Are your proposals an afterthought? Are they boring, one-page documents full of pricing that barely do the job? Or maybe they're bloated sales documents so copy-pasted together that nobody knows what's in them anymore? Sometimes the issues are more subtle. But if deals keep slipping away after you send proposals, something's broken. Let's figure out what's going wrong and how to fix it.
Why deals disappear after sending proposals?
One out of every four deals breaks down at some point in the sales process. It's a common reality that every sales team faces. Sometimes prospects stop responding for reasons you can't control. Their priorities shift, budgets get cut, or something urgent comes up that needs their attention.
But your proposal should make it easy for them to say yes before any of that happens. Before they get distracted by new projects, tight deadlines, or a compelling proposal from your competitor. If deals consistently disappear right after you send proposals, that's a clear sign something's broken in your documents.
Proposal problems that lose deals
Every proposal you send represents hours of work, multiple meetings, and real money on the line. But common problems can undermine even your best sales efforts. Here are seven ways your proposals might be broken and how to fix each one.
1. Proposals that fail to equip internal champions
Your proposal needs to give your contact everything they need to convince their boss. Not just why your solution is great, but why saying yes helps their business. The problem is that people who approve deals are busy. They won't read through pages of text. Your proposal needs to get to the point quickly.
That's where a good cover letter helps. Use it to explain your solution to decision-makers who weren't involved in earlier conversations. Keep it short, clear, and focused on why this deal makes sense. Think of it as a one-page summary that gets approvals moving.
2. Too much information that overwhelms buyers
Your prospect is busy. Their boss is busy. When you load the proposal with information they don't need right now, you're just slowing things down. And the longer a deal takes, the more likely it falls through. So what can you cut? Maybe they don't need a detailed timeline before they even sign. Or that technical section your engineer wrote could wait until the kickoff meeting.
Keep your proposals focused. Only include what people need to make a decision. This approach can significantly speed up your close time.
3. Poor user experience that creates friction
Your sales process is smooth and modern. But then you send a proposal that feels outdated. Think about the last time you had to print something, fill it out by hand, sign it, scan it, and email it back. That's how your prospects feel when your proposals are difficult to work with.
Modern web-based proposals with built-in signatures make everything straightforward. No downloads, no printing, no friction. People can review and sign directly, which leads to faster closes.
4. Inconsistent content that damages credibility
Small errors matter more than you think. In a recent survey, over 200,000 LinkedIn users misspelled 'manager' as 'manger' in their profiles. It's just one missing letter, but it looks unprofessional and reduces trust. This becomes a bigger problem when each sales rep creates their own proposal using different designs and content. These proposals are usually pieced together from previous ones, which means they can have errors or missing information.
The problems range from small typos to serious issues. If your reps include outdated product details or wrong pricing, your company might have to honor them. Think about what could go wrong if proposals have incorrect terms and conditions. Without oversight into what's going out, your proposals could be making promises you can't or don't want to keep.
Smart templates and AI-powered content generation keep information consistent and accurate across all your proposals. Wonit's conversational AI maintains this consistency automatically, ensuring every proposal meets your standards without manual oversight.
5. Missing engagement data that hurts follow-up timing
Is the deal actually broken, or did your sales reps just not know when to follow up? When your sales team knows when the prospect is viewing the proposal, which sections they looked at longest, and how much time they spent overall, they can time their follow-up perfectly. They can reach out right when the prospect is in the document to answer questions in real-time.
Wonit’s block-by-block analytics give you detailed visibility into exactly which sections prospects engage with and for how long. These metrics help you spot patterns that can improve your sales process. Research shows that proposals viewed two to three times by a prospect are more likely to close. The number of views matters more than total time spent viewing. Your metrics may be different, but you won't know unless you track them.
6. Slow proposal creation that kills momentum
Sometimes there's nothing wrong with the proposal itself. The document looks great, the content is solid, everything checks out. The real problem is how long it took to create. Your sales team spent hours or days crafting a beautifully customized document, working with marketing on branding and design, going through multiple rounds of revisions.
By the time the proposal is ready, the urgency around buying your product has faded. The prospect's attention has moved elsewhere. The slow creation process let the deal go cold. This is where AI changes everything. Platforms like Wonit turn hours of work into minutes, just describe your project and get a complete professional proposal instantly. This speed keeps you in sync with your prospect's buying timeline.
7. Unanswered questions after business hours
Consider this scenario: Your prospect opens your proposal at 9 PM and has a few questions. Nobody from your team is available. By morning, they've moved on to other priorities or started looking at a competitor's proposal. Having an AI-powered assistant embedded in your proposal solves this problem. When prospects visit your web-based proposal, they get instant answers to their questions around the clock. The AI connects to your proposal content and company knowledge base, so prospects get accurate responses immediately.
It's like having a sales rep working inside every proposal you send, keeping prospects engaged and moving deals forward even when your team is offline.
Fixing what's broken
The only response you want from prospects is YES. Fixing these common proposal problems will help keep your sales cycle moving smoothly and prevent deals from disappearing.
Ready to transform your proposal process? Get early access to Wonit and start creating winning proposals today.