Nobody reads your 20 page proposal. They read 1 page, then they call.
Your team spends days on a 20 page proposal. The buyer opens it on a phone, scrolls to the price and closes it. Here is the 1 page they actually read.Your team spends days on a 20 page proposal. The buyer opens it on a phone and reads 1 page.
- The person who signs reads 4 things: the price, the start date, what they get and who to call.
- Put those on 1 page. Their problem goes first, in their words. Everything about you goes on a link.
- Send the page after a call where you already agreed the work, never instead of that call.
- Send it on WhatsApp with a voice note, set the next call, and call back when you said.
In this article
Your team spent 3 days on it. 20 pages. About us, our history, our team, our process, our values. The price sits on the last page.
Then it goes to the buyer. They open it on their phone, between 2 meetings, maybe in the back of a car on Sheikh Zayed Road. They scroll to the end, read 1 number, and close it. And the person who actually signs? Very often they never open it at all.
01The 4 things a buyer actually reads
A long proposal is written to show how hard we worked. The buyer reads it to answer 4 questions. Only 4.
The 4 questions on their mind
- What does it cost?
- When do you start?
- What do I get, in plain words?
- Who do I call if something goes wrong?
Everything else gets skipped. Not because the buyer is lazy. Because they are busy, and the 4 answers are hidden between pages they did not ask for.
This is not new. A study of everyday web use found that people read about 20% of the words on an average web page. That data is from 2005, before most of us read everything on a phone. My own view is that a long PDF on a phone gets even less.
And the person you met is often not the person who signs. Your contact has to forward it. If it is 20 pages, it goes with a line like "see attached", and the person who signs does the same scroll to the end.
02The 1 page shape
Here is the shape I tell owners to use. 5 parts, top to bottom. It fits on 1 page, and it reads well on a phone.
What goes on it, in this order
- 01Your problem
Said back to them in their words, the way they said it on the call.
- 02What we will do
3 lines. Not 3 pages.
- 03What it costs
The number, in plain sight. Not hidden on the last page.
- 04What happens on Monday
If you say yes, this is the first thing that happens, and this is the start date.
- 05Who you call
1 name and 1 number. A real person on our team.
The first line matters most. When the buyer reads their own problem, in their own words, they know you listened. That is worth more than any page about your history.
Notice what is not on it. No about us. No team photos. No values. Those pages are not wrong. They just moved, and I will show you where.
If it does not fit on 1 page, you do not understand the deal yet.
03Send it after the call, never instead of it
Most firms use the proposal to do the selling. They meet once, say "we will send something across", and then the document has to win the work on its own. Next to 3 other proposals that all say the same thing.
Turn it around. The call does the selling. On the call you agree the problem, the plan, the price and the start date, out loud. Then the page only writes down what you both already said.
Proposal first or call first
Has to sell on its own
Writes down what you agreed
A surprise at the end
Already heard on the call
Compares you to 3 others
Checks it says what you said
Often silence
A yes, or a small change
If the call did not get to a price, do not send the page yet. Book a second call. A page that has to explain the price on its own usually loses to a cheaper page.
04Send it the WhatsApp way
In Dubai the deal lives on WhatsApp. So do not email a file and hope. Send it where the buyer already talks to you, and send it with your voice.
How to send the 1 page
- 01Send the page in the chat
As a picture or a PDF. 1 page reads fine on a phone. 20 pages do not.
- 02Add a short voice note
Walk them through it line by line, in plain words. Say what each line protects them from.
- 03Ask 1 question and set the next call
"What on here would you change? I will call you Thursday at 4 to go through it."
The voice note is the part most firms skip. A buyer has questions they will never type. Why this many weeks. Why this price. What happens if something goes wrong. A PDF cannot answer them. Your voice can, before they even ask. Then keep the typed message short: 5 or 6 lines and 1 question, not 4.
05Follow up without sounding pushy
Most proposals do not get a no. They get silence. And most owners read silence as a no, and stop. But silence usually means busy. The buyer got pulled into their own week. Your page is sitting in a chat they have not opened since the weekend. The work goes to whoever calls back, not whoever was best.
How to call back without chasing
- Set the follow up before you send. Now the call is expected, not pushy.
- Call at the time you said. Every single time.
- Do not ask if they decided. Ask what is still unclear.
- Keep 1 list of every open proposal and the day you call each one.
Look at that list every morning. It takes a few minutes. When you call and ask what is still unclear, you are not chasing them. You are helping them finish a thought.
06So where do the 20 pages go?
Do not throw them away. Everything about you moves to 1 link at the bottom of the page. The case studies, the team, the process, the history. Anyone who wants to read it can. Nobody has to.
And put a team member's name in the "who you call" line, not yours. If every proposal says call the owner, every question comes back to you. In a firm doing AED 10 million a year, an owner who approves every proposal and answers every call about it is the reason the firm stops growing.
Take your last long proposal. Write it again on 1 page: their problem, what you will do, the price, what happens on Monday, who they call. Send the next one that way, after a call, with a voice note.
07Questions, answered
Will a big client not expect a long proposal?
Some will ask for one, often for their buying team. Give it to them as the link at the bottom. The 1 page is still what the person who signs reads first.
What if the price is different for every client?
Then agree it on the call first. The page only writes down the number you both already heard. If you could not agree a number yet, the page is not ready to send.
Should I send the proposal on WhatsApp or by email?
Send the 1 page on WhatsApp with a short voice note, because that is where the buyer talks to you. Email a copy too if their company needs it on file.
How do I follow up without being annoying?
Tell them when you will call before you send the page, then call at that time. Ask what is still unclear, not whether they decided. A calm call at a set time is not pushy.
If you want to see where deals wait inside your firm, from the first call to the yes, that is one of the things the Capacity Diagnostic looks at.
Digital PratikA 37 year old, smiling, practical Gujarati, a Kathiyawadi businessman. Founder of JorrDaar LLC, Dubai.
