A commercial offer is an important marketing tool. In order to make it effective you should pay a special attention to it. Incorrect design or incorrect emphasis can lead to the loss of the client and the cancellation of the transaction.

Sales guru Dean Shantz argues that many proposals force consumers to put in too much mental effort. What is this effort? And how can you make it easier if it really is that unbearably hard?

Commercial offers …

1 Answering the question “What?”

It explains what your company is, with an emphasis on status and prestige. For example: “We are the largest supplier of such and such devices in the region.”

2 Answering the question “What is it doing?”

It conveys the essence of what exactly your company does for customers, that is, it explains what exactly you are offering. The emphasis here is on performance, function and price. For example: “We offer high quality devices at the most affordable price.”

3 Answering the question “What does this mean?”

This means that the offer conveys a clear message to the client: working with your firm (that is, purchasing your product) is extremely beneficial for his further prosperity. For example: “You will never have to stop production again due to the lack of our devices.”

Why the commercial offer doesn’t work

When you answer the question “What?” About your company, the first thing that comes to the client’s mind is, “What’s the use for me?”

This is especially true when you use vague language like “We are the leading supplier.” But even if the message contains specific numbers – say, “The net profit for the first half of the year was 5 million rubles” – it may turn out that for the consumer these numbers do not mean exactly what they do for you.

The same is with a proposal that answers the question “What is it doing?”: It forces the customer to independently figure out how the characteristics and functions of your product meet his needs. And again, the first thing in his mind is the question: “What’s the use to me?”

How to convey what you want to say

A sentence that answers the question “What does this mean?” Does all the dirty work for the client. It is aimed at immediately dispelling the doubts of the customer, and it will be clearer to him how it satisfies his needs.

Here are some examples:

• “What?”: “We are the leading provider of spam blocking software.”
• “What is it doing?” “Our software detects unwanted messages, allows you to report spam, and sends alerts.”
• “What does it mean?”: “You can better protect yourself from viruses.”
• “What?”: “We are a personnel training company.”
• “What does it do?”: “We offer a wide range of training courses.”
• “What does it mean?”: “We will help your employees master new knowledge and skills in a short time.”

Keep in mind that a truly effective proposal that answers the question “What does it mean?” Also hints at financial benefits. This further convinces the client that your services are exactly what they need.

An interesting commercial offer must necessarily:

• Be written in a language understandable to the client – without special effects and technical slang
• have a non-standard or approach to design – abstract blocks, font, color, corporate identity
• contain marketing tools – favorable terms of cooperation, motivational blocks, tasty bait

We recommend making a universal corporate version of the commercial proposal, which can always be changed and corrected for specific tasks. This can become a special feature of your company and will be a clear advantage over your competitors.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with Dean Schwaz’s Twitter profile. And you will definitely have creative ideas. https://twitter.com/dss001

And here are the creative ideas in our portfolio: https://dalistrategies.com/en/category/projects/