Michael Grubka’s Post

What’s the difference between a good proposal and bad proposal? Tell you what, it’s not: ❌ how fancy it looks ❌ how many slides / pages it has ❌ how awesome your company’s successes are presented it in Instead, it is: ✅ 80% of it addresses your client’s problem, goal and solution and max 20% tells about you & your company ✅ Very clearly addresses 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗥𝗘𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗦 your client stated in his brief / RFP / in the conversations ✅ Is edited in a way that allows your client to find information most important to him in easiest and fastest way possible Still, most of companies do the exact opposite: ✔ all about us and our awards ✔ putting fancy slides above informative content ✔ no table of contents / headings / paragraphs. 💡 I think I’m gonna publish some more detailed breakdown on this subject + examples in the upcoming weeks. 🔔 Stay tuned if you want to up your sales game!

SoftKraft joins Apropo! SoftKraft, a company specialized in developing mission-critical business software with prestigious 𝗧𝗨𝗩 𝗡𝗢𝗥𝗗 and 𝟮𝘅 𝗜𝗦𝗢 𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 decided to switch to Apropo for estimating their projects! 📣 Using this occasion I’d like to give a shoutout to one very unique thing about SoftKraft… Every new employee receives a book “E͟x͟t͟r͟e͟m͟e͟ ͟O͟n͟w͟e͟r͟s͟h͟i͟p͟” by Jocko Willink in their starter pack. I once asked Marek Petrykowski why they do it and the answer was following: 💎 “𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙭𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙪𝙣𝙪𝙨𝙪𝙖𝙡 𝙘𝙞𝙧𝙘𝙪𝙢𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨. 𝙄𝙩𝙨 𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙤𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙭𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙫𝙞𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩.” 💎 I rarely see this sort of maturity at software companies. That’s how A-Players work and that was also one of the reasons for SoftKraft to switch to Apropo.   📣 Here is how Marek Petrykowski, COO at SoftKraft, comments the impact that Apropo had at their organization: "1️⃣ Our estimates 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀. They are finally easy to read, good-looking and interactive - o͟u͟r͟ ͟c͟l͟i͟e͟n͟t͟s͟ ͟l͟o͟v͟e͟ ͟t͟h͟i͟s͟ ͟t͟o͟o͟l͟. 2️⃣ Our clients can now create their own versions of the scope on the offer which hugely helps with sales. 3️⃣ 𝗪𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 and if they opened it." Thank you Marek Petrykowski and the SoftKraft Crew. You deserve big credit for how you approach the ownership of the project’s business goals. Apropo is with you to give you speed in quoting, accuracy increase and best experience for your customers! 🎯

O, to ja i jak zmieniały się moje odpowiedzi na pytanie "co to jest Apropo" przez ostatnie 2 lata!

🏆 I recently won a project for a company that I’m currently helping with sales. ▶ The project was a small MVP of a potentially bigger product. There were 3 companies the client was considering: us (A) and 2 companies from India that his co-founder worked with before (B and C). ▶ The quotes were as follows: A: $32k B: $8.5k C: $5k - $7k ✅ We won despite being 4x more expensive than the 2nd offer. How? I didn’t even need to ask - my client told it between the lines during one of the conversations. ▶ While I was already presenting to him the exact project plan, phases, outcomes, risks, etc., he was still waiting for some initial estimates from the other two companies. ▶ I provided our initial quote to the client within 3 days from our first meeting, following my 3-Days rule (see link to it in the comments). It was also detailing the scope pretty well. ▶ By the time the 2 other companies started even asking questions, our client was already asking about specific parts of the scope. ▶ By the time they provided their quotes, my client was so deep into planning discussions with us that he wasn’t even feeling the need to talk to the other 2, especially that the other 2 agencies were reportedly also a bit slow with the communication. I’m sharing no secret at all. To know that speed matters is common knowledge. ❌ Don’t spend 2 weeks creating a perfect quote. ✅ Spend 3 days to create an initial quote that details the scope in a good-enough and understandable way and keep polishing it together with your client. That’s how a lot of A-Performing software agencies quote & sell. ▶ Wanna get more tips on project quoting & sales? Follow my profile. ▶ Wanna quote your projects like an A-Player? Check out Apropo.io

Material Design for Bootstrap switches to Apropo! 👏 👏 👏 If you’re a frontend developer, I bet you’ve heard many times about Material Design for Bootstrap - haven't you? 🌍 You surely did, especially that their UI kits are used by ͟M͟I͟L͟L͟I͟O͟N͟S͟ of users Tell you what... they switched to Apropo for their project estimates! 📊 That’s because aside from developing one of the most popular open-source UI kits, Material Design for Bootstrap also develops 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. Not only that, they also mix it with data-led 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 for digital transformation and automations of enterprises They use a quite rare mix of both agency & product company experience (and such mix is pretty rare) that they got from creating products used by millions of users. 🔷 As all A-Players do, they care about the best performance in whatever they do, including project estimates. Apropo turned out to be estimating their projects 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗲𝗿, 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 and 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 than spreadsheets, hence they decided to make a switch. Here’s what Sebastian Kaczmarek, Development Team Leader at Material Design for Bootstrap says about the outcomes from switching to Apropo: “𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘞𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦. 𝘈𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬 - 𝘪𝘵 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘌𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘭.” Thank you Sebastian and the entire Material Design for Bootstrap team for your trust - you guys develop awesome things. We wish you tons of time saved & deals won with Apropo! 🙌

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When your users use your product, it's a nice way of appreciation. ➡ When they say such things, it's a whole different level 🤯 Thank you so much Borys and the entire Geeknauts crew - you guys rock when it comes to deliver custom #SaaS_products and you definitely deserve more companies to know about you!! 👏 👏 👏

Geeknauts switches to Apropo for their project estimates! 👏 👏 👏 ➡ Geeknauts, a custom software development company based in Krakow, Poland, can be definitely counted among t͟o͟p͟ 5͟ ͟#S͟a͟a͟S͟ ͟s͟p͟e͟c͟i͟a͟l͟i͟z͟e͟d͟ ͟d͟e͟v͟e͟l͟o͟p͟m͟e͟n͟t͟ ͟c͟o͟m͟p͟a͟n͟i͟e͟s͟ ͟i͟n͟ ͟P͟o͟l͟a͟n͟d͟. They know very well all the different aspects of #SaaS business - both technical and business. ➡ What I however like the most about them, is their strive for perfection. They are not satisfied with solutions that are “𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥-𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩”. 🔶 That’s one of the few things that I always find common for all the A-Performers - they N͟E͟V͟E͟R͟ tolerate mediocrity. And that’s the main reason why Geeknauts switched from Google Spreadsheets to Apropo - they didn’t agree for mediocrity in their estimates and proposals. 📣 Here’s what Borys Z., Frontend Developer & Sales Representative at Geeknatus, says about the impact from implementing Apropo: “Apropo 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 thanks to creating estimates that look 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 than Google Spreadsheets. The way how estimates done in Apropo look also massively helped with communication with our clients and 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁. Our 𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 which further helped us increase the profitability of our projects” 🤝 Thank you Borys and Geeknauts Crew - it’s a pleasure to have such A-Players like yourselves as our users. We wish you tons of time saved, accuracy increase and deals won with Apropo!

🚨 Is it possible to create high-quality, accurate & good looking estimated in #3_days or less? 🚨 Yes it is! Fellow hasztag #Sales, #Project_Managers, #Product_Owners, #Business_Analysts - here are some tips that I use for delivering nice-looking, legit and accurate estimates to my clients in less than 3 days. 🏆 It's more important to deliver an "𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁" quote fast than perfect quote in 2 weeks (unless it's an RFP). However, if you can deliver a good or perfect quote in 3 days, it changes the game and puts you on #Pole_Position in 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗻 🏁 My way is not the only way but it can give you some tips. Enjoy responsibly!