The meeting went well. You're back at the office and you do what you always do: you write a quote.
Six pages. Logo, introduction, scope, investment, terms and conditions. You send it with "please find attached" and you wait.
Why are you waiting, actually?
What a quote asks of him
A verdict. Yes or no, on everything at once, in one go, on paper.
That is a lot. He has to judge the scope, the price and you, without any way to correct something without it feeling like rejection.
So he does what everyone does with a document that demands a verdict. He puts it aside until he has time. That time never comes.
What a confirmation asks of him
A correction. Is this right?
That is a much smaller question, and one people actually answer. No one can resist setting straight something that is almost right.
A verdict can be no. A correction is information.
What such an email looks like
This is a real one, from an assignment last month. It doesn't open with the offer but with what was said:
"Thank you for our conversation. You want to move the bookkeeping and the payroll filings to us. But the most important thing you gave me is something else: your daughters already work in the business and one of them will take it over. You want that properly arranged."
"My question to you: is this what you expect from us, given what we discussed? If something is missing or you had it differently in mind, I'd like to hear it. Then I'll adjust it before we begin."
Notice what happens there. The stake isn't invented, it is handed back in his own words. And the last sentence gives him permission to change something before it becomes a proposal.
What he sent back
That he wanted it smaller. Bookkeeping only; the payroll filings stayed where they were.
That is the moment nine out of ten salespeople start defending the full package. What went back instead: "I agree with you. Starting small and doing it well works better than everything at once. And you now know what is ready the moment it becomes relevant."
Not giving in. Oxygen. The risk comes off his shoulders and the rest stays available without tying him to it.
Two days later he answered four practical questions inside his own email, between the lines of mine. That is the baseline, carried out by the client.
Six days after first contact: "All good, here is my agreement."
And the paperwork?
It follows. It records what has already been agreed instead of asking whether he agrees.
In practice it doesn't always go that neatly, and I should be honest about that. In this case a quote was sent after all, because my client hadn't made that step yet. That isn't a failure. Your own organisation also moves in small steps, and exactly the same three conditions apply there.
The exercise
Take the last proposal you sent and find the sentence containing what the client himself said.
Good chance it isn't there.
Write it anyway: five sentences, his words, and underneath the question whether this is what he expects. Send it today. You'll get an answer, which is already more than the quote did.
The closing question
This is step four of five. Which step do you skip every time?
That is session 8: the five steps, and the one you skip.