Do You Really Need to Send a Proposal?

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📝 Episode Summary

You’ve probably heard this before: “That sounds great—can you send me a proposal?”

But here’s the thing… do you really need to?

In this episode of Sippin’ Matcha and Helping You Make More Sales, Brooke and Scott tackle one of the most common moments in the sales process—and why saying yes to every proposal request might be slowing down your close rate.

You’ll learn when proposals are absolutely necessary, when they’re just a polite “no,” and when you can (and should!) skip them entirely and move straight to the sale. It’s not about being pushy—it’s about leading with clarity, structure, and confidence. If you’ve ever used a proposal to avoid a pricing conversation… this one’s for you. 😉

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📘 What You’ll Learn

• When proposals are necessary—and when they’re just slowing things down
• Why “Send me a proposal” isn’t always a buying signal
• The biggest mistake service providers make with proposals
• What to do instead when the decision-maker is ready to buy
• How to avoid using proposals as a crutch for hard conversations

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🔗 Resources

• 📄 Sales Conversation Assessment – Diagnose where your sales process is stalling https://buildingmomentum.info/assessment
• 🧾 Your Daily Five PDF – A simple rhythm for daily, sustainable sales https://buildingmomentum.info/five
• 🌍 Buddy Rathmell’s Company: Map Winners – Local SEO services from a trusted partner https://www.mapwinners.com/
• 7 Brew Drive Through: https://7brew.com/

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🎧 Listen to Previous Episodes in the Proposal Series:

1. Why Your Proposals Aren’t Working (And What to Fix First): https://buildingmomentum.info/why-your-proposals-arent-working/
2. Why You Get Ghosted After Sending a Proposal: https://buildingmomentum.info/why-you-get-ghosted-after-sending-a-proposal

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🗣️ Join the Conversation

Got a proposal, pricing, or awkward client question you’re not sure how to handle? Submit it anonymously here: 👉 https://buildingmomentum.info/matcha

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🤝 Connect with Brooke on LinkedIn

For more human-first sales advice (with a side of matcha), follow Brooke here: 🔗 https://linkedin.com/in/brooke-greening

Do You Really Need to Send a Proposal

Brooke Greening: This question comes up, when do I need a proposal? Do I really need it? And the answer is. A definite maybe

A proposal is not meant to sell for you. It’s meant to reflect the sales conversation you’ve had. So if there are things in regards, and this is gonna sound kind of harsh, and I don’t mean it to be, but if we’re kind of hiding behind our proposal, hoping for it to do the work, that’s not what we want it to do.

People when they say That sounds good. Send me a proposal. That’s sometimes their nice way of saying, no. Thank you.

~A lot of times people will say, send me a proposal. ’cause they really don’t wanna say no and they don’t wanna get into a conversation of saying no. ~

That will, that equals less proposals, but more sales.

Scott Greening: Just don’t send a propo, like

Brooke Greening: no

Scott Greening: just move forward and either have those conversations to figure out if the customer’s ready to go and needs a proposal or just send them the invoice. Like, just make the sale.

Just do it.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Sippin’ Matcha and Helping You Make More Sales. When, in about the time that it takes you to enjoy your matcha break or coffee break, we give you some great sales advice from our resident sales trainer and sales coach Brooke Greening, who’s coming in now with some breaking ~personal~ matcha news as she sips her matcha.

Brooke Greening: Yes. So we have just had a Seven Brew drive through very catchy marketing come just about 10 minutes from our house. And so they are very, very gracious and their whole launching process. And so they offer like whole days of free drinks and then certain times throughout those the day of free drinks. And so even though Scott is not super thrilled, we get to sit in line for 45 minutes with our whole family and start enjoying all of these different drinks. Yeah, coming from Seven Brew,

Scott Greening: I was gonna say like 10 minutes. Or an hour and five minutes, depending on if you’re counting like to the line or through the line.

Yes. And so, we’re happy for them and they’ve obviously got a system that knows how to draw a crowd. Mm-hmm. So they do a good job with that. Our daughter is hoping, and Seven Brew we’ll just throw this out there that maybe they’ll sponsor this podcast. So I know. You like the, they

Brooke Greening: have matcha lattes.

Yes. Yes. And they have a Cloud Nine Matcha Latte, which is amazing. And so now I’m asking you to help create that drink at home. ’cause it has a little lavender, little vanilla and some cinnamon.

Scott Greening: There we go.

Brooke Greening: It’s delicious.

Scott Greening: So we’ve been talking in the last few episodes about proposals, and we’re gonna continue that conversation today.

So we’ve talked about things like why our proposals aren’t working why we keep getting ghosted when we send proposals, and today we’re asking the question. Do I really need a proposal? So may, maybe we should have led with this one. Maybe this should have been the first question, but we’re coming around to it and what do you say, Brooke?

Brooke Greening: I, so this question comes from me because this is a question we meet on a regular basis when I’m working with clients. So as we are working through their whole sales process and we find that there’s like these bottlenecks and things stop, and sometimes we find things can actually be detrimental to their sales process.

This question comes up, when do I need a proposal? Do I really need it? And the answer is a definite maybe.

Scott Greening: Way to, way to take a position. No, but we, we, that that’s the answer, definitely maybe. Because there’s times when you should do it and there’s times, times when you shouldn’t do it. So what are some of those times when you should send a proposal?

Brooke Greening: Yeah, so the most obvious one is when customers require it. So when you’re talking to other businesses or non-for-profits and they require it, they have to show it to other business leaders. They require it because perhaps like it’s just their process that they have to get three different proposals.

That’s when you need to be able to send one. Also, when there’s like a, ~um,~ request for proposal, obviously that is what you do. Like we do not need to be a jerk in this process. But if they’re absolutely requiring it and they can’t change that process. It’s not the time for us to be like, I’m gonna do something different.

No, that’s not,

Scott Greening: yeah. I was gonna say, you know, I do strategic planning work and so often maybe interacting with organizations and that request for proposal thing is a real thing and

Brooke Greening: Oh, a hundred percent.

Scott Greening: We do try to contact whoever the leader is. Mm-hmm. We do try to email and find some ~info.~ inside information and we’ve done that, yes.

But ultimately they’re not changing their process. And I, no. And I have to send a proposal.

Brooke Greening: Yes. And you do not wanna make them look bad, like if they’re excited and they wanna be able to work with you, but there are other people that are gonna be a part of this decision, and they need to be able to share that if they’re not willing to be able to meet on a separate meeting or together or whatever the case is.

That’s when that comes into play. So we’re gonna talk in a minute of when not to do it, because there are things, I think sometimes we make excuses that we need to send a proposal when we don’t. But the bottom line is if they’re requiring it, then that’s what we need to do. We are going into their world.

We do not demand that they bend to ours. That’s being a jerk.

Scott Greening: Yep. And then we also, like there are times, and this isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of when you’re supposed to send the proposal or not, but there are times when maybe you’re discussing multiple options. Mm-hmm. And so sending a proposal helps clarify that.

I would guess you might recommend like, Hey, this is the one that seems the best fit or like sort of good, better, best it. Um mm-hmm. But that would be another opportunity.

Brooke Greening: Yeah, absolutely. So those are good times. So I’m not saying never send a proposal, but I’m saying those are the times we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we need to do that.

Alright. But I would argue there are a lot of times we don’t have to.

Scott Greening: Yeah. So definitely maybe, which means there are times, and you just said it there, there’s times when we don’t need to send a proposal. So talk to mm-hmm. Talk to us about that.

Brooke Greening: So the next thing is if there’s not a clear next step, that’s not the time to start sending a proposal.

A proposal is not meant to sell for you. It’s meant to reflect the sales conversation you’ve had. So if there are things in regards, and this is gonna sound kind of harsh, and I don’t mean it to be, but if we’re kind of hiding behind our proposal, hoping for it to do the work, that’s not what we want it to do.

If we’re kind of hoping that it’s gonna introduce the pricing so we don’t have to. That’s not when we wanna be sending a proposal. It just needs to reflect what we’ve talked about before. So if there’s not a clear direction in what’s happening next, proposals are not it. A lot of times that happens, that happens in the sales conversation where they’re like, well, that sounds really good.

Send me a proposal. I just, here’s a little bit of a secret. People when they say That sounds good. Send me a proposal. That’s sometimes their nice way of saying, no thank you. They’re not gonna say no, they’re just gonna have you send the proposal and then if you don’t like there’s nothing for a follow up, then they’re just gonna let it go.

A lot of times people will say, send me a proposal. ’cause they really don’t wanna say no and they don’t wanna get into a conversation of saying no. So it’s easier to say that. So if you are unclear and you’re like, well, I’ll just send you a proposal ’cause you’re trying to buy time, trying to figure out what that cost is gonna look like.

Trying to have it sell for you. Those are times don’t do that.

Scott Greening: Yeah. And I know I don’t do this anymore because I’ve interacted with you and we have our own business, and I’ve been on the other side of it, but I’ve been that person where, you know, they’re like, Hey, like, can I send you a proposal?

I’m like, sure. But I know in the back of my head, like,

Brooke Greening: mm-hmm.

Scott Greening: Okay, I’ll hold onto this and maybe something would change and I mm-hmm. You know, can pull this out. Um, but I’m not planning to do that and so, no. Now, just ’cause I’ve been on the other side of it, I just say, Hey, if you wanna do that, that’s fine.

I don’t think we’re, I don’t think we’re going with you and that, and so I wanna be respectful of your time. And so, I know that you’ve interacted with people that are, that they get excited because, oh, they said, send me a proposal, and then you’ve helped them realize like. No, no, that’s

Brooke Greening: not necessarily a buying signal.

It can be, I’m not saying that. I’m not saying if someone says, send me a proposal, that always means no. But very more often than not, if it doesn’t seem like things are moving forward, we haven’t even talked about what’s going on in the price or the investment or anything like that. And they’re like, okay, just send me a proposal that is not a clear buying signal.

That’s not them saying, I wanna do this. Yeah. So you kind of wove in a few things real quick. Let’s circle back and touch on a couple of them. You said something about like next steps and so don’t send like there’s a connection between proposals and next steps.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So this is what I say all the time.

A hundred percent of the time. We never just send the proposal out that we just did an episode on ghosting. And so that’s one of the biggest reasons why that happens if we just send it and there’s no direct date and time in regards to reviewing it with them. So that’s the very first piece. Just make sure like if you are sending it, that there’s a date and time in regards to when you’re going to be re reviewing it.

That will, that equals less proposals, but more sales. And it helps everybody moving, realizing, okay, this is a good thing to do, or this isn’t something that we wanna do. And then the other thing I want to encourage is proposals can actually slow your process down. So if you are talking to the decision maker.

And they’re able to say yes. We don’t have to send a proposal, we can start moving the sale forward right then and there, meaning, okay, we’ll send the contract. It can be detailed, all of those things. I’m never saying we don’t want things that protect us in regards to what we’re going to be doing and provides them the protection that they’re not, you know, getting ripped off and they don’t get what they were thinking they were gonna buy.

I’m never saying that we don’t do that. I’m just saying the proposal itself can start to slow that down. So if they’re the decision maker. They wanna move forward saying, I’m going to send you a proposal, actually slows it down and it can be a detriment to your sales. Instead of saying, okay, great, this is what we can do.

I’m gonna be sending you the invoice and we can get the contract going and then you can move forward. And that was what I did with one of our teams that we were working with just a few weeks ago. We looked at it and I said, do you have to have a proposal to make this work? Do you have to have a proposal in your process in order for them to buy this one project from you?

And she was like, no, I don’t think we do. I’m like, then that’s why it’s slowing down. If people can make the decision and they’re the ones that are able to do it, let them buy. Make it easy for this process to go forward.

Scott Greening: Yeah, we wanna to remove as much friction as possible from Yes, from the sales process.

And so sometimes we do that, like through invoices. I think a good example of that, just today I got an email. I think it came in yesterday, but I was getting it to it today. So I had talked to a friend of mine who I knew. From college a, a contact, and he runs a local SEO company now that helps businesses on Google and that we’ll put his link in the comments, shout out to Buddy Rathmell, and I forget the name of his company right now.

But anyway, he does a great job and, but he sent me. A service agreement. And so instead of a proposal and all that, he just said Yes. And the pricing’s good for X number of days. Mm-hmm. If we wanna move forward we’re ready to move forward and all you have to do is sign the line.

Brooke Greening: Yeah. And that goes back into our sales conversations that we don’t just do that.

Like, and people are surprised by it, ’cause that will completely turn them off. But you’ve had that conversation. Previously. So in our sales conversation, instead of saying, I’m going to send you a proposal, we’re asking them like, what questions or concerns do you have before we move forward? And if we’re ready to move forward, we can do that today.

If they can buy today, then that’s what we wanna be able to do. It helps them and it helps us. And so, so many times we literally use the proposal to either buy us more time, help us to introduce the investment of it. And that’s not what you wanna do. That’s when it starts to slow things down. So if they can buy today, if they are the decision maker and they can make that decision.

Let ’em, let ’em do it. And it doesn’t have to be a small piece. We’ve had big contracts come together because we had the conversations we needed to in our sales conversations so that there weren’t all of these like fuzzy pieces and we were able to move forward. We still had a contract, we still had all of those things.

Sure. But we didn’t have to have the proposal in it. Yeah. So, so bottom line there is, you’re not saying never send a proposal. No, but you are saying when the customer’s process requires it when the factors make the best fit. But if people are ready to buy or you are just sending a proposal, because I’ll be harsher than you would ever be, but like, ah, because you’re, because you’re scared to talk about price or because mm-hmm.

Scott Greening: You, you know, you want to back into it you’re scared to ask for that next step. Like those. Just don’t send a propo, like

Brooke Greening: no

Scott Greening: just move forward and either have those conversations to figure out if the customer’s ready to go and needs a proposal or just send them the invoice. Like, just make the sale.

Just do it.

Brooke Greening: Right. And in regards to, again, we’re not saying just send the invoice and they’re surprised with it. These are things that you’re already discussing and, um, confirming that’s the word I’m looking for in the sales conversation. And so no one is getting surprised with what’s going on, but you’ve had the conversation, you know, you wanna be able to move forward.

Okay, so let’s do that. Maybe that’s on conversation one. Maybe that’s on conversation two. It just depends on what you’re talking about, what you’re looking to be able to help them with. But you don’t have to send a proposal every single time. And if you are the one leading the sales conversation that’s when you help them to understand that they don’t have any idea what your process looks like.

They just assume there’s a proposal involved.

Scott Greening: Yeah. Great. Well, I think the line at Seven Brew is Back. We need to plan,

Brooke Greening: it’s getting there. 12 to one.

Scott Greening: That’s right. We could go get a free drink, but great. Thank you. This is helpful. I know we’ve got one more episode on proposals, so be on the lookout for that.

That’s coming. You can get all the links in the show notes for the previous episodes and we hope that this helps you make more sales and value your customers. Have a great day.

Brooke Greening: Bye-bye.