The Power of Proposal System

The Offline Power Proposal System – Core Manual
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Introduction.............................................................................8
Proposals .................................................................................10
History ..................................................................................11
The Point Of A Proposal .......................................................14
Where Does A Proposal Fit In The Offline Process?............15
No Proposal Often = No Recurring Business .......................17
Hey – I’ve Already Presold Them – Do I Need A Proposal?.18
Why Not Use Traditional Proposals? ....................................19
Here Are The Prospects We Never Got And Why I Think It

Happened .............................................................................20
Dangerous Clients ................................................................24
The Power Proposal System ...................................................26
How Does A Power Proposal Differ From A Traditional

Proposal? .............................................................................27
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Traditional ‘Boring Proposal’ Contents .................................29
Core Principles .....................................................................30
Psychological Stuff ...............................................................31
Power Proposal Overview ....................................................32
Power Proposal Key Elements .............................................33
Discounting Oblivion .............................................................37
Decoy Pricing Redux ............................................................40
My Preferred Approach -Consultations And Proposals ........42
My Preferred Offline Process ...............................................44
How Do We ‘Stack The Cool’ ? ............................................45
How Do We ‘Stack The Pressure’ ? .....................................46
Qualification / Interaction Principle .......................................47
Implementing The ‘Early Bird’ Principle ................................49
The Power ‘Workhorse’ Email Strategy ................................51
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Formatting For Effectiveness................................................52
The ‘Bespoke Illusion’...........................................................58
Deadlines... Or not?..............................................................62
The Prospect’s Mind / 4 Chances To Win ............................64
Why Some Prospects Have No Intention Of Signing Up ......67
Incentivised Testimonials .....................................................69
‘Never’ Sell An Existing Package .........................................71
The Importance of Your Email Workhorse............................72
Writing Your Work-Horse Email............................................74
Market Analysis - The ‘Trojan’ Horse Strategy .....................85
The ‘Project’ .........................................................................90
Don’t Forget!.........................................................................93
The ‘Examples’ .....................................................................94
Things We Missed Out And Why! .........................................96
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Other Stuff ...............................................................................98
Notes On Implementation .....................................................99
The Most Disgusting Proposal Technique I Ever Did See ..100
Mailing Times For Your PPS Documents? .........................102
Sneaky Strategies ..............................................................103
Writer’s Block .....................................................................104
Locking It Down ..................................................................105
Conclusion..........................................................................106
Appendix ................................................................................108
Pre Proposal Checklist .......................................................109
Power Proposal Checklist...................................................110
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So, you want my Power Proposal secrets? Well, be prepared for a whole heap of my strategies.
These really work for me but I am not typical. I take massive action and heck, I might even be
luckier than you. Also, you do use these techniques at your own risk. As such by reading this
report you acknowledge that you take 100% responsibility for the results.
Disclaimer:
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or indirect implementation of techniques detailed in the this report. This report contains no
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Introduction
Hi there and welcome to the core manual for the Proposal

Secrets System. I’m not going to be giving you contracts, sales
hype or package advice.
This is a short and simple report that is designed to help

you increase your chances of closing a deal.
Sometimes, someone will sign up straight away and there is no

real need for a proposal, othertimes, you will have to go through
the full process.
For those times that someone is so keen to sign up straight

away, I recommend caution.
I have this happen a lot myself and sometimes the eager

potential client is not so trust worthy. At best, they may be
genuine but get “buyer’s remorse” in a bad way.
In short, whether they are an honourable client or not – I’ve

found those most keen to sign on the dotted line straight away
are those that most need a proposal.
I’m not saying don’t sign them up and take the cheque straight
away – you can do that, but make sure you get them a solid
proposal within 48 hours of them paying.
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A good proposal does a lot more than sell, it gives
reassurance. Reassurance builds confidence and means that
you are a lot more likely to have a happy as well as profitable
relationship with the client.
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A PRACTICAL REPORT
IMPLIMENT IT ! – SOME OF THIS TOOK A LOT OF TRIAL

AND ERROR TO GET RIGHT!
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Proposals
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History
As you might imagine, our style of proposal has changed

significantly since we started offering online marketing
services to online businesses. Actually, my experience of
proposals goes back waay before I had to ever write one.
When I was building my first ‘limited’ company (a UK legal

business structure) an advisor recommended I get a mentor.
Actually, the advisor had one in mind already – a successful
multi millionaire. I won’t go into the details, but this mentor had
made his money in a niche that had nothing to do with anything
I was doing.
He wasn’t a very good mentor at all, but one of his then most
current successes was a proposal system that he sold to
travelling salesmen. You know, like Dell Griffith (Trains,
Planes and Automobiles) – travelling around selling stuff.
My mentor’s angle was that a sales person should be able to

produce a proposal no matter where they are or how little time
they have to prepare it.
I’d like to say the proposals the solution generated were good,
they weren’t. I guess though, that they were better than nothing.
My point is that I came to see that many businesses approach

proposals as another business document they had to produce,
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like those reports many people’s bosses make them churn out
on a weekly basis.
Something horrid and necessary, not the business driver

proposals actually should be.
The thing is though – that a proposal is a really a form of

sales letter, at least to me. Sure, you have got them through
the door and wet their appetite, but the real selling needs to be
done in the vast majority of cases.
Have a look at the following process that you might be familiar

with:
• A- Get traffic through mailing your list and Adwords

• B- Offer free report or video
• C - Email out sales letter
It is the start of a pretty common type of ‘make money’

product launch isn’t it? Where do you think a proposal comes
in this process (assuming that offline business and product
launches are comparable)?
I’d say step C – reason being that at the proposal point, we

have already gotten the prospect on board and interested.
Perhaps you have already have had a meeting with them,
maybe a seminar or a direct mail and phone conversation.
Regardless of how you did it, once you have them at the
proposal stage – you know that they are already a warm
lead – with some interest in what you have to offer.
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In other words, this is a lot like the part where Kern, Reese or
Filsaime tries to sell to you using a sales letter, sales video or
some combination of the two. This is why I am focussed on
marketing offline services, not providing brochures. The
proposal is a piece of copywriting and as such I like to employ
every trick in the book...
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The Point Of A Proposal
The point of a proposal is to generate confidence in the

prospect – to the point that you overcome any lingering doubts
still in the prospect’s mind. I also like to use the proposal as a
way point / reference mark that we can always go back to.
To my mind – the proposal needs to fulfill two needs:
• Closing the deal

• Reducing client difficulties
Beyond those two core needs – I would also like it to increase

the amount of money I make and a proposal is a great way to
subtly upsell the prospect.
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Where Does A Proposal Fit In

The Offline Process?
Many of you might be just starting out and don’t really have a
clue what a proposal is or why / where you should use one.
Those of you familiar with traditional sales and business
proposals will be more aware so please forgive me as I go over
this information.
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1. Firstly you identify your potential clients
2. You then need to approach them – direct mail / seminar
etc
3. At this point you will either introduce yourself through a
seminar, or over the phone, or a meeting
4. At some point they will want to go ahead. At this point
you need to give them a proposal saying what you are
going to do and how much it will cost.
5. Once they agree to the proposal get their cheque and a
signed contract
As stated elsewhere in this report, a power proposal

functions like a modern day internet marketing sales letter.
Many less savvy marketers use sales letters as a point of
introduction as well – a proposal does not function as a point of
introduction, you should always presell a prospect before giving
them an invitation to do business (a proposal).
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No Proposal Often = No
Recurring Business
I’ve had some other offline marketers tell me that a proposal

is unnecessary. According to them, all that is needed is a good
presentation and a load of prepared contracts that the
attendees can sign.
This can work – but I feel it can be short termist for the following
reasons:
• Closing so early means that you will limit how much

you can make (you will never know just how much the
client was willing to pay)
• Buyer’s remorse is likely to set in for quite a few
prospects as they were not as ‘sold’ as you thought they
were.
• Not everyone brings a cheque book to a seminar, and a
proposal is a great way to reignite interest.
My gut instinct is that where a proposal is involved there is a

greater chance of long term repeat business.
Perhaps the reverse is also true – if you are selling one off low
priced services, maybe just skip as much as possible and go
straight from introduction to cheque? Of course, I would never
recommend this as I feel you are selling yourself short in a big
way, all for some quick cash.
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Hey – I’ve Already Presold

Them – Do I Need A Proposal?
Ok – maybe you did a great job with your seminar, or maybe

you have already had a meeting or a consultation the prospect
should be pretty much presold on the idea.
Some of you may feel, that this is another of those times to just
go straight for the contract and cash. After all, unlike the fly by
night quick cash mentioned earlier – you may well have presold
them on high value monthly services.
Good for you and all but you should still have a proposal.
In fact, no prospect should ever get to the proposal stage

without having first being presold. So really – everyone should
be where you are, in terms of prospect desire.
This doesn’t mean you should skip out on the proposal though.
Proposals lock down any presold feelings and provide a marker
in a way that a contract doesn’t.
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Why Not Use Traditional

Proposals?
Ok, so what exactly is the Power Proposal System? And how

come I wasn’t happy with traditional proposal formats?
Heck, I was getting business with traditional ones,so why

change?
Probably for the same reason that you aren’t happy with a 1%
conversion rate on your products or mail outs. We all leave a
huge amount of money on the table.
Maybe we are missing the lion’s share of the money?
Anywho. The solution seemed pretty obvious to me – do exactly

what I do in every other aspect of my businesses – use a
marketing lead approach.
So – my plan was fairly simply – transition my proposals from

boring business documents into something that generates the
same sort of desire and excitement as sales letters.
The Power Proposal system leverages psychology in all

sorts of ways from readability, to desire and reciprocity. Not to
mention a little greed and regret prevention.
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Here Are The Prospects We

Never Got And Why I Think It
Happened
Before we get into this, I just want to reinforce why

traditional proposal don’t have a great deal of power (in
offline marketing at least) and why I developed the Power
Proposal System.
I would be lying to you if I said I got every prospect that came

my way. Truth be told, I used to lose a lot more than I got – and
I think I was actually doing well compared to most people.
To start with, I was happy to have any customer. Now, I am

much more picky – a good proportion of those clients that I
don’t get are fish I decide to toss back because they are
trouble.
It might strike you as odd that some clients would be

‘trouble’. It might be even harder to accept that some of them
are actually out to rip you off.
Discounting those guys, I’d like to give you a quick rundown of

some of the prospects I have lost and why those losses drove
me to create the Power Proposal System.
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Let me just point out that we had already made a few proposal
innovations before I began work on the power system
Japanese Gardens Guy
This prospect came to us directly, although when

questioned he couldn’t remember how he knew of us.
Odd, I know. As such, although he approached us he
was completely cold and not presold at all.
We gave him a traditional proposal, and all he seemed

interested in was getting more and more details about
the packages we offered.
We then never heard from him again. Was he attempting

to teach himself (as I have encountered) or was he trying
to get some other company to feature match?
Mr Slum Landlord Furniture Guy
This unusual, and highly wealthy prospect wanted us to

promote his new online furniture site. He was friendly
and keen and kept in contact, but he never got around to
reading the proposal and signing up.
I’ve often thought that we lost this client because he was

very busy and simply didn’t have time to read the
proposal. A niche Power Proposal workhorse email
would have probably had him signing up the same day.
P a g e | 21
Ah well, live and learn etc.
Niche Social Networking Guy
This prospect always seemed on the verge of becoming

a lead, although I had some doubts as to what he
wanted. His aim was to get his, frankly odd, niche social
network site some serious exposure.
He became obsessed with seeing proof. The problem

was that we didn’t have any weird niche social
networking sites to show him and he didn’t seem
convinced with our other examples.
The Power Proposal System couldn’t do that much to

improve the examples, but the increase in reciprocity,
cool and urgency it creates may well have pushed him
over the edge into becoming a client.
The Adwords TShirt Guys
This duo had a small custom t-shirt stall in a local

shopping mall and wanted to sell their t-shirts online
using Adwords. Looking back they were surprisingly
clued up. They also sold gadgets online and seemed to
be doing quite well...
Initially, they wanted Adwords management but they

soon moved onto just wanting Adwords training.
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Eventually, they started doing it themselves and just
wanted tips from us. We declined.
The problem here was definitely that they didn’t see

enough value in our services. It is also possible that they
never had the money to start with.
Regardless, offering less information, building up our own value

in their eyes and making it clear we wanted a sale via an early
bird discount would have made it much more likely that these
jokers signed up or hit the road.
P a g e | 23
Dangerous Clients
Not only did we lose out on some prospects, we also got some
clients that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Some of you who have only been offline marketing for a bit may
not have had a difficult or problem client before. Believe me,
they do exist and at best they suck time away from other
clients. At worst they leave you stressed, upset and out of
pocket.
Sorry if that seems harsh, but I would rather be honest and let
you know some of the issues you will face. If you take on board
the Power Proposal System not only will you get more clients
(of the good variety) you will learn to spot the danger ones.
Many clients will conveniently forget what you agreed to and

start pushing for more. For instance a client of mine that wanted
very high volume traffic also pushed for:
• Flyering (physical!)
• Facebook advertising
• Forum advertising
I’m not saying he asked for more services adding to his

contract. He simply felt that these services “should” be part of
his package.
P a g e | 24
Let’s be frank:
• Some clients get buyer’s remorse and kick off to get a

better deal
• Some genuinely but misguidedly feel like they have been
overcharged / ripped off whatever
• Some intentionally look to take advantage
A well written proposal will reduce the number of people

looking to outright rip you off. You will experience this as
people mysteriously dropping out once they get the proposal.
Even though they were ‘super keen’ before.
Don’t worry. These type of prospects / clients do exist and the

fewer you have the happier you and your team will be in the
long run.
By having a good proposal that makes your intentions clear you

are far more likely to avoid these type of characters. The old
adage –if it seems too good to be true it probably is – also holds
true.
P a g e | 25
The
Power
Proposal
System
P a g e | 26
How Does A Power Proposal

Differ From A Traditional
Proposal?
I know that some of you won’t have implemented proposals

before. As mentioned earlier, the Power Proposal System turns
a boring business document into something that generates:
• Excitement
• Greed and status
• Goodwill
• A sense of reciprocity
In a nutshell it achieves this by ‘stacking the cool’ and

‘stacking the pressure’ to the point that the client either says
yes or no. Shock! I said ‘no’.
Some clients will say no, because the service isn’t for them or
they are a timewaster. Power Proposal System will help you
route out such people.
However, you will also get far more signups using Power
Proposal System than traditional proposals will get you and
waay waay waay more new clients than a no proposal
approach will get you.
P a g e | 27
The truth is – proposals are never completely read- they
function as skimming material and reassurance. 99% of your
competitors (and it isn’t a crowded market place) don’t realise
this.
You can apply the Power Proposal System to almost any

venture that sells their wares business to business.
P a g e | 28
Traditional ‘Boring Proposal’

Contents
A traditional proposal tends to include the following sections:
• Introductory letter – this covers the basics – the problem,

the solution and reasons why the client should choose
us.
• The Project – recommendations / benefits / features /
approach / metrics & measurable / road map
• The Provider (You) – case studies / company
background / References / The Team
My issue with this whole approach is that it is very traditional.

Many proposals seem to exist more for the ego of the
provider than the client.
We build our power proposals system from the perspective of –

‘we are in the business of marketing of offline marketing’ not
‘we are in the business of offline marketing’.
I realise that is a bit of a mouthful – but it is the most honest

way to summarise what we do.
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Core Principles
The Power Proposal System revolves around a set of basic

concepts. Underpinning them are two principles, which govern
everything else:
• The quicker we can get to the sale, the more likely they
are to say yes
• The more confidence we can build the more likely we
are to get a sale
Power Proposals are built on everything I have learned in

marketing. Often sales people or technical staff write
proposals – big mistake.
You need to produce your Power Proposals with your

marketing hat on. That means a heavy dose of
copywriting, urgency, scarcity and whole bag of other
tricks.
Don’t worry, I’m going to cover everything you need to know.
P a g e | 30
Psychological Stuff
Before I get onto the Power Proposal contents, I just want to

run through a few of the things we will be trying to achieve
compared to a normal proposal.
1. Readability – the easier it is to scan, the quicker a

decision can be made
2. Confidence – The more confident our prospect is the
more like to sign
3. Greed – I don’t want this to seem negative. You need to
highlight opportunity (revenue growth)
4. The ‘Thud’ Effect – By separating out your proposal, your
prospect feels like they are getting more
5. Gratitude / Reciprocity – By providing valuable free
information, we position ourselves as the expert as well
as instilling a desire to reciprocate.
6. Scarcity – You need to have built this in on the approach
but it doesn’t hurt to remind people in your Power
Proposal that you will only take so many clients of x
niche in x area.
7. Urgency – Through layout, copywriting and pricing we
attempt to get the signup as soon as possible. The
workhorse email is great at this.
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Power Proposal Overview
Power Proposals are based on salesmanship and psychology,

not ego and an urge to produce large documents. Compared to
our competitors I am certain that we produce the smallest
proposals around. And get more prospects signing on the
bottom line.
Power Proposals focus on:
• What we have to offer (where we will take the site)

• Why we can do it (social proof)
• What we need from them
Our goal is to weed out bad guys and to get good guys to sign
up with us.
Just to remind you – we want to do this as fast as possible,

whilst building as much confidence in ‘us’ as possible.
P a g e | 32
Power Proposal Key Elements
Ok, now you know where I am coming from why don’t we run
down some of the key elements. Keep in mind the core
concepts as well. Bear in mind that this is just an overview, we
will cover each section in depth later.
The Most Important Part Of Your Proposal – The

Workhorse Email
If I were to ask you what the most important part of an

online product launch was, would you know? To my
mind, it is the first part of the campaign – the email. Put
simply, if people don’t open your email, the rest of your
campaign falls down dead.
As such, I feel the same is true for Power Proposals. If

no one reads the email, you are dead in the water.
Note: If you are providing the proposal by mail or in person

(I go for email delivery generally, with in person for big
dealios) then you can modify this concept to cover the
envelope or headline of your covering letter.
Your email should have a strong headline. The purpose

of the headline is solely to get the prospect to open your
email there and then. If your email is ignored, you could
be waiting around a while or even lose your prospect to a
more aggressive competitor.
P a g e | 33
I also feel your email, which I call the Power Proposal
Workhorse because of its importance, should cover your
offer, employ urgency and have a call to action. Beyond
this, there are also some specific formatting options that I
really love as the difference they make to results are
fantastic.
The Trojan Horse – Market Analysis
Traditional proposals put everything in one big document

(the proposal). A market analysis might warrent a page
or two – and is often absent from many proposals.
However in offline marketing, market analysis is a key

tool as many offline businesses either have little idea of
the world online or the world surrounding their new
website.
This is a great opportunity to deliver way more than the

prospect expects and generate huge amounts of value.
Such a huge amount of value creates a ton of goodwill
and that can easily be transformed into reciprocity and
confidence.
The Project- The Backup Sales Letter
The largest part of a traditional proposal is the project

section, where we cover what the problem is, and what
we recommend as a solution. It can also include things
like way points, milestones and projections.
P a g e | 34
The Examples / Social Proof
Normally this would be part of a proposal, but with Power

Proposals, we are looking for the ‘thud’ factor – we want
to have a variety of things for our prospect to look for.
The fact of the matter is, that most prospects will never
get beyond skimming through most of the materials. This
is quite normal but don’t assume this means you should
scrimp on the quality or not bother.
The examples section is there to generate social proof,

and just having it attached to your email, even if never
read, will give reassurance to your prospect.
In the Power Proposal System, the project is our last line

of defence. From my own experience, prospects tend to
skim read the ‘project’ and pay little attention.
A big, boring proposal often does nothing to help. Some

offliners also tend to bloat their proposal to overwhelm
their prospect. Whilst I am a fan of over delivering, boring
your prospect to death is not the best way to get the
highest possible monthly retainer from them.
Power Proposal Project sections are smaller, to the point

and written a lot like a more formal sales letter. The idea
being, that if someone is really paying attention to the
P a g e | 35
project past the first few pages then they have not been
pre sold effectively and we need a second chance to sell
to them.
The vast majority of our clients seem to respond to the

workhorse email – and as a result give us the go ahead
within a few hours of getting the Power Proposal. Only
two clients, a luxury car company and a niche magazine
really seemed to go into the actual project in any detail.
P a g e | 36
Discounting Oblivion
I’m not trying to say that every prospect who sees your proposal
and asks for a discount is a threat to your consultancy. I would
say that a good proportion will be a significant drain on your
resources should you take them on at a discounted rate.
There are certain types of prospect (both dangerous and safe)

that are hoping and praying you need their business. By need I
mean are desperate for. Once these type of prospects detect
what they perceive as a weakness they will try and get away
with things like:
• Late payment
• Changing their mind a lot
• Never paying
• Paying under the odds (I had one client make up a
discount for themselves- how nice!)
When I first started out doing offline stuff, I was understandably

nervous. We still get bad clients but we are a lot more careful
now – in terms of discounts we will never offer any sort of
traditional discount apart from an early bird sign up discount
and an early settlement discount.
As you might have noticed – I used the phrase traditional. I

always respond to the request for a discount with something
along the following lines:
P a g e | 37
‘Hi prospect, I appreciate that the package you have
chosen might be too expensive for your budget. I think
we either could move you down to a lower package or
remove the following features from your chosen package
to achieve the cost savings you are looking for’
In other words, we do not, under any circumstances offer

discounts requested for by prospects or clients. We will only
reduce cost by reducing value.
At this point the discount demander either walks away or goes

back to the original package (the majority do this). A small
percentage will go away and come back later and try and play
the same game. These ‘hard ballers’ aren’t worth your time.
I have had one such prospect from Sheffield, UK, who owns a
few furniture stores. He would call up ever three to four weeks
and run through the enquiry, ask about the price and upon
being informed it was the same he would say he was busy and
would get back with a decision in a few weeks.
After four months we stopped answering his calls – simply

because his intention was clear – he wanted to pay 50% less
for his chosen package.
Whilst it can be hard to turn away business it is always good to

remember that not all prospects are genuine opportunities.
Those that push hard for discounts seem to fall into the non
genuine group more often than not.
P a g e | 38
I would love for you to triple your income overnight or whatever
but I would rather you didn’t have to go through dealing with
some of the nut jobs I’ve had to.
I realise that isn’t top respectful – but some of the clowns we

have had have been horrible. Thankfully, they make up a very
small percentage of our client base, and since implementing the
Power Proposal System we haven’t had a crazy dude (or
dudette) yet...
P a g e | 39
Decoy Pricing Redux
Decoy pricing is something tested (although I’m not sure he

invented) by a guy working for the Economist magazine.
Basically, three product options are presented, one of which
is a lot more expensive whilst not demonstrating a huge amount
of value above the mid range option. Suddenly, you sell an
awful lot more of your midrange option (which used to be
your high end product) than you would have without the ‘decoy’.
I don’t like the term decoy – it suggests confusion and

misdirection. I’d rather see the three option technique as a way
to help people judge value – we like to compare products to
those cheaper and more expensive.
Actually, I think we are more likely to see the comparison as

those that are cheaper and those that deliver more (aka more
expensive).
If you don’t give enough indicators of value, your packages

can be seen as a commodity.
By providing a third option you leave clear water between your

preferred option – the commodity package and luxury service.
Just like Goldilocks, prospects are looking for something that is
not too sweet and not too salty, not too hot and not too cold.
By that, of course, I mean that you should make the packages

quite different. To clear up any potential confusion, I am not
P a g e | 40
referring to packages that are different, such as a our ‘seo’
package, our ‘social media’ package, our ‘blogging’ package
but rather three different variations of the package you feel that
is best for your client and they have indicated interest in.
The idea is simply to add or take away features from the basic
package they expressed interest in.
Even if they seem short of money, or dead set on the actual

package initially suggested, always always always try the three
options technique – it has surprised me so often (people
sometimes actually go for the expensive as heck package) that
I always implement it now.
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My Preferred Approach -
Consultations And Proposals
If you offer prospects a free consultation (a great method in

my opinion), then the mere act of them requesting an
appointment is great news. It strongly suggests that they are
ready to sign up or pretty close to it.
Going down the ‘free’ consultation route gives you a good

chance of converting the prospect into a client. Again though, I
would be hesitant about pushing for them to sign a contract at
the end of the appointment. I realise that you might close more
people this way, but if they aren’t fully on board a proportion
will back out later, and those that sign up don’t seem to sign
up for as much stuff.
There are two options here, as regards proposals, - you can

have something pre prepared to hand to them at the end of the
consultation. Or you can inform them that you are going to put
something together.
I prefer to tell them I will put something together, as I feel that

this is a little more bespoke and has always seemed to appeal
when I have mentioned it.
In other word, they feel I am doing work for them, generating

some reciprocity!
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I am aware that this may not suit some of you, particularly those
of you who like to move fast. I tend to aim for cash rich
businesses who are willing to pay good amounts so I am
reluctant to tell you never to use prepared proposals- it’s
just not something that is for me.
Regardless of your approach at this point – I would recommend

everyone modify the Power Proposal System if they are holding
consultations. My recommendation is simple – instead of
bundling the business / market assessment with the
proposal – give it to the prospect at the end of the
consultation.
This is going to generate a huge amount of good will which can

only increase your odds of snagging the prospect.
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My Preferred Offline Process
Whilst this report is solely about proposals, I thought I would put

the proposal in context by showing you how it fits into my offline
business generating process thingy.
My preferred offline structure goes a little something like this:
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How Do We ‘Stack The Cool’ ?
‘Stacking the cool’ is a great term, I love it because it so clearly

points out what we have to do. If your Power Proposal is
exciting in comparison to the junk most businesses receive day
in day out, then you are sorted.
‘Stacking the cool’ is an overarching strategy to be used

wherever possible, not a laser focuses tactic for one area?
To build confidence and desire, not to mention reciprocity – we

need to have things that will tip the prospect over the edge!
- Our Workhorse email is a visual treat – anything but

boring
- Our pricing structure gives the impression of choice
whilst highlighting the value of our midrange premier
package
- Providing a free market analysis as a separate (our
Trojan horse) PDF will appeal to both business owners
and motivated staff.
- Having clear, easy to read documentation will appeal
- Odd pricing and packages suggest bespoke – who
doesn’t want to tell the boss they negotiated a ‘special
deal’?
The second stage is to stack the pressure to ensure we have

both carrot and stick.
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How Do We ‘Stack The

Pressure’ ?
‘Stacking the pressure’ is the Power Proposal way of ensuring

that we don’t lose out on the momentum and good will created
by stacking the cool.
- Clearly address our popularity

- Use the early bird discount to motivate
- Highlight the companies own goals and deadlines
- Create desire to the point of desperation
- Limited availability – we can only take ‘x’ number of
businesses in their niche
- Have an unashamed call to action, which asks for them
to go ahead
Traditional proposals seem to miss the power of stacking both

the cool and the pressure completely. Just focussing on having
a balance between the two will put you way ahead of the
competition.
Most business people are afraid to ask for business. They

dance around it. Don’t be like that.
Know you are good at what you do.Be brave.
Go for it.
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Qualification / Interaction
Principle
The fact is that the more engaged we are with something, the
more likely we are to continue participating. If your prospect’s
brain isn’t engaged then it is a lot less likely that they will
be happy going ahead and paying you real money.
Makes sense huh?
Again, though this is something I don’t see people taking

advantage of.
Once a client is interested, I ask them to provide their top five

competitors off line and online and a few words about why they
like / dislike the competitor and why they are better.
This is something prospects like to engage in.
Trust me – they like nothing more than talking about their

business.
Even if they don’t return the form to me (I give them a printed

copy, to avoid interrupting the email trail, but email
questionnaires might work well) it gets them thinking.
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My evil plan is to get them to engage the parts of their brain that
remember the excitement and adrenalin of being their own boss
(as the vast majority of offline negotiations are with THE BOSS)
and link that drive and determination to starting an offline
campaign.
Plus, the boss man will enjoy showing you his niche market –
after all it is his stomping ground and you are just a visitor.
I’m not saying that this will work with everyone, nothing will –
but there is a lot you can learn from asking your prospect a few
simple questions about their market place. Also, the chance of
getting a sale is a lot, lot higher once have linked (anchored?)
those competitive instincts and dreams of success to your
offline marketing efforts.
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Implementing The ‘Early Bird’

Principle
The early bird principle is so obvious that I dislike even writing

about it – but I have yet to encounter a local competitor of
offline marketer who is doing this.
Just as I feel high value clients (monthly repeat business etc)

need to be warmed up for a sale, so I think that you need to
apply subtle pressure to move forward.
All that you need to do is include an early bird discount in

your proposal email (AKA the workhorse). Not any of the
PDF documents though, as we want this discount to appear as
a one off.
If you include the ‘early bird discount’ in the project document it

really seems to diminish the impact. I’ve never had clients
mention the discount when it was included in the main
project – almost like they see the discount as a standard ploy
or a given feature for all of our clients.
I sometimes also give a reason for the discount – ‘early signups

allows us to book out time in our calendar for work to be done
which means we can be more efficient.’
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Maybe you can come up with something more fancy, I’ve never
gotten round to it, partially because the reason seems to work
pretty well as it is.
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The Power ‘Workhorse’ Email

Strategy
Your prospects are busy. Or at least they think they are. They
also have a short attention span – offline marketing is a small
part of their day, and an even smaller part of their business. Of
course, they are wrong, you are helping to generate leads
and new customers which is a huge deal, but in their mind it
will not be a priority for long. I hope this doesn’t offend you but it
is often true.
As someone who has been on the other side of the fence, I can
assure you that all that is on your prospect’s mind is the
‘magic’ you can deliver. They care little for how you are going
to do what you are going to do – save illustrating that you are
doing something for the money.
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Formatting For Effectiveness
Ok people, we are onto something that I feel, is the almost the

most important part of any copy – the readability. Assuming that
you can write legibly, in your own style and are disciplined
enough to hit some key points, then your copy writing is
probably ok. (for now)
If you can’t do this, then you need to sort that out ASAP.
Assuming you can write ok, then this next bit is probably the
most important thing you can learn. I spend a lot of money on
copywriting courses, plus I have my own weird style and I
passionately believe better copy can improve any part of your
business.
However, for doing offline stuff alone, I don’t believe you need
to be a super copywriter, just a half decent one – unless the
competition is insanely good or something.
What I believe in, promote and want you to implement in every

part of your Power Proposal is readability.
Let me say that again – the tips given here should be

implemented throughout your Power Proposal.
I really, really wish I had some sort of catchy name for this – but
readability it is. Or formatting for effectiveness.
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‘Readability’ in the Power Proposal System is all about
removing ‘speed bumps’. Whilst it might seem odd to some, I’ve
found that almost anything that slows a reader down, reduces
your conversion rate.
With all of that explained – let’s get on with it.
Font Sizes
I’m not going to tell you what font to use be it Calibra, Times
New Roman, Tahoma, Helvetica or whatever. If you think it
looks good and readable – fine by me.
What I do recommend size wise? As big as you can get away

with without it looking childish or too odd. In Outlook, I would
recommend moving to at least 12. Ideally, go for 13 (you have
to manually enter 13 in the font size drop down).
Don’t be a dummy though, whatever size you use – make sure

that you use it consistently throughout the email, no chopping
and changing!
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I would not recommend this for Google Mail, Google Apps, as

you get a restricted set of choices and the size bigger than
default is too big!
In Yahoo Zimbra, you may have to activate HTML editing in the

writing preferences section. You can then use 12pt or 13pt in
the editor.
If for whatever reason, you can’t implement this tip – don’t

sweat it – simply move on.
For those of you thinking this is faintly idiotic – please consider

this – the greater the resistance in an electrical wire, the lower
the current. With prospect, even the slightest improvement we
can make to the readability increases our chances of a positive
P a g e | 54
outcome. I have tested this online time and time again and the
results always favour enhanced readability in a way that is far
bigger than you might imagine.
Paragraphs and Spacing.
The human eye doesn’t like to travel for. At least that is what I
am saying, I also suspect that wider lines make it more likely
that we will begin to forget what we are reading and drift off.
Ensure that your paragraphs are not too wide. A lot less wide
than standard emails.
Try and leave two lines between paragraphs – increased space

seems to help with compartmentalisation and absorption of
information.
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I would suggest making sure that your paragraphs never
consists of more than two or three sentences, large paragraphs
are harder to read. Harder to read = more resistance. More
resistance = less likely to take immediate action.
Graphics and styling
I do not recommend using a large amount of graphics in your

email, save for award logos at the bottom of your signature. In
the wider proposal you can use graphics to go effect.
I avoid underlining in online documents as your reader is

probably conditioned to see them as links. Instead, just use
bold. Try and avoid other styling elements.
In the PDFs or printed documents, keep the spacing high, I

would also recommend setting line spacing to 1.5 to make it
easier for the reader to follow a single line.
Underlining can be used in printed material, but I would still

prefer to use headlines and emboldening for formatting.
With emails, keep your text above the fold. This limits how
much you can write –but scrolling causes resistance.
I realise that these tips may seem odd, even over the top but
combined they make a stark difference to our offline conversion
rate.
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So before dismissing this – consider have you been doing this
in the past and what have you to lose? I consider the workhorse
email one of our most powerful weapons in offline client getting.
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The ‘Bespoke Illusion’
I’m not going to give you advice on what pricing levels you
should be aiming for. I’ve covered this elsewhere, and the focus
of this report is about the proposal. Probably, your prospect
has an idea about the sort of price you are going to charge
anyway – as you have already pitched them. You might have
varied the prices with the three option strategy (an improvement
on ‘decoy pricing’).
I’m going to assume that you have prices that you are happy
with and that they work. What I would suggest is that they have
no pence or cent amounts. If you want to be perceived as
selling a high value product then you need to get as far away
from the sort of tricks that supermarkets, big retailers and
multiples use.
Walmart may love their cent price endings but this is not
something you want to do unless you want to be ticking that
subconscious ‘commodity’ box in your prospect’s head.
Keep your pricing in whole round amounts, be that Pesos,

Dollars or Sterling.
Now, something that might seem a tad contradictory / counter

intuitive is the fairly powerful technique of making your prices
seem bespoke, or tailor made.
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If I try and sell you something at $500 a month, you might not
view it as a commodity but you are never going to see it as
tailored specifically to you are you?
If I sell something at $750 – that might look a little more custom.

Let’s take it a stage further though and move to $736. Good
huh? In terms of looking bespoke it couldn’t be better.
Why bespoke appeals – simply put, every business owner

wants to feel unique and that there business and problems are
unique and such a unique set of circumstances requires a
particular and well thought out solution.
This is a typical example of the prospect’s desire and beliefs

being completely out of sync with what will actually work for
them and deliver results.
To get a good success rate with proposals you need to make

the client feel their desires are being addressed whilst still
giving them something that will work for them. I guess you could
actually just give them what they want and dam the chances of
success –but that is kind of unethical.
Remember, you are the expert and it is up to you (I would say it

is your moral imperative) to ensure that prospects business
gets what will work, not what the client believes will work.
This is one of the hardest battles you will face.
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For those of you not getting what I mean – if you are at all
successful, you will get prospects who want to spend a large
portion of money on flyring, on on trying to get the number one
Adwords spot. Unless you take control early on you may well be
forced to agree to their suggestions – personally at this stage I
would not want the business as there is every chance that
success will be minimal or non existent.
To cut to the chase: let your client dictate what a package

contains and the client is simply paying for you to implement
their advice.
Far better to implement your best strategies for their niche but
make the package appear bespoke through pricing. For this
reason, I only give basic package ideas on my promotional
literature. I don’t list individual components and features
because that leads you down the commodity route and clients
being in charge.
So, instead of charging a round amount, add or subtract 10 or

15 Dollars here or there – the bespoke illusion will reassure
your prospect whilst leaving control where it should be, and
needs to be – with you.
Cutting Edge Suggestion
For the past four proposals we have produced I’ve been

omitting the currency symbol. I have just done it on a
hunch, but so far it seems to be having a slight positive
effect. Whilst I don’t have enough evidence to back this
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up 100% right now, I wanted you to know about
something that seems to be getting tangible results (we
got the last four proposal prospects btw).
Why might it work? I’m betting that currency symbols

function as strong anchors in all of us, leading to pain or
pleasure depending on the context. Until I figure a way
out to reframe the context, it seems better to just be
done with an anchor that could have detrimental effects.
Should things tip one way or the other in the future I will
let you know in an update!
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Deadlines... Or not?
Scarce city works well in online and direct marketing. I also

think it has a huge place in offline marketing as well – but as
much in the initial lead generation and warming up (the
seminar, or direct mail etc) as the proposal.
For a proposal, I try and keep the scarcity to a limit. The reason
I do this, is space is limited and to my mind it is the proposal
email that gets the work done. A lot of clients do nothing more
than flick through the proposal document. I don’t put any
scarcity in the main proposal document.
Instead, we simply include a 10% early bird discount if they sign

up within a certain period of receiving the proposal. I’m
assuming you have already stacked the pressure before the
proposal by saying you can only take on a few clients in each
niche in the area and that is what has gotten them to take
action to get to the proposal stage.
I’ve found adding a percentage discount, then saying this will

save you and the monetary amount is far more effective with
certain types of clients than my normal approach of saying:
Normal price $3250 per month
Early bird if ordered within 4 working days - $2400
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What do I mean? Well, some people love to SAVE. I’m not
talking about saving money in a bank, I’m talking about its
cleverly constructed partner, the ‘discount save’.
For those prospects that seem very price conscious –try the
following:
Normal price $3250 per month – order within 4 working

days and save 25% taking over $800 off the price.
I like to make this part in red and a lot larger than the rest of the
text. This is probably the most powerful tactic in my whole
power proposal system.
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The Prospect’s Mind / 4

Chances To Win
A traditional proposal might not even get read. Even if it does,

the prospect may forget about it, or not even like it.
When it comes down to it, a prospect who doesn’t sign up does

so for one of the following reason
- They can’t afford it - timewasters

- They can’t afford it – they don’t see the value in your
system
- They don’t believe you can do it
Virtually all prospects you lose will fall into one of these three
categories. When I was developing a more marketing friendly
proposal system, I decided that it must try to answer these
doubts that may exist in a prospects mind in combination with
building reciprocity and a sense of urgency.
We have four chances to get a deal with Power Proposals.

Hopefully timewasters will drop out after the workhorse email.
We don’t explain our prices in detail, nor our package details –
we are positioning ourselves as the experts. Any doubts will be
answered later, indirectly.
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If you try and justify your price by listing a lot of features, you
fall back to being a commodity and a lot of the trust and value
you build will disappear in the prospects mind.
The next most important concern is – do they understand my

business? Every business owner thinks that their business is
unique. As such, we need to appeal to the ego and show
uniqueness.
During one meeting, Eddie James spoke about wood working

(a topic he know a scary amount about) and impressed the hell
out of a client. I dare say that sealed the deal.
The ‘Trojan’ report,aka the marketing analysis shows that we

know the prospects business. Not only that, but we probably
know their competitors, seasonal market trends and potential
opportunities better than they do.
Can you say ‘expert?’
The next objection on our hierarchy of gripes is can they do the

job. We have all heard the phrase, ‘ they can walk the walk but
can they talk the talk’.
Our examples comes in here. Put simply, we show a whole

bunch of websites in Google in the top few spots. For the sake
of brevity, we can show our top ones, and then say for ‘10’
more examples, see our website at xxxxxx page.
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The last possible objection is –‘what will they do for the cash’ –
which is really another way of saying ‘are they worth it’. I would
be troubled if you got a prospect to this point.
Really, we should have demonstrated serious value, expertise,

generated reciprocity and urgency. They are still worried about
cash – they either don’t have it – in which case they have
intentionally strung you along. Or, they are just very difficult to
deal with – perhaps they have been burn before?
The ‘Project’ document should satisfy a prospect that you will

actually be doing things for your monthly retainer. However, you
don’t want to go and start spelling out things in serious detail
such as:
- Post On Twitter Twice Per Week

- Go On Rabbits Forum 3 Times Per Week To Talk About
Feed
- Get Backlinks From The Following Pet Websites and
Blogs... etc
If a prospect enquires verbally, I would say it is ok to mention a

few things – almost as if you are picking them at random.
However, never list out, verbally or in words everything you are
going to do.
At best, you are viewed as a commodity – on some level the

prospect tries to work out how much the pay you for each
component. At worst, the prospect takes your list to shop
around and force your price down.
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Why Some Prospects Have No

Intention Of Signing Up
Sometimes a prospect will not be able to afford you, or get a

business partner on board. There are also the dangerous and
difficult prospects that become nightmare clients.
The timewasters however, in my experience, can be broken

down beyond these other pointless leads.
- Some think they can learn ‘seo’ / ‘marketing’ etc

themselves
- Some are going with a competitor but want them to
feature match you
- Yet others work for competitors and are sizing you up!
As soon as you begin to smell a rat, pull away and don’t give
them any more. A genuine prospect would usually make the
effort to get back in touch if they didn’t hear from you.
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Incentivised Testimonials
K – I’m sure some of you didn’t feel too great reading this
section’s header. Don’t worry – I used to feel the same too.
Look – I’m not saying get crooked or fake testimonials.
Rather I am suggesting that you make it as easy for your
existing clients to provide testimonials.
Psychologically speaking, the best time to approach them is

early on in the campaign, usually just after you have had your
first success.
Clients will naturally focus on other issues once you have been
on board for a while and this lowers both the chance of you
getting a testimonial, and the quality of it.
So – go in early, when the enthusiasm is there. I always like to

help clients out by making testimonial giving as easy as
possible.
I provide a document with a form on it for them to fill out, with a

selection of other testimonials to give them ideas (if you don’t
have any, you could put some ‘example’ ones in).
To incentivise the completion, we offer one month free if they

can the testimonial back to us within a few days. I realise that
this seems like a lot but testimonials can do wonders in
getting new clients in, so long term it really is worth it.
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Plus, a month free generates a huge amount of client good will,
meaning that they often stay on board longer and usually order
some extra stuff.
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‘Never’ Sell An Existing Package
Ok, so the headline for this section sounds a tad crazy. That is
because it is actually a little over the top but I wanted to make
you stop and think.
Every offline marketing consultancy has a bunch of packages –

even if they are quite vague. There are a couple of reasons that
we should offer more than one package:
• Some people always like to get the cheapest package

• Some people can’t afford much
• Some people always want the edge (higher price)
• Almost everyone likes to feel like they have choices
I realise that this is pretty elementary to 99% of you but I don’t

want people stripping back so that they only offer one package.
The actual contents of the packages are outside the scope of

this report – but if you can I would always offer some package
variations to even the most decided customer.
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The Importance of Your Email

Workhorse
So – how do you create the ultimate proposal? Many people

would say creating a physical or PDF proposal is the best way
to go. Of course 90% of these people probably swear by
mass advertising and brand building, things I think are
completely unsuitable for a lot of businesses, including SEO
agencies.
I do actually produce PDF proposals for every prospect, and

occasionally printed ones as well. The reason I scorn them, is
that I see them as things that simply ‘stack the cool’ – I am
100% convinced that it is the proposal email that actually
achieves results.
Why do I say that?
Well, imagine you are emailing one of you lists about your latest
product.
• You send out an email to 1000 people.

• To start with, you lose a few to the bounce rate.
• Out of the 990 people left, a quarter ends up in
SPAM.
• Of those that get through only a third of the 740
odd emails are opened
• Only 240 read the email and click the link
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• On the sales page only 10% choose to buy
• You got 24 sales.
Out of a thousand people, that is quite a reduction. Sure, it is

how the industry works, but with a proposal you are going
through a similar thing. Each stage or roadbump that you add
reduces your chances of making the sale.
Think about it. Top marketers today will take you directly to an
order page rather than a sales page, usually because they have
presold you. If you have done your job correctly outside of the
proposal then your prospect is already presold.
What you need to achieve is:
• Building and maintain trust

• Giving the potential client the feeling of control and
options
• Giving them an easy choice
• Combating indecision and buyers remorse (I believe it
begins to occur before most purchases are even
completed)
The likelihood is that our prospect will open the email – it’s
at this point we want to seal the deal –rather than waiting for
them to wade through our actual proposal. Our intention is
to give them everything they need to make the decision
in the email, with the rest of the information providing
reassurance.
P a g e | 73
In the email we want to include
• A one liner about the goal of the project – eg to get

Hans Carpet Cleaning 20% more business.
• A one liner about a customer who is delighted with
us, achieving something similar
• A short paragraph about business opportunities in the
niche (taken from the Trojan report)
• Three options on the package ‘chosen for them’
• An early bird discount – giving a perecentage off
• A reminder that this offer will liquidate
• A nice close
Writing Your Work-Horse Email
For us, the email is the workhorse of the Power Proposal

System. I suspect most clients are 90%-100% sure of their
intention by the time they finish the email.
I would suggest that your email always follows this basic

structure, on the right I have given an example. Remember, the
subject is what gets your email opened.
Hardly anyone in offline marketing seems to bother with

techniques that work so well in list building and email
marketing! What a mistake!
You are also making a huge mistake if you don’t personalise as

much as possible
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Subject - Hi Bob - Proposal For Elephant Electrical
Salutation – Hiya Bob! (informal and friendly)
Subject Reminder – RE: Elephant Electrical Multimeter

Online Sale
The Hook – We have done our magic research, and we have

got together a strong group of tactics that should really drive
sales through the roof in time for the website launch
The Summary (Really this is a teaser followed here is what we

have got for you, here is what it will do for you)
- None of your competitors in South Yorkshire seem to

have even thought about focussing on multimeters
- We’ve had a think and dropped some features that we
don’t think Elephant needs and I’ve starred the package I
think is the best option:
-
(What We Have For You)
Budget – Local Search Management And SEO – 320
PCM (with discount 256 pcm, locked in)
Premier – All the above, plus autoresponder, social
marketing and back linking – 745 PCM (with discount
pcm, locked in)
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Platinum – Premier plus Forum Marketing, Pro
Advertising Campaign – 1650 PCM (with discount
1320 pcm locked in)
(Here is What It Will Do For You)

- Number 1 in Google Within Three Months
- Large upswing in trade from almost the first day we
come on board.
- Longer term, we aim to position Elephant as the
dominant force in online electrical sales in the region.
Here Is What I Need You To Do (call to action) –
As I mentioned, we can only take 1 client in your market in

the area and Elephant seems to be the perfect fit. Within 24
hours I am able to offer the above discounts! You can call
me on 01484 xxx xxx, or just send me an email back.
The nice sign off –
It was good to see you at the seminar! It was quite a rush for
us having so many people there!
Take care,
Steve
The Obligatory PS -
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PS – If you need me to add or take anything away, let me
know and I will get something across to you. I appreciate
you are pretty busy with the launch but we need to get
moving now to be ready in time.
For the sake of being able to plan our workflow for 2010
now, I can offer you a 20% discount on the following prices if
you could get back to me by tomorrow lunch time.
Formatting Issues
The main issue you will come across it trying to fit everything in,
whilst still hitting all the points. I would recommend writing the
email in plain text only, before pasting into your email
application.
Below is the unformatted post: (with a few mistakes – my

apologies!)
P a g e | 77
All of the important stuff is above the fold, including the package
prices and the call to action (to call me). The email is easy to
read, (possibly slightly messy) but I have let some of the lower
lines get longer to draw the eye and save space.
After styling, HTML wise – it looks like this – a little odd, but
very readable and draws the eye . To my eye it is still
professional but far more compelling.
For my workhorse emails, I always think restraint is the best

option.
After formatting in html – it looks like this:
P a g e | 78
You can’t actually see the bit about the early bird discount in the
image here – my bad!
Let me just go over that and point where the eye is supposed to
go. I’m assuming that some part of the mind skim reads, even if
they do bother to try and read it all:
P a g e | 79
I try to make these emails as personal as possible. Right up

until the point I think it looks unprofessional. Then I back off a
tad.
Let me just run through the intended effect of this email
Hi Bob – personalise, personalise
The next few paragraphs are very ‘to the point’ , we don’t have
space to waste. I also expect the eye to follow the right edge
gradient down to the emboldened line (think of it as a slide).
Then we hit – ‘I’ve starred the package I think is the best

option’
P a g e | 80
This is me saying, I don’t think you need the most expensive
option. This does one of two things:
- I become a trusted advisor -not out for every last penny

- Or snobby business owner wants to impress me and
goes for the top package
The eye then jumps wildly around the packages section, seeing
‘what we have for them’, landing on the starred *Premier*
package – I only use the asterix(es?) once for that very reason.
Normally, I would include the price savings but the client this
email was based on was quite a low budget so I went for
focussing on a ‘locked in’ discount. The phrase is
unconventional in business, but everyone knows what I mean,
and it means I stick out in their eye.
You might also know I have missed off the currency symbols,
you can read more about that elsewhere in the report – but the
long and short of it is that I don’t want to be bringing up bad
associations – however subconsciously. For lower amounts I
wouldn’t bother, but for offline it seems a good tactic.
The bold and the red, along with the narrow edge all serve one
purpose:
To move the eye down to the call to action.
P a g e | 81
Anywho, there you go, the anatomy of a workhorse email. Most
prospects will just call up and ask for you to email across the
contract and ask who the cheque should be made out to.
I’ve never had any one comment on the style of our emails, and
the odd time I have missed out the early bird discount or red
writing, people have taken longer to get back.
Coincidence? I think not!
The workhorse email is a combination of copywriting and visual

psychology packed into a very small space. Don’t
underestimate it though – I have sent the workhorse email on
its own with no extra proposal materials and still done pretty
well.
Before we leave this section, here is a nice text version of the

email (the formatting is a bit messed up by the page but you get
the idea):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiya Bob!
RE: Elephant Electrical Multimeter Online Sale
We have got together a strong group of tactics

that should really
drive sales through the roof in time for the
website launch.
None of your competitors in South Yorkshire

seem to have
even thought about focussing on multimeters.
P a g e | 82
We’ve had a think and dropped some features

that we don’t
think Elephant needs and I've starred the
package I think is the best option:
Budget –
Local Search Management And SEO
- 320 PCM (with early bird discount 256 PCM,
locked in)
*Premier* –
All the above, plus autoresponder, social
marketing and back linking
– 745 PCM (with discount 596 PCM, locked in)
Platinum – Premier plus Forum Marketing, Pro

Advertising Campaign
– 1650 PCM (with discount 1320 PCM locked in)
Benefits
- Number 1 in Google Within Three Months
- Large upswing in trade from almost the first
day we come on board.
- Longer term, we aim to position Elephant as
the dominant force in online electrical sales
in the region.
We can only take 1 client in your market in the

area and
Elephant seems to be the perfect fit.
-----------------------------------------------
What I need to get things moving is your
agreement to this and then I will pass over a
contract to you and we can get started.
You can call me on 01484 xxx xxx, or just send

me an email back.Within 24 hours I am able to
offer the above discounts!
It was good to see you at the seminar! It was
quite a rush for us having so many people
there!
P a g e | 83
Take care,
Steve
PS – If you need me to add or take anything away, let me

know and I will get something across to you. I appreciate
you are pretty busy with the launch but we need to get
moving now to be ready in time.
P a g e | 84
Market Analysis - The ‘Trojan’

Horse Strategy
The Trojan horse strategy is just as sneaky as it sounds.

Following the myth (legend?) to a tee the idea is to get
something into the prospect’s camp that will allow us to open up
a full blown assault.
All we really need to do is get something that will get their

‘greed glands’ going and that they are going to want to
consume. Remember that each business owner thinks:
• That they are the best in their business?

• Is there more money to be made?
• That their business is unique.
So – all we need to do is produce something that will make

them feel that we understand their business and that there is
further opportunity to grow (without more work on their part).
You could go all expensive and purchase some of the

expensive annual reports (I have found them in my local library)
that cover niche markets and business performance.
Or, you can get clever and use some freely available
information on the internet. Now, before we stuck in, I totally
realise that some of these tools might be completely unsuitable
for pulling up information about your potential client’s niche.
P a g e | 85
Heck, they might not even have any useful data that you could
give to your prospect.
There isn’t much I can do about. What I would suggest is that

you put together what information you can and go with that –
your competitors are unlikely to have anything like this anyway.
What we are going to do is produce a business summary that

shows key information about your prospect’s niche market. It
makes you look like you really have done your research as well,
which is a good thing on so many levels.
Let’s pretend we are looking to sign on a north American carpet

cleaning franchise!
All we have to do is goto Google Trends and do a search:
P a g e | 86
We now have a graph that can be used to show yearly interest
cycles for that niche. Trust me, 99% of your clients will not even
know about this or have done it.
Is it 100% accurate? Heck no, but it does give you a rough

metric that is a really useful guide. You could also use Google
Insights for getting the same information or taking things further.
Another great thing to include in your business and market

summary is a list of demand by cities. You can achieve this in
Google Insights by altering the filters...
By selecting the drop down marked above, you can really

begin to narrow things down!
P a g e | 87
The other tool I like to use in building up my Trojan business

report is www.spyfu.com. Simply enter a relevant search term
(as you did in Google Trends / Insights) and look at all the
lovely data you get back.
P a g e | 88
This kind of information helps you put together a rough picture
of market advertising spend, competition, rising and falling
competitors.
As you can imagine, this sort of information, even though only a

guide will really get your lead’s mind racing:
• “What else do they know?”

• “Do my competitors know these things?”
• “How can I use this to my advantage?”
I would only make the marketing analysis (Trojan) report two or

three pages long at the most, but by taking this sort of
information and presenting it well, you can really instil
confidence in your prospect. I had to do this when we started
losing people to a rival company who had ‘unbelievable’
testimonials.
P a g e | 89
The ‘Project’
This part should be a separate document. This is your last line

of defense – should everything else fail. Traditional proposals
make the project part the first part you see.
The ‘project’ should begin with a summary of the problem, the

opportunity and your offer. Start with brief sentence stating the
problem as brought to you by your prospect. For instance:
- We need to sell more rabbits

- We need our website to be number 1
- We want to rank for plumbers in New Hampshire
I would embolden it and put it in quotation marks, something

like:
‘XXXX Business Wishes To Sell More Rabbits Online’
Then you need to make reference to your market research

documentation, to remind them that you understand their
business. So:
As illustrated in the market analysis report, we believe that

there is a significant pet based opportunity in your local area in
both Yahoo and Bing.
P a g e | 90
At this point we need to state what we suggest doing about it
and the real benefit. Yeah, I said the real benefit, not some
reason they gave you.
Invariably, it always involves making money with businesses,

who would have thought? We need to tart that up a little as
some businesses would, surprisingly, think us a little vulgar to
state that so simply.
We would recommend our Premier package – offering pet

forum marketing and seo services. The benefits to
yourselves would include a far greater number of enquiries
about your full range of rabbits – with significant revenue
increases as a result.
Please contact me, Christopher Jones, on 01484 xxx to begin

seeing results.
If you have the chance, I would put the call to action in a little
box as well. To draw the eye!
That is it for your first page.
On the next page, I would put down the details of your

packages (as I mentioned earlier, don’t give too much away).
Your third page should cover metrics. In other words, how you
will measure progress (the tools), how you will use this to build
reports and how often you will hold reviews with the new client.
P a g e | 91
You could also add another page showing the key
achievements you want to make – a road map of sorts.
Or you could talk about future opportunities. I call this ‘Long

Term’.
You could also put a timescale with the roadmap, but be

careful of doing this unless you are sure it is necessary and you
are very confident you can stick to it.
I tend to keep this section short, as I don’t want to do anything

more than tease their imagination.
Remember, when something is documented it carries a lot

more weight. Try and always make that weight count to your
advantage (eg ‘you were never offered rabbit videos as part of
the package’) rather than, ‘hey you guys said I would be in the
top ten by April 2009 and it is August now, what gives??’.
Finally, I end with a ‘What Now?’ section, where I ask for the
reader to call their ‘client manager’. Of course, these details are
the same as else where but I decided that people who read that
far probably are in need of a little extra persuasion so an
alternative approach seemed like a good idea.
P a g e | 92
Don’t Forget!
For all sections of the Power Proposal System, you should be

implementing the formatting and readability tactics!
P a g e | 93
The ‘Examples’
The ‘Examples’ should also form a separate document. Again,

not very big. The first page should briefly mention your
expertise, how long you have been around and a summary of
some of your best results – you can copy this straight from the
‘project’ document.
The next few pages should contain screen shots and

summaries of the work you have done. If you have them I would
intersperse quotes (in a pull quote style) throughout the
examples.
Your only other major choice is whether you want to overwhelm

them with examples of your prowess or show a select few and
ask them to visit your website on a special page to see more.
The likelihood is, most will never bother to check, they will
simply sign on the bottom line. As such, you can put your
weaker examples online!
Like the ‘project’ document, you should close with a ‘what to do

now’ section which provides a call to action, and a ‘personal
account managers’ contact details. You can make these yours.
Remember, apart from the workhorse email, the other

documents are serving as forms of advertising for us.
P a g e | 94
By the way, if you ever can’t complete a section of the Power
Proposal System, try not to sweat it – simply skip it. Your
proposal may be a little weaker, but it is best to produce
something rather than procrastinate. Plus, each section in the
power proposal system is far stronger than your average
prospect or competitor can imagine!
P a g e | 95
Things We Missed Out And

Why!
Traditional proposals often contain things that I think are

pointless. As such, I dropped them out of Power Proposals.
They included such vanity projects and ego trips as:
- Business History
- Office Photos
- Team Photos
- Award Ceremonies
- Staff member biographies
- Random ‘cool’ art
- Galleries
Do you see iPod and iPhone boxes with award stickers on

them, or Steve Job’s biography?. How about cool random art?
Nope – Apple don’t need to and neither do you. The purpose of

the Power Proposal System is to create some clear blue water
between you and the alternatives (if they exist). Your offline
consultancy is not the cheapest but you get the job done.
No one wants to be a commodity service, taking small

payments, lots of abuse and having to prove yourself all of the
time.
P a g e | 96
Power Proposals are in the business of adding marketing magic
to your offline funnel!
P a g e | 97
Other
Stuff
P a g e | 98
Notes On Implementation
• A little while ago some of my inner circle members

refused to believe that they could attract decent paying
offline clients.
• They didn’t know where to get them, and they didn’t
seem to be able to get them to sign on the bottom line.
As with the majority of ‘failures to launch’ the lack of success

came down to a few common elements:
They took what they read, identified it as common sense (stuff

they ‘knew’ although they never had done any of it). Coupled
with a complete lack of confidence they began to ‘implement’
what I had taught.
When they began reporting failure – I took a look at this groups

work and discovered that by and large they had not
implemented anything I had shown them. I hand held them
through a second stab at the process and unsurprisingly
success was had.
P a g e | 99
The Most Disgusting Proposal

Technique I Ever Did See
One company, who shall go nameless has a fantastic

testimonial brochure that they give out to each client. It
generates huge trust. How do I know this? I’ve had them come
to me after getting burned (badly) by said bad guys.
These goons sell hope. Hope and badly spun articles. I’m
talking about articles that have been through the wringer and
back – barely readable – odd phrases, bad grammer. Some of
them are darn right unusable.
They have one client who represents a major UK media brand.

Dig just a little on the site and you will find these shockingly bad
articles. It makes a mockery of the brand. Sure it works SEO
wise, but for a business at the level that this client is - using
spun articles is a risky and cheap tactic, considering the
retainer would cover hiring a real writer....
Anywho, you see these guys are evil – and really shouldn’t
have the kind of testimonials they do. The answer of course, is
simple – the testimonials are fake. They even provide DVD’s
with video testimonials. That. Are. Fake.
How do I know they are fake? Well, for one because I did a little
digging and for two I spoke to one of the delighted business
P a g e | 100
owners featured on the video. Except it wasn’t him, it was an
actor. And the company wasn’t his anymore.
The goon squad seo company will do anything they can to get
hold of a clients domain name. As is life, during the business
cycle some of your clients will go out of business. The goon
squad keep the semblance of business as usual by keeping the
url and website online (turning off contact points such as phone
numbers and putting out of office on emails).
They then create testimonials, and occasionally produce

testimonial videos – secure in the knowledge that the client will
be impressed without any risk of receiving bad feedback.
Lot of work? Sure – far more than I would ever have considered
worth it. Thing is though, it is true and I have got the proof from
Companies House (UK bureaucracy for business records).
Turns out the goons start businesses that never actually trade
giving them similar or the same names to businesses that have
recently gone bust.
I just thought I would share that with you, to let you know just
how sick some of your competitors can be and how much
harder you are going to have to work to become the real
champion of offline marketing in your area...
Getting testimonials is hard, but they are needed in your

proposal...
P a g e | 101
Mailing Times For Your PPS

Documents?
Just in case you don’t remember, PPS is Power Proposal

System. Emailling your proposal is my favourite way of
delivering our ‘offline’ sales letter. Even if I am mailing out a
copy I will always include a digital version – the quicker we
can strike, the more likely we are to get the client on board.
Monday are not a good idea, everyone is always catching up

and planning the week ahead.
Friday is not so good as people are slacking off, preparing for

the weekend.
In terms of statistics, Wednesday’s and Thursdays are best. I

prefer 2PM, to catch people just returning from lunch, so that
they have a nice easy, happy email to read after enjoying a
break.
I don’t want to get lost in the morning rush, or the end of the
day, so that leaves precious few hours to get things done. The
end of the week can work well, if you are convinced you have
built the prospect’s confidence in you to a very high degree, but
this is still a risky strategy.
P a g e | 102
Sneaky Strategies
After a while, writing Power Proposals becomes easier, less like

pulling teeth out – but it takes a while to get into the groove.
Once you have built up a little back catalogue of Power
Proposals, you will be able to pick and choose large sections
that can be reused.
Once you have been offline marketing for a while, you will
probably find that your clients fall into just a few categories. As
time goes on, you may be able to tailor what you write to suite
the category you believe you prospect falls into.
For instance:
• Startup business – concerned about costs, wants rapid

results
• Established business, new venture – more focussed on
prood and results
• Rich entrepreneur type – wants to move fast, wants the
best.
I would strongly urge you to always make sure your covers (for
all the documents) are personalised and mention your
prospects business names. However, I would also suggest,
once you get in the swing of Power Proposals of having a few
core groups of testimonials and examples, that you can quickly
switch in depending on the client group.
P a g e | 103
Writer’s Block
Writing a Power Proposal is a lot more like copywriting, than

writing a manual or a report. To my mind, the creative side is a
lot greater than the knowledge component and this can make
Power Proposals a little hard going in the early days.
My simply suggestion when getting stuck, or having writers

block is to break the proposal down into sub section and write
or paste anything that comes to mind without judgement.
Often the process of writing itself (unimpeded by judgment) will

help inspiration come flowing again.
Worst comes to the worst, put out what you have. It is better to
be halfway there and put it out, than spend hours trying to make
it perfect.
P a g e | 104
Locking It Down
Ok, so you have read about the tactics, the strategies, the
psychological goals. You should also see the need for
proposals in offline marketing.
By now, you should have the sense there is a lot more money
you can be making from the same lead getting efforts.
Make sure that you have understood all of the sections.
Ensure that you produce:
1. A Workhorse email
2. A Trojan Marketing Report that shows lots of promise
3. A short Project document – illustrating the problem, your
solution and the benefits. Include pricing, but no early
bird discounts. When people see a discount, they are
used to seeing the old price as well – don’t mess with
that!
4. A short examples document – perhaps link to a web
page to show more. Include testimonials in the document
as well.
Once you have all of these, make sure that you have run
through both checklists in the appendix!
P a g e | 105
Conclusion
I realise that this special report is very narrow in nature.

However, I hope that won’t stop you sliding it into your arsenal.
For every prospect that you get to the proposal stage, the
information contained here could be priceless, allowing you to
get the client you almost missed, and get more from the client
that you would have gotten anyway.
Offline marketing takes a little more work that doign affiliate or

CPA stuff online. The rewards are pretty good though. We have
a good team working for us and it is great to be able to teach
others marketing skills. You might be on your own at the
moment, but give it time and your offline consulting business
could grow like crazy. Get the fundamentals right now, and later
on you can turn them into processes.
Document those processes and you can slowly replace yourself

and pull back as me and Eddie have done.
The important thing is to pay real attention to the things I have

run through here and give each one a shot. Don’t make the
mistake of seeing what you have read for common sense – if
you aren’t implementing it then you haven’t really understood it.
Also, try to avoid thinking that your consultancy and its

problems are unique and peculiar to you. They aren’t – that is
the problem most of your clients will have with you if you aren’t
P a g e | 106
careful – don’t join them in that delusion and rob yourself of
techniques that can put easy money in your pocket.
P a g e | 107
Appendix
P a g e | 108
Pre Proposal Checklist
 Do you have a business name, telephone line, address

(even a mailing box), email address, website and legal
status (eg DBA, LLC, LTD, LLP, Inc)?
 Have you chosen a niche and region?
 Have you got 3 variations of all packages (basic,
premier, platinum)?
 Have you approached leads using either direct mail, cold
calling or introductions / networking?
 Have you presold the leads through a presentation or
workshop?
P a g e | 109
Power Proposal Checklist
 Have you identified the market and prospect

opportunities?
 Is your point of contact an owner or employee?
 What is your prospect’s claimed goal?
 Have you identified your prospect’s real needs?
 Do they have enough money?
 How can you establish trust?
 Have you created a workhorse email?
 Does it have three options (decoy pricing redux)?
 Does it include a trust statement and an opportunity
statement?
 Have you included early bird pricing?
 Is there a call to action?
 Have you formatted according to Power Proposal
instructions
 Make sure – have you personalised the email?
 Have you create a compelling ‘Trojan’ market analysis
including a call to action?
 Have you created a brief ‘Project document’ including
your undiscounted package deals?
 Have you create a brief ‘Examples document’?
 Have you chosen a key time to send?
P a g e | 110

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The Offline Power Proposal System – Core Manual

The Point Of A Proposal .......................................................14

Where Does A Proposal Fit In The Offline Process?............15

No Proposal Often = No Recurring Business .......................17

Hey – I’ve Already Presold Them – Do I Need A Proposal?.18

Why Not Use Traditional Proposals? ....................................19

Here Are The Prospects We Never Got And Why I Think It

Dangerous Clients ................................................................24

The Power Proposal System ...................................................26

How Does A Power Proposal Differ From A Traditional

Core Principles .....................................................................30

Psychological Stuff ...............................................................31

Power Proposal Overview ....................................................32

Power Proposal Key Elements .............................................33

Discounting Oblivion .............................................................37

Decoy Pricing Redux ............................................................40

My Preferred Approach -Consultations And Proposals ........42

My Preferred Offline Process ...............................................44

How Do We ‘Stack The Cool’ ? ............................................45

How Do We ‘Stack The Pressure’ ? .....................................46

Qualification / Interaction Principle .......................................47

Implementing The ‘Early Bird’ Principle ................................49

The Power ‘Workhorse’ Email Strategy ................................51

The ‘Bespoke Illusion’...........................................................58

The Prospect’s Mind / 4 Chances To Win ............................64

Why Some Prospects Have No Intention Of Signing Up ......67

Incentivised Testimonials .....................................................69

‘Never’ Sell An Existing Package .........................................71

The Importance of Your Email Workhorse............................72

Writing Your Work-Horse Email............................................74

Market Analysis - The ‘Trojan’ Horse Strategy .....................85

The ‘Project’ .........................................................................90

The ‘Examples’ .....................................................................94

Things We Missed Out And Why! .........................................96

Notes On Implementation .....................................................99

The Most Disgusting Proposal Technique I Ever Did See ..100

Mailing Times For Your PPS Documents? .........................102

Sneaky Strategies ..............................................................103

Writer’s Block .....................................................................104

Locking It Down ..................................................................105

Pre Proposal Checklist .......................................................109

Power Proposal Checklist...................................................110

Hi there and welcome to the core manual for the Proposal

This is a short and simple report that is designed to help

Sometimes, someone will sign up straight away and there is no

For those times that someone is so keen to sign up straight

I have this happen a lot myself and sometimes the eager

In short, whether they are an honourable client or not – I’ve

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A PRACTICAL REPORT

IMPLIMENT IT ! – SOME OF THIS TOOK A LOT OF TRIAL

As you might imagine, our style of proposal has changed

When I was building my first ‘limited’ company (a UK legal

My mentor’s angle was that a sales person should be able to

My point is that I came to see that many businesses approach

Something horrid and necessary, not the business driver

The thing is though – that a proposal is a really a form of

Have a look at the following process that you might be familiar

• A- Get traffic through mailing your list and Adwords