§ 01 · Diagnose
We expose the leak
We map where your proposals are losing conversion today, so you know how much potential revenue is being left behind and where that happens.
Approach
Winning is not luck. It is a habit.
Many serious sales opportunities never become an order. The frustrating part is that you rarely hear why. We turn that mystery into a way of working your team repeats every time, from qualification to signature, and always from your client's point of view.
The starting point
Your client wants to win. Your proposal shows how.
Most proposals are about the supplier: who we are, what we deliver, how proud we are of our process. But the buyer reads only one question: what does this do for me?
We turn the perspective around. Not your offer at the centre, but your client's world. Every sentence, every section and every price is written from what changes for them. That is the difference between a proposal that disappears and a proposal that closes the deal.
The method
Three steps to deals that convert more often
§ 02 · Redesign
We build what does win
Structure, language and presentation rewritten from your client's side. That leads to shorter proposals, sharper choices and a price that feels like an investment instead of a cost.
§ 03 · Steer
We make it a habit
Your team works with a process that keeps improving itself: templates, playbooks and measurement points per proposal. Winning more often is then no longer luck, but the result of how you work.
From method to engagement
The same three steps, as one journey
Diagnose, redesign and steer are not a menu. They follow on from each other: one starting point, a fixed order.
§ 01 · Diagnose
DealScan
€ 999 one-off
The measurement everything starts with. Ten proposals examined, a baseline on the table, and a report that names at least three places where you leave orders behind. It ends with a plan of action in order of priority; our proposal for the next step follows after we have discussed it. If you continue with us, the full fee is credited.
Start with the DealScan →§ 02 · Redesign
The Project
from € 25,000 one-off
Three months. In that time we close the leaks from the scan and put process, presentation and proposition in order. By the end you know before every proposal whether the deal is worth your time, and on day ninety we measure what that has done to your own numbers.
Where you will stand →§ 03 · Steer
The Partnership
from € 3,000 /month
Directly after The Project, for at least nine more months. Every month you steer on your proposals with us, every two weeks your team stands at the sales board, and we join you on your largest deals. Every quarter the team practises in the Pitch Lab.
Where you end up
Where you stand after three months
In many teams, everyone has their own approach and their own files. Proposals go out without anyone asking beforehand whether the deal is worth it, and afterwards nobody knows which hours produced anything.
After three months you know before every proposal whether the deal is worth your time. Your team writes from one structure and asks the client the right questions before the proposal instead of after it. And you see in one overview which deals are moving, which are stuck and which you let go.
On day ninety we measure what that does to your lead time, your proposal volume and your cost of sale per order won. Those are your own numbers, not a promised percentage. We deliberately leave price realisation out of it here, because that only moves once the new way of working has become a habit, and that is The Partnership.
90days to the interim measurement on your own numbers
3numbers: lead time, proposal volume, cost of sale per order won
1structure the whole team writes from
Redesigning the Last Mile
The Project is broader than the proposal. Which parts we tackle follows from the DealScan: we start with the leaks that cost the most. That can be qualification, price justification or follow-up, and often it is a combination.
We train your team on real deals, not on invented cases.
With large deals the emphasis is usually on qualification, deal strategy, the people involved in the decision, proposition, price, pitch and win/loss.
With recurring proposals it is on the standard proposal, modular building blocks, the work process, price structure, automation, fixed follow-up moments, measurement points and training.
Both fall under The Project. It is the same method, with a different centre of gravity.
- Deal qualification
- Commercial proposition
- Proposal strategy
- Proposal framework
- Presentation and pitch
- Pricing and value justification
- Follow-up
- Win/loss
- Agreements on what is recorded in the CRM
- Commercial content that wins deals
- Training on your own deals
What will be in place
What you get
What changes in those three months
The Project is not advice on paper. At the end there is material your team takes out the door the very next day.
§ 01 · Templates and building blocks
Tailored, without a blank page
One master template, with derived versions per situation: a new client or an existing one, and a service description per proposition. Underneath, approved text blocks your team chooses from. Structure, language and order written from your client's side, so every proposal is tailored without anyone starting from a blank page or copying last week's proposal.
§ 02 · One proposition
The same story everywhere
We align content, Tone of Voice and house style across everything the client sees, from the first presentation to the signature. Where needed we also work on the pitch deck, because the proposal has to finish the story the first presentation began. And we hold your marketing materials up against it: does your website say the same as your proposal? Marketing stays with marketing, but your client should never see two companies.
§ 03 · Tools and data
Your tools in line
Which tools your team uses, how they connect and where your commercial data comes together: we decide that together, before anything is bought. Technology follows process and proposition, not the other way round. Setting up the proposal software technically is available as an option. We don't configure the CRM itself; that is what your CRM vendor and functional administrator are for. They get the choices and the sequence from us, and we keep oversight of the whole.
Options that determine the price
Option
Imagery and video
Where the visuals work against the story, we redesign them: from photography to proposal video. We enjoy doing it, and the difference shows immediately.
Option
Win/loss interviews
We call your lost proposals as an independent third party. A buyer tells us what they won't tell you, and a rejection finally gets a reason. Available as the starting point of the engagement, and again later within The Partnership.
How much we do for you determines the price. Hence "from": an engagement covering only templates and proposition is priced differently from one in which we also produce the imagery and video.
Step 3 · Steer
Making winning more often a habit
After The Project, the foundation is in place. The question is whether your team will still work this way three months later. That doesn't depend on the templates, but on the attention the subject gets. That is why The Partnership is not aftercare but a rhythm: the deal returns to the agenda of the board, of the team and of every large opportunity.
In practice: review of your live deals, periodic win/loss, coaching, measuring conversion, refining templates and processes, and a report every quarter. Winning is a habit, and this is where that habit is formed.
We lead that rhythm for as long as it is new, and then hand it over to your sales manager. That handover is the goal. If it goes well, you need us less and less, and you will be the first to notice.
Specialist support where needed: through our partner law firm we make your legal documents sales-proof, so the deal doesn't get stuck on the small print.
3 + 9months: first The Project, then The Partnership
4×a year a Pitch Lab on your own deals
2×the measurement repeated on the same yardstick
Three fixed moments
Every month
You steer, we sit in
Two hours with your board, with a fixed agenda: the pipeline, lead time, price realisation, cost of sale per order won, and which deals failed the threshold questions. If the person with final responsibility isn't at the table, we don't start. Without that table, it fades within a quarter.
Every two weeks
Forty-five minutes at the sales board
With your team: what is moving, what is stuck, which deals take attention they aren't worth, and which you let go. This is the answer to the daily rush. In the first phase we lead it, then your sales manager, whom we coach until they run it on their own.
Every large deal
Alongside you on your top twenty percent
Every proposal in the top twenty percent by value gets the threshold questions beforehand and a review afterwards. Must-wins and tenders always fall under this. That way the method works on the deals where the money is, and not just on paper.
The instrument
The Pitch Lab, every quarter
A day on which your team practises on its own live deals, under our direction. No role-plays with invented cases: the material is next week's pitch and the proposal that has to go out now. Skill wears off if you don't maintain it, and this is the maintenance.
Two phases
Introduce, then Steer
In Introduce we lead the three moments and your organisation gets to know the rhythm. In Steer your sales manager takes over the team, while we stay at the board table and join you on the large deals. The price follows that effort, from € 3,000 per month.
Where it goes wrong
Every proposal has the same seven building blocks
They are almost always in the right place. They are just written from the wrong person's point of view. We give every section back to the client.
| Section | Often written from | At DealCraft |
|---|---|---|
| Cover | Our logo and a date | The outcome for your client |
| Summary | What we are going to do | The problem the client recognises |
| Approach | Our methodology | A clear plan in three steps |
| What you get | Our deliverables | What changes for the client |
| About us | Our company history | Proof that it works |
| Investment | A table of costs | The value set against the price |
| Next step | Legal small print | One clear, easy step |
This is where it goes wrong, not how to fix it in one afternoon. Recognising it is one thing; actually turning every section around is craftsmanship.
Evidence, not invention
What winners do differently
Our method doesn't stand on its own. Research into more than five million proposals keeps pointing to the same two differences: winners have a proposal process that runs (fast, with fixed follow-up moments, partly automated) and a message that is about the client instead of the supplier.
Teams that put this in order saw their conversion double on average. That is an average from the American market; your industry and your numbers are different. That is why the DealScan is the first step: first measure where you stand.
5 mproposals researched behind the method
2×average conversion improvement: a direction, not a promise
1 questionwhat does this do for the client?
Do it yourself?
You can do this yourself. Just not as fast.
Our method is no secret, and it doesn't need to be. The difference isn't in knowing the steps, but in carrying them out: finding the right words, making sharp choices, and looking at your own proposals with an objective eye. That last part is the hardest from the inside.
We have done this hundreds of times. Our first version is rarely the right one either; we just know sooner which questions to ask to get there. Where an internal team searches and doubts for months, we have the structure in place in weeks. And every month you start winning earlier is a month of extra orders. That speed is what makes the investment worthwhile.
Start with insight
Curious where your deals stall?
The DealScan shows you in two weeks: ten of your own proposals examined, one baseline, and the next step on the table.