What kind of industries did you prefer? Yes. Or are you familiar with social company? Well, yes, I know them now.

We've seen their work. We've seen this is. Yeah, we did some work for Odugu. So, so and so they have his number. You can call him directly. Really. Yeah, sure. I can give you the phone number. And then of course, in the proposal that you're sending, it will be like that. Now references and testimonials as per our conversation on so, so, so and so, here are the numbers for so, so, so who can verify our claims on saving 20

to 30%, you know, blah, blah, blah. So let's see, OK, they also claim that they had somebody who didn't have 0 breakdowns for six months. OK, I think that's impressive. But anyway, let me just move on. You know, when you're looking at documents like this, there are plenty of things that you can comment on. And then plus I've already been this episode is already over 40 minutes. Let me just bring this to a close, but basically my brother summaries.

I love as you're stepping in and so pop ups you on this thing and with the level of household that you're bringing to this thing, I know that you guys go far. My honest recommendation, don't just print out documents and then go to office and then be dropping. Drop, drop, drop, drop, drop. If it's like that you can drop proposals. I mean is it not proposal print and drop? You can print and drop 100 dropping 100 companies in Lagos in one month.

It can be done. You can rough it and be shy be dropping like 25 proposals, OK, no, Lagos is plenty of traffic, OK, maybe 100 proposals, maybe that will take you two months. But The thing is, it can be done. But this is not just about dropping documents. It's about making sure that documents are read. It's about making sure that the documents are effective. It's about making sure that people take action on the documents.

So my recommendation, go in, try and identify who the right person, the right person to talk to is. When you're sitting in front of that person, start with a problem statement or going with your UVP summaries. Thank you very much Sir for your time. I know you're a busy person. So let me just go straight to the point. Me and Popsy been doing this also 25 years and so far on average we've been saving our people 10% off of tire costs or between 20 to 30% on anything that is tire related.

Then don't just leave things on the on the theoretical level when you are going into the office, let's say you saw some of the trucks parked outside, you know the models and you know the tire that they buy, just use as an example. So for instance that MAN truck that you have outside there and recognize those tires. We will have something similar. That is the XYZ 5000. On average people are buying one in the market, 560K with us,

you'll be taking about 60 K off of each individual tire. And Sir, look at it, that truck plus the tractor bed, all of them is 12 tires. If we're saving 60K off of 1 tire and it's 12 tires, that should be a total of blah blah blah blah blah. So Sir, would you be interested in seeing how we can help your company achieve these kind of savings? By the way, remember Bros, that's provided what you're saying is true. Give it to the guys straight like that.

You will not end up doing business with everybody. But I can assure you some people will be interested and say really, you can save me. So, so, so and so. I don't believe it. And then the rest of the conversation is look, Sir, I do this for a living is a very straightforward something. Let's just go out back. Let me see your trucks. Popsy's in the office now. I can call him on the phone. We can do this thing shop shop.

I can tell you per each truck how much will be saving you if you're willing to go for a two year commitment with us. In fact, after we finish this meeting, because remember, we should be securing advancements after we finish this meeting and me and Popsy show you the we show you the figures. I can be back here again next week Wednesday to drop a hard copy on your desk. And then you know, the next day you can come over to warehouse,

come and see all the tires live and direct. Come and see what we have. Nobody say I'm just using mouth. See what you're trying to secure advancements. So we've had this meeting. Now the next step is I come and drop proposal so you can show to the board while you're trying to run the thing with the board. How about you now come to the warehouse, come and see what we have. So you don't know your business. So I'm not sure how you're supposed to lay out the whole thing.

But just remember at every stage be securing advancements, advancements. What is the next step? What is the next step? Don't let any conversation end with and we go young or I'll be in touch or this is impressive or nice one. Don't let any conversation end on that note. Then one more practical thing for your proposal, you spent a lot of time talking about your company in the proposal, my brother. It's not necessary. Spend more time talking about the other person's company.

How you do that? It's very easy. We have AI tools on our phone. I'm assuming you're an Android user, just like I'm an Android user. There's something from Google that is called Notebook LM. Notebook NOTE and then book Bo OK, and then LM capital letters, everything written together as one word. Notebook LM download it. When you download Notebook LM on your phone, you now take the the link, the website link of the company that you want to send the proposal to.

Copy it and put in Notebook LM. Now you will now be able to ask Notebook LM some questions about the company you ask Notebook LM. Say, dear Notebook LM, tell me what this company is about. Tell me what products they do. Tell me what is there that tell me what are the kind of things that the company might want to do about this one. Like you can ask it any kind of question, provided the answer is on that website. Notebook LM will crawl the website and give you the information that you need that you can now use to personalize your proposal.

This is part of what I mean when I say that these tools are here and people are debating about job loss and debating about this dot dot dot. Don't join them in all these debates. We can use these things to make our business the better. While they are debating about whether AI is good or not, be using it to grow your business, especially while these things are free. Because my fear is this, that Google is letting us have it for free for now.

Don't be surprised if in the next five years or 10 years, do not start charging us for this thing that if you want access to no Book LM, you go and pay them 20K per month or something. So while this thing is free bro, you should be using this thing now. My brothers and sisters be using these things. Go and learn about these tools. No Book LM is on my phone. I use it every day. In fact, the name of the podcast episode that I'm going to use when I upload this podcast, it is Notebook LM that I'm going to use to derive the title for this podcast.

I use Notebook LM every single day. Use these tools. Use them. So I guess the biggest summary, what I'm trying to say is proposals have to be tailored #1 and then proposals are not about you, the sender. It should be about the customer. I think we can imbibe those two main things. I think you should be good. I think you should be OK. So that's it and that's all. Thank you very much for listening for, you know, 15 minutes.

Remember, if you'd love to connect, you have a question, a comment or a query, then hit me up. My name is Tavi Shima IED. I'm the host of the podcast. The number that you can call, send a text message or WhatsApp message to is 08064662140. Thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you later. Oh, and by the way, the other more interesting episodes over 1200 episodes. So just keep listening, keep applying. I'll catch you guys some other time.