What do I sell to my customers? Structure of the Offer and commercial proposal

Some suggestions for structuring a simple business proposal, forecasts, margins and its results.

Comparing with different company realities one of the aspects to monitor is the structure of the offer.

I would like to suggest below for those small and medium companies that do not use particular tools (it is assumed that the big ones use them) some elements for a structuring of a simple document that allows me to evaluate my proposal, its marginality and its results.

This allows you to get the most up-to-date and accurate picture to take decisions in progress at least for some evaluations on how to structure my offer.

Of course, there would be other items to add, but at least I need to consider a minimum list. And adapt it to my business reality.

1. How is my business proposal composed? What do I offer to customers? What am I selling? (a complete list divided by different categories - if any)
2. A forecast of costs. How much does it cost to build my proposal? (make sure to include all costs). How much budget do I dedicate to each product / category?
3. A forecast on margins (as marginal for each of my proposals - category - group etc)?
4. Una actual evaluation production costs and margins (after a complete and careful evaluation of the true costs of production) - Let's call it: analysis of the deviation from the allocated budget and the expected margins. We include where possible a% of the impact of the single product / category on the total of the budget so as to know which of my proposals makes me earn more.
5. I do a sales forecast (What do I expect to sell based on my distribution strategy?) A question usually arises here: but how do I know? It is true that none of us read the future but if I have an offer, if I have a market, if I have done some actions ... I will have also thought about where I want to go and what I want to achieve. The important thing is to put objective considerations on it. Let all your staff help you, do not process random numbers.
6. I specify my forecast as much as possible based on countries, channels and my parameters. So I will be able to better identify what my strategies and actions are for each country, channel, etc. IS perhaps I will succeed in identifying new and more suitable ones. And I will also be able to determine how much they can cost me.
7. Timed monitoring. I make some intermediate evaluations based on the sales trend and I consider all the items I put into my scheme (margins, forecasts, etc.). I share the data with my staff. They are not secret data. It is my company that must deliver results with everyone's action! And everyone must know where we are to make their contribution.
8. If there are any changes to be made during construction I do them without fear ... if there are no results, I analyze the reasons and situations well and find solutions.

If there are unclear points or there are further questions about how to handle this, please contact me.

In the next article we will talk about:

• Unique Selling Proposition - What is it and what is it for?
• Damages and costs of reworking - How to make a mistake is always a new and not repeated mistake
• How to forget about defiharmful tion of Market Leader: it does more damage than the crisis!

Lidia Falzone

Partner at RL Consulting - Solutions forbusiness competitiveness