Ryan Dohrn studied 100 proposals and found over 70% of winning ones were seven pages or fewer. Losing proposals that later won were cut down to four or five pages. He recommends aiming for five pages or less, following the KISS principle.
Hey friends, Ryan Dohrn here answering your listener questions. Cool, I love 'em, keep 'em coming. Send 'em to ryan@ryandohrn.com. All right, next question comes from Fran in Chicago. Oh, big Chicago guy, look it, wearing a Chicago Cubs blue shirt. Fran from Chicago. All right, Ryan, is there a perfect number of pages for a given proposal? Fran, good question, and I think the answer is yes. So you may have seen online or one of my webinars, Fran, I actually studied 100 proposals, 50 that won business and 50 that lost business. Of the proposals that won business, greater than 70%— greater than 70%— 7 in 10 had less than 7 pages. So some of you, when you're reviewing your slide decks, which you often use as a proposal, recognize that the vast majority of the time, well over 70% of the time, proposals that were 7 pages or less are the ones that won business. Now, another fact for you, Fran, and for everybody that you may want to know is of those that lost business that we converted to won business— so it lost, we revised it, represented it, and converted it— most of those proposals, after a little help, were only 4 or 5 pages. So 5 pages or less. So friends, just keep in mind, a lot of times the proposals to too much text. You're regurgitating way too much information. Keep it simple. That old KISS formula— keep it simple, silly. Keep it simple, and I think you're going to be a great success. So, Fran, 7 pages or less. And once we revise them, we actually got it down to 5 pages or less, and that's where we won a lot more business. Now, keep in mind, friends, and Fran, remember this— a lot of times people will say, well, my client's different, my circumstance is different. Well, just look at the facts. The facts are 70% of the time, 7 pages or less. So figure out what you can do to keep those proposals short, simple, and to the point. All right, I'm your sales coach Ryan Dohrn. Glad to be of help to you. Keep your questions coming over here to ryan@ryandohrn.com. For more about me and what I can do for you as a sales rep or your sales team, check out my website ryandohrn.com. That's D-O-H-R-N.com. All right, friends, we'll see you next time.
