Denis Kaplunov

Effective offer. Comprehensive guide

This book is well complemented by:

Joseph Sugarman

The art of business writing

Sasha Karepina

Selling texts

Sergei Bernadsky

Writing Persuasively

This book will be useful for every person who at least once in his life faced with the need to draw up commercial proposals. My goal is to turn it into your desktop tool to help you work efficiently.

You are a businessman and faced with the task of expanding client base and increase sales figures. This is the natural growth of a business: it is not profitable for anyone to stand still and expect a miracle. A commercial offer is a great opportunity to appeal to the mass target audience with the presentation of their products.

You are the project manager and are interested in its financing. A commercial offer will help attract the attention of potential investors. You do not ask for money, as many do. You describe the merits, economic prospects, and offer an opportunity to make a profit by investing a certain amount in your project.

You are launching a new product on the market, which has no analogues so far and is unlikely to appear in the near future. With the help of a commercial offer, you can not only effectively communicate your know-how, but also instantly draw the attention of a wide audience to it. Customer engagement is the friend of sales growth.

There are countless such examples. Because the issue of compiling an effective commercial offer is relevant for any business today. Every month, approximately 95,000 people enter the phrase into the Yandex query string "offer". Every day there are new companies that seek to grab a piece of the common pie. The competition is getting tougher, the client is being attacked from all sides.

There are many controversial conversations, disputes and heated discussions around the topic of copywriting. But the question remains open: whose opinion should be listened to?

In this book, I offer you my point of view, which has already passed "and Crimea and Rym", and Kyiv, and Moscow, and Milan, and London, and many other cities. My name is Denis Kaplunov - I am a practicing copywriter, specializing exclusively in writing sales texts. You may have read my first book, Copywriting of Mass Destruction (Piter Publishing House, 2011).

I believe that there are no born geniuses in the field of copywriting and that everyone can learn how to write sales proposals that sell.

Many are afraid to do this, believing that "you have to be born a copywriter". Childish answer. Remember: copywriters are not born - they are made. Each good copywriter At first I was a bad copywriter.

Have you seen a baby who would write a commercial proposal first thing? And it’s hard to imagine a schoolboy as an expert in this field, because he still has no experience in doing business, on his lips there was neither the taste of victory nor the poison of defeat.

My first commercial proposal was written in red, crossed out in many places, and eventually torn to shreds. Someone could lose heart, but for me, failure became an intellectual irritant. At that moment, I promised myself that I would definitely learn how to create commercial proposals that would achieve the goal. And I did it.

I have no philological education, I have never worked as a journalist. Before the beginning professional activity writing any business texts seemed to me blacker than a dark forest. But I worked in sales for more than seven years, and there is nothing to do without the skill of compiling selling texts of various directions. In that area, a commercial offer is one of the main tools.

Imagine - one commercial offer and one personal meeting, after which I have a contract in my hands, where the amount of 4.5 million euros appears. Impressive?

Another example is a commercial offer and a personal meeting, which led to the conclusion of a cooperation agreement in the amount of about 840,000 US dollars.

Denis Kaplunov

Effective business proposal. Comprehensive guide

This book is well complemented by:

Joseph Sugarman

The art of business writing

Sasha Karepina

Selling texts

Sergei Bernadsky

Writing Persuasively

This book will be useful for every person who at least once in his life faced with the need to draw up commercial proposals. My goal is to turn it into your desktop tool to help you work efficiently.

You are a businessman and faced with the challenge of expanding your customer base as well as increasing your sales figures. This is the natural growth of a business: it is not profitable for anyone to stand still and expect a miracle. A commercial offer is a great opportunity to address a mass target audience with a presentation of your products.

You are the project manager and are interested in its financing. A commercial offer will help attract the attention of potential investors. You do not ask for money, as many do. You describe the merits, economic prospects, and offer an opportunity to make a profit by investing a certain amount in your project.

You are launching a new product on the market, which has no analogues so far and is unlikely to appear in the near future. With the help of a commercial offer, you can not only effectively communicate your know-how, but also instantly draw the attention of a wide audience to it. Customer engagement is the friend of sales growth.

There are countless such examples. Because the issue of compiling an effective commercial offer is relevant for any business today. Every month, approximately 95,000 people enter the phrase into the Yandex query string "offer". Every day there are new companies that seek to grab a piece of the common pie. The competition is getting tougher, the client is being attacked from all sides.

There are many controversial conversations, disputes and heated discussions around the topic of copywriting. But the question remains open: whose opinion should be listened to?

In this book, I offer you my point of view, which has already passed "and Crimea and Rym", and Kyiv, and Moscow, and Milan, and London, and many other cities. My name is Denis Kaplunov - I am a practicing copywriter, specializing exclusively in writing sales texts. You may have read my first book, Copywriting of Mass Destruction (Piter Publishing House, 2011).

I believe that there are no born geniuses in the field of copywriting and that everyone can learn how to write sales proposals that sell.

Many are afraid to do this, believing that "you have to be born a copywriter". Childish answer. Remember: copywriters are not born - they are made. Every good copywriter started out as a bad copywriter.

Have you seen a baby who would write a commercial proposal first thing? And it’s hard to imagine a schoolboy as an expert in this field, because he still has no experience in doing business, on his lips there was neither the taste of victory nor the poison of defeat.

My first commercial proposal was written in red, crossed out in many places, and eventually torn to shreds. Someone could lose heart, but for me, failure became an intellectual irritant. At that moment, I promised myself that I would definitely learn how to create commercial proposals that would achieve the goal. And I did it.

I have no philological education, I have never worked as a journalist. Before starting my professional career, writing any business texts seemed to me blacker than a dark forest. But I worked in sales for more than seven years, and there is nothing to do without the skill of compiling selling texts of various directions. In that area, a commercial offer is one of the main tools.

Imagine - one commercial offer and one personal meeting, after which I have a contract in my hands, where the amount of 4.5 million euros appears. Impressive?

To interest a potential client in cooperation.
encourage the customer to buy a product or place an order.
reveal the advantages and benefits of cooperation.
make a tempting offer.
stand out from competitors.

Do you still need a writer or a marketing and sales specialist? Do you want beautiful texts or new clients? A good author can write impeccable texts, they are pleasant to read, others enjoy every word. Visitors can even say: "What interesting texts do you have". But it is far from certain that sales will increase. Remember how much you studied sales and how easy it is.
Does this author have experience in business, marketing? Does he understand business processes, subtleties competition, laws of customer loyalty, persuasion techniques, objection handling and many, many other elements that business owners face on a daily basis?
I had experience of cooperation with a large Russian agency providing services management consulting. Prior to our collaboration, this company involved six different copywriters on their projects. When I asked “Why didn’t cooperation with them grow together?”, the answer was short but to the point: “They wrote well, but they didn’t understand what business is, and I don’t have time to teach them this”.
I remember this phrase: it’s really difficult to write for business if you yourself have no experience in this. In terms of its aesthetics and style, the text can be incomparable, but its task is not to please the reader, but to convince him of the benefits of cooperation. And these, as they say in sunny Odessa, are two big differences.
A person who does not understand business will write texts like the following:

The priority principle of our company is the principle of an individual approach to each individual client.
Speaking about an individual approach to work, it should be clarified that we build cooperation with the customer according to the most convenient schedule for him and taking into account all his wishes.
We are distinguished from our competitors by the fact that all our work is aimed primarily at meeting the needs of customers, at taking into account and fulfilling their wishes. This approach, along with the impeccable quality of work, a variety of fabrics and materials, highly qualified employees and flexible system pricing creates for us the very attractiveness in the eyes of the client, which allows us to cooperate with customers for many years and maintain our authority in the market.

Does this style convince you? The man tried, chose expressions - did everything he could. If there is no experience, it must be acquired. An inexperienced dancer is immediately visible, an inexperienced driver gives himself away on the first kilometer.
I'm not saying this because I want to throw a stone at my colleagues' garden - there are enough intelligent specialists among our brother. I just want to aim at the thought: it is in your power to independently create a solid commercial offer.
Summarizing the above, I will say about the five main skills needed to prepare an effective sales proposal:
1. Competent syllable.
2. Business experience.
3. Knowledge and experience in advertising.
4. Marketing and sales skills.
5. Acquaintance with the technique of persuasion.

Notice that in this list, only one item (out of five) is devoted to the style of writing texts. Everything else concerns the theoretical and (most importantly) practical aspects of doing business.
Not every copywriter has experience in this, in many respects he builds on his ideas and the information that he can draw from the training material.
But you know that no book can replace business experience in the post-Soviet states. Here you have a great advantage.

You know your products and services best

Before starting cooperation, copywriters send customers a brief to fill out. It is a list of questions that the customer needs to answer in order for the copywriter to prepare a commercial offer. So many authors, so many approaches to work. How many authors, so many briefs. Everyone has different questions, and they can be used to assess the level of a copywriter. By the way, these are the words of one of my first customers.
Note that you answer the questions, that is, you know the answers, but the copywriter does not yet. The result largely depends not only on your answers, but also on the questions posed. The author is limited to the information that he requested from you.
Therefore, you are in a more advantageous position - you do not need to dive headlong into new topic, to study the intricacies of business. You know your products and services best, you have developed, tested, improved and sold them.
I will provide you with a few questions, the answers to which are needed to prepare an effective commercial offer for the sale of goods:
1. What customer groups is the product intended for?
2. What customer problems does it solve?
3. What strengths of your product in comparison with analogues?
4. What are the weaknesses of your product compared to analogues?
5. What is the special offer?

And so on... The list is rich. Now tell me - do you know the answers to all the questions? To prepare a commercial proposal, you need to understand the system, structure and levers of persuasion. And then everything will go like clockwork.
With the launch of each new product or service, you will already know the system, as well as understand what “hooks” you can use to hook the reader. You will learn several approaches that you can vary in certain cases.

You keep track of your competitors

Competition is a constant "action" that does not allow you to relax even for a minute. A competent businessman always keeps an eye on the main competitors and pays attention to "newbies". Because everyone knows that one good maneuver can shake even the strongest positions. Examples in modern business enough.
You remember that a CP is first and foremost a proposal. How can you build it without knowing how competitors lure customers? If such reconnaissance is not carried out, we may face the fact that against the background of competitors, your offer will look unprofitable. If you don't keep an eye on the competition, you don't know what you need to stand out with.
Competitors are a powerful source necessary information, a tool to improve sales. With whom does your commercial proposal compete in terms of efficiency? Therefore, first of all, get the CP of the main competitors - you will see what and how they offer. This is golden information.
When I worked in the banking sector and was involved in attracting deposits legal entities, I always had commercial offers from competing banks at hand. I clearly knew by what criteria clients choose a bank to place a deposit:
the size of the interest rate on the deposit;
the size of the minimum balance of funds;
the possibility of free access to funds;
convenient schedule for paying interest on the deposit;
the possibility of obtaining a loan secured by a deposit;
the need to additionally open a current account;
prompt payment of interest;
degree of reliability of the bank;
experience in the local market.

Having studied this information, I identified our strengths and weaknesses and knew which accents to bet on. And I'm afraid to imagine what the consequences would be if the guys and I were not constantly monitoring competitors.
You can do the same: collect the commercial offers of your competitors, study the strengths and weaknesses and develop your own version that would look more profitable - both in content, and in the offer itself, and in design.
Just don't try to use competitors' CPs as a template - you are capable of more. You will say that your texts can also become an object of hunting from competitors, but this is already their problem, and let them think if they can come up with a more attractive offer.
At least half of the companies do not do such things. Did you personally study competitors' CPs before reading these lines? If yes, great, if not, you now have the first task - to get these commercial offers.

Target list for commercial offers

For an effective email marketing campaign, it is important to understand who we will be sending them to. This is where you should start - with customers. The money you are claiming is with them. We immediately see who they are, what they have now, how comfortable they are, what changes they want, etc. This will allow us to approach our proposal more intelligently and competently. If you want a person to read the text, give him what he wants to know.
He wants new customers - you offer him the opportunity to expand the customer base.
He wants sales growth - you tell him about this opportunity.
It is aimed at obtaining a competitive advantage - show how you can provide it.
The more personalization in a commercial offer, the more interesting it is for the reader. After all, he concludes: you are not just stunning him with information, but providing the court with exactly what interests him most. Each client has their own needs, pain points and decision criteria.
Your advantage is that you clearly understand to whom you will send commercial offers. You know your customers best because you've sold your products to them before. You make a list in advance, while you can format it as you like.
Selection key clients- you can initially make a separate list of the most attractive customers to whom you will contact with a special offer.
Focus on areas of activity - you prepare a list where all clients are divided into areas of activity, because for each of them you can have a personal offer that does not apply to others.
Product orientation - if you have several services or products in your assortment, you can create a list of customers according to the principle "Customers for service No. 1", "Customers for service No. 2", etc.
Focus on customer experience - if you have been in business for several years, then you already have an established relationship with them. This is one group. And there are new customers who are just appearing on the market or for some reason were previously out of your sight.

Such systematization will allow you to successfully control the campaign for sending commercial offers. You can select information for each client based on the results of mailing and negotiations. Attracting customers is not a matter of one day, but systematic, systematic work.
Let's say you have 200 addresses in your general list. Sales practice shows that after the initial stage, those with whom cooperation is not interesting for you for certain reasons will disappear. After screening, you will receive a target list of clients with whom you will carry out systematic work to attract, including through commercial offers. And the target list will be periodically supplemented with new positions.
All this confirms that a commercial offer is a tool for attracting new customers and selling goods or services, which will be carried out by you and your employees, and not by anyone else.

Test your offer yourself

A few words about trade secrets

When discussing the prospects of working together, my new customers say: "What you learn is our trade secret, we ask you to remember this and not disclose to anyone what you hear." When key employees of a company change jobs, they are often forced to sign a so-called “non-disclosure agreement”.
Every company has its own secrets. But we are more interested in the other side - personal developments and tactical moves to launch new products and special offers. In our time, the most precious thing that can be is a mature idea.
Can you imagine what would have happened if Apple had announced the development of iPad tablets a little earlier than it did? Remember how many competitors immediately appeared on the iPad. And so Apple actually made a revolution and set the fashion.
I was once told: when a new collection of shoes was presented in Milan, the next morning smart Chinese comrades already put the entire collection on the shelves. Modern phones, pictures, videos, information within a few minutes in China - and an instant launch in mass production. I do not know how true this is, but I do not exclude that there is some truth.
Any unique idea, as soon as it leaves the walls of your company, will fall into " the right hands". It is very risky to talk right and left about your achievements. Someone smarter (and richer) will implement your idea before you and leave you with a nose.
When you involve a third-party specialist in the preparation of commercial proposals, you must make sure that he is honest. After all, no one knows how the cooperation will end. I've had several clients who have spoken of bitter experiences with unscrupulous copywriters.
Once I was approached by a client who needed to draw up a complex commercial proposal for business consulting services. When we started talking, I found out that the other day the customer discussed work with another author and refused his services. It turns out that he had experience working with consulting companies and during the discussion he boldly shared very interesting information. The motive for my client's refusal: "Since he so easily tells the secrets of others, then later he will easily tell about mine."
When you write a commercial proposal yourself, there is no such danger.
What is the purpose of this chapter? I wanted to show that you yourself can write commercial proposals no worse than professional copywriters. Why am I so sure? Many of my clients have received ready-made version KP, said: "You definitely managed to reproduce our thoughts and wishes." We spoke the same language with them, and if they had time to study and train, I'm sure they would be able to prepare excellent CPs on their own.
Periodically, I receive letters of thanks from readers of my first book, Copywriting of Mass Destruction. After reading it, they began to write selling texts on their own. And they were surprised when their work began to bring results. The words of one of them: “I would never have thought that I could write sales texts. And the most interesting thing is that I liked it.”
And they are readers just like you. They got acquainted with the general book on selling texts, and now you are reading a separate, in-depth work specifically on commercial offers. You will succeed, otherwise it cannot be!
The famous American businessman Robert Kiyosaki said: “The word “impossible” blocks your potential, while the question “How can I do this?” makes the brain work to its fullest.
Start thinking: “What do I need to do to prepare an effective sales proposal?” and your brain will automatically search for solutions.

Chapter 3
Types of commercial offers

The general theory in the field of commercial proposals says that there are two types of commercial offers - personalized and non-personalized. My opinion: the more scientific terms, the less understanding.
Practices in the field of sales and copywriting also distinguish two types of CP, but they call them more clearly: "hot" and "cold".
Remember the phrase "cold contact" in sales? Here the situation is identical. A “cold” commercial offer is the first appeal to a new client. Consequently, a "hot" commercial offer is sent already after preliminary communication - after personal negotiations, face to face, or by phone.
Each of these types has its own characteristics and, in principle, performs different tasks. It must be clearly understood right away that a commercial offer that is “hot” cannot be drawn up according to the rules of “cold”.
Let's consider them in detail.

"Hot" commercial offers

"Cold" commercial offers

A “cold” commercial offer is a text analogue of the first “cold” contact with a client. This type of KP is a tool mass mailing, when business letters sent to a fairly wide range potential clients with the initial concrete proposal.
The bottom line is this: before sending out, you did not conduct any preliminary negotiations, potential customers do not expect any letters from you, you are going to attract the attention of a wide range of target audience with your mailing list. Such a commercial offer is also called a typical or basic one.
The main advantages of "cold" commercial offers:
1. A single sample of the CP is being developed, designed for a mass target audience - this helps to save time and money.
2. Instant coverage of a wide audience of potential customers is carried out - a message to the desired market segment about the emergence of a new company or a new offer.
3. Opportunity to establish business contacts with many customers in short time(due to telephone conversations after mailing).

Where there are virtues, there are always flaws. Among weaknesses"Cold" commercial proposals include the following positions:
1. The absence of a personal offer for each client, created on the basis of his personal needs and requirements.
2. Many emails won't be read by the decision maker in the first place - this results in wasted time and money.

Despite these shortcomings, "cold" CPs work - provided that you approach the issue of compiling and mailing them with the highest quality possible. In my practice, there were “cold” commercial offers that I tore to shreds, as well as those that gently pushed me to call. You must have experienced similar situations in your experience.
Let's now think about the cases in which it is relevant to send out commercial offers. First of all, when you offer one specific (preferably narrow) service that (at a hypothetical level) is of interest to a wide range of potential customers. For example:

Denis Kaplunov

Effective business proposal. Comprehensive guide

This book is well complemented by:

Joseph Sugarman

The art of business writing

Sasha Karepina

Selling texts

Sergei Bernadsky

Writing Persuasively

This book will be useful for every person who at least once in his life faced with the need to draw up commercial proposals. My goal is to turn it into your desktop tool to help you work efficiently.

You are a businessman and faced with the challenge of expanding your customer base as well as increasing your sales figures. This is the natural growth of a business: it is not profitable for anyone to stand still and expect a miracle. A commercial offer is a great opportunity to address a mass target audience with a presentation of your products.

You are the project manager and are interested in its financing. A commercial offer will help attract the attention of potential investors. You do not ask for money, as many do. You describe the merits, economic prospects, and offer an opportunity to make a profit by investing a certain amount in your project.

You are launching a new product on the market, which has no analogues so far and is unlikely to appear in the near future. With the help of a commercial offer, you can not only effectively communicate your know-how, but also instantly draw the attention of a wide audience to it. Customer engagement is the friend of sales growth.

There are countless such examples. Because the issue of compiling an effective commercial offer is relevant for any business today. Every month, approximately 95,000 people enter the phrase into the Yandex query string "offer". Every day there are new companies that seek to grab a piece of the common pie. The competition is getting tougher, the client is being attacked from all sides.

There are many controversial conversations, disputes and heated discussions around the topic of copywriting. But the question remains open: whose opinion should be listened to?

In this book, I offer you my point of view, which has already passed "and Crimea and Rym", and Kyiv, and Moscow, and Milan, and London, and many other cities. My name is Denis Kaplunov - I am a practicing copywriter, specializing exclusively in writing sales texts. You may have read my first book, Copywriting of Mass Destruction (Piter Publishing House, 2011).

I believe that there are no born geniuses in the field of copywriting and that everyone can learn how to write sales proposals that sell.

Many are afraid to do this, believing that "you have to be born a copywriter". Childish answer. Remember: copywriters are not born - they are made. Every good copywriter started out as a bad copywriter.

Have you seen a baby who would write a commercial proposal first thing? And it’s hard to imagine a schoolboy as an expert in this field, because he still has no experience in doing business, on his lips there was neither the taste of victory nor the poison of defeat.

My first commercial proposal was written in red, crossed out in many places, and eventually torn to shreds. Someone could lose heart, but for me, failure became an intellectual irritant. At that moment, I promised myself that I would definitely learn how to create commercial proposals that would achieve the goal. And I did it.

I have no philological education, I have never worked as a journalist. Before starting my professional career, writing any business texts seemed to me blacker than a dark forest. But I worked in sales for more than seven years, and there is nothing to do without the skill of compiling selling texts of various directions. In that area, a commercial offer is one of the main tools.

Imagine - one commercial offer and one personal meeting, after which I have a contract in my hands, where the amount of 4.5 million euros appears. Impressive?

Another example is a commercial offer and a personal meeting, which led to the conclusion of a cooperation agreement in the amount of about 840,000 US dollars.

Any successful skill is a combination of knowledge (theory) and practice (experience). I studied a lot, experimented, adopted experience, made a catastrophic number of mistakes - this did not upset, but only stimulated, I understood that I was getting better. But now I see and know how this could have been avoided. That is why I decided to write a book - to save your time, to protect you from many troubles.

What awaits you in the book? Is not theoretical work but a practical guide. Step by step, we will go through all the stages, consider just a dizzying number of special tricks, techniques and secrets that will lead you to more high level, and examples that will help to understand the essence of a particular technique.

Moreover, marketing, sales and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) issues are touched upon here, without which it is impossible to present an intelligent commercial proposal. You will learn everything you need.

If you have never made a single commercial offer in your life, you have the opportunity to start your journey in the right direction, protecting yourself from many mistakes from the very beginning. I'm sure as soon as you turn the last page of this book, you will understand that its price must be at least several times higher. You will recommend her to your friends and acquaintances. And you can also give to customers; I am sure that they will treat such a gift with due attention. Now it's time to check it out.

Denis Kaplunov

Why 80% of commercial offers don't work?

It's a delusion. It was put into circulation by people who have a negative experience in applying commercial offers. They prepared some kind of document, wrote something in it, sent it to someone and waited a long time for the result. When the result turned out to be deplorable, they launched this delusional myth into the people. Naturally, there will always be people who will pick up such a myth and start building entire opposition movements around it with flags, anthems and banners.

There is another dedicated audience of energetic agitators who see the sales pitch as a waste of time. This handful of people ran into a wall that says: "Letters Can't Get Customers".

Another thing is sad: there are many of them, they sow panic. But a smart and quick-witted person will say: "It's easier to admit you're a failure than to try to find a solution". Let them shout, let them doubt, it only plays into our hands, because their opinion is very far from the truth. And if they do not use commercial offers, then this only gives us a head start. While they are screaming and doubting, we are doing, attracting and earning.

If one person cannot jump over a two-meter barrier with a run, this does not mean that others cannot do it. If you train long and hard, one day the desired height will submit. And the losers and skeptics will continue to vote about the impossibility of such a jump.

Commercial offers work, and I am absolutely sure of this, because I have a result. I have overcome this barrier. Although, I confess, my first attempts left much to be desired, but I was in no hurry to wave a white flag, did not react to difficulties, but confidently moved towards my goal.

What can we learn from Dr. House?

Many are familiar with the House M.D. series, which starred the recognized sex symbol of our time, Hugh Laurie. Dr. House has always had non-standard methods of work, and he often achieved impressive results, defeating numerous insidious ailments in the hardest battles.

The hero Hugh Laurie spent a lot of time to make the correct diagnosis. The specialist understands that if there is a mistake in the diagnosis, doctors will treat what is not there. What consequences this may lead to, it is better not to write, everyone’s imagination works at the proper level.

Dr. House, in front of his combat team of young colleagues, wrote down on the board the symptoms of the ailments of a particular patient. Then, through heated discussions, doctors established probable diseases that are characterized by the listed symptoms. The next step is the elimination method. Based on the tests and trial treatment, the list was reduced to the one and only correct one. Logic is a terrible force, especially if you possess it.

What am I getting at? Before us is a disease - a non-working commercial proposal. Judging by the scale, it is not just a disease, but a general epidemic that is spreading at an astronomical pace. She embraced both the small and big business, both new and long-established companies have become infected with it. How to deal with such a plague?

There are only two ways here:

Surrender;

Find the cause and eliminate it.

I will say right away: if you give up, you can lose the most powerful channel for attracting customers and increasing sales. With a similar step, you can even present serious things to others for free, on a silver platter. competitive advantage. Because if you give up, this does not mean that competitors will join you. On the contrary, they will look for all the ways and opportunities to turn your weak point into a strong argument in their favor.

And then you have to catch up and catch up with them. But what is the reason to be in the shadows, if you can create it yourself for others? People are used to copying, they are afraid to be the first. And when you are a pioneer, you already have a head start, and you just need to maintain the gained advantage.

The second way is to find the cause and eliminate it. Here, our main task is to understand why the commercial proposals written by us do not give the expected result. We will be able to identify the causes, this will allow us to eliminate them and embark on the path of effective commercial proposals.

Just because a car won't start doesn't mean it should be sent to a landfill. There are many reasons that prevent her from starting. As soon as you examine them and find at least one real one, the problem is eliminated, the machine is again ready for work and defense. And you get an additional positive emotional impulse - you did not give up and won.

If the borsch is not successful, this does not mean that it does not need to be cooked anymore. All it takes is to understand the reason bad taste, eliminate it and enjoy the dish. If you oversalted, next time do not allow such an oversight. If you forgot to add beans, what's stopping you from filling in the gap?

A commercial offer is a pass, a ticket for negotiations, it is there that the fate of the transaction is decided. Very few commercial offers (COs) offer an immediate direct sale. Conclusion: if the CP you compiled did not interest the reader, then you did something wrong. There can be many causes, as well as symptoms for the diseases that Dr. House battled.

9 Key Symptoms of a Sick Sales Proposal

You and I agreed on the idea that a bad commercial offer is characterized by certain rough moments. And where there is bad, there will definitely be good, you just need to learn how to find it. The more bad we eliminate, the more good we get in the end.

The ineffectiveness of a commercial offer is a diagnosis that is determined using weaknesses, symptoms. Weaknesses have their own reasons. Nothing in life just happens. An idle CP is not a poltergeist, not an anomaly, and not a mysterious one. a natural phenomenon so the cause can be found and eliminated.

When we know exactly why our commercial offer does not work, it is easier for us to find the right solutions and turn a useless piece of paper into a powerful sales tool. You have found a rational grain, it remains only to fertilize the soil, plant it, water it in time and wait for a rich harvest.

Now I will give you a few reasons why many CPs were thrown into the basket. And then we will dwell on each in detail in order to understand specifically. So, take a look at this list carefully.

1. The proposal formulated in the CP is not competitive.

2. The CP is sent to people who are obviously not interested in it.

3. The CP was compiled without analyzing the needs of the target audience.

4. The CP was compiled on the example of a template that was downloaded from the Internet.

5. The CP is poorly designed, making it difficult to read and understand the information.

6. The CP is just talking, it does not contain a specific proposal.

7. The CP only talks about the product, not about its benefits.

8. The reader gets acquainted with an unnecessarily cumbersome commercial offer.

9. The CP is read by a person who does not make decisions.

The list can be continued, because any commercial offer in each individual case has specific features. But these are the main ones.

Now take a look at the list of reasons. You will see that the process of compiling a CP is a separate art, and not “cooking” in 30 minutes, as often happens. Let's take a closer look at each reason mentioned.

Uncompetitive offer

I repeat, a commercial offer is your pass, a ticket to negotiations. Any proposal (whether it is stated on paper or in a live conversation) should be of interest to a representative of the target audience. Key thought - "should be of interest". The decision to cooperate in most cases is accompanied by a comparison: "what was - what will be." It is only interesting that (according to the client) better than that what he has, or what your competitors offer him.

At every crossroads they shout: think about the client, look for his needs. Only few people pre-study competitors, or this study is mediocre. I'm always surprised by the appearance of clone companies that copy someone else's successful business. Meaning? It is better to sit, think, find points of difference and, based on this, build a concept of differentiation.

No wonder they say that No. 2 is such not because it completely copies No. 1, but because it is completely different. No. 2 is different from No. 1, it has specific aspects of differentiation, which is why it is a full-fledged alternative, and not a banal clone, which, as a rule, crumble after a few years. In marketing wars for the client, the first one usually wins - the one who implemented a specific point of difference first.

Commercial offers do not work! Sure?

Waste of time and money! Indeed?

Nobody reads letters in white envelopes, "unprecedented offers" go straight to spam! And here you are right. Such is the fate of bad sales pitches (BPs).

The author is Denis Kaplunov, a successful copywriter, member of the Association of Internet Marketing and Web Developers. You can learn more about him and his successes on his personal blog, or by visiting one of his seminars. I will only add that "Effective Commercial Proposal" is the second book by Denis. The first one (“Copywriting of Mass Destruction”) was published two years ago.

Who should read this book?

Everyone in school wrote essays. At the same time, 50% did it with difficulty, if only they would put a “triple” and fall behind. Of these, for sure, excellent programmers, engineers and other useful "techies" came out.

Another 40% did not particularly strain: their own paragraph, Belinsky's paragraph is a good essay in haste. So did most of the current managers of all stripes and levels.

And only a few (10%) enjoyed writing, and the "A" was a matter of principle. Hello journalists and copywriters.

So, Denis Kaplunov is convinced that anyone can make a commercial offer - from a person who falls into a stupor at the word "write" to an inveterate graphomaniac. I emphasize: not anyhow some kind of CP, but a good, working one.

Copywriters are not born - they are made. And the easiest way to become them is the heads of firms, sales and promotion managers. In a word, people who are directly related to goods and services offered on the market.

Why? Everything is simple. A commercial offer is not a beautiful text about a company. This is a powerful trading tool. Stylistic and punctuation-orthographic components are secondary. The main thing is the laws of the market. And who, besides you, knows your product better, who feels the needs of your target audience more acutely?

If your answer is “professional copywriter”, then I have two bad news for you. First: your business has problems (someone understands your product better than you?!). Second: prepare money.

Why is this book worth reading?

I have already mentioned the first reason. Noticed? Correctly. Self-written sales proposal = huge savings. And, not only money.

You do not need to involve a third-party specialist, fill out a brief or verbally explain the nuances of the business. At least a week of won time. You don't pay a fee. You don't have to consider, reject, and re-examine CP options. Nerve cells will remain with you.

In addition, you will add new knowledge to your managerial talents - the art of compiling a commercial offer.

The author of the book pays attention to both the theoretical base (types of CP, their structure, style and design) and practice (many examples, including “how wrong”). Particularly good are the chapters on offer, price, and call to action.

Of course, you won’t become a sales guru after reading one book, but you will have a solid foundation. Can any of your colleagues boast of this?

So what will you get by reading this book:

• saved money;
• new knowledge and skills;
• unusual experience;
• independence from third-party specialists;
• business proposal.

Not bad, right?

Summary

Denis Kaplunov's book is worthy of attention. Its goal is to increase your business performance and minimize costs. After all, an effective commercial offer is something that sells goods and services, attracts new customers and partners.

It is up to you to create such a CP. Not for 5, but for 25 times a quality text will come out from under your pen. And you will noticeably stand out from the competition.

Is it worth buying a book for copywriters? Newbies, no doubt. I repeat: the chapters on the offer, price argumentation and customer stimulation to action should be read like paragraphs of a textbook, taking any product as a sample and writing a CP for it.

Even if, after reading the book, you do not rush to compose commercial proposals on your own, you will not waste time. The thoughtful reader will draw for himself a lot of interesting facts from the field of marketing.