Commercial offers - what is it? How to make a commercial offer

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Competently written commercial proposals are a subscription to transactions for an entrepreneur. They are used even in the big business world. Sparing their time, representatives of venerable companies are often in no hurry to spend time on an audience with budding entrepreneurs. In this case, they use the sacramental phrase: "Send your commercial offer, we will consider it." This is followed by the formalities of a polite farewell. And if writing a commercial proposal is a Chinese letter for a visitor, then the door is closed for him.

Sample Quote

However, for another category of entrepreneurs, such a request still means a chance. As you understand, they are motivated businessmen who have something to offer and who know what an attractive commercial offer is for customers.

Sample of such a letter addressed to managerscosmetic stores and entrepreneurs operating in the same market, we present below.

Example 1

Proposal for cooperation

Good afternoon!

In addition to our email correspondence, we are sending you brand and company information.

German popular brand LLL is a hit in the Russian market of women's cosmetics.

LLL today presents about 1000 types of high-quality professional cosmetics at quite affordable prices. All products are made from natural raw materials and ingredients using advanced technologies. The recognizable unique packaging design turns LLL products into excellent souvenirs.

Elza + LLC, the exclusive distributor of LLL products, is a reliable partner for:

• specialized multi-brand stores;
• boutiques.

We also help young entrepreneurs open LLL boutiques.

LLL is:

• Natural professional cosmetics sold at affordable prices.
• Prompt delivery from a warehouse in Moscow.
• Convenient purchasing conditions: minimum order amount from $500.
• Flexible pricing policy: order from $1000 corresponds to a 5% discount; from $5000 - 10%; over 10,000 - 15%.
• Additional service options: warehouse services, free samples.

All products from LLL are certified and supplied with Russified stickers.

Our website: www.elza_plus.net

Product catalog in pdf format, available for download, bywww.elza_plus.net\prilogenia\

Have a nice day!

Grigory Ivnin, Head of Sales.

Our phones: 0 (489) 777 22 99, 0 (925) 321 32 21.

Address: 119331 Moscow, Ivan Kalitin Avenue, 37-210.

Such a commercial offer for goods is universal. In this case, it is addressed to the management of a multi-brand commercial store. However, it can be useful both when communicating with the owner of the boutique, and for sending to a novice entrepreneur. It is designed to be sent to recipients after a preliminary telephone conversation. Most distribution cosmetic companies are characterized by such a commercial offer. The supply of goods (sample - the above business letter) implies discounts when it comes to bulk lots.

Careful consideration of the example convinces of the structured form of the sentence itself and the conformity of its compilation to certain patterns.

Of course, in any commercial offer there is a mandatory part containing details that identify the businessman and his business. By analogy with figure skating, let's compare this with a mandatory program. However, there is another side to it, which is defined as an explosive mixture of business specifics with the intrigue of business interest mixed in with it. This is reminiscent of the free program of figure skating. After all, just as figure skaters prove their individuality and win the hearts of fans, so a businessman with a brilliant commercial offer makescounterparties to look at themselves with different eyes. Such commercial offers are the keys that can open many doors…

We will consider some of their nuances in this article.

Our methodological material is oriented in its presentation mainly to beginners. Therefore, figuratively speaking, we will also touch on the “mandatory program”. Note that the competent writing of the necessary details, a commercial offer is not so little. At the very least, a commercial offer created with all the required elements is a tangible characteristic of a businessman as an economically and socially literate person. A clear business style and the logic of arguing commercial interest are already respected by entrepreneurs.

Note also that the absence of the appropriate skill does not mean a stalemate. After all, a resourceful businessman can entrust the writing of a commercial proposal to a professional. The price of such a service is usually between three and fifteen thousand rubles.

Overview of the features of some types of commercial offers

Drafting the business document in question is a routine job for the sales departments of most companies. We will not give their examples in full in this review, we will write only about the “zest” contained in the main part.

In particular, the commercial offer of the bank to both individuals and legal entities is an important tool in its promotion on the market. Moreover, in the sequence of offers made by the bank,some regularity is observed. Initially, the client is offered a card in order to more conveniently manage their own funds. Then - a loan that increases the profitability of the bank. Some bank clients, following the recommendations of rational storage of funds, open bank deposits. Periodically, new customers are attracted by promotions, and the most significant investors are attracted by favorable rates and more advanced service.

Commercial offer of a construction company offers buyers the purchase of premises under construction and shows them the full range of construction work:

• construction of residential, business, industrial buildings;
• reconstruction of buildings and structures, as well as their conversion;
• landscape design;
• building communications.

If you have to write such business letters, pay attention to their writing style by other specialists. You can thus draw fresh ideas for your work.

About the analytical work prior to writing

It's no secret that a businessman should start writing a commercial offer after a clear understanding of the target audience, to the satisfaction of whose needs his goods or services are intended. Unfortunately, entrepreneurs often find it difficult to characterize the target audience of their product, answering vaguely and in monosyllables: “That's it!” Aspiring entrepreneurs who take this position are at risk of joining the 90% of startups that end in bankruptcy in the first year of starting a business.

Neveryou should hurry to make a commercial offer for a product (service)! First you need to evaluate the effective demand for it.

Let's take for a clear example the evaluation of a separate commercial operation - the production of a printed batch of booklets dedicated to the design of premises. We analyze. Circulation should be realized in the city with the appropriate number of architectural offices, because the demand for the booklet will ultimately be determined by architects and designers. The number of demand carriers should be established through expert judgment.

Estimation of the market with the help of directories is inaccurate, because it sins with the presence of a significant number of "dead souls". Then, having learned up-to-date information on the number of representatives of the above-mentioned professions, one should limit them to 15-20%. Experts will tell you this percentage of those who are interested in buying. It is for this number of buyers that the circulation of the booklet should be calculated.

The second preliminary direction of the analytical work of a businessman, without which one should not even take on commercial offers, is a deep awareness of the competitive advantages of one's product and a strategy for their rational disclosure from the standpoint of the benefits brought to the user.

Now compare the cost of production with the expected income. Is it making a profit? Then let's get down to business!

Some nuances of a business letter

When creating an offer, feel free to address your target audience in a direct and recognizable way. It's easy, you just need to insert a few words into the phrase. ToFor example, if potential clients are employees, then instead of the general phrase "working eight hours a week", it is preferable to use another one specifically addressed: "employees working eight hours a week".

It is important to catch a favorable market situation that increases demand for your product or service. For example, seasonality. If an optimistic level of demand remains in the niche for the sale of goods, then the entrepreneur should immediately write a letter.

Commercial offer is a special kind of epistolary genre. These types of business documents can be divided into two categories: personalized and promotional.

Information and promotional commercial offers

We encounter the second group of commercial offers quite often. It includes spam, which is massively sent to e-mail boxes, as well as targeted advertising mailings. The purpose of such CP is the primary attraction of attention, the awakening of interest.

Everything in them is subject to a single goal: to attract the attention of the average reader. With all their diversity, the same type of structure characterizes each such commercial offer. The sample is characterized by recognizable generic features:

• with a catchy headline: it should catch the reader's attention;
• the first sentence, which introduces intrigue into the further reading of the letter: according to the rules of the genre, it should be short enough and consist of no more than 10-11 words; firstthe proposal is made in a separate paragraph.

What do you think is the main idea of the second sentence? Its main task is only one: to get the intrigued reader to read the third sentence. The mission of the third sentence is similar.

Each paragraph of the message to clients should contain no more than 7 lines. The text, if it is more than 1000 characters, is divided into subsections with subheadings.

Rules for writing promotional business letters

Attractiveness is the main thing that characterizes an advertising and informational commercial offer. A sample of such a letter is written by people who are in love with their product or service. They treat readers with respect, as if they were their potential customers, referring to them as "you". By the way, it is important to maintain a certain "proportion of pronouns": professionals recommend using the words "your" and "you" four times more often than "our" and "we".

Denials and exaggerations are contraindicated in the text of such a letter. Metaphors, on the other hand, are welcome. The customer must want to buy a vivid image of the product. Psychologists say that the first phrase of a letter, enclosed in quotation marks, additionally increases the audience of its readers by 30%. In addition, the first letter of the text, depicted with a capital letter, attracts the attention of another 13% of readers. The style of narration should be confidentially colloquial, so professional vocabulary should not be abused in it. Special terms are allowed to be used in exceptional, fundamentalcases.

Immediately, we will warn the authors about possible mistakes that nullify your efforts. A commercial offer of an advertising and informational nature (a commercial offer for sale) does not fulfill its mission if it is designed discreetly, unstructured, without indicating the benefits of the buyer. Its effectiveness is also reduced if the author falls too much into particulars and fails to highlight the main thing.

Personalized commercial offers

Sometimes the client himself initiates the writing of such a business letter by sending a request for a commercial proposal. In this case, the implementation department is taken to work. A preliminary collection of information about the company or about the person directly to whom the letter is addressed. Their urgent, urgent needs are identified. For this, a preliminary meeting, a conversation with experts is planned. Then the identified needs are commensurate with the competitive advantages of the product (service).

If a letter is to be addressed to a future counterparty for the first time, then it is addressed to the first person. If cooperation with a partner has already been worked out, it is allowed to address it to a deputy who directly supervises work with suppliers.

However, companies with a strong business reputation in the region can afford a commercial offer for the provision of services or the supply of goods, drawn up in an impersonal form. However, this is rather an exception. The following sample business letter fits this situation.

Example2

Modern style of business buildings is not only functional stylish architecture. The main indicator that determines their successful operation is safety.

Professional design approach anticipates potential challenges and avoids potential incidents.

Protection. Fire protection systems” works according to the principles of professionalism and quality!

We do not accept deviations from international fire safety standards. The largest enterprises and organizations, as well as individuals of the Tver region are our long-term clients. We have a principled attitude to the fulfillment of our contractual obligations and constantly feel responsible for the he alth and life entrusted to us by our clients. Business cooperation with us guarantees trouble-free state acceptance of the objects you are building and their successful subsequent operation. Numerous positive reviews testify to the correct choice of our customers.

Protection. Fire protection systems” guarantees:

• introduction and use of modern fire safety technologies for business and residential buildings and structures under construction;
• ensuring proper certification of supplied devices and structures, their qualified installation by certified specialists;
• ensuring the design level of fire protection, sound insulation and insulation, including using ALT systems, providing a fire resistance limit of half an hour to an hour and a half;
• fire protection of metal and concretestructural elements;
• individual design and development of automatic fire extinguishing and fire safety systems with a service life of 25 years or more;
• Production of fireproof doors in various sizes according to customer's order.

Depending on the required characteristics of fire protection, we offer flexible tariffs for the installation of ALT systems from 0.5 to 1 thousand rubles. per square meter.

To discuss the project you require, please contact us by phone in Tver: (4822) 52-52-52, (4822) 52-52-53.

This commercial offer - a sample for services - is based on customer loy alty to ensure the safety of business and residential facilities. It has no specific addressee. But this is acceptable, because, as stated in this business letter: “The largest enterprises and organizations, as well as individuals in the Tver region are our long-term clients.”

It is permissible for a company with such a reputation to make a commercial offer without an addressee. The writing of this letter was obviously preceded by a request for a commercial proposal from potential buyers. Therefore, the commercial offer is, despite this form, personalized. Such a request is a type of business letter created in an arbitrary form. Its content suggests an interest in purchasing certain goods or in obtaining specialized services. Often clients refer to the company's catalog and ask for an extended interpretation of the acquisition and cooperation procedures.

About creating a commercial templateoffers

The template for a commercial offer (if the addressee is a legal entity) is developed taking into account the alleged interests of three persons at once: the general director, the deputy for finance, the deputy for production. That is, it is obviously necessary to arouse interest in your product among those persons whom you may not even see at the negotiations. With regard to understanding the direction of the financial content of the proposal, one should understand the main priority of the buyer: minimizing costs or getting more profit. In the first case, emphasis is placed on the success of the acquisition of goods in terms of the "price / quality" criterion. In the second case - on the efficiency and quality characteristics of the operation of the goods.

However, such a commercial offer template has one more component. In it, you need to skillfully beat the existing shortcomings of your product (service). In your letter, you are free to transfer the attention of the buyer to your commercial steps, compensating for obvious shortcomings. For example, if your equipment delivery speed exceeds that which competitors can offer, then it makes sense to additionally indicate that delivery times do not affect the date the equipment is put into operation.

The classic sample commercial proposal for a product is indeed written according to a template that assumes a traditional structure (meaning the introduction, body and conclusion). In the introduction, you need to place a link to the motives and circumstances of writing the letter. At the same time, a capacious and brief description of the market is given, onin which the addressee company operates, the needs of your client are succinctly emphasized. Let us give as an example a commercial offer - a sample of promotion of business software. However, in this case, the specific field of activity is not so important. A commercial offer - a sample for the services of a company-distributor of proprietary software - does not fundamentally differ from its own offer for a product. After all, both sale and adjustment are carried out at the same time. In addition, further support of the product is provided.

Example 3

Commercial sale offer from software developer JJSOFT

Your company is a prominent regional distributor of domestic software products for the automation of accounting and management accounting. You can additionally receive 60% of income from sales of CRM - system No. 1 inCRM. The fundamental point in possible cooperation is that the functionality of inCRM is fundamentally different from the functionality that you currently distribute. In this way, you will be able to implement non-competing products.

Benefits from sales of CRM - inCRM systems are that your company receives 60% of the income from its implementation. The inCRM system is one of the leaders in sales in the "Customer Base Management" and "Sales Management" sections. The amoCRM brand is also known to company executives and IT directors as the leading specialized software on the Russian market.

inCRM is the 1 Small Business CRM

Our software product is consideredthe most successful for small businesses with a long sales cycle (B2B and B2C businesses). It is successfully implemented by our representative offices located in Moscow and San Francisco. It is successfully implemented by Softplus and All&soft software online stores, occupying rating positions of about 25-30 places in the ranking of the implementation of 1500 leading programs.

inCRM recommended by entrepreneurs

Reviews from users of the program testify to its practical benefits for small businesses. It is not only effective for building a customer base, but also easy to use. Entrepreneurs, thanks to her help, do not "sin" with forgotten customers, unanswered calls, do not lose sight of really important issues.

Each user is configured with access rights corresponding to his functionality. Efficiency of work with clients is ensured by a convenient interface that makes it easy to add fields to databases and quickly generate analytical reports.

inCRM promotes efficient customer service

When working effectively with the client base, employees of a company using inCRM can easily receive up-to-date information on any client: what he bought, what wishes he expressed. Based on a simple analysis of these data, you can understand what kind of commercial proposal for the supply should be drawn up for a particular client. A sample of such a business letter can also be entered into inCRM.

Cooperation and contacts

To discuss cooperation, we recommend calling the contact numbers + (495) 123-45-67, + (495) 123-45-68.

We provide our partners with essential documents for work: user manuals, booklets, presentations, promotional materials.

How do companies producing and selling software write such a business letter? Many companies practice a quotation form that is modeled after the company's letterhead, with the director's facsimile signature emblazoned on the bottom of the form.

About the semantic content of the commercial offer

The main part provides information about the competitive advantages of the goods being sold. In this case, the emphasis is on the reviews of your customers about the operation of your product, previously purchased. Lists your key customers. In the final paragraphs of the main part, the client is provided with your contact information, terms of delivery.

In the last paragraph, state the optimal algorithm for the client to purchase your product. It should not be longer than three lines.

What mistakes bring to naught the efforts of the authors of personalized commercial offers? Many aspiring entrepreneurs, when creating a sample commercial offer, limit themselves to covering only price factors. At the same time, the introductory part addressed to a specific buyer with coverage of his needs in your product (service) is often ignored. Buyer benefits are not given due attention.

An entrepreneur, having sent such a letter, unobtrusively for the addressee monitors its consideration. Periodically maintained contact with him. First you need to find out if the letter got toto its addressee. If there is no response within three days, call back, emphasizing in the conversation that the client may miss out on obvious benefits. In business, you can't just send out personalized sales pitches and then forget about them. Make sure that your letters are considered earlier than those written by competitors.

How complete is the offer?

Does a sample commercial offer always include comprehensive information about the product (service)? In fact, this question does not imply a single answer for all cases. For example, if preliminary negotiations were held the day before, then, indeed, a commercial offer should be made as fully as possible.

If the preliminary contact with a potential client was formal (you phoned him or exchanged messages by e-mail), then you should not provide full information right away. It is reasonable to save the "trump cards" for a personal conversation with him. However, even with prior contact, it is imperative to inform him of the estimated price and the pricing principle.

It is supposed to provide full information to the buyer (even without a preliminary meeting) in the event that the profitability of the transaction is minimal. At the same time, the entrepreneur acts based on the logic of minimizing unproductive time costs.

Conclusion

Summarizing the content of the article. Only after conducting an analytical assessment of the feasibility, an entrepreneur should write a commercial letter to a client.sentence. The sample of this business document suggests consistency and regularity. Depending on the features of the formation of the client base, informational and advertising or personal commercial offers are written.

A certain arbitrariness of the wording of a business letter still suggests a clear writing algorithm. Experts warn about the need to avoid mistakes, because commercial proposals are a rather delicate business tool.