Send Sales Proposals Within 48 Hours

Lately I’ve been talking to a number of service providers as we continue to expand — everything from office space to marketing firms to recruiting agencies and I’m amazed at how long it takes to get proposals from people. Optimistically, I like to think it’s a good thing — their business is doing well and they’re busy. In reality, I’m guessing they aren’t being prioritized like they should.

Take note: proposals should be sent to the prospect within 48 hours.

Yes, some business proposals are more custom and complicated but the majority are boiler plate requiring less than 30 minutes of customization. For our own sales team — yes it is a product and not a service — we strive to get proposals over to prospects the same day they ask for them. Of the 10+ proposals I’ve received over the past 45 days, the majority took over 48 hours to get back to me and the content didn’t appear to be customized beyond 10-30 minutes of work. Service providers need to sign up customers when they are ready to buy.

What else? What have you seen with proposal response times?